The church is more than just a place for singing, preaching, and fellowshipping. Dr. Tony Evans talks about an aspect of the church many believers don't fully understand.
The church is God's legally authorized agency on earth to draw down from heaven the will of God to be executed in history. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Dr. Evans has been taking us on a journey through the book of Acts, telling the story of the miraculous growth of the early church. Today, we'll see how the gospel spread to a whole new continent and learn how the church's God-given authority came into play overcoming challenges and obstacles.
Let's join him. In chapter 19, Paul would become the lead personality in the book of Acts, and it is following his missionary journeys as he takes the gospel throughout Asia. He comes to Ephesus in chapter 19, verse 1, where he finds some disciples, some Christ followers there. He raises a question in verse 2. He wants to know, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Notice the word, when, because it was Paul's expectation that believers would receive the Spirit at the point of salvation. But because we're in this transition between the gospels and the epistles, certain groups hadn't gotten word about the work of the Holy Spirit, did not have an understanding of the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came. And so throughout the book, as you've seen, when they hit different groups, they introduced them to this new arrangement, this new covenant, this new presence since Jesus had gone with the Holy Spirit.
So they said, we've not even heard what you're talking about. So he says, into what were you baptized? They said, into John's baptism. So they were still connected with John's message, John the Baptist, and his message of Jesus being the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. But they hadn't shifted over to the new arrangement of the new covenant under the auspices of the Holy Spirit. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So now they make the full shift to the new church age, the age of grace, the age of the new covenant, and the centerpiece of the Holy Spirit. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit comes on them in verse 6, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesy.
There was a supernatural impartation. We come to verse 8. He entered the synagogue, which was Paul's habit to go to the Jews first, and continued speaking out boldly for three months, persuading them about the kingdom of God.
Let me pause here. Persuading them about the kingdom of God. The thread that links all of Scripture together is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is His overarching rule and authority over all things.
To become a disciple, or what I call kingdom disciple, is to learn to live all of life under God's rule. So accepting the gospel of salvation for forgiveness of sins and eternal life is the starting point like a child is birthed. That's a starting point for the all of life.
The birth, the entering into life is for the living of all of life. So it is the birth, new birth into life, salvation or justification, is to enter into the rule of God over all of life. So when He's preaching the kingdom, in fact, when Jesus came on the scene, that's what He preached. First thing He says, He came preaching the kingdom of God, this umbrella rule of God over all of life, because that is God's goal of redemption.
So He's proclaiming the kingdom of God. But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way, verse 9, the way, the way it was a synonym for following Christ. This was a new way. This was not the way they were used to hearing it.
This was another perspective, and it got nicknamed the way. When they heard this message, speaking evil of this, before the people, Paul withdrew and took away the disciples, and he left the synagogue and began teaching in another location, the school of Tyrannus. So this took place for two years, and how impactful was his ministry? All who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. So this guy is there two years, he's preaching, the people are taking what he's saying, and they're spreading the word, they're spreading the word. I mean, this message of the kingdom of God, the rule of God initiated by faith in Christ that leads to this kingdom perspective, it spread everywhere.
And so Christianity is just burgeoning. His ministry is being validated, verse 11, by miracles. He's performing extraordinary miracles under the hand of God.
What kind? His handkerchiefs and aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left him, and the evil spirits went out. His apron was what he worked with. He was a tent maker. So when he took his sweaty apron off after he had done a day's work, he had sanctified sweat.
Okay? This guy had sanctified sweat. I mean, he was so full, he was so radically committed to Christ. So the deeper the discipleship, the greater the power.
That's what I'm saying. And the reason why more of us don't have more power is they don't want to go deep into discipleship, because discipleship has a price tag to it. But it also has a benefit, and that is the power of God. So he is demonstrating this power. And so, verse 13, some of the Jewish exorcists who went from place to place attempting to name over those who had evil spirits in the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.
So they said, wait a minute. Paul got some power. We need to imitate Paul so we can do what Paul does, because Paul is successful with this power thing he's got working. So we're gonna do, in the name, in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, because they heard Paul say, in the name of Jesus. Now, we laugh, but there's a lot of folks running around here saying, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, and nothing happens. Right?
Okay. So they're using the name because they turned Jesus into a magic formula. Seven sons of Sceba, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.
Okay? So these seven sons were doing this. And the evil spirit answered, oops, and said to them, I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?
Who are you? So just having the right magic words, using Jesus' name, without having the Jesus connection, means that there is no real demonstration of power. And the man in whom the evil spirit was, leaped on them. Well, y'all told me, come out. He leaped on them, and subdued all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of the house, naked and wounded. So this became known to everybody. Jews and Greeks all lived in Ephesus, and fear fell upon all of them, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. So Jesus gets magnified even by fools.
Okay? Even by these, you know, false exorcists, Jesus' name is magnified. So many of those who believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books, verse 19, together, and began burning them in the sight of everyone, and they counted up the pieces of them and founded 50,000 pieces of silver. In other words, when they saw the real power of Jesus, they didn't need magic anymore.
So all you people that got rabbit feet dangling from your rear-view mirror, and you're still dealing with horoscopes and palm readers and astrology and, you know, all that stuff, you need to burn that, you know? When they saw Jesus' power through Paul, they didn't need magic anymore, because magic is idolatry. To look to it, to address needs, illegitimately, is idolatry.
So this was a way of getting rid of their idols. So the Word of God was growing mightily, and it was prevailing. Paul now purposes in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, verse 21, and then he ends verse 21 by saying, And he must go to Rome. There were two reasons why he had to go to Jerusalem. Why that was—he's carrying, as you remember, he's carrying a financial gift from the churches to support the poor saints in Jerusalem. So he's got this bounty of money that he's carrying, so he wants to get it to the saints in Jerusalem. But also, Jerusalem is the seat of Judaism, and so Paul had a passion to preach in the synagogues and to make sure that the gospel was known among the Jews. But he also wants to get to Rome.
Rome is the seat of paganism and the seat of political power. So he wanted the gospel to get to the religious people, and he wanted the gospel to get to the politicians, and Lord knows both needed. And so he had this passion to go. So he sent to Macedonia.
Timothy and Erastus stayed in Asia for a while because he had to go. And the problem here is that wherever Paul goes, two things happen. People get saved and people get mad. We'll hear about what made people so angry at Paul and the other believers and what they did about it when Dr. Evans continues our message in just a moment. First, though, I want to let you know that the lesson we're hearing today is part of an inspiring series diving deep into the birth and explosive growth of the early church, as described in the book of Acts.
This complete two-volume collection explains how we can experience the same power and presence of the Holy Spirit as the first-century believers did. And it's available as our thank-you gift when you make a contribution to help support the ministry of the alternative. This offer will only be available for a few more days now, so visit us right away at tonyevans.org to request your copy of Acts, the Birth of the Church. As I mentioned, you'll receive all 14 audio messages on CD or digital download, along with an extra bonus, Dr. Evans' insightful book, Kingdom Purpose, which will guide you in discovering your divine calling and living out your faith with intention and impact. Visit us at tonyevans.org before this limited-time offer runs out, or call 1-800-800-3222 to get some in-person help from our resource team. I'll have our contact information for you again after part two of today's lesson and this.
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tonyevanstraining.org. Explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere. In verse 23, if riots get ready, break out in Ephesus. Okay, because Demetrius, verse 24, a silversmith who made silver shrines for Artemis, the Temple of Diana, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen. Okay, in Ephesus is one of the seven wonders of the world, the Temple of Diana.
The Temple of Diana is this humongous temple of the fertility goddess. It was a tourist attraction, but it was also a place of people coming for worship. You know, and everybody's been on a vacation, and you go into a site, you see replicas of the site everywhere. They're selling replicas of the site so people have something to take back home with them.
Well, that's precisely what these silversmiths, they were making little replicas and making little souvenirs, but so many people came to see the seventh wonder of the world that they were making a lot of money. Well, now Paul shows up and says, there's no other god but Jesus. That kind of messes up your economic program. You mean, I don't need to buy this anymore? I don't need to spend my money on this goddess anymore? Not only do I not to spend it, but I'm going to burn this stuff I already had bought, you know, because I no longer believe in magic.
I no longer believe in a false god. So this was having economic repercussions, and Demetrius, of course, didn't like it because his money was funny. So he gathers together all of his fellow craftsmen, the people of similar trade, verse 25, and said, Men, you know that our prosperity depends on this business. This Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people saying that gods made with hands are no gods at all. Now, of course, they're craftsmen making stuff with their hand.
Diana was built by hand. And Paul is saying, that ain't it. So he's messing with our money.
He's messing with our religion. These people are ticked off, verse 28, and they began crying out, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. The city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater.
Now, the theater seats like 20 to 25,000 people. So then some were shouting one thing and another, for the assembly was in confusion, and the majority did not know what reason they had come together. So the city manager has to bring order, and he has a good reason for wanting to bring order, because now the whole city is going crazy, and most of the people don't even know why. So he quiets the crowd, men of Ephesus. What man is there after all who do not know that the city of Ephesians is guardian to the temple of the great Artemis and the image which fell down from heaven? So he is conciliatory. We know she came down from heaven.
Okay, so y'all calm down. For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers. They've not stole anything of the temple.
They've not blasphemed our goddess. So then if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against some new man, the courts are in session, and the proconsuls are available. Let them bring charges against them.
In other words, do this legally. And saying this, he dismissed the assembly. His concern is if Rome hears about this, they're going to show up. And if Rome shows up, because this thing is disorderly, it wasn't handled lawfully and legally, then everybody going to be in trouble. You don't want that. So since you got your goddess, and these men haven't technically broken the law, because if you feel they did break the law, bring them to court so we can deal with this legally and not through just a riot. Okay?
So that was concern. What I want to bring to your attention is the word assembly, because the Greek word is ekklesia. And ekklesia is the Greek word for church. When Jesus said, I will build my church, the Greek word in Matthew 16 verse 18 is ekklesia. Now, my point in bringing that out is that the word church was not just a Christian word.
It was a word used of a gathering for the purpose of dealing with something legally. He wanted that to be a legal assembly, a legal church. And then he says, he dismissed this assembly, this church, because it was gathered to deal with an issue. So when Jesus picks up the word ekklesia, he's not creating a word.
He's taking a word that was part of Greek language, ekklesia. So when I talk about church and when the Bible talks about church, it's talking about more than a gathering. It's talking about a gathering designed to address something. Like this gathering was designed to address a negative against Christianity.
But it was concerned that the gathering be lawful and not unlawful. And the point I'm making in just highlighting this is that the church is more than just a place for singing, preaching, and fellowshipping. The church is God's legally authorized agency on earth to draw down from heaven the will of God to be executed in history. So there is legal authority in this church. That's why Jesus says, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And I will give you the keys to the kingdom because we have legal rights in heaven. That's why Jesus says in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 22 and 23, Jesus is the head of all things, but he's been given to the church because only the church has legal authority from heaven as a assembled entity. So when we come together and when we call on God and when we're executing God's will, he shares his legal authority with us, through us, for us, and by us. And that's why the church has more authority than we realize. But because the church does not yet have enough disciples, we do not realize the authority that the church has been given. In fact, it's part of the church's fault when we have not prioritized making disciples. Because you see, the more disciples we accumulate, not members, not members, okay?
Not pew warmers. The more disciples we accumulate, the more authorization we have. And the more authority we will experience because we're now his official legal lawful body operating under his authority. Okay? I want to point that out. Okay, chapter 20.
The uproar quiets down. Paul sends for his disciples and he goes through Greece. And there he spends, verse 3, three months. And when a plot was formed against him—here we go again—by the Jews as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to return to Macedonia. Sometimes Paul went in the midst of a problem.
Sometimes he diverged himself from it. And he was accompanied. It shows the followers who joined him and who awaited him in Troas. Now he goes and it says, On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together—so Luke inserts himself into the meeting— to break bread, Paul began teaching them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. Okay, that's a long sermon. The first day of the week, the church service was held at night.
We know that from verse 8. There were many lamps in the upper room, so he turned lamps on at night. So it's the evening.
They may have worked during the day, but the evening, they would gather together. And Paul is teaching. He teaches till midnight. So while he's teaching, there's a young man named Eunuchus sitting in the window, verse 9, sinking into a deep sleep. Yep, I know what Paul felt like. I know what Paul felt like.
A deep sleep. And as Paul kept on talking, he was overcome by sleep. So he's sinking and sinking and sinking and sinking and sinking and sinking. And then he just lost it.
He couldn't take it anymore. And he fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead. Well, if you gotta fall and you gotta die, it's good if Paul is the one preaching. But Paul went down and fell upon him, and after embracing him, he said, Do not be troubled, for his life is in him. When he had gone back up and had broken bread and eaten, he talked with them for a long while until daybreak.
And they left, and they took away the boy alive and were greatly comforted. So we have this miracle resurrection from the dead by Paul after preaching the word of God, because he carries authority. Dr. Tony Evans, emphasizing the Church's authority and the need for committed discipleship to fully realize its power. Don't forget the lesson we heard today is part of an inspiring series exploring the Spirit-empowered journey of the early Church in the Book of Acts. This two-volume audio collection delves deep into the pivotal moments and powerful teachings that shape the foundation of Christianity. Each message is designed to illuminate the dynamic work of the Holy Spirit and the bold faith of the apostles, offering you practical insights to apply in your own spiritual walk. And we'd like to send you all 14 messages in this powerful collection, either on CD or as digital downloads, as our thank-you gift when you make a generous contribution to support the ministry of the alternative.
But that's not all. We're also including Tony's insightful book, Kingdom Purpose, designed to help you discover your unique, God-given mission in the world and live a life of significance and impact. This special double offer is only available for a limited time, so be sure to visit us at tonyevans.org to request it today. Or, if you prefer, call us at 1-800-800-3222 to speak with a member of our resource team who can assist you personally. That's 1-800-800-3222. On Monday, Dr. Evans will press on to Acts 20, where he'll uncover some profound lessons on spiritual leadership, the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding our lives, the importance of an eternal perspective, and the necessity of sharing the gospel. It's a wide-ranging look at how the early Church navigated challenges and how these timeless principles apply to us today. I hope you'll join us.
