Naylor Community Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Acts 18:23-26
Acts
18:23 After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled
from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening
all the disciples.
24
Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was
a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been
instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught
about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to
speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they
invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
-- one day this church was having a
baptismal service down at the baptizing hole in the river -- an old drunk was
wandering by and saw the preacher standing out in the water and waded out and
stood beside him -- the preacher looked over and saw the drunk standing there
and asked, "Are you ready to find Jesus?" -- the drunk said,
"Yes" -- so the preacher grabbed him and plunged him under the water
-- the drunk came up from the water
and the preacher asked him, "Have you found Jesus?" -- the drunk
said, "No" -- so the preacher plunged him back under again -- he
brought him back up and asked him again, "Have you found Jesus?" --
the drunk answered again, "No"
-- thoroughly disgusted by this
time, the minister grabbed the drunk, plunged him under the water, and held him
there for a good thirty seconds -- the drunk came back up, gasping for air,
spitting and sputtering -- the preacher yelled at the drunk this time,
"Have you found Jesus?" -- the drunk replied, "No, but before
you put me back under again, are you sure this is where He fell in?"
-- today’s theme is all about
finding Jesus – specifically, we see this passage revolving around the question
– do you know Jesus or do you just know about Him?
-- and that is a good question for
all of us to consider in our own lives – first, it speaks to salvation – for as
we will see, there is a vast difference between knowing Jesus and knowing about
Jesus – but it also speaks to living our Christian life in the world today –
Christians can be functionally atheists – and what I mean by that is that we
can be believers in Christ – we can be washed in the blood and saved by grace
through faith in Jesus – but we live our lives completely without the presence
of Jesus
-- and what this looks like in
practice is coming to church and Bible study – listening to podcasts and
YouTube videos – listening to sermons and teaching on the radio – and taking in
all of this information about Jesus and intellectually accepting all that we
hear – but doing nothing with it
-- Christian atheists – Jesus in our
hearts and heads – but not in our hands and feet – even though we know Jesus,
we live our lives without Him
-- hopefully, by the time we get
done looking at today’s passages, we will have a better understanding on this
topic and make a commitment to quit living like atheists and to start living
like the blood-bought saints that we are – because, honestly, that’s the whole
point of this sermon series in the Book of Acts
-- if you come away from this series
just knowing more about the New Testament church and the journeys of the
Apostle Paul and nothing else, then we have failed in what the Spirit wants us
to do – because true Christianity is living out what we know in our lives –
letting the Spirit empower us to go and do and be who we are called to be in
Christ
-- so, with that, let’s look now at Acts
18 and 19 and see what we can learn about the difference between knowing Jesus
and knowing about Jesus
II. Scripture Lesson
-- here in Acts 18, we see Paul’s
second missionary journey with Silas come to an end – when we left off last
week, Paul was alone in the city of Athens, trying to convince the learned men
of the Areopagus about the truth of the gospel and how Jesus’ death and
resurrection made the forgiveness of sins and eternal life a reality for all
believers
-- Paul left Athens and traveled to
Corinth, where he first meets Aquila and Priscilla – fellow believers who are
instrumental in mentoring and discipling other believers during their travels
-- Paul stayed with Aquila and
Priscilla in Corinth for a while, working with them in their tent-making trade
and preaching and teaching on the side – when Silas and Timothy arrived from
Macedonia, Paul spent more time preaching and teaching in the city of Corinth
than before – and once again, we see opposition from the Jews against Paul and
the gospel
-- Paul, Aquila, and Priscilla left
Corinth and sailed for Syria, making their way to Ephesus – the group split at
this point, with Paul continuing on with Silas and Timothy to Jerusalem to
fulfill a vow to the Lord and then back to Antioch, his home church
-- and thus ended the second
missionary journey of Paul
-- which brings us to Acts 18:23 –
look down at that again with me
Acts
18:23 After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled
from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening
all the disciples.
-- so, after some time in Antioch,
Paul felt a calling to go back to visit the churches throughout Galatia and
Phrygia – staying for a while in cities such as Pisidian Antioch, Colossae, and
Laodicea – where he preached and taught the believers and strengthened the
fledgling churches
-- before we move on to the heart of
the passages for today, let me point out something here – we tend to think of
Paul as a traveling evangelist – and he was – but he was more than that
-- just this week, I was driving
past a couple of churches that were announcing they were having summer revivals
with guest evangelists coming in to speak
–
the evangelists in our day are not like Paul – they come to a church – they
preach and teach for a few days – at most, a week – and then they move on –
Billy Graham did the same in his crusades – he never stayed more than a week or
two in any one city
--
but that was not what Paul did – Paul was more than an evangelist – he was also
a church planter, a mentor, and a guide – he didn’t just come into a city,
preach and teach for a week, and leave – but he spent weeks and months – in
some cases, like in Ephesus, Paul stayed for two years with the church there –
leading them and guiding them as they built up their congregation and began
worshiping together as new believers in Christ
--
so, don’t get the impression that Paul was just moving quickly from city to
city – in some cases, he had to leave quickly, but that was a result of
persecution – not choice – and even when he was forced to leave, such as the
case in Lystra and Corinth, he always came back to strengthen the churches and
to encourage them through his presence, his teaching and his preaching
-- so, after spending some time in
Antioch as part of his home church again, Paul set out to visit the churches in
all the cities that he had been in – this time, it seems as if he’s traveling
alone – perhaps Timothy was with him – Luke, certainly – but there is not a
Barnabas or Silas with him – the leading force is Paul, driven and directed by
the Holy Spirit, as we have discussed earlier in this series
-- verse 24-26
Acts
18:24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus.
He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had
been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and
taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He
began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him,
they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more
adequately.
-- Apollos was an exceptionally brilliant
young man – he was a native of Alexandria, in northern Africa on the
Mediterranean Sea – where the Great Library of Alexandria – one of the Seven
Wonders of the World – was located
-- Alexandria was similar to Athens
and it drew scholars and philosophers to the area – with major schools and
universities there to educate the best and brightest – Apollos was one of those
-- he showed up in Ephesus and began
speaking to the Jews and the Gentiles there about Jesus – his logic – his
reasoning – his education – was flawless -- he spoke boldly in the synagogue
and impressed everyone with his teachings – proving, beyond the shadow of a
doubt, that Jesus was the long-awaited for Messiah
-- one day, Priscilla and Aquila were in the
synagogue as Apollos spoke about Jesus – and although they were only uneducated
tent-makers – they knew more than Apollos did about the gospel of Christ –
because they knew Jesus, while Apollos only knew about Him
-- when they heard him speak, they
quickly realized this – there’s a big difference in someone talking about a
subject that they have learned about in books and between someone talking about
a subject that they know because they have experienced it and done it for
themselves
-- I’m working with a lot of younger
people now – younger meaning they’re in their thirties and forties – makes me
feel older every single day
-- and one of the things that just
drives me crazy is when these younger folks start lecturing us and trying to
teach me and the other guys my age about things that we lived through
-- do you realize that we are coming
up on the 25th anniversary of 9-11? – 25 years ago – that’s just
hard to fathom
-- we had a Commander’s Call a few
weeks back, and the Commander asked how many of the people there were not alive
when 9-11 happened – a good quarter of the crowd raised their hands
-- and while my coworkers were old
enough to have been alive when 9-11 happened, they were in grade school – a
couple were in kindergarten – and we were discussing 9-11 and they said, “Well,
actually, this is what happened…” and they proceeded to tell us older workers
all about the events of 9-11
-- we just looked at each other – we
lived 9-11 – we were all on the military base when it happened – we experienced
the uncertainty and the chaos of that moment when the plane hit that first
tower – we watched it in real time – and we were part of the initial reaction
to that event when we realized this was not an accident, but a terrorist event
-- the base completely shut down –
gates were locked – we were restricted in our movements – they weren’t letting
anyone in or out of the buildings or the gates – we lived in that moment of
panic
-- but yet our younger coworkers
were explaining the events to us – they knew about them because they had been
taught about 9-11 in school – but we knew 9-11, because we experienced it for
ourselves
-- that’s what going on here in this
passage – when you read that Priscilla and Aquila listened to Apollos speak and
then invited him to their home, it’s because they realized that Apollos might
know a lot about Jesus, but he didn’t know Jesus
-- and so, they took him home with
them and, as Luke terms it so eloquently here, “explained to him the way of God
more adequately”
-- they connected the dots for
Apollos – they opened his eyes to the truth of Jesus – not just words on a page
or evidence of prophecies fulfilled – but the living Christ and His very Spirit
who was sent to indwell believers
-- Apollos knew about Jesus, but he
didn’t know Jesus, until Priscilla and Aquila explained it to him and helped
him become a true believer in Jesus for salvation and eternal life
-- when the head and the heart
connected and Apollos became a true believer, he became a tireless evangelist
and teacher of the gospel – he left Ephesus and went on to Achaia – primarily,
the city of Corinth – where he continued to debate the same Jews who earlier
had pushed back against Paul when he preached in the synagogue there
-- like I said earlier, the first
issue with knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus concerns our salvation
–
Apollos – for all his learning and ability to teach others about Jesus – hadn’t
put his faith and trust in Jesus for salvation – it was only after Priscilla
and Aquila sat down and explained the gospel to him that Apollos became a
believer
-- the same is true for the people
in our next passage – look over at Acts 19:1-6
Acts
19:1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and
arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you
receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They
answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3
So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s
baptism,” they replied.
4
Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to
believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this,
they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands
on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and
prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
-- Paul is in the midst of his third
missionary journey – he has been traveling throughout the regions of Galatia
and Phrygia and comes once again to Ephesus – just as a note, Paul spent more
time in Ephesus that he did any other city – and that’s one reason why his
letter to the Ephesians is so theologically robust and instructional – because
he had time to mentor and teach and guide them deeper in their faith during his
long stays with them
-- Antioch might have been his home
church – but his heart was with the people of Ephesus
-- but this is earlier in his
journey, and when Paul makes his way back to Ephesus to strengthen the church
there, he finds a group of people there who tell him they are Christians, but
he quickly discerns that they are not
-- remember, for someone who knows
Jesus, it is always easy to tell is someone is a true believer or just knows
about Jesus – in the same way Priscilla and Aquila could tell Apollos wasn’t
quite there yet – in the same way, we know when new believers just haven’t
matured to the point of fully knowing Jesus in the same way as someone who has
walked with Him for years
-- when Paul meets these folks, he
realizes something is off – he can sense they are Christians in Name Only – and
so he asks them, “did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” – and
they reply, “No – we didn’t even know there was a Holy Spirit”
-- evidently, they had heard the
gospel preached and the Spirit had convicted them of their sins – they felt the
call to respond – to repent of their sins – and that was all they did
-- they were baptized as a sign of
repentance only – not in the baptism that Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:18-20,
when He told us to baptize disciples in the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit
-- we’ve talked about this before –
but to bring this point out again, there is a difference between John’s baptism
and Christian baptism – John’s baptism was a symbolic practice to illustrate
the washing away of sins in preparation for receiving the coming Messiah
-- Christian baptism is more than
that – it is when a person has put their faith and trust in Jesus for salvation
and eternal life – and it symbolizes dying to our old self – dying to sin –
dying to our sin nature – and rising again to new life in Jesus, just as He
rose from the dead victorious over sin and death
-- as we have discussed before,
water baptism is an outward sign of an inward grace – and when we accept Jesus
as our Lord and Savior, we are baptized spiritually with His presence and
indwelt with the Holy Spirit
-- these disciples had not put their
faith and trust in Jesus in this way – they had only been baptized as a sign of
repentance, not as a sign of their belief in Jesus and His death and
resurrection – not as a sign of the inward baptism of the Spirit – and so, they
didn’t know Jesus – they only knew about Jesus
-- Paul realized this – and even
though the text doesn’t expand on this, I believe Paul probably gave them
detailed guidance in what it means to be saved by grace through faith in Jesus
– we read here that he placed his hands on them and prayed for the Holy Spirit
to indwell them – and the Spirit came in power upon these men
-- they spoke in tongues and
prophesied as they were changed from who they were into new creations in Christ
– there is a difference in knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus, especially
when it comes to salvation
-- we transition now into the
difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus in regards to actually
living out our faith by being His hands and feet
-- skip down to verse 13-16
Acts
19:13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the
name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In
the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven
sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil
spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”
16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them
all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and
bleeding.
-- this has always been a
fascinating story to me, for several reasons – not the least of that there is a
real spiritual world around us, and we need to be aware of it and we need to
approach it with caution – especially, if we only know about Jesus and don’t
know Jesus in a real and personal way
-- as Scripture says, “Fools rush in
where angels fear to tread” – and we see a bunch of fools in this passage
-- Paul and Peter and the other
apostles and disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit to the point where
miracles were part of their daily lives – we read in verses 11 and 12 here that
God did extraordinary miracles through Paul – to the point where just taking
handkerchiefs and aprons that Paul had touched were able to bring healing to
the sick and cast evil spirits out of them – but note here that it was God
doing this through Paul – it wasn’t Paul doing it on his own
-- but many people saw those
miracles – and while some were drawn to the cross and salvation as a result,
others simply sought the power and prestige that being able to do miracles like
this afforded – very similar to Simon the sorcerer from Acts Chapter 8, who
tried to pay the Apostle Peter for the ability to lay hands on someone and give
them the Holy Spirit
-- in this case, seven sons of
Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, had seen Paul and the other disciples casting out
evil spirits through the power of Christ – they thought they understood the
process – that if they said the right words and did the right things, then
miracles would happen and evil spirits would obey them – that’s because they
only knew about Jesus, they didn’t know Jesus or His Spirit
-- one day, these seven sons of
Sceva – which, by the way, would be a great name for a Christian worship group –
came across a person possessed by an evil spirit – relying on their knowledge
of Jesus alone and the example of Paul, they commanded the evil spirit to leave
that person by saying, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command
you to come out”
-- and honestly, I can’t think of a
better response than the one the demon gives – “Jesus, I know. And Paul, I know. But who are you?” – and the evil spirit had
the man jump on them and beat them to the point where they ran out of the house
naked and bleeding
-- it’s not about what you know –
it’s about Who you know – and these sons of Sceva thought they could command
spirits simply because they had head knowledge of Jesus – it doesn’t work that
way
-- we cannot be the people that
Christ is calling us to be apart from His Spirit and His power and presence in
us – we can go to Bible study after Bible study – we can listen to podcast
after podcast and sermon after sermon – we can watch videos of people
ministering and doing great things for Jesus across the globe – but that won’t
empower us to do anything on our own
-- there’s more to Christianity than
just knowing about Jesus, as the sons of Sceva found out – and there’s more to
living out a life for Christ than just knowing the truth of the Bible and the
truth of the gospel and not letting God do anything in us or through us
-- like I said, a lot of Christians
live life today like atheists – we proclaim that we know Jesus – and we may
know Jesus – but then we try to go out and do life in our own strength –
relying on our knowledge and our skills and our abilities rather than the power
of the Spirit within us
-- we may wrap our ministries and
our efforts in the name of Jesus, but if we’re not putting our faith and our
trust in the Spirit to work in us and through us to accomplish God’s will, then
we are doing exactly what the sons of Sceva are doing here
-- verse 11 confirms that it was God
who did the extraordinary miracles through Paul – it wasn’t because Paul knew a
lot or had a lot of knowledge and skill from his former training as a Pharisee
– it was because Paul humbled himself and allowed God to work in him and
through him
-- and we must do the same – that is
the difference between living life as if we just know about God and living life
knowing God and allowing Him to use us in His plans and as He wills
-- verse 17-20
Acts
19:17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they
were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high
honor. 18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they
had done. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together
and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the
total came to fifty thousand drachmas. 20 In this way the word of the Lord
spread widely and grew in power.
-- back in the day, there was a show
on MTV called, “The Real World” – it was one of the first reality shows on TV,
and it opened up with this tag line:
"This is the true story... of seven strangers,
picked to live in a house, work together, and have their lives taped... to find
out what happens... when people stop being polite... and start getting
real."
-- what we are seeing in this final
passage for today is what happens when Christians stop living their lives just
knowing about Jesus and start getting real by changing how they live so that
they live their lives as if they know Jesus
-- let me give you another example –
football season is right upon us – all summer, these teams have been practicing
and learning about football – about the basics of football – about the plays –
about how to come together and play as a team
-- but at some point, they have to
get off the practice field – they have to get off the bench and out of the
huddle and turn what they know about football into something real – they have
to go and snap the ball and put what they have learned and practiced into
motion
-- that is what is happening in
these verses
-- everybody knew what happened to
these sons of Sceva – and it shook them – and it scared them – and they
realized, “Hey, we’ve got to quit playing church and start being the church –
we’ve got to quit coming together and learning about Jesus and leaving here and
living life like normal – and we’ve got to start living life in His power and
His strength – or the same thing is going to happen to us as happened to them”
-- they were convicted of how they
were living – they were seized with fear – and they started taking the name of
the Lord Jesus seriously
-- Jesus became more than just a
concept – more than just a lesson from Scripture – more than just a good
example – He became real
–
and they realized they had not been living their lives as He intended – they
still had the world in their lives, even though they were Christians
--
so, they went through and purged everything from their lives that was keeping
them from living out their faith as people who knew Jesus and who didn’t just
know about Him
--
they got rid of their magic scrolls and books and anything else that was
holding them back – they did what the writer of Hebrews tells us to do in Hebrews
12:1 – “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily
entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”
--
these believers did this literally and spiritually – they burned scrolls and
books that were holding them back – they repented of their sins – they got rid
of the things of the world – and got serious about living for Jesus
--
this is what we need to do – this is what we are called to do – because being
part of a church means more than just coming on Sundays or Wednesdays and
learning more about the Bible or about Jesus – it means living out our faith –
connecting our heads to our hearts and letting the Spirit empower us to move
our hands and feet and lips to truly be the body of Christ in this place
--
this is our calling – this is our mission
III. Closing
--
Susan Hill wrote, “It’s possible to read the Bible from cover to cover and
learn lots of facts about Jesus—but not really know Jesus. But Jesus doesn’t
want us just to know facts about Him—He wants us to be in an ongoing and
lasting relationship with Him.”
--
and that quote really sums up what this section of the Book of Acts is all
about
--
first, in order to be saved – in order to have our sins and our sin nature
forgiven – to have eternal life with God – we have to put our faith and trust
in Jesus’ atoning death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead
--
that means that we have to know Him – the Biblical definition of the word,
“know,” refers to intimate knowledge of another – knowing them in a real and
personal way – in the same way that the Bible says that Adam knew Eve, we are
to know Jesus spiritually
--
it’s not enough to know about Him – we have to know Him – to trust Him – to put
our faith in Him and the grace of salvation and the forgiveness of sins through
Him
--
that’s the first part of knowing Jesus
--
but the second part – the part that we all should be aware of – is when we quit
acquiring knowledge about Jesus and the Bible and His church – and we start
living it out
--
when we move past being Christian atheists – Christians in Name Only – who know
a lot about Jesus but who do nothing with what we know
--
it’s time that we start to live our lives in the knowledge and the power of
Christ – putting aside everything that hinders our life with Him –
figuratively, burning the scrolls and the books and the things of this world
that we have been relying on instead of Jesus – and turning to Him in faith –
trusting in Him and His Spirit to give us wisdom and guidance and power to do
what He is calling us to do and to be who He is calling us to be
--
to quit just knowing about Him and to start knowing Him and experiencing Him in
our lives as we move forward in faith
--
if I ever run across a demon like the sons of Sceva did, I hope he turns to me
and says, “Jesus, I know. Paul, I
know. And I know you, too, because you
belong to Jesus”
--
so, as we close this morning, let us commit to turning away from relying on
ourselves and our own natural talents and skills and abilities to do life – to
stop just learning about Jesus in church and Bible study – and to start living
our lives in the knowledge and in the name of Jesus
--
truly living life as if we know Him, because we do
--
let us pray
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