44 Acts 18-19 - Pastor Chuck Smith - C2000 Series

let's turn now to the 18th chapter of Acts as we continue our study through the Bible at the end of the study last week the end of chapter 17 we found Paul speaking to the epicurean and stoic philosophers there on Mars Hill proclaiming to them the glory and the marvels of the unknown God whom they worship ignorantly and we found that again Paul's message left them with sort of divided feelings some believing and remaining with Paul and others sort of scoffing and going their way now after these things Paul departed from Athens and he came to Corinth now why Paul departed early is not stated he was actually waiting for timothy and silas to join him but from the account we find that timothy and silas did not join him until he was at corinth he had sent for them to come quickly Paul just evidently didn't care that much for Athens and so he went on down to Corinth which was the capital of Vice in the ancient world whenever in the Greek plays they would depict a Corinthian they would usually have them drunken in the place it became sort of a byword to say well he lives like a Corinthian which means the person was living a very sensuous kind of a lifestyle the city of Corinth was a Roman city under direct Roman rule though it was of course in Greece and was sort of a center of Commerce the nation of Greece it's almost like a waistline there at Corinth in that there's only about five miles at the most maybe two miles from the one seat to the other Greece is very narrow it comes to very narrow point there at the area of Corinth so that the ships coming from the east would usually come and deposit their cargo and then it would be taken overland and then again by sea to Rome and it saved them going around the Cape at the lower end of Greece which was very treacherous sailing in fact they used to have a say saying if you're going to sail around the Cape that make out your will before you go so the common passage of the goods from the east to Rome and vice-versa was through corinth as they would bring it across land at this narrow portion of greece nero attempted to build the canal at this narrow point but did fail but later that canal was built and there is a currency in Canal today where ships can pass through and save like the Panama Canal the great distance of sailing around the Cape of Good Hope of course it isn't that far around Greece but they can save hundreds of miles of shipping by coming through the corinthian canal a very wicked city indeed at the top of the Acropolis above Corinth was the temple of Aphrodite which remains do exist in ruins at the present time the temple of Aphrodite had 1000 priestesses who were nothing more than public prostitutes who in the evening would come down into the city of Corinth and the revenue from these prostitutes went to maintain the temple of Aphrodite there at the top of the hill so Paul came to this city known for its licentiousness or its sexual indulgences for the lustful living of the people and he found a certain Jew named aquila who was born in Pontus but had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all of the Jews to depart from Rome now this command of Claudius was given in 49 ad so how long he had been here in Corinth is not stated but had lately come from Italy as the result of this decree to get the Jews out of Rome and because he was of the same crap he abode with them and he wrought for by their occupation they were tent makers now Paul was a Jewish rabbi and it was said that every man should have a trade this was a common feeling among the Jews they taught their sons a trade so that always if things went bad you could fall back on your trade Paul by trade was a tent maker and wherever Paul went if he was going to be there any length of time he usually got a job as a tent maker he was willing to work with his own hands in order to support the call of God upon his heart to Minister the Word of God I do not see anything inconsistent with that I believe that it is good for a minister of the gospel to if necessary work with his own hands to provide for his needs so that he would not be chargeable as was the case with Paul he didn't want to be chargeable to the Greeks so Paul worked there with Aquila and Priscilla who also were tent makers he probably got a job from them went to work for them as he was providing for his own needs he often would not provide just for his own needs but for the needs of those that journeyed with him as was the case in Ephesus Paul continued to work as a tent maker until Silas and Timothy joined him and when Silas and Timothy came they brought a offering from the church in Philippi where the Philippian jailer was converted they took up an offering and sent it to Paul and when they came with this offering for Paul then it was no longer necessary for him to work and so he gave full-time to the ministry there in Corinth so Paul was the kind of a fellow if you needed money he was willing to go out and work with his hands to provide if the Lord would provide such as he did with the Philippian offering then he was wanting and willing to give himself full-time to the work of the Lord you remember that Paul in writing to the Philippians made mention of the offering thanking them for sending the offering to him he's enough that I particularly had a need but I desire that fruit might have bound to your account and I think that that is an important thing to think about and to remember when you're giving to the work of the Lord that whatever fruit comes from the lives of those that are being supported in that ministry that you have sent to whatever fruit comes from that goes to your account Paul said I thank you for the offering that is that not that I had a special need but I desire that fruit might have bound to your account as Paul wrote to the Corinthians he reminded them that he had labored among them that he was not chargeable and to any of them now he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath and he persuaded the Jews and the Greeks and when Silas and Timothy were come from Macedonia Paul was pressed in the spirit and he testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah so this is interesting in that it would seem that Paul was just teaching concerning God's promise of the Messiah all until Timothy and Silas came and then he was moved in the spirit to go ahead and to declare into them having laid the foundation that Jesus is indeed the Messiah and when they that is the Jews opposed themselves and blaspheme he shook his raiment and he said unto them your blood be upon your own heads I am clean from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles you remember when Pilate was pressed by the Jews to deliver Jesus to be crucified he took a basin and he washed his hands and he said I am innocent of this man's blood see to it and they responded his blood be upon us and upon our children now Paul felt that responsibility to share Christ with these people to share Jesus as the Messiah we have a responsibility of witnessing we don't have a responsibility of converting people in fact we have an inability to convert people but our responsibility is to witness Paul fulfilled his responsibility and in so doing he felt free then from the blood of these people in other words he felt such a heavy obligation to witness for the Lord that he felt that he was sort of responsible for their salvation if he failed to it as you remember that God gave to Ezekiel a special challenge and when I say into the wicked they shall perish and if you warn not the wicked they will perish in their sins but their blood will I require at your hands now Paul felt that very same kind of a challenge in his ministry to the Jews but having witness to them now as they are blaspheming and rejecting pulses all right that's it not going on arguing and trying to press them to make a change but just hey I delivered my soul I'm free and innocent of your blood and any felt that his obligation was complete when he had witnessed to them which indeed is so I am pressed by God to bear witness of the truth of Jesus Christ that Jesus is the Messiah if a person believes that glory but that's the work of God's Spirit and planting faith in their heart if they don't believe but then I can't do anything about that but at least I am free from a responsibility as a witness I have borne my witness that's all God requires of me I get paid a salary I don't get paid Commission I get the same pay no matter how many people you see receive the Lord and and so thus you know I don't feel pressed and all to push people into a relationship with Jesus I only bear witness of God's truth to their hearts and then the responsibility is theirs what they do with it so he said I am clean your blood is upon your own heads I am clean from now on I'm going to go to the Gentiles and so he departed from the synagogue and he entered into a certain man's house named Justice one that worshipped God and whose house was joined hard to the synagogue or probably shared a common wall with a synagogue and Crispus the chief ruler of the synagogue believed on the Lord with all of his house and many of the Corinthians hearing believed them were baptized now you remember when Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians and you a students did read that epistle this week I trust when Paul wrote to the Corinthians he said unto them who were in these little factious groups because a Paulus later went and preached to Corinth and many people were enamored of Apollo's Peter had evidently been there and some were saying well I'm of Peter others were saying I'm of Paul and others were saying I'm of Apollo's and he said that's a mark of carnality you haven't grown up you're dividing yourself into these little factious groups and he said I thank God I did it baptized any of you but Crispus and Gaius and if there is any other I don't remember it because God didn't send me to baptize but to preach the gospel so this Christmas the ruler of the synagogue was one of those that Paul baptized the other was Gaius who was Paul's host as Paul writing his Roman epistle declares that he greets those in Rome from Gaius who is my host so again remembering that the Roman epistle was written from Corinth a city that was given over to all of this lustful lie centrist kind of living we remember the first chapter of Rome Romans as Paul describes men of reprobate minds who had been given over to the lusts of their own minds and were doing all of the evil vile things he was only describing the way people were living around him there in the city of Corinth and so if you want a good view of what the Quarian corinthian lifestyle was like read the latter half of the first chapter of the book of Romans and and Paul is describing the life around him there in the city of Corinth as he was writing from the house of Gaius and the two men that he baptized Crispus and Gaius and he couldn't remember if there were any others for he said God didn't send me to baptize but to preach the gospel a difficult scripture for those persons from the Church of Christ who come up and wonder why we do not instantly baptize the believers take them immediately down to the beach and baptize them because they believe in baptismal regeneration you're not really saved until you're baptized well if their doctrine is correct then Paul is utterly Maximus in the fact that he thank God he didn't baptize any but Crispus and Gaius and if there be any others he said I don't remember them for God did it send me to baptize just to preach the gospel so there were many people converted in corinth during paul's ministry there and yet paul was not really engaged much in baptizing the believers but Crispus the chief ruler of the synagogue believed on the lord with all of his house and many of the corinthians hearing believed and were baptized however not by paul then spake the lord to paul in the night by a vision and he said be not afraid now whenever God says be not afraid it usually means that you are afraid and Paul had reason to be afraid just about everywhere he preached it ended in a riot and he had been imprisoned he had been beaten he had been stoned and and now the Jews are getting stirred up here in Corinth and they created problems where every Adam preached me is probably fearful of what might happen and so the Lord said be not afraid but speak hold not your peace be not afraid and what is the cure the answer for fear for I am with thee o how the presence of the Lord and that consciousness of the presence of the Lord dispels fear if ever I get afraid all I have to do is remember all the Lord's with me and fear is dispelled fear only comes when I lose the consciousness of the presence of the Lord be not afraid the Lord said I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee I'm going to protect you Paul now you wonder why the Lord did it protect him in the other places why didn't the Lord decked him atleast travaille didn't he'd protect him in some of these other places where he was beaten and imprison and all I don't know but here in Corinth the Lord is saying okay Paul now don't be afraid I am with you and no man will be is able to lay his hand on you to hurt you for I have much people in this city who one of the most wicked cities in the world and there is where God has a big harvest were sin abounds Paul wrote to the Romans there from Corinth where sin abounds grace does much more abound and he saw that over abounding grace of God in the city of Corinth as the Lord testified I have many people in this city now looking at the people in the way they lived you wouldn't guess it I'm sure but yet God is able to work in those cases that we are so often prone to classify as hopeless and God has saved so many people I've given up on so many people that I declared there's no way they could ever be saved and yet God saved them anyhow in spite of my judgment so the Lord said go ahead speak out Paul don't be afraid I've got a lot of people in this city no one's going to be able to hurt you and so he continued there a year and six months teaching the Word of God among them so he probably spent close to two years total time in Corinth he spent another 18 months teaching the Word of God among them one of the greatest needs for the believers are to be taught in the Word of God and i think that it is relevant that here did it say he spent 18 months preaching to them but he spent 18 months teaching them and that is the great need in the church at all times is to be taught in the Word of God now when gal leo was the deputy of a ki the Jews made insurrection with one Accord against Paul and brought him to the judgement seat that judgment seat is still there in the city of Corinth if you go to Corinth today they'll take you to the middle of the town and Australia this one flat area and it is the judgment seat the very seat where Galileo was and where Paul was brought to trial by the Jews Galileo is a man that has received a lot of unwarranted abuse because of his response in his reaction here but Galileo was the brother of Seneca of Roman Fame and Seneca said of his brother Galileo there was never a kinder more loving person who ever lived and my brother Galileo now galio is sitting there in the judgment seat in corinth and the jews brought Paul in and they said this fellow is persuading men to worship God contrary to the law that was their accusation that would be contrary to the Jewish law and that was their interpretation of what Paul was teaching but I'm certain that Paul when he attempted to give his answer would have disputed that claim and when Paul was about to open his mouth Galileo said unto the Jews if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness oh you Jews reason would that I should bear with you but if it is a question of words and names and of your law then take care of it yourselves for I will not be a judge in such matters and so he drove them from the judgment-seat these Jews that were trying to accuse Paul and all of the Greeks took Sosthenes the chief ruler of the synagogue and probably the chief accuser of Paul and they beat him before the judgment-seat and Galileo cared for none of those things that is he he did not stop them from beating Sosthenes and that is why Galileo is brought in to ill repute and so many commentaries but if you go to the secular history you'll find that he was a very fair honest and a loving person now Paul after this tarry there yet a good while and then he took his leave from the Brethren he sell he sailed his intention was to return back to Syria Antioch was in Syria and his intention of course was to sail back to the church in Antioch and he took with him priscilla and aquila having shorn his head in chancery ax for he had a vow now the shaving of your head was reading the Nazarite vow and you would take the Nazarite vow when you wanted to consecrate yourself unto God for a period of time and usually the time of the Nazarite vow was for 30 days so at the beginning of the Nazarite value would shave your head and then you wouldn't take a razor to your head for that 30 days nor would you eat any meat nor would you drink any wine during the period of the 30 days in which you had this vow of consecration to God then at the end of the 30 days you would shave your head again whatever hair had grown during that period of time and you would burn it as a offering unto the Lord so Paul took this Nazarite vow shaved his head to begin this Nazarite vow probably to sort of prepare himself to go to the temple and to worship at the feast that he was endeavoring to get back to Jerusalem in time for one of the three feast so on his way they came first to Ephesus and there he left priscilla and aquila but he himself entered into the synagogue any reason with the Jews Paul just can't stop himself and when they desired him to tarry longer with them he consented not but he begged them farewell saying I must by all means keep this feast which is coming up in Jerusalem but I will return again unto you if God wills you remember James said go to now ye who say tomorrow we will do this and that you would be better to say if the Lord wills we will do this and that for you really don't know what a day is going to bring forth and so here's Paul saying if God wills I'll return again I don't know what God wills at this point I don't know what the Lord has in mind but if the Lord willing that's a part of God's will I will return again but you notice his desire I want to get to Jerusalem for this feast and so he sailed from Ephesus and when he had landed at Caesarea which of course was the major port closest to Jerusalem at that particular time the Roman port of Caesarea and had gone up and saluted the church he went down to Antioch now he just greeted the churches it evidently wasn't a very he evidently wasn't warmly welcomed by the church Paul didn't really get along too well with the church fathers in Jerusalem and so Luke passes off Paul's visit to Jerusalem tells us nothing about his attendance at the feast tells us nothing about his time there except that he just greeted the Brethren there and then came on back to Antioch from which he had begun his journey years earlier and after he had spent some time there and again Luke is indefinite as far as how long he stayed in Antioch he departed and went over all the country of Galatia and / Ghia in order strengthening all the disciples now in verse 18 to 23 Luke in five verses covers a journey of Paul of some fifteen hundred miles walking by ship perhaps some of it by horseback fifteen hundred miles passed off in just five little verses all of the things that were accomplished in that length of time and through those journeys are something that we're not recording they're just a portion here the record that is left blank and a certain Jew named the paulus born at Alexandria who was an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures came to Ephesus now Paul was only in the synagogue their reasoning with them they requested that he stay longer but he was desires to get to Jerusalem so as Paul is on his way to Jerusalem and now making his rounds through pergi and Galatia coming back towards Ephesus prior to his arriving another Jew arrived an eloquent man a brilliant man he was from Alexandria and he was mighty in the scriptures and that word means not only had a good knowledge but was able to explain carefully the scriptures this man was instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in the spirit he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord knowing only the baptism of John now he was no doubt a disciple of John he knew the baptism of John what do we know about John's preaching John said I am NOT the Messiah there is one who is coming after me who is mightier than I am the latchet of whose shoes I am unworthy to unloose and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire so he knew that John was telling that the coming of the Messiah was at hand and that the Messiah would be baptizing them in the Holy Spirit but his basic forte was in the scriptures and explaining the Scriptures and no doubt showing that the time of the Messiah's coming was at hand and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard they took him unto them and expounded unto Him the way of God more completely more perfectly at this point I have to have great admiration for Apollo he is a man who is mighty in the scriptures he is a man who is fervent in spirit he's eloquent he's brilliant and yet two of the people who were there listening to him understood more fully the things of which he spake than he did himself for through Paul they had come to know that Jesus was the Messiah and the empowering of the Holy Spirit in their lives and so I admire Apollo that he was willing to listen to a couple of the congregation who understood more completely than did eat the ways of the Lord I also admire Aquila and Priscilla for taking this eloquent man and sharing the way of the Lord with him notice that it does say that Aquila and Priscilla both of them were used as instruments of God in explaining to Apollo the way of the Lord more completely there are some who would try to exclude women from any place of teaching or instructing but God obviously used Priscilla for that purpose and with this man Apollo's and when he was disposed to pass into a ki the Brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive him now of course priscilla and aquila had come from corinth and so when a Polish is now ready to go to Corinth they wrote letters to the disciples to receive him who when he was come he helped them much which have believed through grace for he mightily convinced the Jews and that publicly showing by the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah so this man Apollo's had a powerful ministry a good knowledge of the word and ability to prove that Jesus indeed was the Messiah from the scriptures and that publicly when he came to Corinth and that is why no doubt the Corinthian church began to have their favorites and said well I'm appalled and others were saying well we're of Apollo's and and God nor did Paul or Apollo's ever intend that the people should take sides like this Paul said I watered I mean I planted Apollo's watered and God gave the increase now he who plants is nothing he who waters is nothing it is God in other words don't get your eyes on me you they're saying I'm of Paul nor should you get your eyes on Apollo's you should have your eyes upon the Lord he's the one that's really done the work in your heart but man it seems looks to the human instrument but Paul is trying to point them away from him and point them to the Lord he that plants is nothing I planted I'm nothing he that waters is nothing Apollo's watered but he's reading nothing it is the Lord that's the one you want to get your eyes on here again is something interesting Paul's ministry in Corinth was that of planting a Paulus came along and watered that which Paul had planted a Paulus have planted in Ephesus now Paul is coming to Ephesus as we get into chapter 19 and he is going to water what a Paulus planted so the glorious way by which God works in the ministry at one place he may have you planting in another place he may have you watering what someone else planted but again we must keep our eyes upon the Lord because if there is to be any increase that's his work all I can do is plant seed all I can do is water seed that is planted but any increase is the work of the Lord and as to his glory so it came to pass that while a Paulus was at Corinth wondering what Paul had planted Paul having passed through the upper coast came to Ephesus and there he found certain disciples that no doubt had been planted by Apollo's and he said unto them have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed now there are those who object strenuously to that translation and the revised version of the Bible demonstrates their objection or the revised version translates this did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed the question have you received the Holy Spirit's since you believed would indicate a separate subsequent work of grace beyond initial saving faith and because Baptist doctrine declares that you receive the full the Holy Spirit upon conversion and deny any further work of grace subsequent to conversion the question have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed would totally dispute that Baptist position and so they preferred the translation did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed however even that presents difficulty to their position because it would seem to indicate that a person could believe without receiving otherwise why would Paul ask it the very question itself would indicate that it was possible to be a believer and not have received that fullness of the Spirit now it was a very common thing to receive the fullness of the Spirit when they believed Peter on the day of Pentecost when he was asked by the people what should we do seeing we have crucified the Lord of glory he said repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for this promise is unto you and to your children and to those that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call so he gave to them the promise of the Spirit as a experience coincident with but subsequent to their repenting and being baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and it generally followed in the book of Acts that when they believed and were baptized that they were oftentimes immediately filled with the spirit as was the case in the house of Cornelius when Peter went there and as he was preaching unto them actually well no that wasn't the pattern was it as he was preaching the Holy Spirit fell upon them and then they said well who can hinder now water to baptize these people saying they've received the Holy Spirit so they receive the Holy Spirit and were baptized but the general pattern was baptized and then received the spirit there was a time gap in Samaria Philip went to Samaria and preached Christ unto them and many believed and were baptized when they saw the miracles that were done and among the believers was a man whose name was Simon who beforehand was a sorcerer and had really hoodwinked the people by his sorcery but he also believed him was baptized now when the church in Jerusalem heard that the Samaritans had received the gospel they sent unto them Peter and John for as yet the Holy Spirit had not come upon them this in Dumon of power when the Holy Spirit came upon their lives and here again points out this little Greek preposition of P which signifies that empowering of the Spirit in the life of the believer to be a witness Jesus had said to his disciples in the 14th chapter of John that he would pray the Father to give to them another comforter even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but he you know him for he dwells with you and shall be in you there there are two Greek prepositions used to describe the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the believer first of all he is with you secondly he shall be in you prior to your receiving Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit was with you he was the one that convicted you of your sinful state he was the one who was pointing Jesus Christ as the answer for your sins he was the one that was drawing you to the Lord for no man can come except the father drawn and the Spirit is the agent that the Father uses to draw men to Jesus Christ but when you receive Jesus Christ he the Holy Spirit began to dwell in you and every believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling within him Paul writing to the Corinthians said want know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you you are not your own you've been bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit which are his your body the temple of the Holy Spirit that's true of every believer but Jesus declared a time would come when those that believed on him would experience a glorious work of God for out of their innermost being there will begin to flow or gush torrents rivers of living water as he spoke of that ultimate relationship of the Spirit you see God always looks at you first of all subjectively because God wants to work in your life his work of the Spirit but God's work in your life is never finished when it it was is just a subjective work God always looks at you objectively for what he can do through your life Norman Grubb in his book the deep things of God declares that man's greatest capacity is that of a vessel for God has created man with the capacity to contain God we have this treasure in earthen vessels and so he declares that the greatest capacity of man is that of a vessel that can kein God and he goes on and he got me quite excited one day when I was listening to him at forest home about being a vessel containing the eternal God the creator of the universe oh how glorious but as I began to study it I realised that Norman Grubb came short and as I was reading the book having listened to him and I came again to this concept I said Norman you're wrong the greatest capacity of man is not that of being a vessel to contain God but it is being a channel through which God can flow to a needy world the instrument that God can use unfortunately too many of us are vessels to contain but we bottled it up and there's no flow going forth from our lives and the work of the Spirit is only subjective he's working in me conforming me into the image of Christ glory that's beautiful I need it I want it but I should not be satisfied with it I should not be satisfied until my life has become a channel from which God's Spirit is just flowing out and touching the needy world around me and this is the EPI you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you if he the Greek preposition means upon or over and as I said I have translated it overflows you when you're so full you can't contain it any more and it just starts to flow out from your life and continues to flow out until it becomes like a river of living water and if you cannot look at your life and say in my life there is a flowing forth from my life of the Spirit of God like a river of living water if you can't say that of your life then God has a deeper relationship for you to experience in the power and the anointing of the Spirit upon your life there is something more for you that gift of the Holy Spirit where he becomes that powering forth as a river of living water now gushing forth out of your life and the thirsty world around you being touched and ministered to from that overflow of God's love in your own heart so this is the happy experience and so get out your concordance as I'm not going to do it for you getting lazy get out your concordances and go back through the book of Acts and notice the hippy preposition in relationship to the holy spirit upon the believers and you'll see that in each case it was an empowering and the results were that of overflow witness for Jesus Christ as Jesus said you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes happy upon you over you and you shall be witnesses unto me there are those who like the term baptism there are those tubes that object to the term baptism of the Holy Spirit but if it means to be submersed surrounded overflowed with running off from hey I'm for it that's what I want that overflowing experience of God where I'm just submerged summers for whatever in the Spirit of God and I'm just you know totally overflowing with that power with that dynamic with that love and so Paul questions did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed they said unto Him we haven't even heard that there was a Holy Spirit that is that the Holy Spirit was given they had heard that there was a Holy Spirit they listened to a Paulus because he preached John's message that the one was coming was going to baptize them with the Holy Spirit with fire but they hadn't heard that it had yet happened we haven't even heard that that's happened yet and so he said unto them then how were you baptized now jesus said baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit so Paul you haven't heard of the Holy Spirit how were you baptized if it was the Apostles formula in Matthew they at least would have heard of it and they said we were baptized under John's baptism which was a baptism of repentance and then Paul said john verily baptized with the baptism of repentance but he said to the people that they should believe on him which should come after him that is on christ jesus so john yes did baptized but he was telling you to believe on the one that was coming and the one that was coming with christ jesus and so when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the lord jesus and when paul now they were baptized now paul laid his hands upon them and the Holy Ghost came happy he came upon them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied Paul tells us that there are many manifestations of the Spirit in the Corinthian epistle chapter 12 and among those manifestations of the spirit are the capacity to speak with other tongues and also the capacity to prophesy and so these two manifestations of the Spirit were taking place as Paul laid his hands upon them as a witness and as an evidence of the work of the Spirit in their midst however I feel that the most valid evidence of the working of God's Spirit within a person's life is not tongue is not prophecy nor the word of wisdom or knowledge or miracles even but is love for the fruit of the Spirit is love and if I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love their meaningless sounds I might as well just be taking in ringing a bell the tongues are invalidated by the lack of love though I have all knowledge understand all mysteries someone was asking me even this morning and I've been asked several times about a certain gray-haired TV evangelist who recently has been taken off of his station but bought time on many others what I thought about him and I said I have watched him on many occasions and I have not yet seen one real evidence of Christian love in that man's life I hear a lot of filthy canals a lot of potty talk I hear a lot of vindictiveness a lot of vengeance and anger they said Oh buddy such a brilliant man though I have all knowledge and understand all mysteries if I have not love it profits me nothing love is what God is looking for that that's the fruit God is coming into his garden he wants fruit now what kind of fruit is my life bringing forth vile mean rancor or is there that love that God is desiring many people bringing forth bitterness the fruit of their life is bitter there comes forth out of their mouth bitterness cursings reviling threats evil communications Jesus is looking for love and if I have all of these other manifestations and if I have not love there none of them valid or profitable and so Paul laid his hands on them they received the Holy Spirit he came to pee upon them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied and there were about 12 men and so he went into the synagogue and he spake boldly for the space of three months disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God but when divers were hardened many of them and they believe not but spake evil of that way and it's interesting that again here is the reference to the the Christians as that way it shows that it was more than just a philosophy it was their life it manifested itself in their entire lifestyle as Christianity should it should affect your entire lifestyle he departed from them and he separated the disciples and he began to dispute daily in the school of one taramis not Tyrannis was a philosopher he had a school of philosophy there and Paul went daylian and taught there in the school of Tyrannus in Ephesus as was the custom in those parts of the world you you your business was on a split shift you would work until 11 o'clock in the morning and then you closed shop until 5:00 in the afternoon at which time you would open up again and during the part of the afternoon where it was so hot people usually slept there said there used to say that there were more people that sleep at one o'clock in the afternoon then there was at one o'clock in the morning being so hot during the day you just would find some shady place and try to sleep during the hot hours instead of working and so you'd work up until 11 o'clock and then you wouldn't work again until five o'clock and there was quite a nightlife among these people now Paul Tyrannis would then probably be teaching in the school till eleven o'clock and then after 5:00 so Paul took the hours in between when it was too hot for people to be working and he would work making tents until 11 o'clock in the morning and then take off his sweat band and someone would grab it and take it and put it on a sick person and and then he would go to the school of Tyrannus in' and teach and then at five o'clock go back and work again as a tent maker Paul did work there in Ephesus as a tent maker to provide his own needs and those that were with him as that will be demonstrated next week in our study as you continue into the twentieth chapter of Acts so he continued this for a period of two years so that they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus both Jews and Greeks so as he was there in Ephesus for two years the effect of it was that the gospel the again to spread throughout this whole area so when Jesus addressed himself to the seven churches these seven churches were churches that are surrounding the Church of Ephesus no doubt that were established as satellites as the result of Paul's ministry there in Ephesus as any true work of God seems to have as its natural product that offspring and the springing up of other churches they're just that just seems to be the natural progression in the work of the Spirit and and it's glorious to see how that God has worked here in a very fabulous way through the teaching of the word and all God has blessed us abundantly but the byproduct is that over two hundred churches across the United States have sprung out of this church and and are now many of the churches that have sprung out of this church have become strong and churches are springing out of them so we not only have son and daughter type churches but we have grandson granddaughter type of churches now churches that have spun off from churches that have spun off and as time goes on and the Lord continues to work we'll probably even go into it next generation of spin-offs as the Word of God you know works mightily in the hearts of the people around the country so here the whole area of Asia began to be evangelized as the result of the ministry of Paul there in Ephesus and God brought special miracles by the hands of Paul so that from his body were brought to the sick the handkerchiefs are literally the sweat bands and the aprons and the diseases departed from them and evil spirits went out of them now I believe that the value of these handkerchiefs was it gave a point of contact to release faith I think that it is important that faith be activated too many times we have what is classified as passive faith but I think that's a misnomer I don't think you can have passive faith I think that faith is active or else it is not faith but we don't always act upon our faith and I think that it is valuable to have a point of contact where I release faith and I think that the bringing of a handkerchief from Paul or the sweatband as the case may be and laying it upon the sick person was a place of releasing faith I know that you know as this handkerchief is laid on me I'm going to be healed God's going to touch me you know and it and it gives us just a a point of contact to release faith there used to be a man in Los Angeles his name was Kelso Glover who for years was on the radio a deeply spiritual man that I admired and he had the practice of sending out handkerchief now there are some that are doing that that I don't admire it's sheared gimmickry and and they're only are doing it in order to get you on the mailing list to get you as one of their regular contributors and I think that that borders blasphemy and and I cannot be in sympathy with it I abhor it the Kelso Glover was a a beautiful godly man a man of Prayer and when I was a student in college I became acquainted with him and many times I would pray with him as he would take a stack of little cloths and lay his hands on them and pray over them that God would use these as instruments of stirring a person's faith to receive the work of God and then people would write from all over requesting these Anchorage's and he would mail them out and he received a lot of interesting letters of how God had worked a healing and the life of people who had received these handkerchiefs I remember especially one letter that he received from a lady who had requested the handkerchief and he sent it out to her and he got another letter back and in her second letter she said would you please send me another handkerchief she said the one that you sent me I had on my table and she said my son who is an unbeliever came by with his family to go to the theatre and he saw it and he said what's this mom and she said oh that's an anointed cloth that an evangelist sent me and he said well I think I'll take it with me and he stuck it in his coat pocket and went to the theatre with his family and during the movie he said to his wife I smell smoke and she said you're crazy you don't have any sense of smell and it was true he did not have both any olfactory senses and he said I tell you I smell smoke she said I tell you you're crazy you can't smell and so he went to the stage of the theater and he said ladies and gentlemen we're having a slight problem and we want you to all evacuate the Theatre immediately and he stood there and ordered the evacuation of the theater while his wife thought that he had gone completely insane once the theater was safely evacuated a fire broke out and consumed the theater she said he won't give me my cloth back would you please send me another one now I read the letter you could have difficulty believing that only have difficulty because of your limited concept of God's power for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever and Jesus said only believe all things are possible and so special miracles were wrought by Paul and a part of this was taking these claws his aprons and that be a sort of a difficult thing every time you take your apron off to go preach someone rips off your apron but yet they would take them under the sick lay them on them and and God would work now you remember in the Old Testament the case of Elijah the Prophet when they buried him and some time later there was a war going on and this guy was killed and they tossed him into the pit where they had buried Elijah and when the guy landed you know the power of the bones or whatever I don't know the guy was revived and came back to life now of course person might say well you know when he landed at the bottom you know that jarred his lungs and he started breathing again the scripture would seem to indicate that there was just latent power even in the bones of Elijah now I'm certain that there are many things about the power of God that we have so little understanding god help us that we would not limit him any more by our unbelief but we just say well listen God can do anything and just begin to expect God to do anything and you know if you'll just start expecting God to do anything you'll find you'll begin to do something he'll begin to do an awful lot in your life if you just begin to expect him release your faith turn it loose take the bridle off from God and let him begin to work freely don't be afraid of what God might desire to do in your life give him that freedom so from Paul's body they brought the handkerchiefs and aprons to the sick diseases departed evil spirits went out then there were certain of the vagabond Jews who were Exorcist now Ephesus was a place of great superstition there were all kinds of magical little amulets that you could purchase there in Ephesus good luck charms and the people believed a lot in these things and there were certain Jews who said that certain writings of the scripture had magical value to help you or to protect you in certain things so they were wrapping up these little portions of the scriptures and selling them to people if you wanted to be wealthy then you could buy this little magical portion of Scripture and carry it on you and wealth would start to come to you or if you wanted know different things they had little scriptures for all kinds of different they had their little shops and you could buy these little magical charms which in that case with these Exorcist Jews were portions of scripture that we're supposed to do all kinds of magical things and some of them took upon themselves to call upon the evil spirits in the name of the Lord Jesus saying we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches because they had earned no doubt Paul in the name of Jesus commanding evil spirits to leave now there were seven sons of one man whose name Ischia he was a Jew and he was a chief of these priests which did these things and the evil spirit answered and said Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are you and the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded quite often persons who are possessed by demonic forces have supernatural strength and power in this one case this man possessed by the evil spirit possessing that supernatural power was able to overcome these seven brothers and and give them a pretty bad time ripping off their clothes beating them up and sending them fleeing and this was known to all of the Jews in the Greeks who dwelt at Ephesus and fear fell on them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified and so God used even this experience of these fellows who were rather fraudulent but God even used that to spread the word and many that belief came and confessed and showed their deeds many of them also which used magical books books of the curious arts their books of magic they brought their books together and burned them before all of the men and they estimated the price of them to be about fifty thousand pieces of silver so mightily grew the Word of God and prevail so Paul had a very effective and powerful ministry there in Ephesus and after these things were ended Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and a ki to go to Jerusalem saying after I have been there I must also see Rome Paul had itchy feet he couldn't stay too long in one place when the whole world was needing the gospel now his purpose of leaving Ephesus to go over to Macedonia back to Greece to the churches was to collect an offering because the Church in Jerusalem was going through some real financial problems the early attempt at communism was a total failure and it left the church in a bankrupt state now though the church in Jerusalem it would seem treated Paul in a very shabby way it was his desire to take to them financial help and so he called upon the churches to help those in Jerusalem it is interesting Paul never asked for an offering for himself nor did he ever asked for an offering to support his ministry but he did ask them for an offering to support the poor Jews in Jerusalem but he didn't ever ask for himself and so his desire was to go to those churches to collect from them an offering to take to the Brethren in Jerusalem and after he had taken it to Jerusalem then his intention I've got to see Rome - there's words that you know so he sent to Macedonia - of those that had been ministering to him Timothy and Erasmus but he stayed in Asia for a season so he sent messages to the churches and in the Corinthian letter he said now you know when you gather together each one bring an offering as God is laid upon your heart so give and God loves the hilarious Giver he was talking about giving to this offering that he would collect when he would go on back to Jerusalem and at the same time there arose no stir about that way again the reference to the way there was no there is no small stir people began to get stirred up because there was a certain man whose name was Demetrius and he was a silversmith and he made silver shrines for Diana which is the latin name for artemis the greek goddess who was that little goddess with a multi breasted goddess you've probably seen pictures of her Artemis the goddess of fertility worshiped by the Greeks and and B the idea of the multitude of breast was the ability to nurse many many children I guess at once the goddess of fertility and the this fellow Demetrius was a silversmith and he had been making all these little multi breasted images of Diana and so he gathered together those men who were of the same craft and occupation and he said sirs you know that we've been made wealthy by this craft moreover you see in here that not here in Ephesus alone but almost throughout all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that there are no gods which are made with hands now what a testimony of the effectiveness of Paul's ministry not only here but in all of Asia this fellow has turned away many people saying that you and make a god with your hands and hey this is the way we make our living and we've been wealthy by this but we're about to go broke you know this guy prevails so when they heard these sayings they were full of Wrath and they cried out saying great is Diana of the Ephesians and the whole city was filled with confusion and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus men of Macedonia so this no doubt is the gayest that have been Paul's hosts in Corinth when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans they caught this fella Gaius and Aristarchus men of Macedonia who were Paul's companions in travel and they rushed with one Accord into the theatre and when Paul would have entered into the people in unto the people the disciples but not allowed at Paul he had guts I mean he was here's a big crowd of people in a riotous state and and all upset over Paul and he's ready to go in and talk to them you know oh they would have ripped him to shreds and so the disciples would not allow him and certain of the chief of Asia which were Paul's friends sent unto him desiring that he would not venture himself into the theatre now inside some were crying one thing and some another for the assembly was confused and for the most part the people didn't even know why they come together you know just one of those mob scenes where you know people are yelling and screaming and going into the theatre and making a lot of noise so you know the rest of people just follow in and hear all the shock they don't even know why they're there so there's a big tumult and then they drew Alexander out of the multitude the Jews putting him forward and Alexander beckoned with the hand and would have made his defense under the people but when they knew that he was a Jew all of them with one voice for the space of two hours cried out great is Diana of the Ephesians this temple of diana in ephesus was a magnificent building 425 feet long a hundred and twenty five columns and was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world it was built because someone found a little black image of a multi breasted artemis there on the spot and so the word went around that Jupiter had sent down this little image of Diana and thus they built this huge temple there and for the space of two hours these people were chanting great his Diana of the Ephesians and when the town clerk had appease the people he said Ye men of Ephesus what man is there that knows not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the Great Goddess Diana eight who doesn't know but we are all worshipers of Diana and of the image which fell down from Jupiter this one particular little black multi breasted goddess that was found seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against ye ought to be quiet and to do nothing rashly for ye have brought hither these men which are neither robbers of churches nor yet blasphemers of your goddess wherefore if Demetrius and the craftsmen which are with him have a matter again tinnie man the courts are open and there are deputies let them go ahead and employed one another but if you inquire anything concerning other matters it shall be determined in a lawful assembly for we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this gathering together so when he had thus spoken he dismissed the assembly so cooler heads prevailed when the town clerk got up and and made this appeal to the people so this though did perpetrate Paul's leaving Ephesus he had been planning to do so he had already sent Timothy and Erastus ahead to Macedonia with the letters for the people to gather the offerings for him when he came they didn't want any collections made while he was there get it all collected before I come and on his way to Jerusalem he was going to make this swing through Greece and so as we get into chapter 20 we will get Paul's quick swing through Greece and then his return near to Ephesus coming to Malita is calling for the elders and this beautiful impassioned emotional speech of Paul to the elders of Ephesus in our study next week great study next week make sure you read chapters 2021 as we continue through the Word of God and now may the word of God dwell richly in your hearts through faith that you may be able to comprehend with all of the saints what is the length the breadth the depth the height of God's love for you that you might continue in the love of God abounding in every good work filled with the spirit growing into full maturity in Jesus Christ may the Lord bless you may the hand of the Lord be upon your life mightily this week and may you be filled with a Holy Spirit and with power as you go forth to bear witness of Jesus our Lord to a dying world god be with you and God bless and keep you in the love of Jesus our Savior

Channel: Ken Zenk

Views: 14,001

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Keywords: Bible, God, Jesus, Christ, Love, Hell, Death, Sex, Marriage, Drugs, Satan, Porno, Cancer, Sports, Girls, Music, Holy Spirit, Children, Family, Heaven, Healing, Pregnant, Aids, Gay, Movies, TV Shows, Animals, Israel Prophecy, Last Days, Christian, Jewish People, Gentiles

Id: 5_372i5rV3c

Length: 85min 7sec (5107 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 11 2013