The Greater Power of Christ - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download

In Acts 19:8-22, Paul settles in Ephesus, teaching first in the synagogue and then teaching daily in the Lecture Hall. He remains for two years, with God performing extraordinary miracles through him, bringing many people to the Way.

Transcript:

Acts chapter 19, verses eight through 22. Paul entered the synagogue, synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples, he took the disciples with him and had discussions daily at the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia, Asia heard the word of the Lord. God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

Let us pray. Dear Father, we pray that your spirit would impress upon us the true power of Jesus Christ, that Father you would lead us to trust in you more than in any other thing that the world might tempt us to put our trust in. We just pray that you would open up our hearts and open up our eyes to see our true hope, our true security in Him.

We ask this in Christ's name, amen. You may be seated.

At least once in his life, I think that every boy and every man has wondered to himself, what if I had a tank in the Middle Ages? What if I had modern weaponry to face down the army of Alexander the Great. It's an interesting thing to think about how infamous military powers might be possibly defeated by a vastly smaller number who possess modern technology. No matter the prowess, no matter the courage, no matter the numbers, we have to believe that a tank will beat a spear. Equipped with that kind of technology, you would be untouchable. You would have the upper hand.

It can be an interesting thought experiment. It makes an imagination go wild, especially for those of us who, who perhaps don't feel like we've ever had the upper hand in life. More so than ever, in the 21st century, we can feel like small creatures overwhelmed by a giant machine. And just as much as ever, we can often feel like the powers of evil are so much more numerous and greater than ourselves.

But what if I told you that you are in a tank? What if I told you that you're in an F 35? Maybe even behind the controls of such modern marvels, one would still have a sense of intimidation before an army of 30,000, but it would be they who are holding the spears who should be in fear. Of course, I'm speaking analogously. We have something much better than a machine of war: the Church of Jesus Christ stands as a bulwark in the face of all opposition, not by the strength of her members, but because of the power of her king and the strength of the Spirit who equips her.

Today's passage reminds us of this: we're, we're going to find Paul in a great metropolis of the Roman Empire, in the city of Ephesus, a city gripped by idolatry and obsessed with the promise of sorcery and magical power. But however great and magnificent it may appear, it becomes exposed as nothing in comparison to the power of Jesus Christ. So we first look at verses eight through 12.

As I've already mentioned, Paul is in the city of Ephesus, and if you're trying to imagine where Ephesus is, you can locate it in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, along the coast and are facing off towards Achaia. It was a, a very influential city, I mentioned last week. It was kind of a top five city of the Roman Empire, population of around 250,000 people, very pagan. But they did have a synagogue as we read here in these verses.

I've, I actually had the opportunity to go to Ephesus. This is a picture, one of the pictures I took. You can see it doesn't really look like a port city. That's because silt has actually built up, and so it's very much kind of inland now. But that road that you see in the middle there, that's a road that Paul would've walked on. It was very incredible to be able to walk in a place where the Apostle Paul himself walked. And that's a picture of me in front of the Library of Celsius, which you see in the, off in the distance here, the goofy guy there in the striped shirt.

It was a magnificent city, that, it was very built up and it did include, they had enough Jews there so that they had a synagogue. And Paul spent his time there trying to persuade the Jews about the kingdom of God, which is another way of talking about how Jesus is Messiah. And it's important to remember the kind of, the, the exchangeability between those terms, because when Jesus comes, he's coming not just to bring personal salvation to people, yes, he's coming to do that, but he's coming to bring a kingdom. A new kingdom that one day will be revealed in full on earth. So Paul spoke boldly there for three months arguing them, but they became obstinate and began even publicly maligning the way, so basically talking smack about Christianity with the other citizens in Ephesus.

And so Paul left them. And it says that he went to the lecture hall of Tyrannus. Now in the Greek, that term hall is schole. Now you might think to yourself, that sounds familiar. That sounds a lot like school. And that's basically what it was, it was a school. Paul spent two years there lecturing to the people of that city along with his disciples every day, and some manuscripts actually include a detail that suggests that Paul spoke there between the hours of 11 and four. Now, the manuscript evidence isn't strong enough to include that in standard versions of the Bible, but there's actually good reason to think that Paul probably did teach during that time, because early in the day, they would have very formal classes, but during the middle of the day it was actually kind of a siesta for the people. The people would stop working for a while. Some of us are probably thinking, wow, that sounds nice, 11 to four. They had a little bit of time, and the hall was open and so Paul could make use of it. Whether he had to rent it or whoever was in charge of the hall was kind of benefactor and allowed him to use it. So he basically ran school there every single day, and he basically assumed this position of kind of being a teacher, a philosopher, almost like a, a professor.

Now, he was doing this even while he was working himself. We learn in the next chapter, in Acts 20:34, he says, you yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. So we can imagine that Paul is probably working early in the day, and then he was going and doing teaching the rest of the day, and then maybe he did some more work at the end of the day. He was a very, very, very busy man, and he did this for two years. Now the result of his work is that the Jews and Greeks throughout Asia heard about the word of the Lord. Now again, Ephesus is a very strategic location because it's from there, from this major city, you can imagine Paul teaching people and then them going out and spreading the word to other places, so that the gospel goes further than wherever Paul goes, which is important.

That's actually the goal of Christian discipleship. It shouldn't be just be fixed all on one person doing all the things. The idea is you make disciples who then go forth and make more disciples, and this is what Paul is, is doing. This is how the word is spreading throughout that whole area, which is astounding, 'cause you'll recall how when he began his second missionary journey in Acts 16, it says, Paul and his companions traveled throughout the regions of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. So earlier God has said, no, you're not going to go into Asia, I'm directing your course to Macedonia. But God, God's no wasn't a permanent no. God knew what he had in store. Certain things had to take place, and maybe it was even a development in Paul's own, own life and abilities and, to bring it, and just other outside circumstances we can't even imagine so that at the right time and place, in Ephesus, Paul could return and then the gospel truly would spread throughout Asia.

So he's teaching in this lecture hall, hall, and you can imagine him, you know, very much kind of being respected like a philosopher, and yet he's more than that too. His impact in the city goes beyond just mere, an intellectual presentation, because along with his teaching comes extraordinary miracles. That's what it says in verse 11, extraordinary, God works extraordinary miracles through Paul. So that it says that even handkerchiefs and aprons that touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnes...