Gospel side-effects may include...
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Introduction
Introduction
Why do you take medicine? You get sick, go to the doctor and when they figure out the problem they give you a prescription for a medicine that will address the problem.
Sometimes the’re some negative side-effects of taking medicine, but we take medicine for the overwhelming positive benefits. We want the good side-effects of medicine that bring healing and wholeness, even if we have to put up with a few other issues along the way.
The thing is though, if you never take the medicine, you don’t get any potentially bad side effects, but you also never get the good ones either!!
Today we have a passage that tells us about the side-effects of sharing the Gospel in Acts 19:1-20.
When the Good News of Jesus Christ is shared with people, things happen!
Some gospel side-effects are great!
Some gospel side-effects are unexpected bonuses!
Some gospel side-effects are not fun, but we’re willing keep sharing the Gospel for the long term benefit.
Gospel side effects may include four things! The first side-effect is...
Main Question: What are the side-effects of Sharing the Gospel?
1. We get the Whole Gospel for a Full Faith (v1-6)
1. We get the Whole Gospel for a Full Faith (v1-6)
In verses 1-6 we are given a short story about what happens when Paul shares the Gospel with folks who haven’t got all the pieces for faith yet.
Paul had traveled through Ephesus on his last missionary trip. While he passing through Ephesus they asked him to stay a while longer, but he declined the offer.
While Paul was on his way home there’s a brief story about a fellow named Apollos who was a preacher and teacher. He was a switched on guy, but he didn’t have all the pieces for full and accurate faith. So, Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos aside and he humbly received further instruction so that he was better equipped to share the Gospel.
After that, Apollos went out with the church’s blessing to the region around Corinth. And this is where our passage picks up in ch19 with Apollos in Corinth and Paul on his way back to Ephesus:
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples
<show map> So Paul has been on foot traveling through modern inland Turkey. On the way he was visiting areas he has previously visited and churches that he has planted on previous trips.
Then he gets back to Ephesus, and there he finds some disciples who were in a similar boat to Apollos in the previous chapter - they were missing some vital information that they needed in their faith.
They look like believers to some degree, but Paul wants to suss out how much they knew and how mature their faith was, so he starts questioning them: Look at v2-3
and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied.
So we have here some people who are learners, they are disciples, but they’re missing something. They don’t have the right components to be quite saved.
They were close to Christianity, but they weren’t over the line yet. Close but no cigar. And the proof that they’re not saved yet? They haven't received the Holy Spirit.
Throughout Acts the sign that salvation is given to someone is that they receive the Holy Spirit. We get plenty of examples of people who were seeking God, but they weren’t quite over the line, like Cornelius, or the Ethiopian Eunuch. Then when they receive the Good News about Jesus in faith, they’re baptized and the Holy Spirit is poured out on them, often with supernatural signs.
Acts is a time of transition between the old way of belief to the newer and fuller faith in Jesus Christ, and God used supernatural signs to definitively support the message of the Gospel. And this is what happens when they hear the Gospel about Jesus in this passage, they receive it, they’re baptized and they receive the Holy Spirit.
Look at v4-7:
Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all.
These folks were essentially living in the Old Testament, still waiting for the Coming One, the Messiah. Then Paul turns up and tells them that Jesus has arrived, so they enter into the New Testament faith.
They went from a baptism of expectation, to a baptism of fulfillment. (F.F. Bruce, Acts, NICNT, p387).
Its like pregnancy. We have several mothers amongst us, so it’s an apt analogy. When a woman is pregnant we say they’re “expecting.” A pregnant mother lives in expectation of the child which is coming.
The child is the fulfillment of the expectation.
And once the child has arrived, the pregnancy is over. It may be looked back on with joy or displeasure at the discomfort, but once the child is here there is no more pregnancy, it’s complete.
These disciples in Ephesus, were still living as though pregnant when the child had arrived. On hearing the Good News that Jesus had arrived, they took the sign of faith which is baptism and entered into salvation, then they received the Holy Spirit. And God poured out his Spirit in a special way to show them that the deal was done!
Some people around the traps like to point at this passage and make an argument that there are two kinds of baptism: the physical baptism into Christianity, and then there’s a secondary baptism of the Holy Spirit. But this is a misreading of the text.
The assumption of the Bible is that if you have been baptized in Jesus, you have received the Spirit. And that is how Paul talks: “have you received the Spirit?” No? “Then what were you baptized into?” There is an inseparable connection between faith, baptism and the Holy Spirit. The connection is so close that sometimes these things seems to overlap.
Paul tells the Ephesians latter in a letter he writes to them that there is...
one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
All enter into the one faith with one baptism and one Holy Spirit. There is only true Christian baptism into Jesus in the name of the Father, Son and HS, or there are non-christian baptisms.
But! We can only truly receive the fullness of faith and enter into Christianity if someone shares the Gospel! We need someone like Paul to come along and share the good news with us!
A Full Christian Faith can only come when the Gospel is shared!
What can we learn from this first part of the passage?
We’re not likely to run into some of John the Baptist’s disciples today who need to hear about Jesus, but there are still some good things to learn from this experience:
a. Be humble enough to be instructed in the Faith.
a. Be humble enough to be instructed in the Faith.
You can’t assume you have it all together! We’re all learners/disciples, and we must be aware of our deficient condition. Be humble you may not have it all together, and you stand to loose a lot if you push away those who are teaching you the faith.
b. Be willing to share the Gospel those who are following in your footsteps.
b. Be willing to share the Gospel those who are following in your footsteps.
It’s not just non-believers who need to hear it, all of us need it!
Weekly, (& daily) gospel input trains us in our faith and lifestyle. If you’re a little ways down the road of Christian maturity, there are folks wishing that someone would help them learn the faith more thoroughly! Are you going to help them on their way? Are you willing to help them in their discipleship?
c. Faith, Baptism and Holy Spirit belong together!
c. Faith, Baptism and Holy Spirit belong together!
Don’t let anyone divorce them! If you believe in Jesus, you haven’t been baptized, come talk to me ASAP! We need to get you wet!
So, The first side-effect of sharing the Gospel is that we get a Whole Gospel for a Full Faith.
2. Everyone Hears the Good News (v8-10)
2. Everyone Hears the Good News (v8-10)
The second side effect of sharing the Gospel is that Everyone gets to hear the Good News. The Gospel is meant to go out with God’s work in the world. This is what happens as Paul spends a couple of years in Ephesus sharing the Gospel with anyone who’ll give him an ear!
There are three primary ways we see The Gospel going out so that everyone can hear. I’ll read the verses v8-10 and then we’ll review the three ways the message goes out.
Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.
How do people hear?
a. Through apologetics
a. Through apologetics
The Gospel goes out so that everyone can hear in apologetics. See how Paul reasoned and persuaded?
Apologetics is a fancy word that means <slide>
Apologetics
“reasoned arguments in justification of a theory or doctrine"
(Oxford English Dictionary).
Apologetics is what we do when we answer questions about Christianity. Its what we do when we share why believing in Jesus is rational and good. It seems foolish to believe, but when people are shown the reasons and proof, its much more appealing. It’s what we’re doing when we try to show others that Jesus is the only way to life and fulfillment. It’s part of evangelism.
Apologetics is giving a defense of your faith, something that Peter commands us to do:
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
While Paul was in Ephesus, he started in the Synagogue, teaching, reasoning and persuading people to believe in Jesus the Christ. One of the negative side effects of sharing the Gospel was revealed: stubbornness and slander. So when people became calloused and adversarial toward the Gospel, they moved the church and continued his apologetics in a new location. Which brings me to b)
b. Through church planting
b. Through church planting
The Gospel goes out so that everyone can hear by church planting. Ideally all the Jews in the synagogue in Ephesus would have put their faith is Jesus, who is their messiah, but this wasn't than case. If it were, the church could have essentially replaced the synagogue.
Instead, Paul has to go out and find another location where believers can meet and the Gospel be proclaimed. Paul follows the pattern of establishing new churches wherever he goes, and here is no different. In this case, he’s able to use some space “the hall of Tyrannus”. Just like us renting this facility and being allowed to meet here, the Ephesian church finds a new location.
I thought I’d show a picture of the kind of building that the Paul was probably using. It can get you into the historical setting. Usually when Christians were meeting in a “house” or in this case a “hall”, don’t think 4 bedroom house in the suburbs, or a the kind of timber dance hall that every small town has, they were probably the houses of wealthy people, with large foyers and halls. Like mansions with ballrooms.
<slide> Here’s an house of a first-century wealthy person with this large foyer area. It’s bigger than many apartments.
<slide> Here’s a hall. This could be part of somone’s house. When the church was meeting in the hall of Tyrannus, it could be something like this. Or when you read in the New Testament about house churches, they were in places like this, or in that foyer area.
As Paul shared the Gospel in Ephesus, a church is planted and more people get to hear about Jesus. With a space like this Paul and the other Christians were able to reach more people and equip more Christians for Christian ministry. This is always Paul’s pattern, to bring the Gospel to a new area and plant a church as people are discipled. From there, those people can go out into the world and make more disciples, planting more churches until everyone hears the Good News!
Interestingly, when Christain Churches are later allowed to own property, there is an explosion of church construction. These buildings are not the church, but the enabled the continual establishment of the church.
c. Through regular Church gatherings
c. Through regular Church gatherings
As Christians gather regularly for worship there is the regular proclamation of the Gospel where both people who already believe can be encouraged and reminded, but also enquirers can hear.
Every time we come together we proclaim the victory of Jesus to the world, so that everyone can hear.
We’re told not to neglect gathering together. This is important for both our own spiritual health, but also for the continual public proclamation of Gospel.
d. Through intentional ministry
d. Through intentional ministry
The Gospel is shared intentionally so that everyone can hear. Paul’s work in Ephesus for two years meant that people all over the region heard about Jesus, either by direct contact with Christians or by reputation spreading as we see later on. The spread was so complete that they could say that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord!
Imagine that. Imagine being able to say that over two years of sharing the Gospel and defending our faith all the residents of Sale heard the word of the Lord, both Christian and non-christian.
God works over time. Sometimes we’re tempted to get frustrated that we don’t see immediate change. But month-in, month-out Gospel ministry is effective.
It may not be two years for us, it may be 6 months or 80 years! But as the Good News is intentionally shared, everyone gets to hear it, and God does His work on people’s lives!
So, The second side effect of sharing the Gospel is that Everyone gets to hear the Good News.
3. We see God’s Work & Glory (v11-17)
3. We see God’s Work & Glory (v11-17)
The third side effect of sharing the Gospel is that we get to see God’s work and glory revealed.
You see, God sends Christians out as ambassadors of the Gospel, taking the message out, and then God by his Spirit and power works in hearts and in the world. That’s what happens here: Paul is out in the world, working hard to herald in the Kingdom of God. And God works though this with miracles to give people a foretaste of the world to come, but also use the miracles to support and prove that Paul’s message is legit.
Lets read what’s happening in v11-12:
God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
When you first read this, you can be tempted to think you’ve started reading a fantasy novel, with magic hankies and enchanted aprons that have healing properties.
But! Do you notice what the cause of the healing is? It’s not so much the method of healing that is important, it’s the who! It says “God was doing extraordinary miracles”
Paul was an instrument, and so were the hankies, but God was doing the miraculous. God is the one to marvel at!
This miracle fits right in with the pattern of the Bible. If you read across the pages of Scripture you rarely see miracles performed the same way twice.
Moses staff held above his head to win the battle
Elijah’s cloak which parted water
Jesus who spit in dust to make mud and heal a blind man
Or even Jesus not turning up to the scene of the miracle and healing someone remotely!
You see, we’re not meant to notice how miracles are done as if there’s a special formula or style or magic words that make it happen. It’s God himself who does the work, and in this case in Ephesus, God uses Paul’s sweaty rags and dirty work aprons to show his power and reinforce the Gospel message.
And, as if to prove the point that’s it’s God’s work and not magic relics, or mystical incantations that are effective, we have a story next about what happens when you try to use Jesus name as a magic spell. Read v13-17
Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.
These guys had heard or seen the power of God at work in the message of Jesus and they thought they could co-opt it for themselves. If it works for Paul, maybe it will work for us? The exorcism business is a tough gig! Every little bit helps right?
Big mistake! They tried to invoke the power of Jesus Christ without actually being backed-up by Jesus.
They went into a fight without back-up! What good is invoking the power of Kingdom that you don’t belong to? They get smashed, and to make it worse they suffer the shame of having to do a nudie run across town!
It’s like little kids trying to intimidate each other in the school playground:
Imagine some little kids are facing off against a big bully.
One of the little kids says: “If you don’t leave us alone I’m going to get my big-brother Harry over there to come beat you up!”
The the bully says: “You’re bluffing, I know Harry, and he’s not related to you!”
Then he proceeds to beat them up!
There’s no use invoking the name of someone that you’re not connected to!
Jesus name is both something not to be messed with, and it can’t be used like a magic spell. Don’t use the LORD’s name in vain.
The whole incident becomes a bit of a story that get passed around so that everyone in the area knew about the power and danger of Jesus Christ. The name of Jesus either enrages demons in the wrong hands, or casts them out when God is working!
It’s not normally the way that we think when we want to spread Jesus’ fame and honour, but the result of sharing the Gospel in Ephesus was God’s work was seen and his power and glory were revealed.
God matches his Word with signs of it’s authenticity - sometimes with fear-inspiring events, sometimes miracles, sometimes outpouring of the HS in a special way with healing or speaking in languages as we saw earlier. But is also in the work in peoples hearts that we will see further on.
Sometimes it will be flashy and fantastical, sometimes it’s quiet and ordinary. Always God works with his word. It is not ineffective.
How have you seen God’s work and glory?
The Side effect of sharing the Gospel is that we see God’s Work & Glory.
4. We change for the better (v18-20)
4. We change for the better (v18-20)
The fourth and last side-effect of sharing the Gospel is that we change for the better.
It’s what happens in Ephesus, when people hear about Jesus their lives were changed! They came confessing their sins, they came repenting, they came giving up the evil ways that they had held onto. Lets look at v18-20:
Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
So it seems that people who were already believing in Jesus, convicted of their sin have come to realize that the magic arts and the magic books they had could not fit in with Jesus. Jesus and paganism do not go together. You can’t have a bit of Jesus and a bit of other religions or occult practices. You cannot serve two masters.
So these believers, in repentance, bring all their scrolls of incantations and stuff and burned them. It was a massive statement to the world and the spiritual realm that these guys had denounced their former ways and sided with Jesus.
You know, I did some sums and I reckon in today's money the magic books would be worth about $10,000,000 Aussie dollars. Its 130-something years of wages!! It was a huge amount of money!
Having encountered Jesus they were emphatically jumping ship, rejecting all that is opposed to God. They were purging the evil stuff from among them, which mimicked the change in their hearts.
Everywhere we turn in the Bible there are people who’s lives are changed when they encounter Jesus. For the people of Acts, and for us today we encounter Jesus through the message that is proclaimed to us: the Gospel, the good News that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. He came from God, as a man who died as a sacrifice in our place, redeeming all of those who would put their faith and trust in Him.
Lives are turned around! Jesus takes us...
...from being slaves to sin, to slaves of Righteousness
...from demonic oppression, to freedom in Good King Jesus
...from being hopeless to hopeful.
...From guilt to guiltless,
...From shame to honour,
...From unholy to holy.
The Gospel goes out into the world, and the side effect is that we change for the better! We are turned around and put on right path, and we grow and mature as we are perfected by Jesus, being purified and sanctified, so that we would be pleasing to God. We can remain rebellious.
I’m sure parents have experienced before a simultaneous feeling of love and revulsion toward their kids. They’re your kids, you love them! You would never give them up!
But sometimes, they are just rotten brats. You know, when they got into the kitchen cupboard and stuffed themselves full of biscuits when they knew they weren’t allowed, or when they found the outside water tap and covered themselves from top to toe with mud in their new mud pit under the house...
You love them, and want whats best for them, but in those moments they have disobeyed, they have misbehaved, they have done wrong toward you.
Friends, it’s like this with God, when he has saved us, he’s saved us. We’re in the kingdom, in the house, in the family, but we still must strive to live in accordance with the house rules that our Heavenly Father has put before us.
We’re not allowed to disobey him. But in this case it’s not the trivial things of biscuits and mud that we have to keep away from, it’s much weightier than that. We have to get rid of anything that stands in the way of God’s pleasure. We’re not trying to stop him from kicking us out, but we are trying to do what pleases him and bring him Joy and Glory.
Friends, as believers we must come divulging our evil practices, as ones who live in God’s house now.
The thing is, most likely none of us are dabbling in the occult, (if you are reject it and run to Jesus!). But most likely your sins are a little more “every day”, they may even be “respectable” sins. For instance...
Do you cover up your greed and discontentment by calling it a “good work ethic”?
Do you have pride and arrogance that you call a “big personality”?
Do you have worldliness that you call “christian freedom”?
Do you have anxiety and worry that you blame on past experiences?
Friends, God knows what sins we have, and he loves us in our circumstances, but he desires that we change for the better! We cannot remain wallowing in the mud we he desires for us to be washed and dressed in robes of righteousness!
Friends, when we sin we’re playing with fire. And God doesn’t want us to throw our lives away in sin! When we hear the Gospel and our lives must change for the better.
Get rid of whatever causes you to sin. Come and confess to your brothers and sisters, divulge your practices and destroy the evil things that you have been harboring.
Your sins aren’t going to get you kicked out of the church, unless of course after confessing you refuse to turn away from evil and you want your sin more than Jesus.
I have learned not to be surprised when people confess their sins, the shock value is diminished. But, I should not have been surprised anyway, because I know the depravity of my own heart.
Amongst us here are those who have...
...stolen, lied, cheated and deceived, and even now fear that they will be found out,
....people who have watched pornography, bedded someone they weren’t married to,
...people who have used their tongue to tear down, and slander and spread rumors,
...people who have repeatedly drunk too much, eaten too much and been addicted to drugs,
Friends, Jesus saves and changes even murderers and rapists. Nothing you have done can separate you from the love of God. But, you must let go of it, give it up! Repent! Confess! Turn away from your sin and run to Jesus!
What sinful habits do you need to repent of?
The good news about Jesus comes, not so that we can justify our sin, but so that our lives may be changed for the better!!
Folks, the side effect of receiving the Gospel is that lives change for the better. Sometimes that means miraculous-physical healing, but most often that means spiritual healing. Changes on the inside that are the work of God and bring him Glory!
What are the side-effects of Sharing the Gospel?
What are the side-effects of Sharing the Gospel?
So, lets recap. What are the side-effects of Sharing the Gospel?
1. We get the Whole Gospel for a Full Faith (v1-6)
2. Everyone Hears the Good News (v8-10)
3. We see God’s Work & Glory (v11-17)
4. We change for the better (v18-20)
All of these things come from sharing the Gospel. Sure, sometimes there will be rejection and persecution as well, but we Share the Gospel for the overwhelming benefits!
The side-effects are expected, and the good side-effects far outweigh the negative.
But friends, all the way through there is someone sharing the Good News about Jesus. In this case Paul gets the spotlight, but there are others working along side him, and there have been many like him throughout history sharing the Gospel down to the present day.
But the jobs not finished yet. Now it’s your turn. If you want to the the good gospel side effects you need share it. You need to proclaim it!
The side effects are guaranteed! But someone needs to take it out!
Our world is sick and broken, we need someone to bring the medicine! There are the hopeless, the sick, the feeble, the diseased with sin.
Take the medicine, and give it to them!
Will you take the medicine out?
The word of God, the Gospel, will prevail mightily in the Hands of a mighty God. Take it out there so everyone can share in the beautiful side effects!
<END>
Notes:
Notes: