Now in Acts chapter 19 verse number 1 the Bible reads it came to pass while
Apollos was at Corinth Paul having passed through the upper coast came to
Ephesus and finding certain disciples he said unto them have you received the
Holy Ghost since he believed and they said unto him we have not so much as
heard whether there be any Holy Ghost and he said unto them unto what then
were you baptized and they said unto John's baptism now here these guys
are disciples but they weren't saved they were basically in church they're
part of the church disciple is someone who's a follower or a learner it's
somebody who's learning and so these guys are in church they're they're
following Christ they think but they don't even know whether there is a Holy
Ghost they don't even know the details about that and they are not
saved now this is a great lesson right here that we shouldn't just assume
that anybody who goes to church is just saved automatically a lot of times
people have shown up at our church and they said oh yeah I've been a Baptist
my whole life and you look at the way they're dressed and they're dressed
in really nice clothing and they look like they're ready for church and
that they grew up in church and they sing all the hymns but then you
ask them a question like do you know for sure if you died today you go to
heaven they don't know or you ask them something else and they don't have
a clue so you don't always want to just assume that people are safe you
know whenever there are visitors here we always like to ask them if they
know for sure that they're going to heaven if they know that they're
saved because if they're not I want to give them the gospel so that's what
Paul's doing here he runs into these people he starts to talk to them and
it becomes obvious that these people are not saved they don't they don't
understand anything because here's the thing they said we don't even know
whether the Holy Ghost exists okay is that I mean if they had really
been listening to John the Baptist's preaching that's what he preached
about all the time you look at all of John the Baptist's preaching that we
see in Scripture he mentions the Holy Ghost over and over and over again he
said what's the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost is basically the third part of the
Godhead as the Bible calls it the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and
so they say we don't even know if there is a Holy Ghost basically they
don't even really know the Old Testament either okay and they
definitely don't know John's preaching and so they thought their disciples but
unfortunately they're not saved and so Paul is going to give them the
gospel in verse 4 it says then said Paul John verily baptized as they
brought up John he says John verily baptized with the baptism of
repentance saying unto the people that they should believe on him which
should come after him that is on Christ Jesus when they heard this
they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus so because these people
were not saved when they got baptized they got baptized again after they
were saved okay because baptism comes after salvation acts 837 you don't have
to turn there but a guy asked a question hey see here's water what
does hinder me to be baptized what stopped me from being baptized Philip
said to him if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest and he
answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is Son of God so if you
haven't believed on the Lord Jesus Christ you're not qualified to be
baptized if you have believed on Jesus Christ you are qualified to be baptized
and so these people had been baptized but they weren't saved and so after they
got saved they got baptized again now a lot of people got baptized as a child
but then they grew up and got saved well they need to get baptized again
because they didn't the first time they just got wet you know and I've
gotten wet many times I've taken baths I've gone swimming I've you know
dunked underwater in many different occasions but that's not baptized the
scriptural baptism takes place after salvation and so that was what was
going on here now what was with that question have you received the Holy Ghost
since he believed a lot of people teach a false doctrine that basically you
don't get the Holy Spirit the moment that you're saved it's
something that you get later okay well here's the thing if you if you
study the Bible okay well look at John 7 we'll start there we'll just
look at a few places on this I don't want to run this point into the
ground but in John chapter 7 he talks about this because in the Old
Testament people were not indwelled by the Holy Spirit okay but in the New
Testament they are in the Old Testament the Spirit of the Lord came
upon people and there was an outward manifestation of that okay they would
either preach a powerful message or they would go out and fight a battle or
do something through the power of the Holy Spirit whether it was King
Saul King David Samson all these different people but in the New
Testament the Holy Spirit actually indwells every believer it says in
verse number 38 of John 7 he that believeth on me this is Jesus Christ
speaking as the scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of
living water but this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on
him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus
was not yet glorified so after Jesus Christ was glorified that's when the Holy
Ghost was given go to John 20 just flip over there if you wish John 20
you're in John 7 now after Jesus had died and was buried and rose again
the same day he meets with his disciples still the first day of the
week same day and he comes to them and he says in verse number 21 then said
Jesus to them again this is after he's been glorified he's been resurrected as
glorified form it says then said Jesus to them again peace be unto you
as my father hath sent me even so send I you and when he had said this
he breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost so this
is where they received the Holy Ghost after Jesus was glorified right but then
in Acts chapter 1 just a page to the right in your Bible he says unto them
in verse number four and being assembled together with them commanded
them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of
the Father which saith ye have heard of me for John truly baptized
with water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days
hence so although they received the Holy Spirit in John chapter 20 the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit which indwells every believer since the
resurrection of Christ they did not basically hadn't received the baptism of
the Holy Spirit they weren't filled with the Holy Spirit now the Bible
commands us to be filled with the Holy Spirit so obviously that's not
something that's automatic when you're saved he said to people that are
already saved be filled with the Spirit now if you're saved today you
have the Holy Spirit living inside of you because the Bible says in Romans
chapter 8 if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his the
Bible says that Christ is in you if you're saved okay so there's no
question about that if you're saved tonight if you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit dwells and lives inside you that's why when
you open the Bible and read it you can understand it that's the Holy
Spirit that gives you the ability to understand the Bible the Holy Spirit is
what it guides you into all truth okay but that doesn't mean that you're
filled with the Spirit being filled with the Spirit is something that could be
today I might be filled with the Spirit tomorrow I'm not okay because if
you remember King Saul he had the Spirit of the Lord upon him then he got
into sin Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul not talking about the
indwelling talking about the power of the Holy Spirit which is the outward
manifestation okay for example and you know I hope I'm just trying to make
this as understandable as I can tonight that's my goal for example I've heard
preachers get up and preach okay and they preached a powerful sermon in the
power of the Holy Spirit I mean they preached and I mean it was powerful and
then I've seen that same preacher begin to drift into sin or begin to
yeah just you know live in the flesh and I've seen that same preacher get up
and preach the same type of sermon he's yelling just as much you know it but
something's missing the power is missing you know and it was just not
the same because God's Spirit okay God's power it comes upon men when
they preach it and when you're out soul-winning same thing you know when
you're out soul-winning you want to pray that you'd be filled with the
Spirit and that God will use you to get people saved and that God's Spirit
will come upon you that's what the disciples you say well how do I know
whether I'm filled with the Spirit well some of the evidence is in the
Bible being filled with the Spirit is that they spake the Word of God with
boldness for example if I'm listening to a preacher preach right and he's
yelling and hollering okay but let's say he's holding back you know he's
afraid to offend so maybe he's leaving stuff out and you can tell what
he's about you know you ever listen to a preacher preach and he's about to
say something you know decides not to go there because of the fact that he's
just scared to say it you know he's not filled with the Spirit if he's trimming
the message and you know because one of the evidences of being filled with
Spirit is boldness now boldness is simply means courage that would be the
word that we would probably use say bravery the opposite of boldness
would be being timid or fearful and so if you see a guy get up in the
pulpit he's just totally scared to death and and he will not say what
needs to be said or somebody who's afraid that let's say they're out
soul-winding and they're afraid to tell people the truth they're afraid to step
on their toes you know that person is not filled with the Holy Spirit
another evidence that you're filled with the Holy Spirit is when you're
singing the right music you know the Bible says be filled with the
Spirit speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord another evidence that you're
filled with the Spirit is when you're filled with the Word of God because
the Bible equates being filled with the Spirit in Ephesians 5 18 with the
Word of Christ dwelling rich richly in you and all with all wisdom in
Colossians 3 16 so when you're filled with the Word and when you're
when when the Word of God is what's on your mind and you're meditating on
it day and night and when the music that's in your heart and coming
out of your mouth is Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and when you go
to preach the Word of God whether it's at the door or whether it's to an
unsaved person or whether it's behind the pulpit you have boldness you're not
you don't have because the Bible says God has not given us the spirit of
fear but a power and of love and of a sound mind so when you're fearful
you're not filled with the Spirit when you're singing along with all the
worldly garbage that the music the music industry puts out today you're
not filled with the Spirit if you don't know your Bible and the Bible is not
in your head and you don't have verses going through your mind and you're
not thinking on God's Word you're not filled with the Spirit these are some of
the signs and evidences that you're filled with the Spirit it's not just
well he's yelling he's filled with the Spirit no he's preaching and he started
yelling you know I've heard some sermons where the pastor didn't yell
at all but it's a powerful message a powerful sermon and so that's it don't
don't just think that it's an outward always something that you can see you
know you don't always know who's filled with the Holy Spirit but you can see
the boldness you can see that the kind of songs and harmonies that are in their
life you can see their knowledge and and and meditation level upon the Word
of God and those are going to be some signs that you're filled Spirit
now this is not some spooky thing of people falling down and barking like a
dog and rolling around is there a lot of you know movements out there like
that and you know it sounds weird but it's really out there there are people
out there who you know fall on the ground you know always filled with the
Spirit you'll never see anything like that in the Bible in the Bible when
people are filled the Spirit they're getting people saved they're singing
songs they're preaching sermons I mean they're not doing just strange
weird things just to show that they're filled the Spirit they're gonna
gyrate and and flop around and all this kind of stuff so don't get
confused with that now it says here that Paul asked them you know have you
received the Holy Ghost since he believed now what did he mean by that
well first of all he might have just been tested he might have just been
testing their knowledge just seeing if they even understood what salvation
was maybe he was just checking them to see what they believed or what what
they were doing another thing he could have been referring to is that you'll
see throughout the book of Acts a lot of times where the Apostles would
actually lay their hands on people and pray for them that they would be
filled with the Spirit that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon them just
pray for them and and this is similar to the fact that you know when it when
a preacher is sent out of a church basically the pastor or maybe the
deacons or maybe the men of the church will often lay their hands upon
that man and pray for him that he would be filled with the Spirit that
he would preach with boldness that he would be empowered to do what God has
called him to do you know when I was sent here to start this church you
know my pastor prayed for me the church prayed for me I've been in churches
before where I actually prayed for someone who was being sent out and just
just as a man in the church I just prayed for them that God would fill
them with boldness and fill them with the Spirit of God and these
Apostles were men that were definitely filled with the Spirit and they
prayed in the power of the Holy Ghost and basically these people that they
laid their hands on you know God answered their prayer and God gave them a
spiritual blessing and we see that throughout the book of Acts it's not that
those people were not previously in dwell they were already in dwell the
moment that they believed but it was just that the Spirit of Lord would come
upon them that they would be filled with the Spirit and so forth and
everyone should be filled with the Spirit you know and people get
complicated about this doctrine but but let me just break it down to you
the Holy Spirit lives inside of you okay but does he dominate you know are
you filled with the Spirit or is it just you know I go to church once a
week I dust off the Bible I come to church but I'm filled with sports you
know I'm filled with hot and those aren't necessarily bad things but
that's not what we should be filled with and when you're just fit I mean
look if you ever run into somebody and they're just filled with the Spirit
of sports basically that's the guy who that's all he wants to talk about
right have you ever known people they just love to talk about sports that's
all they talk about and that's all they everything they wear and and they
could tell you every statistic and they could name every player and they're
just you know that's what it is to be filled with the Spirit except when
that's how it is with the things of God we're basically just all your
thoughts throughout the day have something to do with you know you're
thinking about Bible verses you're looking at everything through the lens
of God's Word you're meditating on his word day and night you want to go
out and win souls you you desire to do what pleases God and and and that's
what you live for that's what you eat breathe and sleep the things of God
that's being filled with the Spirit now is everybody going to be filled
with the Spirit you know 24-7 absolutely not every single day we have
to basically you know mortify the flesh and walk in the Spirit okay and
put on the new man and so some days you're going to be more filled with
the Spirit than others but then in general a preacher or somebody that God's
using you know the Spirit of Lord can be upon him in mighty power but if he
lets sin into his life it's going to be the power is going to depart God's
Spirit is going to depart not the indwelling of it he'll still be
indwelled but he will not have the Holy Ghost upon him he will not be
filled with the Spirit and those two things go hand in hand and are
actually used interchangeably in the Bible I proved that in another sermon
how being filled with the Spirit and having the Spirit of the Lord upon you are
basically used interchangeably and that's what's going on here in this
passage because it says when they heard this when they heard what look at
verse 5 when they heard what what he preached in verse 4 John barely
baptized with the baptism of repentance saying unto the people that they should
turn from all their sins in order to be saved is that what he said he
said well John preached repentance yeah he did preach repentance and you
know what he said that they should believe on him which should come
after because you know what they needed to repent of their false
religion he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees because he was
baptizing people he saw the Pharisees and the Sadducees he said they needed
to repent because he's basically saying you can't still be a Pharisee if you're
going to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you need to turn from your
false Pharisee religion and basically receive the gospel because the
Pharisees did not believe the gospel he said repent and believe the
gospel same thing with the Sadducees they did not believe the Bible they
didn't believe the Old Testament the Pharisees didn't believe the Old
Testament they had to repent of a false man-made religion and believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ they had to turn from believing in man's word and man's
wisdom to God's Word and the Lord Jesus Christ you say well they didn't
know Jesus Christ was but he said that they should believe on him that
should come after him he was preaching before Jesus came and people
say well people in the Old Testament they were not saved by looking forward
to Jesus well these people were I mean for six months John the Baptist
preached that they should believe on him that should come after had they
seen him yet did they know what his name was yet did they know that his
name was Jesus yet they were still saved by believing on him that should
come after that is on Christ Jesus so are you gonna tell me that those
people were but that the people like Abraham and David were not saved by
believing on him which should come after that is on Christ Jesus it's
always been salvation by faith and so the Bible says here that the
repentance that John preached was not repent of all your sins and clean up
your life okay that is a good thing to do and he did preach about that but
when it comes to salvation he was preaching that they should believe on
Christ that was the repentance repent of what they believe not repent of
their lifestyle and so it says when they heard that when they heard that
message about believing on Jesus Christ they were baptized in the name of the
Lord Jesus so they got baptized again after they got saved even though they've
been baptized earlier by John the Baptist now a lot of people will make
a really big deal about this where it says they were baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus go to Matthew 28 keep your finger here at acts 19 go to
Matthew 28 Matthew 28 is of course the Great Commission where Jesus is
telling his disciples to go and teach all nations and he says in verse 19 go
ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost now that's pretty clear isn't it
he says baptize them in the name of the Father Son the Holy Ghost who's
ever been here when we baptized somebody before probably everybody yes okay and
if you notice that we say I baptized you in the name of the Father and the
Holy Ghost amen and then we dunk them okay and it's in the name of the Father
Son the Holy Ghost you know why because that's what Jesus commanded
right here in Matthew 28 didn't he now a lot of people will say well
wait a minute in Acts 19 it says they're baptized in the name of the
Lord Jesus and there are people that are called apostolic okay have you
ever heard of that denomination apostolic and they'll say you have to
be baptized in Jesus name only not in the name of the Father and Son the
Holy Ghost now is that a little strange since it says right here in
Matthew 28 okay and so they'll say to you they've I've had apostolics
tell me when I was out stolen they told me that I have not been
scripturally baptized and I'm not saved because I haven't been baptized
in the name of Jesus I was baptized in the name of the Father the Son
the Holy Ghost here's a newsflash apostolic guess what the son's name
is Jesus but they didn't state that name when they didn't know come on but
people there are so many bizarre doctrines out there and this is one of
them this and they call it the Jesus only movement what is that
supposed to mean you know you got the father and basically they
deny the Trinity they say that there's no such thing as the
Father the Son the Holy Ghost three and one like it says in first
John five seven they say it's just Jesus okay he's he's everything
okay well that's just I guess playing some kind of a weird word game or
something I mean we know that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh
okay but there is the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost these
three are one it's one God in three and three person personal
manifestations the Father the Son the Holy Ghost I mean it is
what it is and so we baptize people in the name of the Father
and Son the Holy Ghost but but here's what's so silly about
this it says they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus
does it say that God told them to baptize people in the name of the Lord Jesus?
no but Jesus himself out of his own mouth said I'm personally telling you to baptize
people in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost so let's say these were
contradictory which they're not because it's so dumb because obviously Jesus is the name of
the Son so that would be included in Matthew 28 what should we trust a statement out of
Jesus's mouth or just a story about this is what they did now just because Paul did something
does that make it right is everything Paul did right no because the Bible records Paul sinning
the Bible records great men of God sinning okay so we always want to start with the clear
teaching of what Jesus said or the clear teaching of what the scripture says the Bible
says not just a story from the Bible about what someone did now was Paul right to baptize in
the name of the Lord Jesus absolutely because it's it's the same thing there is no difference
okay but we want to go with the clear statement all the time here's the thing
whenever you have a clear statement in scripture nothing in the Bible can ever contradict that
and if you think it contradicts that just means that you're misunderstanding it
so there's no contradiction here it's the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and that's the way
we do it because that's what Jesus told us to do it says in verse 6 when Paul had laid his hands
upon them okay this is that thing I explained to you a minute ago how he would lay hands on
people it says the Holy Ghost came on them now this is not just being indwelled by the
spirit but they actually have the Holy Ghost upon them and they spake with tongues and
prophesied you say what does it mean to speak with tongues well back in acts 2 we learned
that's just speaking in a foreign language they basically spoke in a language that they did
not know they spoke in a language that was unknown to them what was the purpose
of speaking in a language that was unknown to them well in the book of acts chapter 2
it was in order to preach the gospel unto someone that needed to hear the gospel in their
own language and there was nobody there in that language to give it to them so in acts 2
God performed a miracle that basically someone who was unsaved and they spoke a foreign language
the disciples were able to just miraculously give them the gospel in their own language
and that's all it ever is okay and it's the same thing here these people spoke in a foreign
language you know you say why did they speak with well we don't know it doesn't really
maybe there were other people in their entourage or other people in their group and they started
you know witnessing unto them or because it says they speak with tongues what was the per what
were they saying in those tongues okay it doesn't say they just spoke with tongues just for
the sake of because they felt like it it says they speak with tongues and prophesied
and what does prophesy mean a lot of people wrongfully believe that the word prophesy means
to predict the future that is not what prophesy means because even in proverbs chapter 31
where a mother is just teaching her son how to live his life it's called the prophecy that
his mother taught him prophecy is simply just preaching it's just preaching God's word
and whenever the bible uses the word prophecy that's what it is now some some of God's word
being preached can contain predictions you know if I'm preaching and I'm preaching and I tell you
that you know one day there's going to be a great white throne of judgment you know I'm
talking about future events you know and all the dead will stand before God at that white
throne of judgment but telling the future is not prophesying prophesying is preaching which
could contain you know prophetic as it were passages but basically they basically preached
in another language and probably because there were some unsaved people in their group that
needed to hear the gospel and they preached unto them and that was evidence that they were
filled with the Holy Spirit that's why some pastor who doesn't go soul winning I already
know he's not filled with the Holy Spirit because every time people are filled with the Holy
Spirit in the Bible they've spake the word of God with boldness they preach the gospel
they get people saved so some guy who sits in his office all day or or whatever and he
doesn't go out and win souls to Christ I already know he's not filled with spirit
but it says in verse 7 and all the men were about 12 and he went into the synagogue and
spake boldly Paul did for the space of three months disputing and persuading the things
concerning the kingdom of God so he didn't just go in there and say hey I'm so glad we all
agree on everything he went in there and disputed some things he went in there and persuaded
he was preaching some things that did not fly with the people that he was preaching to
and it says in verse 9 but when divers were hardened you know some people became very
hardened to the gospel and believed not but spake evil of that way before the multitude so
they try to give him a bad reputation by telling everybody bad things about him
he departed from them and separated the disciples disputing daily in the school of one
tyrannus so he goes from preaching and arguing and disputing in the synagogue for three months
they he basically gets time to leave there because basically too much opposition too many
people saying bad things about so he says okay well I'm going to go over here and he goes to
the school of tyrannus and he's basically disputing with them now let me ask you this
the people that he was preaching to in the synagogue were they all saved people he's just
preaching to like a church no that's where he was going to win souls he was basically going
in there they're practicing judaism or various other religions it's just a place where a lot
of people had gathered to hear him and he's preaching there to the unsaved and he's disputing
with them and trying to get them saved that goes sour he goes to another place where he
disputes at a school the school of tyrannus okay now here's the interesting fact about this
did you know that this verse right here acts 8 acts 19 9 is the only time in the entire bible
that the word school is mentioned did you know that the only time in the whole bible
that the word school is mentioned and what's funny is that i've often get uh i often get
advertisements in the mail telling me that it's a command of god that i start a christian school
and i get these things from a.c.e and it's telling me that god is commanding me to start
a christian school now i'm having trouble finding that verse because the only school i see
here is is uh tyrannosaurus school and you know and basically it was a bunch of unbelievers
and he was going into that school disputing their false doctrine disputing the lies that
they believe it says he was disputing daily in the school of one terrain he's preaching
the gospel trying to get unsaved people to believe on christ now here's the thing hey
i've preached in a school before brother davis preached in school we preached at south mountain
community college before okay and you say what and boy and let me tell you something
i was disputing in there i went into south i've been in i've been in there to three
three different times brother dave's been in there and we've gone in there and basically uh
preached the word of god to these students and let me tell you something we didn't hold
anything back because that's the only way that we know how to preach we don't we don't have
this switch where we can just turn the truth on and off you know we don't go in there and
and i remember i was at a church and they were doing a school ministry a public school ministry
where they were going to go into the public schools and preach but the public school told them
you cannot mention the name of jesus
they said you can't mention this you can't mention that you can't mention this you
can't make that and not even the name of jesus could be mentioned and you know what they did
oh okay okay we'll we'll cooperate because we really want to get in there and do this
can you imagine you think paul would have gone for that he would have said
forget forget this school i'm going to tyrannous school where i can go say what i want
and so basically we should never compromise the truth and and and hold back our preaching
if they don't like it over here shake the dust off your feet and preach over there
we've been in nursing homes where we had great nursing home ministries but then they come
to us and tell us you got to change your preaching and we say see ya because we don't
know how to change this is who we are because we're real this is who we are this is what
we believe we don't get up and just you know pretend and put on a show okay we preach from our
heart the word of god and so when we go we went into that south mountain community college
and god willing we'll be there in the future we go in there and we preach god's word and
it's an opportunity to get people saved last time i was in there i got somebody saved
you know and it's you know a lot of people are hardened but thank god there are a lot of
people in there that are very receptive to the gospel believe it or not in in this uh community
college and so hey if i if they'll let me come in there i'll do it and you say well i don't
think you should be i don't think you should be preaching in a community college that isn't right
hey paul did it right here and he had great results with it everywhere he went he went into
the synagogue which was not a church he went in there it's basically a school i mean it's
basically a uh some kind of a convocation of people getting learning and so i'll go in and
preach anywhere i'll preach anywhere as long as i'm allowed to say whatever i want
as long as i can be filled with the spirit while i'm in there and just preach from the heart
and preach in the power of the holy spirit i'll preach anywhere that that will allow me to
and if they won't allow me to then you know what you know where my pulpit is it's every
doorstep in phoenix arizona that's my pulpit and you say i wish i could get behind the pulpit
and preach you need to get on the doorstep and do some preaching you need to hit the streets
and get your shoes dirty out there knocking doors and winning souls to christ that's
where you learn how to preach my friend i was telling brother dave when he was first learning
how to preach i told brother dave i said this is how you preach you know what you do on soul
wanting you know for 10 minutes i said i said okay you know you do that you know that 20
minute sermon that you gave or whatever explaining the gospel you're basically expounding the word
of god to people you're explaining it to them i said you basically do that exact same thing
behind the pulpit except you just do other subjects you know besides just salvation you expound
explain other things and you gotta be a little louder you know and you gotta you gotta keep
people's attention so they don't you know fall asleep on you yeah but anyway you gotta you
gotta be a little more animated you gotta be a little more interesting because you're speaking
for an hour okay whereas at the door you might not necessarily be speaking out and it's
one-on-one so you have their undivided attention because you're talking to them
uh just softly because it's just you and them but that's really what preaching is let's go
through this so we got uh the command here to have a christian school everybody see that in
verse nine that's why we're starting a christian school and it's funny because christian schools
literally if you go to a church that has a christian school the buildings for the christian
school are like bigger than the church building at the time and the staff that works for the
christian school there's more of them on staff for the school than there is for the church
and the pastor spends more hours per week on the christian school than he does on the church
and i remember when i when i was thinking about starting a church you know i thought i was
gonna have a christian school because you know i grew up going to christian school and
every church has a christian school and it's a command of god right you know so i'm gonna
and i remember just dreading it i don't have a christian school i want to deal with
everybody's brat and so and thank exactly and thank god i finally figured out in the bible
that the word school is not even mentioned which tells me they're getting it from somewhere
other than the bible and they say well the bible tells you yeah it tells parents to
teach their children i found that passage but no the bible does not command christian school
christian school is never mentioned in the book of acts and in the book of acts you see them
mentioning all the duties of the deacons and they're they're taking care of widows
and they're preaching the gospel and they're going soul winning and they're preaching the word
but no mention of everybody dropping off their kid you know at the christian school so that
they could be taught so that all the moms could go to work and all the kids be taught in the
christian school for eight hours that is not a scriptural concept i don't believe in that i
homeschool my children i'm not starting a christian school you say well i'm looking for
a church uh with a christian school well find another one there's plenty of independent
baptists around here that have christian schools and you can go to that church because they
they'll make you go to the church and make you tithe and everything in order to put your kid
in so that's fine i don't well some of them have that policy some of them don't but either way
uh we're not having a christian school because it's not biblical and to say it's biblical is to
add to god's word so don't add to it and lie about it if you want to have a christian
school just say i'm having one because i want one but don't lie to me and say well the
bible told me to have a god god told me to have this school well you better name it
tyrannosaurus baptist academy then because that is the only verse that mentions the worst
school in the whole bible so anyway let's keep reading here it says in verse 10 and this
continued by the space of two years so that all they which dwelt in asia heard the word of the
lord jesus both jews and greeks isn't that great this is the kind of action that we need
in our church where we could say hey two years from now everybody in the whole phoenix area
heard the gospel everybody in the old maricopa county that's some great soul winning that's
what these guys were all about they did it now you know their city was not anywhere near or even
you know their area there was not as big as our area because big mega cities did not even exist
back then i don't know if you know that did you know that when our country was founded
did you know that the biggest cities in america were pretty much philadelphia and new york and
you know how many people lived in those cities somebody guess great big huge city those were
the big cities in 1776 when they signed the declaration of independence philadelphia and
new york how about how many people well it's more than that that's really small what's that
16 000 people 16 18 000 people isn't that amazing though i mean our city has four
million in the surrounding area you know if you do a radius around our church the greater
phoenix area okay let's think of a city that has about 16 000 people in it you know globe
if you count all the little towns around globe like globe miami claypool superior that little
zone right there all of that adds up to about 16 000 do you consider that a real big city
no way okay i mean it's like guadalupe it probably has what 16 000 people in it i don't
know the exact population but i would guess that guadalupe probably has 16 000 people so that was a
big city back then so the bottom line is that they didn't have as many people around but
you know we have a big job but you know what we also have cars we have other ability and we
have a big church here that we're already starting with and so we should be able to do it you
know maybe not in two years maybe give us 10 but we'll get it done and it says in uh
act chapter 19 here they all heard the word of god in that whole area that was their goal
and how did they do it you know well he was disputing in tyrannous school he was disputing
in the synagogue and also the bible tells us in the next chapter he claims that he went from
house to house in the next chapter in this town ephesus he went from house to house uh
winning souls and that's part of why we do it and then it says in verse number uh 11 and
special miracles by the hands of paul so that from his body were brought under the sick
handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went
out of them now you say well pastor anderson why don't you do that you know why can't you
just take off your tie and send it home with somebody and they lay it on somebody and they
get healed because of the fact that the bible says that special miracles do you see that
is this a normal thing oh yeah every preacher every believer can do this
every pentecostal preacher can do this right no it says it was a special miracle now the
reason why is because it says in matthew chapter 10 that when jesus sent out his 12 apostles
he gave them power against unclean spirits and to heal all manner of sicknesses so the
apostles were given special powers by jesus where they could perform miracles and where they
could heal people and cast out spirits okay the same power was given unto paul because paul was
an apostle and paul even was trying to explain to people who were questioning whether he was
really an apostle and even today some people question whether paul was an apostle you know
false teachers obviously and when they question them he says hey the signs of an apostle were
done among you he did these miracles that were basically a special thing for the apostles you say
are there apostles today no because paul made it clear in first corinthians 15 that he was the last
of the apostles he said that he was he said that last of all me for i am the least the apostles
and i'm not worthy to be called an apostle he said i was like one born out of due time
because of the fact that he was the last person that saw you know the resurrected jesus christ
he uh was a witness of that and he basically was given the powers associated with being an
apostle and so this is not a normal occurrence this was a special miracle that was done by paul
but in verse 13 some other people decide well hey we can do this too if paul can do it
we're going to try to do the same thing so this is a really funny story i think it says
then certain of the vagabond jews exorcists took upon them to call over them which had
evil spirits the name of the lord jesus saying we adjure you by jesus whom paul preaches
so these seven guys decide that they're gonna they're gonna be an exorcist and they're gonna
basically you know go into business here casting out spirits and we're gonna do this and if paul
can do it we'll just we'll just say the same thing he says he said it was in the name of
jesus let's do the same thing so they basically go into this guy they go into this house
where this guy is possessed with the devil you say well how do you know if somebody's possessed
well in the bible when people are possessed they're basically losing control falling on the ground
saying strange things that don't make any sense and and it's like there another voice is is
talking and another person talking through them and a lot of people today that are classified as
insane are actually demon possessed is what it is you know i remember there was a guy in
sacramento that would walk around with a cd in his hand and he would scream at his own and
cuts out his own reflection in the cd okay that guy was probably demon possessed okay
and and there are a lot you know there are a lot of people today who are demon possessed
and it's usually people that are just classified as psycho or or evil or like like
charles manson or something i mean he's definitely possessed there are a lot of different
people like that well they go into this house and the seven guys these seven guys are going to
try this so they walk in and say you know we are journey uh in the name of jesus whom
by jesus whom paul preaches and it says in verse 15 and the evil spirit answered and said
jesus i know and paul i know but who are you he said i what i know jesus and i know paul
but who are you and basically this guy just starts just beating these guys and just tearing
them up i mean he starts just ripping their clothes off and attacking them and and hitting
them and kicking them and and basically these guys run out of the house just beat up and naked
i mean just literally just tore up by one guy okay because i you probably had some kind of
supernatural strength from having these these devils and demons inside of him and so he basically
just beats these guys and throw so the but here's the moral of the story there's a lot of
people today who think that they're the apostle paul don't they and they're you know in the name
of jesus i command you to come out of here you know and they do all these things and slap
people on the forehead and it's it's all fake it's all a big show and these guys when they
tried to do it for real it didn't work you know so this isn't just something that anybody
can just walk up and do and be able to say to me why don't you cash out because i told
people about situations where i was confronted with somebody that was possessed because i could
tell they were possessed because like i've had situations where i know i was confronted with
somebody who was possessed because i'd be talking to somebody and they were really normal and
everything was fine all of a sudden they just snapped and started saying really weird things
you want to hear some cool stories about honestly though i've had things like that i mean i
remember one time this guy walked up to me and he had a shirt that said jesus christ jubilee
2000 so he's wearing a shirt about jesus and literally just after talking to the guy the guy
was blaspheming jesus christ saying jesus blankety blank christ and i mean just saying all kinds of
blasphemy and that the bible wasn't true and he just snapped and there wasn't really a human
explanation for it you know i was preaching the word of god to him he snapped this i was talking
to a devout catholic man one time and he was just really calm he's telling me how he worships
the he said he said i believe in jesus but i also pray to the virgin mary and believe that mary
is my savior okay and so i'm trying to show him the truth about that i'm showing him the scriptures
and he's just very calm very mellow telling me he knows he's going to heaven because he
trusts in what the church is teaching him he's very devout catholic all of a sudden he just
snapped and someone else from our church was with me okay they could verify he snapped his eyes
became bloodshot and he started screaming and he literally screamed and said i can see the future
i can see the future and he said i can see it for me and he named all the unsaved family
members because some of the people in this family were saved some were not he was not
he named all the family members that were nice i can see the future for me and for him
and he said it's hell it's hell and just ran out of the room now that was really strange
because this guy a minute ago is telling me he's going to heaven and he loves mary and he loves
jesus but and the guy just snapped very strange you know you said you know for sure that's i don't
know for sure maybe maybe i don't know what the explanation was but i would say that that's
probably somebody who's who's possessed with the devil i don't know for sure another time my dad
was uh was he gave the gospel to a child on his uh street uh when he was younger and he gave
the gospel to a child that was maybe like a 10 or 11 year old and he got this kid saved
and he was getting some neighbor kids saved and he was bringing neighbor kids to church with them
and one of the parents got really mad about it they got mad about the fact that he was uh
you know getting people saved and bringing them to church and so the guy yelled at them
and he said to my dad he said i hear you andy anderson now my dad's name is not andy
okay my dad's name is raymond but his dad's name is andy okay his dad's name is actually dwayne but
he always went by andy he never went by dwayne just because he didn't really like that name
apparently but he always went by andy and so this guy just yelled i don't even think that
this guy knew my dad's dad but he just yelled at my dad i hear you andy anderson i hear you
andy anderson then several years later my dad in a totally different city is talking to a totally
different person basically that was that did know him and and and they did know his family and his
dad everything he's talking to someone totally different and this person was saying that hell
was not real that hell was not eternal that it was just annihilation and he was showing
scriptures on the fact that hell really was eternal and this person turned and said to him
and said i hear you andy anderson i hear you andy anderson so that was kind of weird
you know so i'm not up here trying to say i can prove to you that i've had all these experiences
you know maybe i have maybe i haven't that guy with the cd though that was pretty convincing
but anyway i don't know the point is i'm not up here to try to prove to you that i've seen
this or i've seen stuff that would make the hair on your neck stand up i'm just trying to tell
you that you know these things are real you know have i are there other explanations for it
as possible but people are possessed with devils but why didn't i say you know mr jesus christ do
you believe 2000 you know come out of him thou unclean devil because i'm not i don't have
the power to do that i don't want to end up like this guy you know what i mean especially
because i didn't have six guys backing me up you know what i mean it was just me i don't want
him to just you know but anyway another thing to point and i'm running out of time i'm not even
going to be able to finish the whole chapter but another thing i want to point out is that
these devils knew who paul was there's so much in this chapter but notice they said paul i know
so i wonder this does the devil know you because you know why the devil knew paul because
paul was getting all kinds of people saved and doing everything for god you know if you're a
christian who doesn't really get anybody saved doesn't really do anything for god the devil
probably doesn't even he doesn't know who you are he doesn't care but the ones that he
really wants to attack are the ones that are doing the most and paul was doing the most
that's why they definitely knew who paul was and so uh when you are doing a lot for god
just expect you know you're going to be under attack the devil's going to attack you just
like here they knew paul and they uh basically did not know these other guys who were phonies
but uh just quickly i'll just blow through the rest of the chapter since we got to go but
it says uh in verse 17 this was known to all the jews and greeks also dwelling at
Ephesus and fear fell on them all and the name of the lord jesus was magnified and many
that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds now does it say that all of the ones
who believed came and confessed and show their deeds no because a lot of people believe on christ
that doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to show up to church and and make that
public profession of faith and and show their works and show their deeds but many did
and look what they did it says many of them also which used curious arts translation witchcraft
that's what curious arts are at your ouija board your witchcraft your palm reader your crystal ball
and it says they brought their books together and burned them before all men and they counted
the price of them and found it 50 000 pieces of silver you say how much money is that well
i don't know exactly how much money that is but how much is a one ounce silver coin
anybody 35 bucks okay so a 35 dollar one ounce coin we could guess maybe when they say 35
pieces of silver i'm sorry uh 50 000 50 000 pieces of silver we can guess you know one ounce coin
could be an example of that okay well do the math what is it yeah did you hear that one
point wouldn't it be well what 1.75 million is that right 1.75 million somebody help me out
does that sound right yeah so that's a lot of money so they brought millions of dollars
of witchcraft books and burned them you say why didn't they sell that stuff on ebay or so they
didn't have ebay back then okay no because they don't want someone else to use it you
know if you have some wicked book you don't want to sell it to somebody off oh you know
you listen to this ozzy osbourne here you can have it you know oh you take metallica you
know if you want to get rid of stuff because it's satanic burn it you know burn it try or
break you know take a hammer smash it break it burn it and you say uh wait a minute is this like
the nazis burning books and here's what's funny whenever you do something a lot of times
when you're doing the right thing people will try to lump you in with somebody else
like oh you're burning books you must be like adolf hitler because you burn books you know or
or oh you believe that uh you believe that birth control is wrong you're a you must be a catholic
you know or oh you believe that uh that you know you must be this you're this and they always
want to put these labels on you and put you in a little box like this is who you are oh
you believe in the constitution the bill of rights and you're you're for the fourth
amendment you're a liberal you know people always tell me how liberal i am
who thinks i'm liberal but literally people what
what you know nobody you know people literally accuse me of being liberal
because i stand up for the fourth amendment you know oh you had you had a problem with the
police you're liberal you're left wing you know or you believe in 9 11 truth you're a
you're a far left extremist or you know you uh you know they always want to just oh you
don't vaccinate your kids you're a hippie that's what they call they call my wife a hippie
i've been called a hippie i mean look at me oh you have a beard you're a hippie i've been told
that too so i've been called a hippie a liberal a left-winger you know a right-wing
extremists a nazi i've been called the taliban because my wife doesn't wear pants that makes
me a member of the taliban i'm osama bin laden okay so basically people are always going to
accuse you of stuff like this what does the bible say about burning books
if it's a satanic book light the sucker on fire and you say but aren't you afraid
somebody's gonna think you're a nazi i don't know i'm not afraid of anything
god's not giving us the spirit of fear and so if you got harry potter
you know now that we bring it home to the reality here if you've got your harry potter and
your and your witchcraft whatever i was in the bookstore and they had a whole section at the
bookstore called paranormal teen romance that was a whole section not a book a whole aisle
paranormal teen romance teens that are having romantic interactions with
non-humans vampires and and goblins and werewolves and aliens and it's like a whole
section that somebody needs to light that whole aisle on fire and i'm not sitting don't go out
and do it i'm not whoa there tiger i'm not saying that we should go out and do it but
you know first buy it buy it and then bring it home and then we'll light it up no i'm just
kidding but anyway if you do have stuff in your house that's bad you know throw it into
the fireplace or smash it up get rid of it you don't want to have bad stuff in your house
and you know you say well i paid good money for that stuff you know i paid a lot of money
for that and i you know if your if your house is filled with booze and alcohol you know dump
that stuff out you know i paid for it you know these people were willing to sacrifice
a lot of money they'd invested a ton of money in all their witchcraft books and yet they
trust me and you know what when i got rid of all my bad music that i listened to as a teenager
i had spent probably a thousand bucks on music easily you know if you took all the cds and
records and tapes and you know who knows what i'm talking about you've spent that kind of money
on music thousand bucks it doesn't take long to spend a thousand bucks on music
you know 16 bucks a pop you know if you if you've got what what 60 if you bought 60 cds
at full price that's a thousand bucks you know if you're paying 16 bucks a pop right
am i somebody somebody help me out on my math my math correct yes it is correct okay
so if i you know buy it hey hey include the tax buddy it's gonna be a thousand bucks and i
had a lot more than 60 cds i had records i had tapes i had videos
and i threw that stuff in the trash you know i sold some of it when i was not as right with
god but toward the end i was thrown in the trash when i realized that that was what i was
supposed to be doing so i threw that stuff away but anyway uh i'm just going to summarize the
rest of the chapter basically for the rest of the chapter the whole city just gets in an
uproar because all the people who make the idols all the actual manufacturers of the idols
of diana okay and so did you know that you have a bible name it's not exactly a bible character
that we want to be like no i'm just kidding but anyway just kidding but this uh they had
this uh idolatry they had a goddess uh called diana and they were literally worshiping this
goddess called diana and there were all these different manufacturers that made all the little
statues and they were making all kinds of money selling it now by the way there's a big religion
industry today you know just selling religious stuff not for spiritual reasons but just to make
money okay and so they're basically just selling all these idols selling all these metal statues
so all the manufacturers they get together and have a meeting and they say guys we've
got to stop this paul because he's preaching against us and our sales are down in the last
quarter and people aren't buying the idols and not only that but if this continues you know
people may stop worshiping diana altogether and since if ephesus is the hub of diana worship
that's going to affect our tourism because people are traveling to ephesus to worship diana
because we have that big giant image and then we send them a little souvenir image
as they can take home with them a little replica and so we got to stop it so they basically
get this big mob together and they get everybody worked up and they're all shouting and they're
trying to get people arrested and they don't some of them don't even know why they're there
they're always there's always that guy who just sees a bunch of people screaming and he
just grabs a baseball bat and just okay let's what's this find out what this is about later
looks cool so there's always people are just brawlers for no reason and so all these people
are together and they're screaming and yelling great is diana the Ephesians and basically the
law comes in and declares it an unlawful assembly you know and basically disperses the crowd
and paul ends up getting out of there without getting harmed and this guy alexander tries to
speak to him and they they tell him to shut up because he was a jew and they didn't want to hear
him and they just uh were worshiping diana of the Ephesians now here's what's funny who
knows somebody who worships this god diana anybody okay who here worships the lord jesus
christ so isn't it funny how like they're like oh man i'm afraid that people are going to stop
worshiping our goddess well that's what happened because i don't think there's anybody left in the
world who worships this this religion and isn't it interesting how the religions of the world
come and go don't they you know different religions come on the map and they're replaced
by other religions you know but this is the one thing that stays the same for thousands
of years and there's always new religions popping up and old religions kind of disappearing and
you've got we've had a lot of new religions pop up in the 1800s mormonism jehovah's witness
in the early 1900s you know scientology christian science all these false religions are always
popping up and they're always changing even the religion you say well some false religions
have been around a long time like catholicism but catholicism is always changing i mean it
changed it's changed dramatically in the last couple hundred years and every hundred or so
years it changes dramatically islam has not been around that long but it's constantly changing too
you know it keeps getting more peaceful you know it started out really bad no i'm just kidding
it's still bad it's still wicked but anyway the bottom line is this is the rock that will never
move a lot of false religions come and go but uh nobody that you run into has ever heard of
diana unless they know diana here or unless they know some other diana besides the diana in
our church you know nobody even knows who this is who had ever even heard that there was a goddess
called diana before you know i mean well obviously because it's your name
but you know most people have never even heard of this you know and so uh that's the
moral of the story here uh let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer
father thank you so much for this great chapter