Naked Power [Part 2]

Pastor, author and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. I wish I could believe there were no hell because God's so loving. I don't think it's in His heart to send anybody to hell. But if you don't want God, there's a place that's called hell that is separation from God.

People that don't like God and don't love God, why would they want to be with God forever? That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Unlimited as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I'm going to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.

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That's 877-544-4860. Now, more on this later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. You never really stop to think that maybe the reason there's such a thing as counterfeit $20 bills is because a real $20 bill exists and people go to great measures to try to come up with something that looks like it. That maybe in the first place that there were itinerant Jewish exorcists that were wandering around in the first century trying to look like they had special power was that everybody knew there were powers that were at work. Our rationalistic minds in America and Western culture in modern times, we tend to think that the material things are real but the spirit things, that's just all that. That's not the case in the first century and still in most parts of the world in the global south and in much of the eastern world, people assume that no, there's a spiritual realm and there are angels and demons. Let me just say this with regard to demons.

They're just too extreme. Some people act like they don't exist at all and there is no evil. And then there's another extreme, it's like there's a demon behind everything. And I think that for the Christian, the real place is in a dynamic balance of understanding that there's a spiritual battle that's going on but we're not supposed to read the devil into everything or certainly not get fixated on the devil. But here they are in Ephesus and there's this counterfeit that's going on with these so-called sons of the high priest, Sceva. You know what's interesting is that Josephus, the Roman historian that we learn a lot about, we learn from him a lot about the first century and what Judaism looked like and what early Christianity looked like, we learn from this historian Josephus. And he listed somewhere in his writings all the high priests of Israel and Sceva's never mentioned. So scholars are like, you know, Sceva wasn't really a high priest. It's like I think these guys are going around and maybe they had some, maybe their father was some sort of priest or something but they're just, I think they're laying claim to being the sons of a priest to make themselves, it sounds more spiritual. See what would happen is that people who are charlatans, they would just try to use any kind of language that made them seem mystically strong. So they would often use references to names of stuff from the Hebrew scripture. Like we have at least one papyrus that has on there back from this era, somebody who's laying out how they would make an incantation of exorcism based on something using the name of the God of Abraham.

Solomon's name gets mentioned a lot. You know, they're just trying to mix in this, mix in that, anything to make them sound spiritual, powerful. They end up of course in a, not only just a silly way having to run out of the house, but you kind of understand for Jewish men, in Judaism modesty is very, very important and a Jewish man would never be seen even partially unclothed and for them to run out unclothed is especially funny and humiliating.

You know, it's like just for a moment they got to experience, if you really want naked power, here's what it's actually like. So let me tell you about the major issues I think going on with them, the problems for the sons of Sceva, why they really, really messed up. The first is that they thought this is a big, big problem. They thought that the source of the power didn't matter as long as it was power. They thought the source didn't matter.

And they found out it most certainly does. This is a story about people who wanted power, just for power's sake, regardless of where it comes from, as if it didn't matter because all they cared about was being powerful, but they found out it really did matter. You know, this is a very unusual story.

Okay. It's a very unusual story. And one of the things that's really unusual and it's important to know this is that you don't see this kind of thing happening in the New Testament. I mean, there is an instance where the disciples come back to Jesus and they say, you know, there are some demons we couldn't seem to cast out.

And Jesus talks to you and says, well, some go out through prayer and fasting, that's a different discussion. But we had a few instances where it's like some reason the demonic entity is stubborn and the Christian didn't seem to have full sway or power. But normally, no, the whole point of the New Testament is the Christian is a whole different standing and different authority and power. And so demons are subject to Christians.

And that's the truth you need to take away from the New Testament. But in this case, this is really weird that a demon would somehow energize the man that he is oppressing and inhabiting to then become super strong and beat up these guys and send them out of the thing. This is a very unusual story. And I want to point out it's very unusual because if you'd never known a thing about spiritual warfare and you read this story, you're like, well, the last thing I'm going to do is try to cast out a demon because I don't want to get beat up and run out naked. That's not what happens, folks. This is a very unusual story.

And what happened here? I think what happened, because God does this sometimes, is these sons of Sceva, these bogus exorcists who just wanted power, I think God, for a moment, let them have what they wanted. See, God has what theologians call common grace that's at work every day all over the world. We have grace that is specific in the person of Jesus Christ and revelation that's specific in the person of Jesus Christ by which we're saved and set free and healed and God does all these wonderful things. But there is also common grace.

By common grace, we mean it's common to everybody, Christian or not Christian, right? You know, the Bible says the rain falls on the just and the unjust. And there are people that don't know God at all, but they're intelligent and good things are being done through their life, good inventions for medicine or whatever. I mean, this is all, why does this happen? Because God has been gracious to us all. And one of the ways God's common grace is at work right now, all over the world, is He is to an extent restraining evil.

If God were not restraining evil to the measure at which He chooses to do so, then the whole world would fall apart and everybody would be at war and everything would break and hatred would take over. It's sort of like, do you ever, it's like I was watching a football game the other day and I was like, they were trying to get the ball away from my running back. And I'm like, you know, the amazing thing is not that every now and then somebody fumbles the ball. The amazing thing is that they don't fumble at every play.

And that's the way I feel about the world. The amazing thing is not that sometimes they're bad car accidents. The amazing thing is that there's not a bad car accident every 500 feet. The amazing thing is not that there are bad storms that arise and sometimes take human life.

The amazing thing is there's not a storm all the time that wipes out cities over and over. In other words, God is restraining evil all the time. And He had been patient with the sons of Sceva up to this point that were going around doing their thing. But for whatever reason, and maybe it was just because He wanted the people of Ephesus to see what power looks like when it is divorced from God. That if you want power, and that's what you want, you just want power no matter what, and you don't care the source of it, okay, I'll remove my hand for just a moment, and I'll remove my grace that is restraining that demon right now.

I'll just remove it for a little bit. You go ahead at it. And for just a few moments, you get to see what a demon would be doing if God gave that demon permission to do so. And they learned right then.

The source of the power evidently does matter a lot. See, if you in the end just want to be separate from God, then I guess judgment is where He lets you. The Israelites didn't want to go into the promised land after 10 of the 12 spies came back with such a fearful report. It was like God said, you don't want to go in the promised land? Right, Lord, we don't want to go in. He said, okay, you get 40 years to wander the wilderness of not going in the promised land.

I give you what you want. And I wish I could believe there were no hell because God's so loving that I don't think it's in His heart to send anybody to hell. But if you don't want God, there's a place that's called hell that is separation from God.

People that don't like God and don't love God, why would they want to be with God forever? You don't want the power of God, you just want power? I'll let you have it. You want naked power? Here you go.

They go running out. It was a comical scene, but the people that saw it were absolutely amazed. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at pastoralan.org. God's always been there in every moment you narrowly escaped from danger, in every moment you were surprised by a blessing, in every moment you just knew the direction to take. God was there. Your life is defined by countless moments of God's grace. Perhaps they've been covered by the sands of time or have just gone unnoticed in the rush of life, but your life is full of God moments. When you make a gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's heart-stirring book God Moments that will lead you on a spiritual treasure hunt to uncover your God moments. It's Alan Wright's timeless book, God Moments.

Discover your God moments in the past and be filled with fresh faith today. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastoralan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Okay. So they thought that the source of the power didn't matter. And here's the other thing that was a big, big problem with the sons of Sceva. They thought that the motive for power didn't matter. They thought it didn't matter what their motive was. Their motive was to make money or to look grand in people's eyes. They thought that just doesn't matter. You know, it's the power we're going for.

It doesn't matter the motive. Paul wrote the letter that we call 1st Corinthians. He wrote that letter while he was in Ephesus. I wonder if this scene and others like it were in his mind when he wrote to correct some of the stuff going on in the Corinthian church, because even some of the Christians had discovered the Holy Spirit power at work in their midst, and they got so excited about the power that it was almost like their motive didn't matter, and he had to correct them. That's where we got the famous chapter of 1st Corinthians 13. I speak, he wrote, in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love.

I'm a noisy gong or a clinging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I'm nothing. If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It's not arrogant or rude. It's not insist on its own way. It's not irritable or resentful.

It's not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. He's saying, you see, love is the opposite of selfish. It is selfless. And so if there is power you're seeking for selfish purposes, it is detached from love. And it's worthless and poisonous if it's detached from love. Love, verse eight, verse seven, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they'll pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it'll pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. Verse 12, for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, if I've been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide these three.

But the greatest of these is love. They thought that it didn't matter why they wanted the power. They found out they were wrong. They thought that the source of the power didn't matter. They thought the motive for the power didn't matter, but here's the most important part of this whole story.

And this was their biggest mistake. They thought that relationship didn't matter. They thought they could just use the name of Jesus without being in relationship with Jesus. They thought they could just reference Paul without knowing Paul.

They thought that power is just something like an electrical outlet and a wall that you just plug into it and take what you want and use it how you want. And so they spent their lives just trying to look powerful and had no actual relationship with God. Josephus, that I mentioned earlier, wrote about these magical exorcists, these itinerant exorcists from the first century and the techniques that they used.

One I thought was comical. They would use techniques that they said were invented by Solomon and one of which they would take a ring of some sort, put it under the afflicted person's nose. And under that, they would put a root that they said had been prescribed by Solomon. And then they would have their, they'd call forth the spirit and claim that it came through the person's nostrils. And they would put a bucket of water some feet away that they took away, some distance away. And then they'd command the spirit to go get in the bucket of water. And the bucket of water would turn over and everybody go, Oh, y'all, they had a dude down there with a little wire or something. They'd pull the bucket of water over. And everybody just thought, you know, they've so imagine the things like you put a ring under a nose and a root of Solomon come out spirit and then go into that bucket of water. And then the water turns over.

And they all pay them money and they think they are wonderful. Now, Josephus tells us that's what they did. Interestingly, in this text, there are two different words used in Greek for knowing. The first is when the demon, the man has the demon speak through him and says, Jesus, I know. And that word is ginosko.

It means to know someone personally. That's weird, isn't it? But James says the same thing. He says the demons believed in Jesus. It's never a matter of the demons not believing that Jesus was real or even believing that Jesus was the son of God. They just hated him, but they did believe in him and they knew. He said, so the demon says, I know Jesus. Isn't it ironic that you've got the exorcist trying to cast out the demon who doesn't know Jesus and the demon knows Jesus. That's crazy. And says, and Paul, the word here epistemai is it means I know of him.

It says, Jesus, I know, and I know of Paul. I've heard of him, but who are you? That's wild. Don't know you at all. You don't know Jesus.

We don't know you. And because there is no relationship that you have with Jesus, you have no power. Jesus' name is not a magic formula for somebody that wants to just use it.

It is not one of James Bond's gadgets. It is the relationship that's everything. Love is the stuff of real relationship and love, Paul said to the Corinthians, must accompany works of power or else the works of power are either impotent or poisonous or both. And Jesus said, abide in me and I'll abide in you and you'll bear much fruit. That the fruitfulness and the power of your life to make a difference in this world is 100% dependent upon abiding in me.

My attachment to you is everything Jesus said. I just got back from a wonderful week where I had a couple of days to study with some other pastors and I presented a paper on healing in the context of community. And we were talking a lot about healing and we had a pastor there who is an expert in the growing body of research of neuroscience and how it relates to healing. This is a fascinating stuff that we're learning about the brain because once we were able to start taking images of the brain, we could see which parts of the brain are lighting up when we experience certain phenomena. And part of this growing body of research is the study of what sociologists and psychologists call attachment. And from the time that we're infants, our ability to attach is foremost in the development of our emotional and mental maturity. That's our good news message today.

It's naked power from the series Unlimited. And I encourage you to stay with us. Pastor Alan is back, joining us in the studio, sharing a parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at pastorallen.org. God's always been there. In every moment, you narrowly escaped from danger. In every moment, you were surprised by a blessing.

In every moment, you just knew the direction to take. God was there. Your life is defined by countless moments of God's grace. Perhaps they've been covered by the sands of time or have just gone unnoticed in the rush of life, but your life is full of God moments. When you make a gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's heart-stirring book, God Moments, that will lead you on a spiritual treasure hunt to uncover your God moments. It's Alan Wright's timeless book, God Moments.

Discover your God moments in the past and be filled with fresh faith today. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Our parting good news thought for the day.

It's time for it. Pastor Alan is with me and our growing is connected to the Lord's attachment to us. That's a note I wrote down from today's message. So, the power of the Christian life, the joy of the Christian life, is not a technique.

It's not like these sons of Sceva that just think they can just call on some kind of forcefield or something, you know, or just use a name. It's an actual love relationship with God and He's a Father. And the reason it's important to talk about all that we're learning about attachment is that when we, in the natural realm, when we securely attach to a parent, it builds security within us and we realize I'm loved, I belong, I matter. And not everybody's experienced this and no one's experienced it perfectly.

Right. But the love of God is perfect. This is an invitation into the kind of relationship with God where you find yourself experiencing His love and knowing yourself inseparable from the love of God and Christ.

And this just starts shaping everything in your identity. And it's out of that, that real spiritual power and joy and effectiveness and ministry flows. It's the opposite of what these sons of Sceva were. They thought they could not even have an attachment to God at all and just use the name of Jesus. That's not the Christian life at all.

It's much better. It's a relationship with God. Not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.