There are supernatural practices that much of our society does not take seriously, but God does. Practices that much of our society might not even believe are real, but God does. And he reveals that by how he speaks about those things in His Word, and he reveals it by the consequences he put in his law to Israel for those who practice those things. Let's talk about some examples. These are on your outlines.
When Israel was getting ready to enter the Promised Land, the Lord told them this when you enter the land the Lord is giving you, do not imitate the detestable customs of those nations. No one among you is to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire. That's a reference to the pagan practice that was happening in the land at that time of child sacrifice, literally killing your child as an offering to a pagan God. But I want you to note here what else the Lord puts in the same category as child sacrifice. He says, Also, no one among you is to practice divination.
That simply refers to this umbrella category of trying to uncover some type of hidden knowledge by contacting the spiritual world. It could be knowledge about the future, knowledge about the past, or knowledge about the present, God says. Likewise, no one among you is to tell fortunes or interpret omens. So these are practices like tarot cards, our reading tea leaves. No one among you is to practice sorcery cast spells, consult a medium or a spiritist or inquire of the dead.
There's just the practice of trying to somehow contact the spirits of the dead. Everyone who does these acts is detestable to the Lord, and the Lord your God is driving out the nations before you because of these detestable acts. These practices are detestable to the Lord because they are a direct insult to and rejection of Him. Let me explain. The Lord has made Himself available to all who desire a relationship with Him.
The God of heaven and earth offers his spirit to every person. He says I'll come and dwell in you so that our relationship, our communion, can be constant. I'll lead and guide you through My spirit. If you need wisdom, just ask and I'll give it to you. And through My Word, I'll give you insight into the true nature of reality.
That's the offer of God. And even back under the old covenant, God still offered people a way to commune with the spiritual and the supernatural with Himself, the one true God. But there's a catch to this offer that God makes. God's offer includes trusting Him as Lord, trusting Him to decide what is good for you, and trusting Him when he withholds certain things from you because he says these things are not good for you. Now, that shouldn't be an issue.
Why? Because God is perfectly loving, kind, and good. If he says this is not for you, it's not because it's awesome and he doesn't want you to have it. It's because he knows it's going to bring something destructive into your life and your relationships. But those who engage in these detestable practices are saying, I want to access the spiritual world without having to submit to God as Lord.
They're saying, I don't want any restrictions. I don't want God to decide what's good for me. I want to be my own God. And like Lucifer, they are motivated by the desire to be like God themselves and access secret knowledge on their own terms. And God says that's detestable.
It's also detestable because there are only two spiritual forces in existence god and the forces of darkness. You've got to understand this concept and if you are engaging in any kind of spiritual or supernatural practice that is not biblical, that is not of the Lord, if you're not engaging with Him, then you are engaging with spiritual forces of darkness. It's that simple. It doesn't matter if you or the culture don't think it's a big deal. It doesn't matter what you think.
If I can somehow mix human and fallen angel genetics, then there won't be anyone who's not corrupted in some way on a genetic level with fallen angel genetic material, and God's plan won't be able to work. And so what did God do? Well, according to the scriptures, it got all the way to the point where there was only one family on the entire planet that wasn't corrupted, and that family was Noah's. And what happened to everyone else? They were killed by the Lord in the great flood.
Why? Because they loved sin. But there's also a really good chance it was because they weren't actually human anymore. And what happened to the spirits of those people, the spirits of the Nephilim after they died? Well, they couldn't go to Hades, the good or bad side, because they weren't human.
And so those spirits remained trapped on the Earth and became demons without bodies. When you get into what the Bible actually teaches and what it hints at, it's very, very interesting, because there are people today who think they've made all kinds of amazing historical and spiritual discoveries, when in reality, they've been part of the biblical worldview for millennia. Some people are surprised when they find out like that. When I hear them say, oh, you believe in evil spirits? Me too.
Oh, you believe there are many gods? Me too. You believe there were advanced civilizations before a catastrophic global flood? Me too. You believe there were advanced civilizations before the flood, visited by extraterrestrials who gave them advanced knowledge.
Wrong. They were not extraterrestrial. They were interdimensional. But other than that, me too. This is stuff that's in the Bible, that's part of the biblical worldview.
And so, demons hate humanity because they are the spirits, most likely of beings who hated God while they were alive in bodies, and they died being punished by God for hating God. And so, they look at humanity, God's prized creation, and they try to attack God by attacking his prized creation. Demons are real. They hate you. And right now, there are many of them roaming the earth looking for a home.
So, would you write this down? Demons do not have bodies. They are spirits seeking a home. They are spirits seeking a home. And I really will throw this out there if it sparks any questions for you, please feel free to email me.
There are no stupid questions on something like this. I may change my opinion on that in a week, but I don't think there's any stupid questions on this. But listen to the message on Genesis 6. First, most of the time when we see spiritual possession, our oppression discussed in the Scriptures, it's in relation to demons. There are a few exceptions, but we don't have time to get into those exceptions today.
So we're going to focus on demons today, or what is also called in scripture, evil spirits. Now, the effects of demonic possession and oppression on a person can vary widely based upon the strength and number of the demonic forces involved. And when we talk about the things that we can do that allow demonic forces access to our lives, things can also vary widely. Here's what I mean. I mean that one person may dabble in something and a demonic force may enter their lives through it.
Another person may dabble in that thing and come out unscathed. Some things will definitely bring demonic forces into your life, and some things may bring demonic forces into your life. But suffice it to say, I hope you're with me on this. You don't want to be involved in anything that might bring demonic forces into your life, right? Hopefully, we're on the same page with that.
Angels and archangels are types of beings. A change in allegiance doesn't change the type of being you are. So, if you were fighting for the Allies and then you switched over to the Nazis, you're still a human being, whichever side you're allied with. It's the same idea and vice versa. A change in allegiance doesn't change the kind of being you are.
Satan was and is an archangel. Those who sided with him were and are angels. They're fallen angels because they're not allied to God. The Bible teaches that angels are interdimensional beings. They can move in and out of our dimension.
They can move in and out of the spiritual and physical realms at will. They have bodies that can do things like wear clothes, take a person by the hand, and eat food. We see all these things in the Scriptures. The Bible describes demons as a very different type of being. They do not have bodies.
They are spirits who seek embodiment. They seek a vessel to inhabit or latch onto. So where do demons come from, and why don't they have bodies? Now, there's no way to answer this without getting into some of the really weird stuff in the Bible, and I know you're like, you mean we haven't been talking about the really weird stuff in the Bible, but there's levels to this thing. I have to weigh what I teach on a Sunday because we have limited time together.
And some of the stuff that I'm talking about very fast right now could easily be its own message miniseries. So, I'm going to be moving pretty fast. But if you want to learn more, a good place to start would be the message on Genesis 6 that is on the church's website. I put the link on your outlines if you want to go listen to that this week, you'll learn a whole lot more about some of these things that will grow our understanding. But all we've got time for today is for me to give you the Cliff's Notes version, the summary of how we ended up in this situation, what demons are, and where they come from.
In Genesis six, we get the strange account of a group of fallen angels who enter our dimension and procreate with demons and you're like, what? And that's all I've got to give you today. Go listen to the message. Just go listen to the message. The resulting offspring are human fallen angel hybrids called the Nephilim.
And if you're into weird stuff, if you've ever stayed up late at night watching the History Channel. Then you've seen this sort of stuff mysterious giants in archeology, ancient aliens, all that sort of weird stuff that people just can't get enough of. This is it. Mysterious giants. That's who we're talking about.
It's the Nephilim. Go listen to the message. But wait, it gets weirder. Now, I'm going to speculate here, but this is the best explanation I've heard. It's the one that I hold to.
But you come to your own conclusions on this. It's very possible that the reason this group of fallen angels did this in Genesis 6 was because it was a strategy devised by Satan to corrupt the human gene pool. You see, Satan had heard God pronounce what's known as the proto-Evangelium in Genesis 3/15. It's the first appearance of a gospel in the Scriptures. Genesis 3/15.
And it's where God promises Adam and Eve that after they sinned, he would at some point in the future send a savior, send a solution to the problem of sin through the offspring of a woman. So Satan heard that he had that piece of information, and it could be I think it's very likely that Satan decided, okay, now how can I prevent this? How can I prevent God from sending a savior that is going to save people from sin? And he says I know how I can do it. If I can corrupt the entire human gene pool, then there won't be anyone God can send a savior through.
Series: Acts...Passage: Acts 19:11-12...Speaker: Jeff Thompson
What are "evil spirits" and demons? Where did they come from? How do they get into our lives? In this study, we delve into the supernatural world and see what God's Word has to say about this very strange and yet very real phenomenon.
But we're staying on these two verses for one more week because they have raised all kinds of interesting and important questions and subjects. And if you missed the past two messages, go check them out online because this week we're going to pick up right where we left off. And we left off on a strange yet serious subject demonic possession and question. At the end of verse twelve, we read that some sick people were healed because evil spirits came out of them. Meaning that some sickness is caused because we live in a fallen world where sickness disease and entropy exist.
But some sickness is caused by evil spirits. That's what the Bible teaches. We looked at the Gospels and saw examples of rage, grief, cutting, mutinous, blindness, seizures, and suicidal tendencies that were caused by demons in a person's life, not natural material causes. Again, those things can happen from natural and material causes, but the Bible's clear they can also be caused by demonic forces. The Bible teaches that people can experience physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual sickness and torment because of the presence of demonic forces in their lives.
Demonic possession takes place when a demonic force gains a measure of control over a person's life that they then use to make that person think and act a certain way to varying degrees, depending upon the strength and number of the demons involved. We learn genuine Christians cannot be possessed because they belong to Christ. The vacancy sign has been turned off and nothing can evict Christ from the life of the believer. However, a believer can be oppressed. A believer can be tormented by evil spirits.
And today we're going to talk about how that can happen. It always hits me in moments like this. Somewhere there's a church talking about love and we're talking about demonic and evil spirits. And that's not because we're not interested in love. It's just because we're going to teach whatever subjects the Bible raises.
And that's why we find ourselves here. And we don't skip over things because they're difficult. We don't skip over things because they might be hard to hear or awkward to discuss. We believe, as the Word says, that everything that's in there is put there by God for our good and because he wants us to know about it. Nothing is in the word of God by chance or by accident.
But before we talk about how a non-believer can come to be possessed, or how a believer can end up oppressed by evil spirits, let's talk about some even more basic stuff. Like what is an evil spirit? Like what is a demon? Where do they come from?
Why do they hate us? Why do they desire to harm us? The Bible teaches that Satan was first an archangel known as Lucifer. He became jealous of God's glory and God's power and desired to make himself equal to God. He attempted a rebellion, an insurrection in Heaven, and a third of the angels joined him in his rebellion.
That rebellion was crushed, and Satan and the angels who joined him were cast down not to hell, but to the Earth. When that happened, they did not turn into demons. They were still angels. They were just now fallen angels. Satan is still an archangel, but he's a fallen archangel.
But Lord, there are also very real spiritual forces. There is a very real line that we are each on one side of either we belong to you, all of us, or we don't. And so, Jesus, I pray right now for anyone who does not belong to you, that you would just touch their hearts and they would say, I don't want that vacancy light to be on anymore. I want my spirit to be filled with Christ, with his love, with his joy, with his peace, with his hope, with Him, with his rule and reign. I want Him to own Me, body, mind, soul, spirit, all of it.
Lord, please move and call those who don't belong to you, to you. And Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ. Lord, I pray that you would speak right now with clarity by Your spirit and reveal if there's any unconfessed sin in our lives. First and foremost, not because we don't want bad stuff to happen to us, but first and foremost because we want to be in right relationship with you, and we don't want anything to be between us, Lord. But Lord, also if there is pain and suffering and sickness that is happening because we are living in rebellion or unconfessed or unrepentant for sin, Lord, we want to be healed, we want to be made whole.
And so, Lord, please shine a light on that. Please shine a light. Lord, if there is depression being caused by sin, if there's anxiety being caused by sin, if there's self-loathing, suicidal thoughts, anything like that, and it's being caused by sin that has a grip on us, that is tormenting us, and we could be freed of it. Lord Jesus, please let your sons and daughters know that they might walk in freedom. And then Jesus, we just thank you and we praise you for what you went through to bring us hope and healing and wholeness, that we are not left alone on the side of the street begging for bread.
But you have come to us. You have lifted us up. You've brought us into our family. So, thank you for coming to us. Thank you for finding us. Thank you that you came to us because we could not get to you. And thank you that you are a rewarder of those who seek you. And so, I pray, Lord, in this time of worship, as we seek you, that you would be found by us, Lord.
And I pray especially for those who've never found you before, that they would find you tonight. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
You don't want to miss next Sunday. If you're not a believer, if you're not a believer and you want Christ to come into your life and take ownership of all of you, please come and talk to me or BJ after the service. That's the most important thing you will ever do. If you're not a believer, though you believe you're being tormented because of sin in your life, things you've done, things you've been involved with. I need to just be as plain with you as I can and remind you of what Jews taught.
There's no point coming and asking for prayer if you're not interested in Jesus being lord of your life. There's no point asking for healing if you don't want Jesus to be Lord of your life. There's no point asking for anything that may have come into your soul to be cast out unless you want Jesus to be Lord of your life. That's the offer. That's why Jesus says he implies I'm not here to sweep out your life and make it temporarily clean and presentable.
I'm here to take ownership of you. That's the offer. And if you'll let me do that, the Lord says I'll bind up anything within you that's tormenting you. And he can and he will do that. But that is the offer.
It's a complete takeover, that's the offer. He's Lord, King, Savior, all of it. If you're a believer and you're struggling with a sickness external, internal, mental, emotional, and you think there's a chance it might be related to unconfessed sin, sin that you're engaging in or have engaged in, that you haven't repented of, haven't turned away from, I urge you... I urge you to repent and not give demonic forces an access point in your life. The longer you walk with the Lord, the more you look in his word. This is why you realize nobody gets away with sin.
Nobody ever. You are not getting away with it just because nobody else knows about it. You are not getting away with it. You are paying a high price whether you recognize it or not. When I pray.
In a moment, I'm just going to ask the Holy Spirit to show us, if that's what's going on in any of our lives, to shine a light and reveal if there's any area in our lives that we've not dealt with, that we've given access to demonic forces into our lives that are causing us pain and suffering. We'll ask the Lord to show us. I'm going to ask the worship team to come up now. And you may not have access, many of you, to one of Paul's sweat cloths. You may not have access to one of his aprons, but you do have access to communion.
And communion represents the body and the blood of Jesus that was broken and shed for you. The body of the one who sweat drops of blood in Gethsemane for you. Such was the anguish that he walked through that you might be healed and made whole. And while we will have to wait for perfect health and wealth, we can begin to experience the joy, the peace, the love, and the hope of heaven here and now. Your body may have to wait to be healed, but your spirit. Your spirit can be healed here and now.
There's nothing he can't do. And so, if you're thinking, man, I wish I had somebody to bring me something that would heal me, you do. His name is Jesus, and he went through death itself so that he could bring you healing and hope and wholeness. And he moved across space and time so that you would be here tonight where he is waiting to meet you. And here's the good news.
He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Not those who have it all together, not those who have reached a certain level of maturity, not those who have all their theology dialed in. He's a rewarder of those who seek Him. So, seek him, and he will be found by you. Let's pray.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Lord Jesus. Thank you for your word. It is the only true picture of reality in existence. And Lord, we understand what it says that there's pain and sickness and suffering that comes with living in a fallen world.
But if that person didn't then ask the Lord to take possession of their life and their spirit, then the vacancy light would still be on. And sooner or later, that demon would return along with a bunch of his friends. That's the spiritual reality of every person's life. If our spirit does not belong to Christ, then the vacancy light is on. It's on.
And there's the genuine possibility that we might intentionally or unintentionally invite some horrendous guests into our lives that bring with them torment, pain, and suffering. Believers do not have to fear possession, non-believers do. That's just the bottom line. And we'll talk more next week about how that can happen, how possession can happen.
But while believers cannot be possessed, they can be oppressed. While the spirit of a believer cannot belong to anyone other than Christ, demonic forces can still attach themselves, for lack of a better term, to our lives and cause us pain and torment, including sickness. The picture you should have is of a demon digging its claws into the flesh and latching on to you. That's the idea. Our brother James writes about this too.
In fact, James gives instructions to believers as to what they are to do when they experience sickness caused by sin, sickness brought about by demonic powers latching on. And this is what James says. He says, Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him up.
If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. Here's the idea. The person who is suffering from sickness or torment because of sin should meet with the elders.
They should confess and renounce their sin. They should turn away from that sin, doing whatever they need to to do that. And then the elders are to anoint them with oil and pray for them. And because they have repented and been forgiven, the Lord will remove the demonic forces that have latched onto that life and are causing that sickness or pain or suffering. So how do you know if that sickness or pain or suffering is being caused by sin in your life?
You examine yourself honestly. Honestly, you look at what God's word says, and you look at your own life and you ask, am I living in ongoing rebellion against the Lord in my life? If not, then you think back to the time this issue began, around that time. And since then, is there any significant sin that you've been involved in that you've not repented of? But as we'll find it next week, when we carry on with this... 'Significant from God's perspective, not yours... We'll find next week that even things like bitterness, refusing to forgive as Christ has commanded, can allow demonic forces to grab a foothold in your life.
According to the Bible, not all sickness is caused by demonic forces, but some is - even in the life of the believer. And so, it makes sense to begin by examining ourselves and seeing if there is any ongoing or unrepented-for sin in our lives. So, write this down. Believers cannot be possessed, but they can be oppressed by demonic forces. They can be oppressed by demonic forces.
And I'm going to begin winding down the message here for this week, but we are going to talk about this much, much more next week because I'm fully aware this raises all kinds of really, really important questions. This stuff has a profound effect and is having a profound effect on the lives of believers and non-believers alike. And so next week we're going to talk about how demonic forces gain access to our lives. We're going to talk about what demons are, where they come from, and some other spiritual realities that the Bible talks about that we don't take seriously in our day.
In other words, the sickness disappeared, and they became well. But for others, evil spirits came out of them, and they became well - meaning some were sick because we live in a fallen world where sickness and disease exist, but others were sick because they were possessed by evil spirits. In our modern Western world, which is dominated by philosophical materialism and naturalism, it offends our sensibilities to make such supernatural claims. How quaint might be our first reaction.
Or, that's a pretty primitive idea. But the Bible consistently teaches that some sickness is the result of living in a fallen world, and some is caused by demonic forces. Write that down and we'll unpack it. Some sickness is the result of living in a fallen world, and some is caused by demonic forces. Just read through the Gospels and you'll find Jews encountering this several times.
When Jesus encounters the demon-possessed men in Gadara, we are told one of them was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. This man had inner torment. He had despair, depression, he had rage, and he was cutting himself, not because he had mental health issues, but because he was demonically possessed. And when Jesus cast the demons out of this man, the townspeople came and found him sitting there dressed and in his right mind. Another time we read a demon-possessed man who was unable to speak was brought to Jesus.
When the demon had been driven out, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. Another time we read, a demon-possessed man who was blind and unable to speak was brought to him. He healed him so the man could both speak and see. We're told of a time a man approached and knelt down before Jesus. Lord, he said, have mercy on my son because he has seizures and suffers terribly.
He often falls into the fire and often into the water. Then Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him. And from that moment, the boy was healed. In just these few examples, the Bible records rage, grief, cutting, mutinous, blindness, seizures, and suicidal ideation that were caused by demons, not natural material causes. Now, if you're a genuine Christian, if Christ has come into your life and given you a new spirit, a new nature, then you cannot be possessed.
Your spirit belongs to the Lord, Paul writes in Ephesians 1:13. In Him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of. Your salvation. And when you believed if you're a child of God, you belong to him. You cannot be possessed or owned by anyone or anything, because you are owned by Christ.
And as our brother John wrote, the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. When Jesus was explaining his power to cast demons out of a person's life, he described Satan and demons as a strong man. And he asked rhetorically, how can someone enter a strong man's house and steal his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man, then he can plunder his house. Jesus' point was that he had to be stronger and greater than the forces of darkness that were in a person in order to remove those forces of darkness from that person. But then Jesus went on to say this when an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it roams through waterless places looking for rest but doesn't find any.
Then it says, I'll go back to my house that I came from returning. It finds the house, the person's soul, vacant, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. And as a result, that person's last condition is worse than the first. Jesus' point is that he could cast demons out of anyone.
And yet, shockingly, he moves through some physical actions that sometimes don't make a lot of sense, like sweat cloths.
One of the most practical applications I can think of in this area is the lifting of hands in worship and prayer. Now, if you're new to the faith and you've secretly been wondering what the heck that's about, but you, like everybody else, seem to know except me. So, I'm not going to say anything, but what is everybody doing? I just want to clear something up. We are not using our hands as spiritual antennae to tune into the Lord.
We're not like testing like, there it is. Yes, there it is, I receive it now. That's not what's going on. That's not what's going on. When you see people move to the back and worship, it's not because the reception is better there or anything like that.
That's not what's going on. The lifting of hands in prayer and worship, it's a biblical sign, something they would do going all the way back to Abraham 3000 years ago. It was a sign of blessing, extending blessing to someone. When you spoke over them, when you prayed for them, you would extend your hands to them. It was a sign that you desired them to be blessed.
And so, when we do that in prayer or in worship, it's a way for us to say, bless the Lord. We want the Lord to be blessed by what we're doing, and that's why we do that. And then culturally, open hands are sort of a universal sign of need. And so, when we do that in worship, generally, we're acknowledging our need for Jesus and for more of Him. And so, we sometimes adopt that position in worship before the Lord.
Now, again, there's nothing magical about lifting one's hands, but I cannot tell you how often and consistently it releases faith in me and changes the internal attitude of my heart. I don't even think about it anymore. It's just second nature. I know that my heart struggles to focus most of the time. I know that often when worship starts, I'm not zoned in and dialed in the way that I should be.
But when I lift my hands, something happens. Faith is released because by lifting my hands, I'm choosing to have my body tell my whole being, we're worshiping the Lord now. That's what we're doing, so get in line, because that's what's happening. And the same thing happens with singing. When I don't feel like singing, I still do it.
And when I do, I find my heart changing. I find faith releasing and my desire to worship increasing. When it came to Paul's aprons and sweat cloths, that's part of what was happening. It wasn't good theology, but it was releasing genuine faith in people who didn't know much about the Lord. And the loved moved through that faith.
He moved through it. And I love that I'm blessed by that because the Lord is so gracious. I'll repeat what I said last week. He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. And he will reward you if you will seek Him wherever you're at today, if all you know is, I know God's real and I think he wants me to know Him more, seek Him and he will reward you no matter where you are in your walk with the Lord right now.
If you're up or down or new or old to the faith, this is true for you. The Lord is a rewarder of those who seek Him. And I'm so glad that he is. Something I didn't want to get into last week because we had all the kids in the service with us is an important detail mentioned in verse twelve. Take a look at it again.
It says even facecloths or aprons that had touched Paul's skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them. Paul's sweat lots and aprons, remember, were being taken to people who were so sick they were bedridden. They couldn't physically get to Paul. But I want you to notice what happened when those sick people touched the objects Paul had sweated in. It says, for some, the diseases left them.
But those who love the prosperity Gospel read that verse in James and think, listen, unless endurance is a new model that Lamborghini just released, I'm not interested in getting it.
I don't care. I don't want it. And if you've studied the Book of Revelation with us, then you may recall that the Prosperity Gospel is addressed by Jesus in Revelation, chapter three. In his letter to the Laodicean Church, Jesus writes about how they see themselves, and then he writes about how he sees them. Let's just say there's a difference of opinion.
The verses are on your outline. Jesus tells them, you say I'm rich, I've become wealthy and need nothing. And you don't realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you may be rich, white clothes so that you may be dressed, and our shameful nakedness not be exposed. An ointment to spread on your eyes so that you may see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline, so be zealous and repent. The Prosperity Gospel teaches that wealth is measured by the material possessions you have on the earth. Jesus has a very, very different view of wealth. He measures your wealth entirely by the state of your soul and how much you have become like Him. Does the Lord want you to be healthy, wealthy, and happy?
Yes, he does. In fact, he wants you to be healthy, wealthy, and happy forever. And that's actually the eternity that he has planned for those who love Him. And he's working in your life, in this life to get you to that place in eternity. And when we're there, we will find all of our health, wealth, and happiness in Him, all of it.
But down here in this life, we're in fallen, broken bodies. But Christ has made our spirits new for those who belong to Him. So those who love the Lord will have to wait for their resurrected bodies to experience full health and wealth. But we can experience the happiness and the joy and much of the spiritual wealth here and now. It's available to us.
We don't have to wait for heaven to begin experiencing the peace and love and joy and hope of Christ. We don't have to spend our whole lives chasing the foolish, empty things that the world does. Our souls can prosper here and now, no matter what.
Now, looking back at verses eleven and twelve, I want to look for a few minutes at how actions can sometimes release faith. As we discussed last week, there was nothing magical about the hem of Jesus' robe that healed those who touched it. There was nothing magical about Peter's shadow or Paul's sweat cloths or aprons. And yet, in some mysterious way, they served as catalysts that helped release greater faith in people. And God moved through their faith.
Think about the laying on of hands when believers pray for one another. Is power actually flowing from me to you? Like if we get two people together, will we have double the amount of power flowing into you? Three, four, five?
That's not what's going on. It's not what's going on. And yet, through that action, faith is released in the person receiving prayer. Because there's this physical action to demonstrate what is happening in the spiritual world. Scripture says the elders are to lay hands on the sick among them and anoint them with oil.
Is the oil magical? Of course not. That's not what's going on. And yet, through that action, faith is often released. It is catalyzed in the person who is receiving prayer.
Jesus could have said, whenever you gather in my name, remember the cross, just remember it. But he gave us the sacrament of communion, something we can see, touch, and taste to help us remember his sacrifice, love, and forgiveness. Because there's something to physical actions that can release faith in us. The Lord knows our weakness, he knows our frailty, and he gives us, even in His Word, some physical actions that help release faith.
And so why do you want to pray for your friend or your family member who doesn't know Christ, who's under extreme financial pressure to get a great job so they can put all their faith back in money again? Why do you want to pray for your non-believing friend or family member going through a health crisis to get healed so they can go right back to no longer thinking about life and death and the biggest, most important things there are? We don't want to do that. We pray for one thing that they would come to know Christ. We don't want to pray, oh, Lord, heal them so that they can have 20 more years before they spend eternity apart from you.
That's not what we want to pray. Save them, Lord, by any means necessary. Any means necessary. In fact, when it comes to difficulty in a person's life who doesn't know Christ most of the time, we want it to increase. Because an awful lot of people don't even become open to the gospel until the bottom falls out of their life.
So, we actually want to see that happen in many cases. Not because we want to see people in pain or suffering, but because we want to see them come to Christ. That's more important than anything when someone is a disciple of Jesus. Here's the practical application we desire and pray for them to prosper in every way in their health, in their finances, in their relationships, in their work, in all of it. We should want to see our brothers and sisters blessed in every way, in every way.
And we don't need to use disclaimers when we pray for that. Why? Because our prayers are God-filtered we can assume that any disciple of Jesus wants to become more like him than anything else. So, when we pray for someone who loves the Lord, you don't need to add as long as it's your will. You don't need to add unless it would hinder their spiritual growth.
Be like the Apostle John who prayed for Gaius' prosperity in every area of life, knowing that both he and Gaius trusted the loved to do whatever was best and wanted the loved to do whatever was best. We can just assume that about each other if we actually love and follow Jesus. Pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ to prosper, period, and trust that followers of Jesus understand that when you do that, terms and conditions apply. The apostle John understood that. So did Gaius.
The issue with the prosperity gospel is that those who believe it don't want to become more like Jesus than anything else. They don't want to store up treasures in heaven. They'd rather have them here and now. They don't want to be sanctified if it means going through trials. In other words, they don't have the desires that people who genuinely love Jesus have.
They don't want to know and love the giver. They just want the gifts. Listen, if I could change one thing about myself, I would make myself someone who grows in times of ease and comfort. That's what I would do. So that the Lord wouldn't have to send me trials to grow because I'm like you 99.99% of the time.
It takes a trial, a hardship, or a struggle to bring about spiritual growth in my life. But the prosperity gospel doesn't have any room for that. In the Prosperity Gospel, something's gone wrong if you find yourself in a trial and what you need to do is speak your way out of that trial by faith. You just need to manifest a new reality for yourself by speaking it into existence so that you're not in that trial anymore. It's heresy, it's unbiblical, it's Gnosticism.
Our brother James writes, consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Scripture says, when you're in a trial, man praise God for it because God is doing something good through it, and it's going to produce perseverance in your life. Those who love the Lord are excited to become more like Christ.
Why? Because it's just assumed that every Christian feels that way. I also want you to notice that John isn't concerned that it might not be part of God's plan to prosper Gaius' health in this season of his life. Because God might choose to sanctify Gaius through a health crisis.
John doesn't mention that. Why? Because John understands that our prayers are filtered by God. They're filtered by God. How do I know that John knew this?
Because of what John himself wrote in his first epistle. He said this is the confidence we have before him, before God. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. What's the implication if we ask something not according to his will? He doesn't hear us.
Not that he's unaware of what we've prayed, but that when we ask for something that is not in his will, his good and pleasing and perfect will, which is good and pleasing and perfect for us. He graciously tosses that request to the side and says no, because he knows he's doing something better. So, we don't ever pray for something that goes against the word of God, against the Scriptures, because we should already know that's not going to be his will. But we can't know something like whether it's God's will that someone's health prospers in this season of their lives or not. We cannot know that.
John couldn't know whether it was God's will that Gaius' health prospers. So what did John do? He prayed that Gaius' health would be blessed and would prosper because John knew two things. Number one, write this down our prayers are God-filtered. Our prayers are God-filtered.
God's will is going to be done. There's no scenario in which we boss God around or tell Him what to do, or that God has a good and pleasing plan for us and for our lives. But when we pray something with good intentions but a lack of information, he's like, too bad you asked for that. I was going to do this great thing that there's no way you could have known about, but you prayed for. This sucks to be you.
It's not going to happen. The second reason that John just said, no disclaimers, we're wanting the best for you, Gaius. I want you to be blessed and to prosper. The second reason, every Christ follower's greatest desire is to become more like Jesus.
John knew that was Gaius' greatest desire. Gaius knew that was John's desire for Gaius. It was assumed. And so, here's the practical application of this that I want us to understand. When someone is not a disciple of Jesus, this is really big, too.
When someone is not a disciple of Jesus, there is one thing we pray for their salvation. That's it. Let me tell you why. Until they turn to Christ, all hardship they experience should be pointing them to Christ by revealing their ineffective ability to be the God of their own life. If they're not a disciple of Christ yet, anything negative in their life, any hardship, any pain, any difficulty, should be serving the purpose of revealing to them how impossible it is to be the God of your own life, how doomed for failure it is.
And we don't want that conviction to be alleviated in their lives. We don't want the Holy Spirit that is convicting them of their sin to stop. When the prodigal Son leaves and goes away, the father doesn't send him a care package. Why? Because he doesn't want to enable him in his rebellious state.
Notice that John doesn't... anywhere in Scripture... nobody else does pray for prosperity for the person who isn't walking with Christ. Nowhere else in the New Testament or for the person who has a love affair with money. We don't find anyone in the New Testament praying that they'd be blessed with more money. John prays it for the person who's walking faithfully with the Lord.
The person who isn't walking faithfully with the Lord is already being swayed by the things of the world. They're already choosing earthly wealth and pleasures over Christ. So why would you want to pray for them to have more earthly pleasures and wealth? You wouldn't. You'd pray for them to turn to Christ.
So, write this down. The first thing we notice is that John prays for the prosperity of the Christ follower. He prays for the prosperity of the Christ follower. And perhaps you're still thinking, I don't know, John. I mean, if the Lord answers your prayers and Gaius prospers more financially and in his health, don't the chances increase that he won't rely upon God and those things will become distractions from his walk with Christ?
That's very possible. But if a person is walking with the Lord, then their greatest desires are to become more like Jesus, be a blessing to the Lord, and obey his commands. That's what a person who loves God and walks with him wants. That person is also regularly praying the things Jesus told his followers to pray. Things like our Father in heaven, your will be done.
Our Father in heaven, give us today our daily bread. Our Father in heaven, do not bring us into temptation. Gaius would have been praying those things regularly, as would have John. You see, faithful followers of Jesus understand that terms and conditions apply to all of our prayers and all of our desires. Whatever we pray or desire, it's always as long as it's your will.
It's always as long as it's what you've decided is best for me today. It's always as long as it won't lead me into temptation. It's just assumed that the disciples of Jesus want that because disciples of Jesus want to be more like Jesus. If you don't want to be more like Jesus, you're not a disciple of Jesus. The entire point of being someone's disciple is because you want to become like them.
A disciple of Jesus, by definition, wants to become like Jesus. We understand the Holy Spirit is doing that work in us and we want him to do it. We want him to make us more like Jesus, whatever it costs. Why? Because it's the best path to experiencing love, peace, joy, and hope in this life, by the way.
And because he has loved us with his life and saved us from death. And so we want to honor Him with our lives as best we can. Not to earn anything, but to just say thank you for our whole lives. And also, because we understand that we are going to rule and reign with Christ when he returns to the earth. And right now, he is watching to see who is a trustworthy and faithful servant.
The Lord is watching to see who is easily distracted and who can stay focused, who cares more about being faithful to Him than anything else. Those who are found trustworthy will be entrusted with responsibilities and roles in the ages to come that will blow our minds. And here's what's so great about God he is always working on us to make us more trustworthy and faithful. And those who love the Lord welcome his work in our lives. To that end, it's just assumed that every disciple of Jesus wants to become more like Jesus, no matter the cost.
And I really want you to notice this because I want to ask some of us to change the way we speak and the way we pray. I really want us to notice that. John does not feel the need to use any type of disclaimer with Gaius. He doesn't feel the need to add unless it would hinder your sanctification or unless it would hinder your spiritual growth. John doesn't feel the need to say anything like that to Gaius.
This concept is also known as the Law of Attraction because it teaches you can attract whatever you want into your life by meditating on it. All the prosperity gospel does is switch out positive thinking for the word faith and then teach that you can attract, you can manifest whatever you want in your life through faith, which they're just using as a synonym for positive thinking. I don't have this in my notes, but I always want to point out if you want to know why this doesn't work, why it makes no sense, I can just point out to you that when countries are impoverished, and they're having droughts and they're having a famine, or they need earthquake relief. I have noticed that very consistently in those situations, countries ask for things like food and medical supplies. I have never once heard the American government or the Canadian government say, listen, we got the call.
Calls came in after this horrific earthquake in North Africa, and they've requested Tony Robbins, and they've said, will you please come and teach our people how to have a better mindset, a winner mindset, a millionaire mindset, so that we can manifest a better reality than the terrible situation we're in? Please send help. Send us your best motivational speakers. I've never heard of that happening in the prosperity gospel. The Bible and all of life are about you, and that's why it's so popular.
My flesh loves the sound of that. Yours does too. Oh. God exists to serve me and my desires. I have the power to create whatever reality I desire.
The Bible's about me. Finally, a religion that understands that the universe really does revolve around me. I've been looking for this my whole life. At home group on Wednesday night, we were talking about this because we were discussing the book of Jeremiah, the prophet who had to battle against false prophets, who were telling the people what they wanted to hear instead of the truth that God had spoken. We were talking about how easy it can be to fall for false teachings like the prosperity gospel because it can be presented in a way that sounds something like this.
You believe our Heavenly Father is loving and good, right? You believe he's better than any earthly father, right? Well, what loving father doesn't want his children to be healthy, wealthy, and happy? What loving father doesn't care about the welfare of his children? More than anything, your prosperity is God's greatest goal because he loves you.
I could be making so much money doing this. It doesn't sound like dangerous false teaching, does it? Doesn't sound like it. It's so subtle. Because the truth is, God does want his children to prosper.
He does want us to be blessed. He does want us to be healthy, wealthy, and happy. I mean, what's the alternative? That we serve a God who wants us to be sick, poor, and miserable? Stick with me.
If you're a student of Scripture and you're suddenly tensing up and you're like, just hang with me, John. The apostle. John the Apostle sounds like a prosperity Gospel preacher in the opening greeting of his third Epistle, where he writes dear friend, I pray that you are prospering in every way and are in good health just as your whole life is going well, it can also be more accurately rendered. I pray that you are prospering in every way and are in good health just as our soul prospers. You see, you can't even say, Well, John was just speaking spiritually, Jeff, because John explicitly says that what he hopes is that everything in Gaius's life prospers just as Gaius' spiritual life is prospering.
John is saying, that your spiritual life is blessed. I pray that the rest of your life, including your health, will also be blessed. And here's what I think. The secret is. I think John could pray that for Gaius because Gaius' spiritual life was on point, he was walking faithfully with the Lord.
Faith and Miracles (Part 2) Date:10/15/23...Series: Acts Passage: Acts 19:11-12...Speaker: Jeff Thompson
We continue to unpack the strange account found in these two verses by looking at the present-day "Prosperity Gospel," how our actions can release faith, and how sin can sometimes cause physical sickness, pain, and suffering.
And we are picking up right where we left off last week. We're still in Acts chapter 19, verses eleven through twelve because this text raises so many questions about high strangeness and the supernatural world. And as we'll find today, even things like evil spirits. And I didn't try to time this to line up with the spooky season, but it just does. So, we'll roll with it.
In these two verses, we find something strange happening in the city of Ephesus. The Apostle Paul is working part-time in the leather shop of Aquila and Priscilla, and people are taking his sweat cloths and leather aprons to their sick and bedridden loved ones. And here's the crazy part when they touch one of those sweat cloths or aprons, they're healed. It's incredible. It's just bizarre.
To make sense of these strange occurrences, we talked last week about the unique work that God was doing through the uppercase-A apostles at the time. Uppercase A apostles, OG apostles, totally different class to everyone else. We talked about the crucial issue of faith, which we defined like this faith is the belief that God is who he says he is, and our faith is evidenced by our actions. In other words, our actions reveal whether we truly believe God is who he says he is. We talked about why these people in Ephesus experienced miracles despite their terrible theology, and we boiled it down to two factors.
Firstly, they responded in faith to the revelation they had received about God, and then secondly, they placed their faith in the right thing, Jesus. Then we learned that when it comes to supernatural healing today, sometimes the Lord is not going to do a miracle no matter what. Sometimes the Lord is going to do a miracle no matter what. And sometimes the Lord is open to doing a miracle incredibly, based on our faith. That's the only way you can harmonize everything we see in the New Testament about healing.
And if you missed last week's message, I encourage you to check it out online to get more details about those summary points I just shared. I want to take a few minutes because it raises this issue of something called the Prosperity Gospel, which is often connected to things like strange supernatural healings, or should I say alleged strange supernatural healings. The Prosperity Gospel is a false gospel based on the idea that Christianity is about God wanting to make you healthy, wealthy, and happy. It's a false gospel that reduces God to the role of a genie who grants your wishes, or a cosmic vending machine whose sole purpose is to give you what you want. When you insert the currency of faith, the Prosperity Gospel teaches the millennia-old heresy of manifestation, the belief that you can manifest whatever you want in your life through the power of positive thinking.
What a nice uplifting letter you found You, never to lose You again.......:thumbs-up: Been there too a long time ago. Stay strong and true to yourself....... ..........jenny
You can be blessed by God wherever you are in your faith right now, if you'll seek Him where you are right now, even in this coming time of worship. Maybe your next step is just, lord, I don't even know if you're real, but would you just show me if you're real? I'm just going to close my eyes and just try and quiet my heart and just see if you speak to me. He's a rewarder of those who seek Him. Maybe you're in the place where you're just way down and you're thinking, I don't know how to give my burdens to God.
How can I do that? And so maybe for you, it's just saying, hey, I'm going to just lift my hands as an outward sign that I want to give my burdens to God. I don't know why this would magically make that happen, but Scripture calls us to do this when we praise God. So I'm going to do it in faith. Watch and see what the Lord will do.
He rewards those who seek Him. He rewards. Those who seek him. God honors faith. He's blessed by faith.
And my prayer for us is that at Gospel City, our faith in Christ would grow along with our knowledge of Christ. Because if it doesn't, then what's the point? My prayer is that he might be more greatly honored, glorified, and blessed in our lives by us living as people of faith, that when he looks down on us, he would say, now, that group of people, they believe that I am who I say I am. How do I know? Because I can look at their lives and they live in faith that I am who I say I am.
So, let's pray. Would you bow your head and close your eyes? Lord, thank you so much for Your Word. And Jesus, thank you for these incredible examples of people with messed up theology, incomplete theology, who were blessed by you, who were touched by you in life-changing ways because they responded to the little bit of revelation they had been given. I thank you that you're not a God who demands perfection from those who seek you because that perfection was attained by you.
For us. You've been perfect on our behalf, Jesus. And so, your invitation is simply, come. If you're thirsty, come and drink. If you're hungry, come and eat. If you're tired, come and be refreshed. If you're dead, come and be brought to life. Just come. And thank you that you are a rewarder of those who seek you.
So, I pray right now for everyone in this room. And, Lord, I want to pray against all those reasons the enemy is putting in their head of why they shouldn't come right now in the state that they're in. Lord, I pray that the voice of Your Spirit would speak louder than any other, and you would speak those words. I am a rewarder of those who seek me. So, Lord, please speak to hearts.
Reveal yourself to hearts, minister to hearts in this time for Your glory and for Your fame. And Jesus. We are sorry. We repent for all the ways in which we have chosen to live that reveal. We don't believe you are who you say you are.
And we acknowledge you have only ever been faithful. You've only ever been good. You've only ever been true to us, Jesus. So please forgive us for the ways that we failed you in that regard. And please speak to us by Your spirit now, because we want to obey.
If there's any area of our life where the way we're living is a denial that you are who you say you are, please show it to us so that we can repent and we can change, so that our lives can be a testimony to Your faithfulness and Your goodness and Your character. We love you. You are only ever good. Thank you. That a life built on you is a life built upon a first foundation.
Thank you. That you reward those who seek you. We love you, Lord. In your name, we pray. Amen.
Sometimes the Lord is open to doing a miracle depending on our faith. There's no other way to harmonize everything the New Testament says about faith. And if we have the faith, God will move through it and if we don't, he won't. That's true. That's biblical.
And listen, there is so much more I want to say about this subject and we're going to keep going next week but on Family Sundays, we try to keep it a little bit shorter to honor the kids whose been so good. Thank you by the way kids for paying such good attention and being so well behaved. And so I know this may have kicked up all kinds of questions for you, but we're going to dig into those more next week. But I want to say this in closing, and I'll ask the worship team to come up - how do you live as a person of faith?
How do you be a person of faith? It's really simple. Believe that God is who he says he is and then live your life in light of who he says he is. I said it was simple. Simple doesn't mean easy.
Simple just means not complicated. How do you be a person of faith? You believe that God is who he says he is? Everything he said about who he is in his word is true. And then you live your life as though you actually believe that you don't live your life like you don't have a Father in Heaven who loves you and cares about you and knows you better than you know yourself and is always with you.
You live your life as though that is true because it is. That's how you be a person of faith. Even when you have doubts you choose to act as a person of faith. Can I tell you a secret? Sometimes in my life when I'm wrestling with doubt, I break it down to this and I say, man, there's stuff going on in my head I can't get a handle on.
But here's what I can do, I can control what I do. So, what would a person who had rock-solid faith do in this situation? I'm going to do that. I'm going to walk in faith even as I fight the battle of faith in my mind. And you can do that.
If you wait all the time for your heart, mind, and soul to be perfectly aligned, you're going to end up paralyzed in the area of faith. But praise God for these moments where you can make a decision to act in faith while your mind and your heart plays catch up. Make the decision to act in faith. And here is the wonderful promise of Scripture. God rewards those who seek Him.
Here's the encouragement for you wherever you're at. And I hope you get this. It doesn't matter how much you know about God right now. What matters is what you are doing with what you know about God right now, how you are responding to the revelation you have received. Act upon what you do know about Jesus.
Act upon what you do understand about God. Obey the commands you do know. Seek him and his word promises you will find him. Don't say, When I understand everything, then I'll start trusting God and doing this. Know this.
The Lord knows how much revelation you've been given, and he's interested in one thing right now. What are you doing with what you've been given? The Word of God says, to whom more is given, more will be given. So, you respond to what you've been given, you'll get more. But to Him, a little has been given.
Even that will be taken away. Here's the idea. He gives you a little, and you do nothing with it. He'll take it away. So be encouraged.
Be encouraged. Doesn't matter how much you know about God right now. It matters what you're doing with what you do know. And for you, the Word is this he rewards those who seek Him. You can be rewarded by God.
Aren't they all with us? So where does he get all these things? And they were offended by him. Their response to Jesus healing the first few people there and teaching with wisdom and power is to say, who does this guy think he is? He grew up here.
He's just like us. We know him, we know his family. And now he's acting like he's the Messiah. Whatever. And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and in his household.
Now get this and he did not do many miracles there. Why? Because of their unbelief. The Bible connects the lack of faith of those in Nazareth to the lack of miracles. Jesus worked there.
Now, maybe you're thinking, Great, so all I need is faith. And I can receive a miracle. I can receive my physical healing. Man, I wish that were true, but it's not that simple. The Lord is working all things for good on a level we cannot fathom.
He is balancing things so far above our pay grade, I probably can't even describe them accurately. But he is the only one who knows. This balancing equation between preserving man's free will and part of preserving our free will is allowing us to experience the consequences of our free will. If he removes all consequences of free will, then we don't really have free will, do we? So, he's the only one who can balance free will and honor our free will individually and collectively as the human race with intervening sometimes miraculously and mercifully in our world.
If he does this too much, it infringes on our free will. He's the only one who can balance this out. He alone knows when healing here and now would be good for us and would be bad for us. All of us in our own minds, we're like, oh, it would be good for me. And the closer you get to the Lord; you see two things more clearly.
You see Him more clearly; you see yourself more clearly. One is glorious, the other is pretty ugly. And we all think, oh if I was just healed, what would I do with my healing? I'd just leap around like a deer giving God the glory for all of my days. That's what we think we would do.
It's so far from the truth so much of the time, most of us would be grateful for like a month, and then we'd just be like, oh good, now I've got a healthy body I can use to serve my own interests. That's the truth. That's the truth, and it's ugly. And so only the Lord knows where healing would be good for us or bad for us. When it comes to becoming more like Jesus, only the Lord knows whether us being healed or us not being healed would cause us to play the right role in this story of humanity and redemption, that he is unfolding across all of human history.
Only he knows what it takes for us to draw closer to Him and cling to Him and what will push us further away. And he alone knows the outcomes in our lives that will cause us to be the most like Him at the end of our lives. And that's the goal. We're concerned about the here and now. He is concerned with one thing where we finish, that's it.
And his sole concern, the work of the Holy Spirit, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, is to say, what can we do in his life, in her life, that will cause them to be most like Jesus at the end of their life? That's it. That's the goal. And those who love Christ say Amen. Let it be done.
So, here's the deal. Sometimes the Lord is not going to do a miracle no matter what. Sometimes the Lord is going to do a miracle no matter what. He has his reasons. He has his plans.
We know that everything he does in the lives of those who love Him is ultimately for the good of those who love Him. And so when we don't get the miracle we want, we trust in the goodness of God. We walk in faith. Which is what? Believing that he is who he says he is.
So, when we don't get the miracle we want, we walk in faith. I know he's good. I know he's faithful. I know he loves me. But there is this third possibility that is really strange but true
It's not about how much faith you have. It's about the object of your faith first and foremost. And even though there was some wacky theology involved, these people had great faith in the great one, Jesus, and consequently experienced a miracle. Now, when you understand these principles of the kingdom, you will understand why people can still experience a miracle when there's bad theology involved. I think most faith healers on TV are frauds and charlatans, pretty much all of them.
They're false teachers. And yet some people are genuinely healed while watching their TV shows or attending their crusades. How is that possible? Number one, those people are responding in faith to the revelation they have received about God, as simplistic as it may be. And secondly, they've placed their faith in Jesus.
If their faith is in the guy on the TV, they're not getting healed. I'll tell you that right now. But if their faith is in Jesus, then a miracle may be possible, even though they're watching a false teacher. It's crazy, but it's true. Let me share some other examples of faith being connected to healing in the Scriptures.
I couldn't fit it on your outline, but we'll put these up on the screen as we go through them. In Acts 5/15, we learned that for a time, Peter's shadow was healing people. We read they would carry the sick out into the streets and lay them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. I tried finding a verse in the Bible that tells us that's how healing is supposed to work, and I couldn't find it because it's not there, because it's terrible theology. And yet they were healed.
And it's too simplistic to just say, wow, that was a unique time. Don't read too much into it. That's too simplistic because Jesus told the woman with the issue of blood, your faith has made you well. He didn't say, Lucky for you, you're here while I'm here. He said, Your faith has made you well.
What about this interaction Jesus had with two blind men? In Matthew 9, it says two blind men followed him, calling out, have mercy on us, Son of David. When he entered the house, the blind men approached him, and Jesus said to them, do you believe that I can do this? They said to him, yes, Lord. Then he touched their eyes, saying, let it be done for you according to your faith.
And their eyes were opened. In Matthew 15, a Canaanite woman begs Jesus to heal her demon-possessed daughter. And we read that Jesus replied, woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want. And from that moment, her daughter was healed.
Or Luke 18, we read as he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road, begging, hearing a crowd passing him by. He inquired what was happening. Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, they told him. So, he called out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Then those in front of him told him to keep quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.
Son of David is a messianic title. Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to him. When he came closer, he asked him, what do you want me to do for you, Lord? He said, I want to see. Receive your sight, Jesus told him, your faith has saved you.
Instantly he could see, and he began to follow him. Glorifying God. All the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. In all those instances, Jesus links the person's faith to their healing. And to make it even clearer that this principle works in the opposite direction too, we get this account in Matthew 13, of a time Jesus came to minister in his hometown of Nazareth.
It says he went to his hometown and began to teach in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother called Mary? And his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And his sisters?
It's wounding. In the same way, you know how much it blesses you when your child is able to see and recognize that you love and care for them. It does happen. I promise it does happen. That's how God feels about the way we interact with Him, and that's why faith is such a big deal to Him.
And it's why Hebrew 11:6 declares, that without faith, it is impossible to please God since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek Him. Here's where things get a little crazy, especially for those of us who have been around the church and the Bible for a while. Scripture teaches God judges people based upon the revelation they have received, not the revelation they have not received. And we can wrap our heads around that as it relates to eternal issues like who gets into heaven.
We can say, oh, okay, that makes sense to me that there will be people in heaven who maybe don't even know the full gospel, but they've responded to what they did know. But here's where it gets crazy, is that this principle can affect even the here and now. God will interact with people differently here and now. Based on how they're responding to the revelation they have received, an incredible number of people with incomplete and horrendously flawed beliefs about God were healed at the hands of Jesus and the apostles. And this happened for two reasons.
Here's why it happened. Number one, they responded in faith to the revelation they had received about God. All some of them knew and understood was that the God Paul was preaching about was the all-powerful God who was greater than all others. God had the power to heal, and he rewards those who seek Him. That's all they knew.
But what did they do with that knowledge? They responded in faith. They did everything they could to make contact with God by touching the hem of Jesus' robe or stealing one of Paul's sweat cloths. They responded in faith to the revelation they had about God, even though that revelation was woefully incomplete. 'Second reason people with bad theology got healed...
Write this down. They placed their faith in the right thing, Jesus. They placed their faith in the right thing, Jesus. Now, we live in a world that wants to believe that if you just believe something strong enough, then it must be true. We hear this when we use phrases like, well, what's true for you is true for you, and what's true for me is true for me.
Or when we talk about phrases like your truth, as though your truth can be different from the truth, and the philosophy behind that is actually the belief. No, if you just believe something strong enough, then it's true.
This is like Disney children's level stupidity. Just believe it. Just wish upon a star and it'll be true. A lot of areas that I could point out, but I'll show some restraint in that area right now. Suffice it to say, that you can believe something with all your heart and be completely wrong, and it will not make it true even if you believe it with all your heart.
Now imagine we're in a plane, and that plane is going down, but we have a chance to jump and land safely. You are given a choice between a parachute or an umbrella to aid you in your journey to the ground. Now, let me ask you if you have all the faith in the world, you believe with all your heart and soul that that umbrella is going to save your life. Does that mean you're loving to jump out the plane and float down like Mary freaking Poppins to the ground? No, of course not.
Why? Because the issue is not, first and foremost, how much faith you have. The issue, first and foremost, is the object you have placed your faith in. A little faith in something powerful will accomplish far more than much faith in something useless. A little faith in something with the power to heal and save you will accomplish a lot more than all the faith in the world in something that cannot heal and cannot save.
I mean, it's so off base, I wouldn't even know how to begin explaining to those people how messed up their theology is. And yet it's far from the only example we see in the scriptures of people being healed despite their bad theology and wrong beliefs. The most obvious parallel is the woman with the issue of blood. The story BJ read to us. Let me remind you of her interaction with Jesus.
I'm going to blend some verses together from Matthew nine and Mark five, and they're on your outlines so you can follow along. It says, a woman suffering from bleeding for twelve years had endured much under many doctors. She had spent everything she had and was not helped at all. On the contrary, she became worse. Having heard about Jesus, she approached from behind and touched the end of his robe, for she said to herself, if I can just touch his robe, I'll be made well, it's basically the same theology that was driving people to steal Paul's sweat cloths and aprons in Ephesus. She believes that Jesus' healing power flows from his body to his clothing and will transfer to her if she can just make contact with the hem of his robe. It's terrible theology. And yet we read, instantly her flow of blood ceased, and she senses in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus realized that power had gone out from him.
He turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my clothes? His disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing against you, and yet you say, who touched me? But he was looking around to see who had done this. The woman with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.
Jesus speaking to her just always messes me up. Have courage, daughter, he said, your faith has saved you. And the actual translation there is, Your faith has made you well. And the woman was made well from that moment. And then one chapter later in Mark's Gospel, we read this about Jesus also on your outlines.
Wherever he went into villages, towns, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch just the end of his robe. Come on, guys. But wait. And everyone who touched it was healed. The bad theology spread just as it did in Ephesus with Paul's Sweat.
And yet people are healed. I mean, someone's got to explain to Jesus that this is bad right now. Why is this happening? Well, I believe we heard the answer in Jesus' words to the woman with the issue of blood. He told her, Your faith has made you well.
Your faith has made you well. Now, what is Jesus talking about when he refers to faith in that context? Write this down and we'll talk about it. Faith is the belief that God is who he says he is. And faith is evidenced by our actions.
Faith is the belief that God is who he says he is, and it's evidenced by our actions because our actions reveal what we truly believe, don't they? Faith is such a big deal to God because our actions either reveal the way we live our lives, either reveal that we really believe that God is who he says he is a good, loving, and faithful God who cares for his children, or our actions reveal we don't really believe that he is who he says he is. When we trust God, it's revealed by our actions. And when we don't trust God, it's revealed by our actions. And we're calling Him a liar.
We're accusing Him of being a fraud. That's why faith is such a big deal to God. Those of you who are parents will understand this intrinsically. How offensive is it when your child treats you and acts like you are not God and loving and, you know, all my life all I've done is love and care for you? It's deeply offensive.
But he no longer empowers individuals with the ability to regularly perform miracles as he did the apostles during the first few decades of the Church as the Gospel was spreading across the world. But it's interesting to note that miracles seem to most frequently happen today in places where people can't read the Scriptures, either because they're illiterate, the Bible hasn't been translated into their language, or because Bibles are illegal or almost impossible to obtain. And in places still steeped in supernaturalism. In those places, there is often a regular stream of testimonies from missionaries who report that God is doing miracles to authenticate the Gospel being shared by his messengers. So, here's the bottom line - and I wrote this out on your outline for you...
The anointing of the apostles to perform regular, extraordinary miracles was unique, especially during the first few decades of the Church. The purpose of that unique anointing was to authenticate their Gospel preaching and writings as authoritative and divine. In other words, coming from God. God was doing two unique things through his apostles that would never be repeated in history. He was establishing the Church, and he was authoring the New Testament.
Today, the Lord expects us to judge all teaching by His Word. God still does miracles, but he no longer empowers individuals with the same unique anointing he placed upon the apostles. So, when we read that God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul's hands, it was normal Apostle stuff for the first few decades of the Church. And we want to note that in V.11 we're told that it was God who was working the miracles by Paul's hands. God was the power.
Paul was the instrument through which God's power was flowing. Now, verse twelve tells us about some of the extraordinary miracles that were happening through Paul. It says so that even face lots, the original word there is actually sweat lots or aprons. And these would have been the leather aprons that Paul wore when he worked in Aquila and Priscilla's workshop. So sweat cloths or aprons that had touched his skin, Paul's skin were brought to the sick and the diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.
It was a common superstitious belief at this time that magical power could be transferred from one person to another through a point of contact. Some people in and around Ephesus who had loved ones who were bedridden with sickness heard about Paul's miracle-working power and thought, if I can't get them to Paul, I'll get Paul to them. And in their mind, the way to do this was to get their hands on something that had been in contact with Paul's person. Now, something he had sweated in was just ideal, because in their minds, Paul's magic powers might be deeply imprinted upon that object. So when the workshop was empty, people started sneaking in and they're stealing Paul's sweat cloths and stealing his aprons, which had to get frustrating after a while.
I mean, I'm sure at first Paul must have thought he was losing his mind before he figured out what was going on. I left it right here; I know I did. And these people would then take those sweat cloths or aprons back to their loved one who was ill. And here's the crazy part they would be healed when they touched it for real.
The diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them. So, what in the world do you do with that? Because it is undeniably strange. We've already discussed why God was moving so powerfully through the apostles at this time. But the part that is puzzling, at least to me, is just how bad the theology seems to be.
Series: Act...Passage: Acts 19:11-1.....Speaker: Jeff Thompson
In Ephesus, a strange phenomenon occurs as people are miraculously healed by touching Paul's sweat cloths and aprons. We'll dig into what was happening, why, and what it can teach us about supernatural healing in the Church today.
Well, as we return to our study through the Book of Acts, we find ourselves in chapter 19. Paul is on his third missionary journey, and he has returned to the city of Ephesus, where he is enjoying three of his most profitable years in ministry, a season many scholars consider to be the pinnacle of his ministry history career. And today we're going to look at just two verses because they are on the surface, so strange. And I'm so grateful, actually for these two verses, because by a whisker we have managed to avoid having to talk about the sons of Sceva on a family Sunday with kids here. And those who know will understand why that's a good thing.
But the two verses we're going to talk about today open up a lot of questions that need to be answered. They lead us into the frequently misunderstood subjects of faith and supernatural healing and the relationship between the two. So, let's get into it. In Acts chapter 19, verse 11, it says God. Would you underline the word God?
God was performing extraordinary miracles with Paul's hands. And if you've been with us through most of our study, through the Book of Acts, then you'll know that God worked extraordinary miracles on a regular basis through the Apostles - the surviving members of the twelve apostles chosen by Jesus, the twelve Disciples, and Paul - the Lord did this to authenticate their ministry in a world steeped in supernaturalism. These extraordinary miracles proved the Apostles were teaching about a God greater than any other and that their message was divine.
It was from God. If you were with us a few years ago when we went through the Book of Exodus, you may recall that part of the reason for the plagues of Egypt was God demonstrating that he was infinitely greater and more powerful than the gods of Egypt. And a similar dynamic was in play in Ephesus. It was a city steeped in magic and occultism. And through Paul, God was displaying his superiority over all other gods and powers in the region.
These extraordinary miracles also proved the Apostles were authorized by God to write the Scriptures we know today as the New Testament. After the first few decades of the Church, it seems that the Lord no longer worked through the Apostles to perform miracles with the same frequency. They still happened, but with nowhere near the frequency and regularity we see during the first few decades of the Church. In Paul's first letter to Timothy, his pastoral protege, he advises Timothy to drink a little wine to help with his stomach pains and frequent illnesses.
Frequent illnesses. In his last letter, 2 Timothy Paul writes that he had to leave a brother named Trophimus in a city called Miletus because Trophimus was sick. Now. Why didn't Paul just heal Timothy and Trophimus? Because something changed after the first few decades of the Church.
God was still working miracles, but not with the same frequency we see during the first few decades of the Church. Now, why the change? I suggest because by then there was something new and available that God wanted his people to use to Jude between true and false teaching. Most of the New Testament scriptures. God doesn't expect us today to judge teaching by whether the preacher can perform miracles.
He expects us to judge it according to His Word. He expects us to weigh the teaching we hear by comparing it to His Word. If it lines up, we are to accept it. If it doesn't line up, we are to reject it. Does God still do miracles? Absolutely.
Son of Jehoita, the priest. He stood above the people and said to them, this is what God says. Why are you transgressing the Lord's command so that you do not prosper? Because you have abandoned the Lord. He has abandoned you.
But they conspired against him and stoned him at the king's command. In the courtyard of the Lord's temple, King Josh didn't remember the kindness that Zechariah's father, Jojoida had extended to him, but killed his son while he was dying. He said, May the Lord see and demand an account. Zechariah was a prophet and a righteous man who was speaking the truth, empowered by the Spirit. However, his final prayer was that God would judge his murderers and avenge his death.
Jesus and Stephen died praying for their murderers. Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing. Lord, do not hold this sin against them. To state the obvious, that is not a normal human reaction toward those who are murdering you. It is not natural.
It is supernatural. It is a love that comes from God and can only be found in God. And the only way it ever comes out of a human being is if God puts it in them. Paul said it like this in Romans chapter five god's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Only a Christian full of the Holy Spirit and the love of God can love in this radical kind of way.
It's not a human love. Stephen serves as the model disciple, the model martyr, as he imitates Jesus in life and in death. The similarities between Stephen's words and deeds and those of Jesus were not contrived. It was the natural behavior and speech of a man who was full of the same spirit that filled Jesus. Stephen died steadfastly, doing the will of his Lord Jesus, and the things of this world grew strangely dim.
The hatredfilled faces of his killers faded away and they were replaced by the smiling face of his savior, Jesus, who greeted Stephen as a friend with open arms and the words Well done, good and faithful servant. When I examine the little that scripture tells us about the life and ministry of Stephen, I am astounded. And I find myself asking, has there ever been a man more like Jesus than Stephen?
This episode ends with the first part of the first verse chapter 8. Saul agreed to put him to death. Stephen, the first martyr, deserves to be honored and remembered. The best way to honor his memory is to imitate his devotion to serving Jesus, loving his church, and boldly proclaiming the truth. To be a follower of Jesus means we want to be like him.
We want to be like him in life. And if circumstances demand it, we want to be like him in death. I'll close with these few scriptures. Jesus said if the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you. However, because you are not of the world. But I have chosen you out of it. The world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you? A servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life because of me will save it. For what does it benefit someone if he gains the whole world and yet loses?
Or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me. In my words, the Son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and that of the Father and the Holy Angels. And the man who orchestrated Stephen's murder, who would be transformed by the love of God into the apostle Paul wrote if we live, we live for the Lord and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. This is our introduction to the man better known as the Apostle Paul, the one who would go on to become the greatest church planter, evangelist, and pastor in history. Oh, yeah, and also write about a third of the New Testament. The Book of Acts is written by Luke, a physician and historian who would later become a traveling companion of Paul's. And this fascinates me because Luke wasn't there when the Sanhedrin tried and executed Stephen.
By all accounts, the apostles weren't there either. So how did Luke learn what happened at Stephen's trial? What Stephen said? The most logical answer is that Paul told him that the men stoning Stephen who laid their garments at Saul's feet, suggest that he was the initiator and driving force behind the Sanhedrin's prosecution of Stephen. Saul was likely already the ending voice in opposition to Christianity.
He wasn't taking a let's wait and see approach, as some of his elders were, Saul's view was these followers of Jesus were an abomination who taught blasphemies and must be eliminated. Another side note for you the term young man likely refers to someone between the ages of 24 and 40. Saul was not a teenager or a young adult, as we might think when we read that phrase. Verse 59. While they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus underline Lord Jesus.
Lord Jesus received my spirit. He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, lord, underline Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And after saying this, he fell asleep. When Jesus was hanging on the cross about to die, he cried out, Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit. As Stephen is about to die, he cries out, lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Jesus committed himself to the Father. Stephen committed himself to Jesus, testifying that Jesus is God and equal to the Father. Steven's words reveal that he expected to be with the Lord the moment he died. He did not expect to awaken, into purgatory, or enter some sort of soul sleep because this is what Scripture teaches. Paul wrote that if he was away from his earthly body, it meant he would be at home with the Lord.
He also wrote that departing this earthly life would mean being with Christ. Jesus promised the thief on the cross beside him that he would be with him in paradise that very day. And there are other examples I could share. About to die on the cross, Jesus cried out, Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing. Stephen cries out Lord, do not hold this sin against them.
Stephen affirms the reality of Jesus's words in John chapter five, where he said the Father in fact judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son so that all people may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Stephen cannot offer forgiveness and salvation to those who shout down and cover their ears to the truth, so he prays that God would forgive them, continue reaching out to them, and work a miracle in their lives. And if you know the story of the Book of Acts, I want you to take heart and to be encouraged. Because in the life of at least one man, Stephen's prayer for his hard-earned brethren would be answered to a degree more wonderful and astounding than he could ever have imagined. As Augustine wrote, if Stephen had not prayed, the Church would not have had Paul saints.
Do not give up praying for even the most hardhearted person. Don't give up God. Put them in your life for a reason. What is impossible with man is possible with God. Do not give up.
Persist in prayer for them. The final words of Jesus and Stephen, as they are being wrongly put to death, reveal the difference between the Old and New Covenants. In two Chronicles 24, we read of the murder of the prophet Zechariah. And I want you to notice both the similarities and the differences in the death of Stephen. It says the Spirit of God enveloped Zechariah.
To give Stephen the strength he needs to endure what's about to happen, the Lord opens his eyes to see into the spiritual dimension and he sees heaven, he sees where he's about to go. Verse 55 tells us he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. In his address, Stephen referred to times past when the glory of God had appeared to Abraham and Moses, and now he Himself joins their ranks as he witnesses this remarkable vision of the glorified Son of God. The only other men in Scripture who were blessed with a glimpse of heaven were Isaiah, Ezekiel, Paul, and John. And Stephen is the first to see Jesus in his glorified state after his ascension, further enraging the Sanhedrin.
Stephen's vision testifies that the Jesus they murdered is indeed alive, has been glorified, and will judge those who reject him. In Psalm 110, Ephesians 1, and Hebrews 1 and 8, we are told that the Father raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand. David prophesied that Jesus would remain seated at the Father's right hand until the time of judgment known as the day of the Lord arrived. We see Jesus stand for that future time in prophecies found in Isaiah two, Isaiah three, Daniel seven, and Revelation five. But this was not the day of the Lord. Yet.
Stephen though, saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And as best we can tell, the reason Jesus was standing was to welcome Stephen into his presence. Verse 56 says that Stephen said, look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God. When Jesus was on trial before the Sanhedrin, he said, I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. And this is how they reacted at that time to those words by Jesus then the high priest tore his robes and said, he has blasphemed.
Why do we still need witnesses? See? Now you've heard the blasphemy. What is your decision? They answered, he deserves death.
Stevens vision and testimony affirmed Jesus words to the Sanhedrin that he was and is the Son of man of Daniel, chapter seven, who will rule over and judge the nations, including these men? Jesus was who he said he was, is where he said he would go and will do in the future. What he said he would do. Stephen is telling them, the righteous one whom you murdered is right now glorified and at the right hand of the Father in heaven. They judge Jesus worthy of death for speaking the truth.
And here's how they respond when Stephen does the same. Verse 5/7. They yelled at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him. They yelled and covered their ears to prevent themselves from hearing any more of Stephen's testimony to the glorified Jesus. You see, unless they were willing to recognize their grievous error in arranging the murder of Jesus and repent, they had no logical choice but to likewise find Stephen guilty of blasphemy as they had found Jesus.
The Greek word used by Luke, that's translated rushed, is the same word used to describe the demonpossessed herd of pigs as they charged into the Sea of Galilee. In Matthew chapter eight and Mark chapter five, the idea is that these men were demonically inspired to oppose the truth Stephen was speaking, and they eagerly gave themselves over to baseless rage, anger, and hatred. They turned into a frenzied mob. At this point, it says, they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. The scene is reminiscent of Luke, chapter four, where Jesus's own townsman in Nazareth, enraged by his speaking the truth, dragged him outside the town to try and throw him off a cliff.
You cannot suddenly change from someone who doesn't believe in the promises of God to someone who does. Just because you recognize the situation now really requires that of you. You cannot suddenly change from someone with no demonstrable faith in God to someone with great faith. And you cannot change from someone who is controlled by the flesh to someone who is controlled by the spirit. Christian, I beg you, do not fool yourself.
Don't fool yourself. I really don't care if what I've said or what I'm about to say offends you because it's true and I'm saying it because I love you and I want you to follow Jesus with everything you have. But listen, if you don't have the faith to trust God with money, with dollars and cents, why would you expect to have the faith? To trust God through cancer? You're delusional.
You're fooling yourself. If you don't have the faith to even identify yourself as a Christian to your friends, peers, or coworkers. If you never want to let on that the reason you're busy on Sunday is because you're going to church, why would you expect to be able to stand firm for Jesus when real persecution comes, and it will, you're fooling yourself. I'm not talking about being the kind of mature Christian that takes years and years to become. I'm talking about the kind of maturity of understanding that any believer can begin walking in today.
It's about saying, I will do everything I can to obey Jesus as best as I know how right now. And as soon as I learn that there's something else I should be doing to obey Jesus or that I need a change in my life, I will do it as quickly as I can. I'll spend time with Him and ask Him to fill me with his spirit every day. That's what I'm talking about. The question for each of us is, who am I right now?
Who are you right now? If a crisis or persecution explodes in your life tomorrow, who will you be? Who will the person be going into that crisis or experiencing that persecution? I can tell you that person will be who you are right now, who you are right now. And so if you need to change anything in your life to change who you are right now, then do it.
Because the crisis and the persecution rarely arrive with six to eight weeks advance notice. When his moment of life-or-death persecution arrived, Stephen was the same man that he was when he woke up that morning. A man full of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, faith, grace, and power. In contrast to the demonically inspired rage of his adversaries, Stephen's face continued to glow with the radiance of God's presence, and he was empowered with supernatural boldness and peace.
God gives special grace to believers to enable them to stand firm in the face of persecution and martyrdom. Peter wrote if you are ridiculed for the name of Jesus, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Stephen serves as the prototype of the believer filled with this special grace, and his example has been repeated in the lives of millions of believers over the past 2000 years. When the apostle Paul was troubled by a specific issue, he asked the Lord for deliverance, and he received this reply my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness. This changed Paul's perspective, leading him to write so I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for the sake of Christ, for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Stephen is saying I'm not guilty of blaspheming Moses in the Law. I revere both. It is you who do not revere either, for if you did, you would have recognized and welcomed Jesus as the Messiah. Everything Stephen has shared is about to be proven true to the greatest possible degree. For Stephen is about to be murdered.
The Sanhedrin are about to follow in the footsteps of their forefathers. Stephen is about to take his place in the prophetic line, joining the great men of antiquity who testified fearlessly to the truth at the cost of their lives. Stephen is about to follow in the footsteps of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. When the Sanhedrin heard these things, they were enraged and gnashed their teeth at him. To Nash, one's teeth is to be so enraged that you grind your teeth in anger and hostility.
In the Old Testament, it's often used to describe the hatred that the wicked feel toward the righteous. In the Gospels, it's the attitude displayed by the wicked toward God when it's revealed they are not part of his kingdom. They don't repent, they just gnash their teeth. The Holy Spirit is convicting these men. Their innermost motivations have been laid bare by Stephen's Spirit-empowered address.
But like their forefathers, they refuse to repent. They simply become enraged toward God's messenger. In Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost, we saw a very different reaction from thousands of people when Peter told them, let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. It says, that when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart. The phrase they were pierced to the heart is very similar in the original Greek to the phrase we just read in Acts 7/54.
That's translated, they were enraged. In Acts chapter 2, their hearts were pierced by the truth. In Acts chapter 7, the original Greek is even more intense. Their hearts were cut into. They were torn asunder by the truth.
Here's how they responded to Peter's appeal. In Acts chapter 2, they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what should we do? Peter replied, Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, your children, and all who are far off as many as the Lord our God will call. The conviction of the Holy Spirit generally produces either repentance or increases one's hardness of heart toward the truth.
Acts chapter 7 is a sobering reminder that many will perish, not because they don't know the truth, not because they haven't seen it, not because it hasn't been told to them, but because they don't want to repent. They don't want to repent. Jesus explained this to Nicodemus in John chapter 3 when he told him this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it so that his deeds may not be exposed.
Jesus's words were proven true by the response of the Sanhedrin to Stephen's truthful testimony. Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit underlined, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. Now, notice that Stephen did not become full of the Holy Spirit in this moment. He was already full of the Holy Spirit. Back in Act Six /five and Act Six Eight, it was the way that Stephen lived his life.
When a crisis hits your life, when persecution comes, when pressure pushes down on you, you are who you are at that moment. You are who you are at that moment. Here's what I mean. I mean, there's no switch that you can flick to suddenly become somebody else. You cannot suddenly change from someone who is casual about their faith to someone who is deeply committed to their faith.
They were just misrepresenting God by turning, serving, and following him into misery. Woe to you. You build tombs for the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Therefore, you are witnesses that you approve the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their monuments. Because of this, the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute, so that this generation may be held responsible for the blood of all the prophet shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.
Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible. These men would turn the tombs of the prophets into shrines and places of veneration and even pilgrimage. Jesus calls this behavior ridiculous because he says your hearts are exactly the same as your forefathers, and your forefathers were the ones who killed them in the first place. Scripture tells us these religious leaders would say at the time of Jesus, well, if we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we wouldn't have taken part in the shedding of the prophet's blood, but the Lord knew they would soon kill him, the greatest of all the prophets and the Messiah showing themselves to be exactly like their forefathers. Woe to you, experts in the Law.
You have taken away the key to knowledge. You didn't go in yourselves, and you hindered those who were trying to go in. Jesus says you don't understand the heart of the law, and then you teach a wrong interpretation of the law to people, preventing them from ever being able to understand the true heart of the Law. When he that's Jesus left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to oppose him fiercely. And we see the same thing happening here with Stephen and the Sanhedrin.
Steven continues speaking about their forefathers. We can turn back to the Book of Acts. Acts, chapter seven, the rest of verse 52. They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. Steven is rebuking the Sanhedrin by pointing out how perfectly they fit into the pattern of their ancestors.
Their ancestors killed those who prophesied the coveting Messiah, and now they have taken their place in their family line by taking things to their inevitable conclusion betraying and murdering the Messiah, the Righteous one prophesied by the prophets, their ancestors killed too. You received the Law under the direction of angels, and yet have not kept it. They knew that Stephen refers to in this verse is the Sanhedrin, sitting before him, the nation of Israel collectively, and their ancestors. He says, you, Israel received the Law under the direction of angels at Mount Sinai, and yet you have not kept it. As we mentioned in our previous study, while God was giving the Law to Moses through angels on top of Mount Sinai, Israel was at the foot of the mountain, demanding Eren make an idol for them so that they could worship it instead of Yahweh.
The whole reason God created the nation of Israel was to have a people dedicated to Himself, who would represent them to the nations of the earth and invite them to be part of his family. The culmination, the crescendo of Israel's mission was always intended to be the arrival of Messiah who would bring salvation to all peoples and fulfill the words of the prophets spoken over the centuries. And yet Israel failed to even recognize her Messiah. When he arrived, Jesus condemned the insincerity of Israel's religious devotion, telling them, you pour over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me. And if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.
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What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
There are supernatural practices that much of our society does not take seriously, but God does. Practices that much of our society might not even believe are real, but God does. And he reveals that by how he speaks about those things in His Word, and he reveals it by the consequences he put in his law to Israel for those who practice those things. Let's talk about some examples. These are on your outlines.When Israel was getting ready to enter the Promised Land, the Lord told them this when you enter the land the Lord is giving you, do not imitate the detestable customs of those nations. No one among you is to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire. That's a reference to the pagan practice that was happening in the land at that time of child sacrifice, literally killing your child as an offering to a pagan God. But I want you to note here what else the Lord puts in the same category as child sacrifice. He says, Also, no one among you is to practice divination.
That simply refers to this umbrella category of trying to uncover some type of hidden knowledge by contacting the spiritual world. It could be knowledge about the future, knowledge about the past, or knowledge about the present, God says. Likewise, no one among you is to tell fortunes or interpret omens. So these are practices like tarot cards, our reading tea leaves. No one among you is to practice sorcery cast spells, consult a medium or a spiritist or inquire of the dead.
There's just the practice of trying to somehow contact the spirits of the dead. Everyone who does these acts is detestable to the Lord, and the Lord your God is driving out the nations before you because of these detestable acts. These practices are detestable to the Lord because they are a direct insult to and rejection of Him. Let me explain. The Lord has made Himself available to all who desire a relationship with Him.
The God of heaven and earth offers his spirit to every person. He says I'll come and dwell in you so that our relationship, our communion, can be constant. I'll lead and guide you through My spirit. If you need wisdom, just ask and I'll give it to you. And through My Word, I'll give you insight into the true nature of reality.
That's the offer of God. And even back under the old covenant, God still offered people a way to commune with the spiritual and the supernatural with Himself, the one true God. But there's a catch to this offer that God makes. God's offer includes trusting Him as Lord, trusting Him to decide what is good for you, and trusting Him when he withholds certain things from you because he says these things are not good for you. Now, that shouldn't be an issue.
Why? Because God is perfectly loving, kind, and good. If he says this is not for you, it's not because it's awesome and he doesn't want you to have it. It's because he knows it's going to bring something destructive into your life and your relationships. But those who engage in these detestable practices are saying, I want to access the spiritual world without having to submit to God as Lord.
They're saying, I don't want any restrictions. I don't want God to decide what's good for me. I want to be my own God. And like Lucifer, they are motivated by the desire to be like God themselves and access secret knowledge on their own terms. And God says that's detestable.
It's also detestable because there are only two spiritual forces in existence god and the forces of darkness. You've got to understand this concept and if you are engaging in any kind of spiritual or supernatural practice that is not biblical, that is not of the Lord, if you're not engaging with Him, then you are engaging with spiritual forces of darkness. It's that simple. It doesn't matter if you or the culture don't think it's a big deal. It doesn't matter what you think.