Sons of Sceva
All right. I'm gonna read little chunks here of this story and we're gonna walk our way through. It's a crazy story. Starting verse eight of chapter 19, Book of Acts. Paul entered the synagogue, and this is an emphasis by the way. So Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of.
But some of them became obstinate. They refused to believe and publicly maligned the way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of terrorists. This went on for two years so that all the Jews in Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word the Lord God did extraordinary things through Paul, so that even Handker chips and aprons that had touch were taken to those who were ill and their illnesses were cured and their evil spirits left them. The moral of the story is this, if your dirty Kleenexes are not healing people, God has more for you. You know what I mean? I'm not saying that this is the way it has to be or that God has to do this kind of thing all the time.
I'm not saying that this is prescriptive, but I am saying that it happened. Yeah, and look at Paul. Look at his life. So enamored with Jesus. Yeah. So passionate about the presence of God. So completely bought into the mission of the Kingdom so saturated with the Holy Spirit that, that even the stuff he touches is becoming soaked, his body in this moment, as he would say in verse Corinthians, his body has quite literally become the temple of the Holy Spirit. You remember the temple, the Holy of Holies, where there's these like furniture and there's lamp stands and there's curtains that hang there and even that stuff because it's in the presence of God.
Even that stuff has to be handled with care cuz it's become a holy, it's become saturated and now Paul filled with the spirit has become the temple of. So much so that Handker chips and aprons he's touching, are healing people. And this story really used to weird me out. I used to think I'm not so comfortable with that.
Like I'm comfortable with laying out of hands and people being healed. I'm comfortable with praying and people being healed from a distance, but like holy relics, like that tripped me out, but now I want it. Yeah. You know what I mean? , I'm not, again, I'm not saying it has to be that way, but last week the whole point of our story was there's more, and I'm just so easily satisfied with what I have today, when God is bigger.
You guys get that right? We have these arguments about, have you been filled with the Holy Spirit? Have you been filled with the Holy Spirit? And I said, Yeah, once or twice or 10 times, but he's bigger. Yeah, there's more that he can do in me. There's more that he can do to me. There's more that he can do through me, and if he's got more, I want more.
Let's not be satisfied with yesterday's portion. I just looked at this and I thought, Man, if that's what you can do,
and there's more for me. Yeah, there's more for you and there's more for us. And if there's more for us, then there's more for the world cuz that's why we're here. Man, I want more. Oh, by the way, God had more from Paul too. I'm not saying this is arrival. I'm not saying this is the end all and be all.
I'm not saying this is the way it has to be, but I just guarantee if we're talking about the Holy Spirit of God, in whom is everything in all of. , then there's more. It's as simple as that. And I don't want personally or for us as a community to stop at yesterday's experience at yesterday's life with him.
But he's got more for us today. Let's not be satisfied, but let's grow. And this story, what I love is we're gonna keep reading. What I love is this story tells us how to get more or actually how not to get more. Cuz we're gonna read about some people who wanted. To experience what Paul had, they wanted their Hanks.
That's what we're called. This sermon title is Holy Hanks. Okay? . They wanted their handker chips and aprons to be endowed with power to cast down evil spirits. They wanted what Paul had, and here's how they went about it. Some Jews, this is verse 13, Some Jews who went around driving out equal spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were deepen, possessed.
They would say in the name of Jesus. Whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out. Seven Sons of s Skiva and Jewish chief priests were doing this in one day. The evil spirit answered them. Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you? Then they jumped then. Then the man by the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all.
He gave them such a beating that they ran outta the house naked and.
here's some people who really wanted it. They really wanted what Paul had. They wanted that kind of experience, and they show us how not to go about getting it, how not to go about having that kind of violent life with the spirit. This story I deserve for you too. It's kinda like the hanky story, where you start to realize that maybe just maybe this world that we're living in is a little bigger.
Thoughts. I'm shocked by the fact that I consider myself to be and I use this in a very Jesus Holy Spirit sort of way, but a spiritual person. In other words, I'm aware that there's a spiritual world and I'm aware that there's more to this life than we tend to see and that there's all sorts of stuff that's happening all around me all the time that I might like.
I'm aware of that theoretically, but I'm shocked by. , despite the fact that I'm a spiritual person, that I actually have a career that's about helping make people attentive to the spiritual world, like how material I am in my life. Do you know what I mean by that? Like how difficult it is for me to remember the spiritual side of my life.
That make sense? Anybody else with me on that? And this is a relatively recent phenomenon for us in the world. You. Four or 500 years ago, something happened called the Scientific Revolution, which was actually launched by some very devout in Jesus loving people. They had no intention of pitting Jesus against science.
They were exploring the mysteries of this world that God created. What unintentionally happened since then is as we have begun to quantify and understand the World War, the physical worlds more, we have shrunk the spiritual world in our minds downs next to. And now today, even spiritual people, even Christians who love Jesus and have spiritual conversations and think about spiritual things and raise their hands in worship and go to church and all these things we find ourselves functionally living most days in a world that we can see and smell and taste and touch.
And then we come across a story like this and it just freaks us out because we start to think that maybe just maybe this whole. Here. This tells a story of spiritual beings that are aware of this world, that talk about us, that we can't impact and that can impact us. And you start to look around you and say, What?
What else is going on in this room? And I don't just mean this room, any room, like what else is happening here that I might not be aware of? And this in two ways. This clearly in the sense of spiritual warfare and spiritual opposition. We often talk about the kingdom of God and we talk about Jesus prayer.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And we have to remember when we pray that we are praying it into occupied t. That there's a reason Jesus says We have to pray the will of Gods because the will of God is not always done on this planet. I know that's a controversial thing to say, but why would he ask us to pray for your will to be done?
Unless there are spaces where this wills not done, where there are powers, but the Bible calls principalities and powers that oppose the will of God and the kingdom of cotton. . And we need to be aware of that. Not afraid, but. I have been in the last couple of months caught off guard by spiritual warfare, and I think shame on me.
I shouldn't have been prepared. The stuff we're doing here in this space, in this community, it matters. It matters not just in the physical, but in this spiritual world. And why would we think, why would we have the audacity and the boldness to step into a. And pray your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven every week and not expect pushback.
Yeah. You have to be aware as post scientific revolution, Christians, we need to grow in our awareness of the spiritual world. Yep. See, what the scientific revolution has done for us is it gave us these, You've heard about the fisherman with the net, the story, this fisherman, he takes a net in his net.
He's constructed. It's got these holes in. Like three inches wide. And he drags this through the wide. He drags it back and forth. He catches all these big fish, good size fish, and he pulls 'em out and he looks at 'em and he measures all of them and they're all bigger than three inches.
And he concludes that there are therefore no fish in the ocean, smaller than three inches. , . They're swimming through the holes in his net. Yeah. His net isn't adequate to interpret the situation. And that's when we take the material view of the world and we drag it through the world and we say everything that I just experienced, I can see and taste, and smell and touch.
That must be all there is. What we're doing is we're dragging an inadequate world view through the waters of the world and coming up with this really hap big picture of. And this story gives us a different picture. And as post scientific Christians, one of our challenges, one of our goals, one of our main ideas here has to be awareness.
And I'm only partially saying awareness of spiritual opposition and warfare. Much more important is awareness of the presence of God. Yeah. Awareness of what God is up to. That's how Jesus treats spiritual warfare. He takes it seriously, but he. Think about it too much. You remember when the disciples, he sends out 72 and says he gave them authority over evil spirits, and they go out and they cast out demons and they come back freaking out.
Jesus, we cast out demons in your name. And what does he say? Essentially, Don't be surprised. I saw sat and fall like lightning from heaven. Wow. Don't be shocked. Don't rejoice that the demons are subject to you. Instead. What? Rejoice that your name is written in the Book of life. In other words, don't get so hung up on this side of things that you miss the big picture, which is that is happening as a result of the work of God in you.
So be attentive to this, yes, but be far more attentive to the presence of God. Be far more attentive to His Holy Spirit at work. Be far more attentive to the availability. Of supernatural power in the natural world.
That's what this story does. It actually the way I've been describing it, it's not helpful because I've been talking about the physical side and the spiritual side, the supernatural and the natural. But the way this story presents it is it's just all mushed together. It's all one world and it's a lot bigger than we thought It.
And the kingdom of God is crashing into it. I often hear people talk about the miraculous as an interruption of the natural order of things, and I think this is such an inadequate lens. The miraculous is not an interruption of the natural order. It's a restoration of the natural border. The world is supposed to be miraculous.
Don't need it. And when the miraculous, when the presence of God breaks in and heals somebody through a handkerchief or an apron or the laying on of hands, what it's doing is restoring. Yeah. What was broken and lost. And now this thing that has been covered over by sin, It's like sin has this thick, nasty, itchy blanket.
It's been laid over the hole of creation, and then the Kingdom of God crashes in and it pokes a hole right through it. Yeah. And suddenly we see the world as it's supposed to be. and we need to be aware, not just that there's opposition, not just that there's an itchy wall blanket, but that there's power available.
Yeah.
I just think that idea alone, just awareness alone of the presence of God would change everything for. . If we just can cultivate in us a simple discipline of every time we change scenes in our life, every time we walk into a new room, every time we start a new conversation, every time we move from one place to another, if we could just, I'm walking out that door now as I walk out the door, ask Holy Spirit, what are you doing in this courtyard?
Help me to see how you're at work and how I can partner. What if we just made it our ambition to be aware of the presence of God, aware of this kingdom? What if he, I had a friend of mine who said it like this, and I try to practice it when I go to the gym. It's really hard, the gym, but he said, just picture the kingdom, like a rushing river, just rushing through the doors of whatever space you, and then just fill in the room.
Just fill in the room. What would happen? What would happen if the kingdom of God rushed into this room right now? And just see what.
Now, don't put pressure on yourself. It's not up to you. If nothing dramatic happens, if nothing monumental happens, it's not up to you to make the kingdom come. But if you're a citizen of the kingdom, all of the spirit, then every space around you is potentially holy. Just like Paul, this Holy Hanks,
What if we were just more aware? What's interesting about this story though is that these guys didn't have a problem with awareness. They weren't, The Sons of Skiva were not post scientific revolution people. They were very aware of the spiritual world. As a matter of fact, it seems like their professional exorcist, they go around traveling from place to place, and maybe they ran on hard times.
Maybe their old formulas were working, and then they come across this guy, Paul, who's preaching in the name of Jesus and the aprons that he wears when he's barbecuing or healing people. And they're like look at this a try. . So in the name of Jesus, who Paul preaches come out, they didn't lack awareness, but they lacked his relationship.
See, this is the key. It's not just about awareness, it's about knowing who Jesus is. Know it is the demon's response. I just, I know we don't like demons. Okay. But I don't like these guys. They're awful. They're terrible. They're oppressing, but they get it right. Wow here. I know who that is. I know who you're talking about in ways that you clearly have no idea you're using his name like a magical formula.
It's almost like they're saying if we could just peel back the layer of the material and the layer of the physical and you could see what we see when you talk about this. Jesus Cuz you. Who knows what this itinerant rabbi from Nazareth. I don't know what I don't know what you know, but what we see, turn to the book of Revelation.
If you read about Jesus and Revelation, you don't have to turn there now, but like sword coming out of his mouth, like eyes burning, like fire. This is what they're saying. You're using this name like a genie. Wow. To get you what you want, to make you rich and powerful and famous. I know who he is.
Do you, that's what the book of James says. , you believe that there's one in God good. Even the demons believe that in shut. It's not about, It's not about, They have a clear picture of who Jesus, that this is actually clear in all the gospels, the demons have a clear picture of who Jesus is than anybody else they know.
Right off the bat, Jesus's son of the most high God don't torture us. , right off the bat. I know him to you, and the answer is no. They had. They were treating Jesus like a genie in a bottle, using him to get what they wanted out of him, using his name to gain fame and wealth and power.
This is not how it works.
This is not how it works. That's what I like to call, and you've heard me say this before, but Taylor Swift theology, It's Jesus, take the wheel. I carry on your way. I said the wrong name, I said the wrong name. I just, the cultural reference. It's even cooler that way than I, man. Cause it's cool to not be relevant these days.
Carrie, under, I normally get this right. It's why I call Carrie under with theology. Jesus, take the wheel. It's, I have a problem in. I have a problem in my life. It's not working out the way I wanted it to. Jesus, come and help me out.
See, we have to understand though. We're not talking about a genie. We're talking about the king. That's what I actually want to, a discipline that I've been convicted of is every time you read the Bible and you read the word Christ, from here on, rather than thinking like that's Jesus' last name, like Jesus Christ.
Once you recognize that, that's a title. Christos in Greek, mahi in Hebrew means Messiah. Messiah means king. So from now on, whenever you read it in your mind, can you translate for me and say, Whenever you read Jesus Christ, read King Jesus. Yeah, because that's what they're saying. King Jesus, not a genie.
He's not about doing what you want him to do with. That's not how this works.
This works just the opposite. The king is up to something. If you wanna be a part of it, you can he'll invite you into it, and if you step into it with your heart and your passion and your will bow beforehand, he will give you everything you need to do. Everything he's asking.
But don't get it the other way around. Don't think that he's here to serve us. Although he does serve us.
Jesus isn't here to help us realize our dreams. You guys, I know what you've been told. I know we've been, I know we've pitched that in the church for decades now, but that's. . That's not the Christian faith, that's not the way of Jesus. That's some sort of version of Americana, the American dream and it's okay to have dreams and that's fine, but I'm just telling you as followers of Jesus, we ought to be far more interested in his dreams than our,
and this is just practical. His dreams are better. I don't know how else to put it. If there's nothing wrong with our dreams for our life to have a great career, to have a family, to have a house to have, whatever, that's fine. But you know what? Jesus dream is? The restoration of the planet, Setting everything back to good, that was broken by sin, bringing life abundantly, bringing joy overflowing.
This is what he's up to. Why would we settle for our dreams when he wants to give us his, both for us and through us for the whole? It. They were going after their dreams and asking Jesus to make their dreams a reality. The difference between them and Paul is Paul was going after Jesus' dreams. He had said about his life.
Everything else is trash. You guys remember that in blip. , whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What's more, I consider everything loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, King Jesus, my Lord. For who's sake? I've lost all things. I consider them trash, rubbish, garbage, that I may gain him and be found in him not having the righteousness of my own, which comes through the law, but that which is through faith in Christ.
I want to know Messiah. I want to know King. The power of mis resurrection and the fellowship of sharing the sufferings. In other words, whatever he wants to give you, see how this works. The difference is they're using Jesus to get what they want, whereas Paul is saying, Use me to get whatever you want.
And when they approach him in that way, these sons of Steve, they showed that they have no idea what he's talking about. And so the Demonn said, Let me show you who you're talking. Because I know who he's, and I know who Paul is. This is the part real, this is the part that really gets me. Not just that they knew Jesus, but they, that they knew Paul, that Paul was living his life in a way that was having impact in the spiritual nature of the universe.
How did they know Paul? Because they knew Jesus and Paul had not with him.
They knew Jesus and they knew the people who hung out with them. Yeah, it's as simple as that. Here's the thing, the power of this kingdom is not transactional. It's relational. It is born by being close to a person as you are close to him, as he radiates his power and his goodness and his glory. If you're close to him, you become.
And so it's not just that Paul knew Jesus, it's that Jesus knew Paul. That's how this whole thing works. It's relational power, It's power that is granted by the king to his friends. And I got to spend some time several years ago in a kingdom in the Heim Lays. It's a constitutional monarchy in the high Himn lays.
It's about 700,000 people. So the king is he's a king, he's a legitimate king, but it's more like a mayor of a big city. And so a lot of people know him, but he's got this group of friends and the laws of this country are fairly restrictive around a lot of things. But for his friends, anything goes.
It's the weirdest thing is we've met the king's best friend in this country was what? And you took us to a coffee shop world. The king's friends hang out. It's it was like this really bizarre, like you're stepping into the secret world and you go in and every, it's all the wealth influential people of this country.
And you go in and they're doing everything that nobody else is. All sorts of illegal stuff, but they don't care because they're friends of the king. And it's a bizarre, it's a bizarre way of making my point here. The point I'm trying to make is if you are friends of a king that comes with certain rights and privileges.
You know what I mean? And that's how the, that's how the nature of this kingdom works. Jesus says to his disciples, I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn't know his master's business. I had said, Friends, and it's through friendship with Jesus that the power of the kingdom is born. We don't get this by invoking his name as some sort of a magical formula, some sort of a transaction.
We get this through hours and hours of relationship, not that we're earning the rights, but that we're coming to know.
because the truth of the matter is that's the only way we can be a part of his mission in the world is that if we know him right? These guys didn't have any idea what he was like. They didn't know his character, They didn't know what he was up to in the world. And they come in throwing his name around lightly, like it's nothing.
And it's, you just see the king sitting there and saying, I didn't give you the authority to do. . These people are not acting on my behalf. I'm not saying that Jesus didn't want this person to be delivered from a demonn, but I'm saying these aren't my people. These aren't kings men.
Paul, on the other hand, that's a kings man. He knows me. He knows the kind of things that I would ask for when I walk into a space. He knows the kind of things I care about. He knows the way I. The way I act, the way I behave. He is officially commissioned as an ambassador of the kingdom of the heavens, a friend of the king, and with that, there's the power.
You see how this works? Jesus says something terrifying. Matthew seven. He says, Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father who's in heaven. Do you hear that? Do you hear the. Do the will of God be committed to the will of God and that then becomes the gateway.
It's not just saying the name. The name is not a magical formula. Despite what worship songs and wellbeing people have told you. You don't get to just shop the name whenever you want to and think that stuff is gonna happen. Yeah. It's not magic, it's relationship. Yeah. Soul out. Not everyone who says to me Lord, watch King will heaven.
Only the one who does the little of my father. Because many will say to me on that day Lord. did not. We prophesy your name and in your name, drive out demons and in your name before many miracles. And I will tell them plainly, I never knew you away from me.
I never knew you. Who are you? You come in here using my name. Like we have some sort of a friendship but you just pull it out when you need. It when it suits you to accomplish your purpose in life, to get you where you want to go. Do you not understand that my kingdom is breaking out and I'm up to something and you're here building these little sand castles while I'm building a cathedral?
And you could be a part of it, but you haven't been. Now you show up. Expect. All the rights and privileges when I have no idea who you are. The power's relationship, Jesus. And I don't say that to terrify anyone because the truth of the matter is relationship with Jesus is available by His spirit now,
but we have to know when. Yes. And we know us. And out of that knowledge comes profound authority. Yeah, and this is scary for me because I find myself often doing exactly what these seven guys did. I tack on to the end of my prayers in Jesus' name, Amen. As if that's a formula for ensuring that my prayer is just that.
I assume that if I invoke the name of Jesus, I have a better chance of getting that promotion or that parking spot, or winning the lottery. When it really gets big and I buy a ticket,
I figure that if I say Jesus over the sick person I'm praying for, they might just get better. Now, I'm not doing any of this actively in my mind, but I'm also not actively remembering who I'm talking to. I've just gotten a habit of saying in Jesus name. Amen. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah.
I have gotten in a habit of invoking the name of the king of the universe, as if it's nothing that's like getting in a habit of being struck by lightning to the point where you don't feel, Do you understand what we're talking about here? Do you understand who we're talking about here? God forbid that I find you so familiar that I think of you as less than who you are as the song says, God forbid that I should speak of you at all without a humble reverence in my heart, God forbid that I forget who you are,
which Jesus says All close with this John. , I am the buy-in. You're the branches. If you remain in me and I and you will bear much fruit apart from me. You can do nothing.
If you don't remain in me, you're like a branch that's thrown away in withers. Such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done. , this is to my father's glory that you very much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples as the father has loved me, so I have loved you.
Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love just as I kept my father's commands and remain in his love. I've told you this so that my joy may be of you and your joy may be complete. My command does this love each other as I've loved you. Greater love has no one in this to lay down this life for friends.
You are my. , If you do what? I come in. I no longer call you servants. The servant doesn't know his master's business. Instead, I called you friends for everything I've learned from my father, I've made known to you. You didn't choose me, I chose you and appointed you so that you may bear fruit that will last, and so that whatever you ask in my name, the father will be You.
Notice the order a bind. then ask. , remain in relationship, steeped in the word of God, soaking in the presence of Jesus. And then as you have come to know him and have committed yourself wholly to his character and his work in the world, then ask for whatever you want and it'll be done for you.
Alice was says in beautifully. He says, Jesus is looking for people who he can. To get whatever they want. How do you earn that kind of trust? Friendship. Friendship.
The story ends like this. You gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house, naked and bleeding. When this became known that the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with. It and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believe now came and openly confessed what they had done.
A number of who practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to 50,000, Drma $6 million. In this way, the word of the Lord spread and grew in power. In this way, the word of the Lord spread and ruined power. After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing for Macedonia.
A. After I've been there. Also, I must visit Rome as well. He sent two of his helpers, Timothy Ra Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer. Did you hear how this story ends? The story ends with a massive revival, $6 million worth of idols and source re burned in the streets. Yeah.
And how did that happen? Is it because call preached like this crazy like 10 revival? No, because a bunch of people got healed in the powerful way. Maybe this all contributed for sure. There was a stage that was set, but it happened because the Demonn beat the snot out of somebody else,
and everybody realized that this Jesus, that these guys are so terrified of, must be something special. And the DeAnn and the Sons of s Skiva accidentally become the most powerful evangelist in the city of Memphis. I think the way Mount, say tongue in attempts to destroy the church in China, the church in China was a million people when he came to power.
By the time he left, it emerged a hundred million strong. Through his persecution, he becomes the greatest evangelist in the history of the world. , because why? Because Jesus is the key. Yeah. And one way or another, every knee will bow. Every knee will bow. The question I leave us with is, do we want him to do this through us or in spite of us because he did it in spite of the sons of school.
I don't want to be that kind of person or that kind of a church. I want to be a person in a kind of a church that's like Paul, do it through giving me more. I just want everything you have for me and for the world, and I just, All I care about is you. All I care about is knowing you. All I care about is your kingdom breaking out.
All I care about is what you're up to. That's how I wanna work. Lord, let revival come through us, not around us. Let us not be obstacles, but conduits you're right with to me. Jesus let it be. I don't have anything else. Anything I said was helpful or breathe life into it by your spirit. If anything wasn't helpful, please let me forgotten now and forever. But Lord I just feel like.
I'm speaking for myself. I feel like there are all sorts of reasons. I don't invite to you as intentionally, as thoroughly, as completely as I ought, and I pray in this moment by your spirit, that gently but thoroughly, it would bring those things to the surface. And give me, give us the courage to lay them down, because nothing matters more than this.
Jesus, nothing matters more than you who you are and what you want to do in your church and through to your church.
So Jesus,
it's getting the verse running through my head. This is not my notes, it's just popping in my mind. And Jesus saying, Behold, I stand at the door. And if anyone opens the door, I'll come in and eat with them.
just in this moment, this quiet moment is so rare in our world. You listen for the knocking at the door and open it. I don't know what that means for you, but I think you do spend a. wants to have dinner at your house.