Extraordinary Miracles

SERMON: 2017-04-23--ac17169--extraordinary-miracles SOURCE DURATION: 00:48:27.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 2 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The initial segment [0] is music and must be trimmed. Segment [1] begins the main sermon exposition. The final segments conclude with a prayer (segment [353]), which is considered part of the overall pastoral application/sermon structure. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:00:00.000; remove through 00:00:03.160] [CUT] [ [CUT]Music] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:00:03.160; resume after this marked segment] Carrying on this morning then with our series of studies in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 19. I want to talk with you this morning about extraordinary miracles from Ephesians chapter 19. We're going to read from verse 11 to verse 20. The background is Paul has come to Ephesus found the disciples who were only baptized in the name of John the Baptist. He baptized them into the name of Jesus, prayed over them, they received the Holy Spirit. We've talked about that whole topic fairly extensively and now we pick up the narration beginning at verse 11. God did extraordinary miracles through Paul so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that he had touched were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon possessed. They would say in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches I command you to come out. Seven sons of Sceva a Jewish chief priest were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them Jesus I know and I know about Paul but who are you? Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them overpowered them all gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. What a sight that would have been. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus they were all seized with fear and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls the total came to 50,000 drachmas. A drachma is a day's wage. If your mind drifts this morning you can calculate how many dollars that was. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. Extraordinary miracles. Let's talk about it in a moment but first join me in prayer. Father we live in a world where periodically we have these power encounters the power of God versus the power of evil. And Lord we are so accustomed in many instances to being overcome by evil that sometimes we lose sight of the fact that Jesus by his death and resurrection has been crowned Lord of Lords and King of Kings and we pray this morning that you give us anew and a fresh revelation of the authority of the Lord Jesus not only but the authority that he has entrusted to us his people because he has told us I'm with you always even to the end of the age as you go and make disciples of all nations. So Lord help us in our own lives and in our own experiences to know what the values of the kingdom are what it is that you have entrusted to us and then help us to stand firm until we see satan's power destroyed wherever it might be made manifest and your kingdom come and people be freed from the power of evil. We pray that Lord first of all for our own community in the places where sometimes we're still held in bondage that you will break those chains and then you will give us boldness to proclaim to all the nations that there is no higher name but the name of Jesus and that before him every name must one day bow. So bless our time together give me the words that I need to talk about this bind up the forces of evil release the power of your Holy Spirit and may we in every way grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ we ask it for your glory and in the name of Jesus amen. I've always loved the way Luke who of course is the author of the book of Acts describes Paul's ongoing ministry in Ephesus. We read the verse together a moment ago let's read it again verse 11 and verse 12. God did extraordinary miracles through Paul so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that he had that had touched him were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Extraordinary miracles Luke calls it and then he goes on to describe what these miracles consisted of in the rest of that verse handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Here's a question for you what story earlier in the book of Acts does this remind you of? Anybody think of it? You'd have to dig a little bit. The apostle Peter in Acts chapter 5 the Bible says the power of God was so heavily upon him that as he walked along the street his shadow, can you imagine this, his shadow cured people and so people went about laying the sick on the streets in the hope that his shadow might heal them. There is a place in the kingdom of God where the presence of God in a person's life authorized by Jesus is so strong that the energy of Jesus the power of Jesus taken from that person whether by shadow or by handkerchief or by apron has the power to heal almost sounds magical doesn't that but this isn't magic this is the power of God. Then Luke goes on to give us a very practical illustration of how this works out in the real world by describing what happened to the seven sons of Sceva who was high priest at the time. The Bible describes these sons as itinerant exorcists. The word in Greek is vagabond that is to say they wandered from city to city offering their services so that people could be delivered from the power of evil spirits. They would charge for that obviously and they would use a variety of charms and incantations to try to drive these evil spirits out of people's lives. Josephus the very famous Jewish historian claims that that tradition and that skill went back all the way to Solomon who imparted this knowledge to subsequent generations. We don't know of course if that is true or not but that is Josephus's claim but what happens in this story is that when the seven sons of Sceva see the authority that Paul has using the name of Jesus they decide that this is that this is a tool to add to their toolkit for doing exorcisms and so they go around saying in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches come out. The results as we read in the story were disastrous because the name of Jesus is not a charm or a formula to add to your toolkit of exorcisms. It depends on relationship that's why the demon says Jesus I know and I know about Paul the word there is I am acquainted with Paul but who are you and of course as the story goes on the man overpowers the seven sons of Sceva beats them up strips them naked they run bleeding out of the house and the net result is that the name of Jesus is honored in Ephesus and many many people come to faith. In the time that remains to us this morning I want to share with you three lessons I think that we learned from this particular story. The first lesson is this Ephesus was a powerful spiritual stronghold if you read on in the chapter you discover that Ephesus is home to the temple of Artemis. Artemis was a fertility goddess one of the primary goddesses of Greek culture in the Roman world she was known as Diana she was the goddess of virginity fertility and the protector of young girls and women she would be the one they turned to for childbirth and if life was really difficult she was also the one they would turn to to help them to die. Now her temple in Ephesus is one of the seven wonders of the world and there you see an image of Artemis over here this was the common way that she was represented and here is the temple which was huge it was 450 feet long it was 225 feet wide the columns that you see there there were 127 of them they were 60 feet high and it took supposedly 120 years to build. One of the ancients had this common to make phylon of Bicentium in 250 BC he said I have seen the walls and the hanging gardens of ancient Babylon the statue of Olympian Zeus the colossus of Rhodes the mighty work of the high pyramids and the tomb of Mosulis but when I saw the temple at Ephesus rising to the clouds all these other wonders these are the other seven wonders of the world some of them all these other wonders were put in the shade that was the religious life of Ephesus and this worship of Artemis not only dominated the religious life of Ephesus but also its commercial life it brought huge crowds to Ephesus they would have parades and festive occasions and and and thousands and thousands of people would come to the city and they would spend of course all kinds of money and all that kind of thing but furthermore as the story goes on to relate later on and we'll look at that Lord willing in more detail later there was a whole contingent of silversmiths in Ephesus and they had as their trade the manufacture of little miniature temples of Artemis that they would inscribe with charms that people would buy and that brought huge amounts of money into the city and just to give you a flavor of how Artemis dominated this city we read about believers coming forward burning their sorcery scrolls 50 000 drachmas what is it in dollars did you do your calculations yeah you know if a day's wage let's say that you're making 15 bucks an hour is that fair eight hours a day 120 bucks 120 times 50 000 that's six million dollars if my math is correct that's a lot of money to throw in the bonfire and that shows you how Artemis had invaded every aspect of life in this particular city and that's where Paul is now preaching the gospel a stronghold of almost infinite proportions but of course the story doesn't end there because second thing that we learned in this particular passage is that let me back up and show you just one other picture here this is all that is left if you go to Turkey today in the neighborhood of Ephesus close to another city you will find this is the remnant of the temple of Artemis that's all that's left one of the pillars and all these foundation stones the glory of Artemis has long gone because guess what who's bigger the name of Jesus and that's the second thing that I want us to notice here then is that Jesus demonstrates his superior power Jesus demonstrates his superior power if it is true as the bible teaches that because of sin the whole human race has come under Satan's power and if it is true that Jesus is our deliverer then he must demonstrate that power by destroying Satan's power and already in the gospels you find Jesus describing his ministry in terms of that power encounter listen to these words Matthew 12 29 Jesus speaking how can anyone enter a strong man's house carry off his possessions unless he does what ties up the strong man then he can rob his house you can't rob somebody's house if somebody bigger than you is guarding it so if you want to rob his house that person is to be tied up and Jesus is talking about himself and he's talking about binding up Satan's power now we know from scripture that the way Jesus defeated Satan's power was very counterintuitive because he defeated Satan's power by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead I think all hell rejoiced mightily on Good Friday when Jesus breathed his last and gave up his spirit this this annoying messiah who was impacting Satan's kingdom negatively was finally out of the way and how traumatized they must have been on Easter Sunday morning went up from the grave he arose with a mighty triumph over his foes see they didn't clue in that the power of death is seen and the power of sin lies in the power of the law Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15 towards the end of that great chapter on the resurrection and what he means by that is that death is the result of sin and therefore sinful people cannot rise from the dead we talked about that last Sunday morning but guess what who had no sin Jesus had no sin therefore death could not hold him Peter talks about that in his great Pentecost sermon Acts chapter 2 verse 24 God raised him that is Jesus from the dead freeing him from the agony of death because why say it with me it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him and that's the significance as we saw last Sunday of the resurrection sin and death in hell were defeated by Jesus and therefore since sin and death and hell are Satan's ultimate strongholds Satan himself was defeated by Jesus and that is why when Jesus introduces the great commission at the end of Matthew chapter 28 he says all authority say it with me all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me Jesus is king of kings and lord of lords he reigns in heaven at the right hand of God the father that authority he delegates to the church right that authority he delegates to the apostle Paul who is now in the midst of all this pagan idolatry and this tremendous spiritual stronghold and what you have happening here is one of these many power encounters that you find periodically in scripture at critical moments in the history of salvation think back to Moses and the magicians of Egypt or to Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel if you remember those stories or Daniel and the astrologers of Egypt or the wise men of Egypt and of course Jesus himself in the gospels in each of these you have a face-to-face encounter of the power of hell and the power of God we easily think that these magicians these astrologers these wise men these idol worshipers were just superstitious people who thought that don't ever fall for that lie Satan has got tremendous power he gives tremendous power to those who are in union with him and throughout scripture at these critical moments of salvation history these two powers rise up against each other it is like they face off and they face off and the battle intensifies it's like in movies have you ever noticed in a lot of movies to hold your attention you get the good guys and you get the bad guys and you got a whole bunch of people with the good guys and you got a whole bunch of people with the bad guys and then they engage each other and one after the other the good guys die and the bad guys die until at last you have the two opponents left ever notice that in movies and then they slug it out every other movie one knock to the head knocks you dead but not at these moments they like fight forever and they keep on going and you think the good guy is going to lose then you think the bad guy is going to lose and it goes on and on and on but in the good movies a good guy always ends up winning right well that is what happened with Jesus on the cross in his resurrection and that's what's happening in this story where the apostle Paul goes toe to toe and head to head with the power of evil and the net result of that in this story focused as it is in the seven sons of skeeva and how the evil spirit overpowered the the the the itinerant exorcists because it's about relationship with god it's not just about using incantations or using a formula it's it's the power lies in a relationship with the living god through faith in the lord jesus christ and that's why the text tells us then in verse 17 of chapter 19 when this whole story became known to the jews and the gentiles living in ephesus they were all seized with fear and the name of jesus was held in high honor and that little group of 12 disciples that he first found remember now multiplies mightily because people are experiencing firsthand that jesus is bigger bigger bigger than artemis and the chains that she has put on the whole community so emphasis is a huge spiritual stronghold jesus demonstrates his power in taking artemis on uh face to face and toe to toe then there's a third principle here i think that we need to understand and that is this the power that jesus demonstrates in stories like this is always in proportion to the need let me say it again the power that jesus demonstrates is always in proportion to the need let me explain what i mean by that sometimes we in the western world read stories such as the story that we have just described here or we hear of modern miracles in far away countries and and sometimes we say i wish i could see a miracle myself don't you ever kind of wish for a miracle or two wouldn't that make faith a lot easier and the fact remains that most of the time in the western world we don't see the kind of miracles that we hear being described in other places why do you suppose that is well to give you three quick reasons why i believe a lot of the miracles happen on the mission field they happen to people who are deeply in bondage to satan's power and and most of us we may never see that kind of miracle in our lifetime and that's not necessarily a bad thing but we need to understand what the principles are first principle or the first reason why sometimes in the western world we don't see more miracles is simply and this is never pleasant but we lack faith we lack faith matthew 17 mark 9 luke 9 all have the story of the transfiguration of jesus jesus takes peter james and john up on the mountain he's transfigured before them while they are up there the rest of the disciples have been approached by a man who has a demon possessed boy they had earlier been sent out to cast out demons so they were pretty confident that they could do it it was an utter failure jesus and the rest of the disciples come down from the mountain and the first question the disciples ask him after jesus cast out the demon why couldn't we do it remember that story i always have great sympathy for the disciples well they can't do something because i know how human that is well here's the response that jesus gave them and you'll recall it he said he was always very pastoral with his i cannot tell you how many times he rebukes them for their lack of faith i mean if our pastors treated you that way church would be empty but jesus gets away with it because he's the boss here's what he says because you have so little faith i tell you the truth if you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move move any mountains lately see obviously there are realms of authority there are realms of power in the kingdom of god that that typically we don't experience and i for one believe that there are a lot more mighty acts of god that we would and could see if god increased our level of faith and one of the reasons that it happens more in the mission field than it does here one of the reasons that it happens more in situations where people are more desperate than we often are is because god gives them the extra gift of faith quick illustration i've been reading a book that uh bill mackintosh and helen brought back uh from china called christian china and the light of the world and it's subtitled miraculous stories from china's great awakening and there's tons of stories in there of amazing things that god has done in china to bring multitudes of people raised under communism into the kingdom of god the number of believers in china today is far greater than the number of people that are members of the communist party which is why periodically the authorities crack down tearing down particularly in recent years church buildings and crosses on churches because they're spreading up all over the place and the cross of jesus continues to be very offensive to a lot of people but one of the stories that's told in the book is the story of a woman by the name of ruth who really has a heart for cross-cultural communication and there is in china a movement called the back to jerusalem movement fascinating movement because their passion and their burden is to complete the circumnavigation of the gospel around the world the gospel began in jerusalem and you'll recall from the book of acts at a very decisive moment in history the apostle paul by the lord was called to go to macedonia instead of going east that defined the direction of the gospel and the gospel went from the middle east to europe to north america went to china and to the asian countries and came to china china believers of the back to jerusalem movement feel called of god to complete the movement of the gospel and evangelize the nations between china and jerusalem that's what's called as the 1040 window i believe and the 1040 window encompasses the most intensely muslim nations of the world and so china has been sending missionaries through these countries to take the gospel all the way back to jerusalem and that's been very difficult and they've been trying to learn how better to do this and so ruth and 14 other companions who are leaders of this whole movement decided to make a trip through these countries to try to find out firsthand what are the obstacles so that they could do a better job of training their missionaries and most of their missionaries would be bivocational they would be be chinese laborers working in these countries trying to communicate the gospel and she tells the story of how as they were traveling her suv had an accident that left the axle bent and the left front wheel twisted outwards let me just read it to you here because it's fascinating the way that she describes it it was out of the middle of nowhere it's impossible to call a tow truck or tim's garage as an experienced mechanic though ruth knew that the extent of the damage sustained rendered the vehicle not worth fixing anyway it would be better to scrap it in that moment she says i heard the lord say trust me so she radioed the rest of the convoy to go ahead and to continue and she and her passengers were unharmed and would catch up with him now listen to this this only happens in china when you're really desperate after laying hands on the hood of the suv and praying ruth decided to drive the vehicle amazingly it was able to continue on for the rest of the journey without further mechanical problems ruth was convinced that an angel held up to smashed area at the front especially now get this when locals along the way kept pointing to it as they drove by and others would warn them not to drive it whenever they paused to rest but on they went and ruth said i just believed in god now get this eventually they made it all the way to jerusalem with ruth's suv racking up more than 3,500 kilometers after the accident she goes on to say they shipped the car back to china the mechanic from one of her shops agreed with her assessment it wasn't worth fixing he was absolutely astounded she had driven it all that way given the condition of the vehicle he said god was lifting up that side of the car while you were driving and the mechanic said if that's not a miracle i don't know what is god can do amazing things when we are in situations of desperation and when we need him the books get all kinds of stories like that because our god is a living god and one of the things he wants to do in your life and in my life is to help us grow in faith so that we can speak to these mountains that are obstacles to the coming of the kingdom and we can command them by the authority of jesus to move so that god's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven so that's one reason why often we don't see the kind of miracles that we would like to see but the second reason and that brings it probably closer to home and that is this we don't see the spiritual strongholds in our own culture we don't see the spiritual strongholds in our own culture it's not hard looking back at biblical history to look at the city of ethesus and to see that the whole city was in the grips of artemis and her worship the problem is today we live in a secular age and it's much harder to see in our own society what is going on than to look outside of ourselves and to see what's going on it's like living in a dysfunctional family normal is what you grow up with and in the western world we now have a generation that probably for the first time in history is known as a truly secular generation and by secular i mean a generation that doesn't significantly believe in a higher being than themselves you see throughout the course of history people are confronted by floods and by hurricanes and by forces which they don't understand and their worship of the gods if you will was a way of trying to stay alive in a very uncertain world right that's that gave power to like like bale was a fertility god and artemis was a fertility god because that's where you turn to in order to stay alive and to multiply and to make life work well today we're a lot smarter than that we know that lightning is not caused by you know the gods fighting up in heaven or thor throwing his hammer today we know that floods and earthquakes and natural disasters are all part and parcel of they can all be explained scientifically right we're constantly busy in this day and age trying to explain that things just happen because they happen naturally the result is that by and large regardless of what people profess we have the rise of secularism that is to say there is no one greater than myself so in that scenario who do you think becomes god me myself and i it's the completion of what the serpent began in the garden when she said god doesn't want you to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because the day that you eat that he's afraid that you're going to be like god knowing good and evil that is to say you don't need somebody higher than yourself to define what your values ought to be you define your values yourself well that's the society in which we live today the last couple of years decades have seen an enormous slide downhill as we have rejected biblical values whether it's with regard to sexuality or marriage or any any of the biblical values of right and wrong and we have become as you know the poet william ernest henley wrote so many years ago in the poem invictus i am the master of my fate i am the captain of my soul it's all about me i'm god and the bible says that's the spirit of antichrist that's a spirit that satan is feeding into the human race because it appeals to our pride what better you know i don't know if you've ever read the poem invictus but it is fascinating listen to these verses out of the night that covers me black is the pitch from pole to pole i thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul in the fell clutch of circumstance i have not winced or cried aloud under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody but unbowed beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade and yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid it matters not how straight the gate how charged with punishment to scroll i am the master of my fate i am the captain of my soul one day that mindset is going to take on worldwide significance when the antichrist arises who is the opposite of everything that jesus stands for and the bible says this concerning him in second thessalonians 2 4 now notice carefully the wording he will oppose and exalt himself over everything that is called god or is worshiped so that he sets himself up in god's temple proclaiming himself to be god that's where the human race is going and that's the spirit of our culture as it rejects biblical values and makes the humankind the ultimate authority of deciding who's right and wrong now of course here's the problem you and i we live in that kind of society and as you've often heard me say normal is what you grow up with and so even the church is often permeated by that spirit how many times do we not refuse to bend to god's authority because it doesn't suit our thinking how many times isn't it about whether i'm happy or have my way as opposed to god being happy and god having his way how many times isn't it about my needs being met in the way that i think my needs ought to be met as opposed to what can truly honor and glorify god so you see we don't see the kind of miracles that we like to see because we're so much part of our own culture and what the lord has to do is give us revelation through the person of jesus so that we can stand against the spirit of the age and really embody and leave out increasingly and as many of us try to do by god's grace living by the values of heaven as opposed to the values of the world one more reason and then we'll be done the deeper the darkness the greater the light we often quote these verses in connection with christmas but there's a principle there that really applies the people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light those who dwell in a land of deep darkness on them has light shined notice the contrast a great light in what context in the context of deep darkness paul puts it this way where sin increased grace increased all the more my experience and i think the scriptures confirm it that the amount of power that god releases to his people is in direct proportion to their need now if you're the kind of person who was raised essentially in a christian home you have no idea what kind of protection you have experienced and how many things about the dark side of life you know nothing about and you've grown up knowing god you've grown up having a relationship with god and god's gave you that has given you the grace that you need to live before his face and that's an incredible gift because it means you've been part of covenant with god but for people who have not had that kind of protection who in some instances have been exposed to the raw forces of hell because not only of their own sins but the sins of their forebears you have no idea how deep the darkness can run in a human soul and because god loves his people and wants to set his people free the greater the darkness the greater the power that's why you hear marvelous mission story stories off the mission field because god is demonstrating his power unto salvation that's why some of the most powerful testimonies that you hear will be that from people who have been lost and lost and lost in deep darkness and they've cried out to god and god has heard their cry he has opened their heavens the heavens and he has changed them from the core of their being you understand what i'm saying where sin abounds grace abounds more there's a bright side to all of this because our society as i said a moment ago is rapidly throwing away its its cultural values story in the news out of hamilton just this past week two foster parents have had their kids taken away from them and they have been disqualified for being foster parents because they refuse to teach their foster children that the easter bunny is real now there's more to the story than that as you can imagine but this is becoming a court case but it's where we are as a society standing up for biblical truth becomes increasingly difficult there are two versions of of of what people are saying how the world's going to end some people think it's just going to go from bad to worse we may as well give it all up and just you know wait for jesus to come and rescue us there are other people who think oh no it's just going to get better and better and and the kingdom will come the reality is both are probably true the darkness is going to deepen the more we turn our back on jesus the worse it's going to get but the worse the darkness becomes the greater the light begins to shine and the more confident gods people could have in the presence and the power of jesus and that those forces are going to keep on clashing until jesus comes we have the battle of armageddon and guess who wins at the end but god's people need to know it and they need to understand it and the challenge for you and for me is to know who christ is who it is that we are in him and to stand firm with his authority proclaiming the name of jesus knowing that there are still many in the world around us jesus hasn't come back because he doesn't wish for any to perish but for all to reach repentance only when the gospel goes to all the nations will he come back so he wants us to be faithful he wants us to trust him and he wants us to stand firm no matter what comes against us as we go forward and as we stand for firm and represent the ministry of jesus trouble will abound but jesus said do not worry because i have overcome the world more about that lord willy next time because guess what happens next in ethesus there's a big riot why because the gospel is beginning to impact the economy of the city stand with me as we close in prayer what a story lord and how you've demonstrated to the people of ethesus that jesus is bigger than artemis and how you want to demonstrate to our culture and to our society today that jesus is bigger than the spirit of self-love the spirit of commerce the spirit of power the spirit of self-preservation thank you that you called us to belong to you and thank you that jesus is stronger and help us in the moments of doubt and questions and weakness to know that reality that he's promised to be with us always even to the end of the age and that his power at work in us and towards us is bigger than anything the devil and hell and the world can offer because he's been raised from the dead he's been exalted at the right hand of god he is lord overall just thank you thank you thank you help us to honor and love you with everything that is within us in jesus name we pray amen [PROPOSED CUT 2 START at 00:48:23.070; remove through 00:48:27.000] you [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 2 END at 00:48:27.000; resume after this marked segment]