Acts 18:24–19:20: “Three Episodes in Ephesus”

Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to Acts 18. Our passage is Acts 18:24–19:20. And we are going to look this morning at three episodes in the city of Ephesus. And these three episodes teach us about the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit and the life-threatening powerlessness that comes with his absence. We’re going to see in our passage today the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit and the life-threatening powerlessness that comes when the Holy Spirit is absent. Let me say it a little more simply. If you have the Holy Spirit, you have life and power. If you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you are lifeless and powerless. That’s what this passage is about today.

And here’s why this matters. Have you ever heard of man named John Wesley? About 1,700 years after the Apostle Paul, God raised up John Wesley as a powerful evangelistic force in England. Through him, the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit were unleashed across the nation. Some scholars even argue that Wesley’s conversion and ministry were as significant—if not more so—than the Industrial Revolution.

Yet Wesley’s ministry got off to a rocky start. He was the son of a clergyman and was raised by a deeply godly mother, Susanna Wesley. From a young age, John was brilliant and spiritually inclined. He attended Oxford, was ordained as a deacon, and became a professor of Greek and logic at Lincoln College. Along with his brother Charles and his friend George Whitefield, he formed the “Holy Club,” a group devoted to strict spiritual disciplines and a life patterned after Christ.

Wesley even sailed to America as a missionary, aiming to evangelize in Georgia, a harsh land filled with ex-criminals, fortune-seekers, and Indians. But Wesley failed miserably. He returned to England broken, discouraged, and deeply troubled about his own salvation. In his journal he wrote, “I went to America to convert the Indians, but, oh, who shall convert me?”

Here’s the issue that confronted Wesley. At that point in his life, Wesley was unsaved. Though outwardly religious and intensely disciplined, he was not born again. He didn’t have the power of the Holy Spirit. To use Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3:5, he had the appearance of godliness, but without the power. 

But God did not leave him in that wretched state. On May 24, 1738, when Wesley was 24 years old, he famously attended a meeting on Aldersgate Street, where Martin Luther’s preface to Romans was being read. As he listened, he recorded in his journal, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation … and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine.” From that moment, everything changed.

Is it possible for a person to be outwardly religious and yet unsaved? Can God-fearing, God-imitating people be stuck in a place of condemnation because they have not believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior and regenerated by the Holy Spirit? Yes, it’s possible! And I would say that in our day in America, it’s not uncommon. There may even be some here today who are like the 24-year-old John Wesley. 

And what we’re going to read about today in Acts 18–19 is a precursor to John Wesley. We’re going to see a group of people, 1,700 years before Wesley, who were unsaved God-fearers. We’re going to see a man named Apollos who was even mighty in the Scriptures. But he didn’t have the mighty power of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of him. But in that state, just like Wesley, God graciously reached him with the truth of the gospel. And he got saved. And I can’t help but wonder if God wants to do something similar today at Messiah Bible Church. 

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Now here’s what happened. If you remember from last time, Paul made a brief stop in Ephesus on his way to Antioch. He travelled from Corinth to Ephesus with his new ministry partners, Priscilla and Aquilla. We learned about them last week. And he left Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus before he went to Caesarea, Jerusalem, and then finally to Antioch. This is all recorded in Acts 18:18–23. And Priscilla and Aquila became strategic partners with Paul, even hosting a church in their home.

Paul goes back to Antioch  (Click for Map)

By the way, let me say this, Priscilla is often mentioned first before her husband Aquila in the Bible, which is very unusually. In verse 18 she’s mentioned first. And in verse 26 she’s mentioned first. And some people have speculated that that’s because she was more influential publicly than her husband. And maybe that’s the case. I know that people refer to Sanja and me as Tony and Sanja, but sometimes it’s Sanja and Tony. And sometimes it’s Sony and Tanja. That’s okay too. But it doesn’t really matter to me who’s mentioned first, because we’re a team. 

And for this married couple, Priscilla and Aquila, they were a team. In fact they were a great team, as married couples serving Christ should be. And so Paul leaves Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus to get the church off the ground and he goes on to Antioch. But here’s the thing. They weren’t the only show in town. Check this out. Look at verse 24.

24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 

So there’s this Jewish guy named Apollos who was extremely eloquent. Literally, he was “a man of words,” which means he was learned and articulate. And he was competent in the Scriptures. Literally it says that he was “mighty in the Scriptures.”—the OT Scriptures, of course! But does he know Jesus?

Well, sort of. Look at verse 25.

25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. 

Okay so he does know Jesus. 

And being fervent in spirit, 

Literally this means being boiled in spirit? Not capital S “Spirit” but little s “spirit.” In other words, this guy was passionate. He was zealous for God and the Scriptures. That’s great. 

And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, 

That’s great too!

though he knew only the baptism of John. 

Huh. That’s interesting. He only knew the baptism of John. 

So this guy knows his Bible. He is competent in the OT Scriptures. He knows about Jesus. He knows that Jesus is the Messiah. He knows that John the Baptist, the forerunner to the Messiah, baptized Jesus. He probably knows about Jesus’s moral teachings. He probably knows about Jesus’s miracles. He probably knows that Jesus has come to save his people from their sins. John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Maybe Apollos has an inkling of God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. 

But here’s what’s clear. He doesn’t know about Jesus’s crucifixion. He doesn’t know about Jesus’s resurrection. He doesn’t know about Jesus’s commission – “Go into all the world and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19). He only knew the baptism of John.

By the way, this is not entirely surprising in the ancient world. This is roughly twenty years after Jesus’s death and resurrection, and word had gotten out about John the Baptist and his work in some places. But word about Jesus’s resurrection hadn’t. Roughly 200 years ago, there were colonialists in Appalachia who didn’t know about the American Revolution even twenty years after the Declaration of Independence. People would run into them in the sticks, and they would ask, “How’s England treating us?” 

And they were told, “We’re not an English colony anymore. Haven’t you heard?” 

“No I haven’t!”

So what’s going to happen with Apollos whose information on Jesus is accurate, but it’s twenty years out of date? Well, watch this. God’s going to get a hold of this guy! Look at verse 26.

26 He [Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue, 

Zeal without knowledge, right? Not full knowledge anyway. 

but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 

Priscilla and Aquila are disciples of the Apostle Paul. They know the full counsel of God and the full plan of redemption. 

And they say, “Look, Apollos, you’re really passionate, man! We can tell that you fear God and you love God. And you love his Word. But haven’t you heard what happened to Jesus?” 

“No, what happened?” 

“They crucified him. The Jews and the Romans got together and they murdered him on a cross.” 

“Are you serious? That’s awful!” 

“You’re right. It is awful! But get this. That was part of God’s plan. That’s how God is bringing about salvation for the world. Haven’t you read Isaiah 53? “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities… [and by] his wounds we are healed (53:5). And three days after his death, God raised Jesus from the dead. And now anyone and everyone who turns from their sins and puts their faith in Christ can be forgiven. That’s what we’re telling people about in Ephesus. That’s what we told people in Rome and in Corinth, and other apostles are spreading this truth all over the world. And that’s what you need to embrace and believe too, Apollos.”

Now Luke doesn’t say explicitly what happens with Apollos. But it seems, in light of what follows, that he received their message. Aquila and Priscilla took him aside so as not to embarrass him publicly, and they “explained to him the way of God more accurately” (18:26). So God used these two tentmakers, a man and a woman, to educate this brilliant, eloquent, powerful preacher. And to his credit, he was teachable. He received their message. 

In fact, I believe that Apollos is the most likely candidate as the author of the book of Hebrews in the NT. “Who wrote the book of Hebrews, Pastor Tony?” I don’t know. And I don’t think we’ll find out on this side of eternity. But a strong candidate is this guy in Acts 18, Apollos, who came to faith through the faithful ministry of these two tentmakers. 

By the way, back to John Wesley for a second. It was a group of humble, uneducated Moravians whom God used to lead John Wesley to Christ. John Wesley, the Oxford grad and Greek professor, found out in Georgia that these Moravians had something that he didn’t have. And sometimes amazingly God uses the “weak” in the world to shame the “strong” (1 Cor 1:27). 

So these tentmakers corrected Apollos. And then they end up sending him to Corinth where Paul and they had just recently planted a church. So, verse 27 says,

27 And when [Apollos] wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. 

So this new believer got to work sharing Christ, strengthening the church, and refuting unbelievers. In time Apollos became so influential in Corinth, that people started creating their own little Apollos sect. When Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, there were these little pockets of tribalism that had formed. People were saying “I follow Apollos.” O yeah, well, “I follow Paul.” Everyone had their own rock-star evangelist. And Paul had to rebuke them, “Is Christ divided?” (1 Cor 1:12–13). “We’re all on the same team here, folks.” 

So Apollos became very influential in Corinth. And verse 28 says “he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.” 

Now here’s what I want to do today. Go ahead and take your notes and write this down. I know it’s taken me a little while to get to this first point, but go ahead and write this down. Here’s what I want to covey in the outline. I want to prove to you from the text that “ignorance isn’t bliss.” I want to give you three points of evidence from the text today that proves ignorance isn’t bliss. Here’s the first point of evidence:

1) Preaching without knowledge of the cross (Acts 18:24–28) 

Preaching without the cross is evidence that “Ignorance isn’t Bliss.” Priscilla and Aquila saw that Apollos had ability. They saw that he was mighty in the Scriptures. But they also saw that he lacked the full counsel of God and the full revelation concerning Jesus Christ. And instead of allowing Apollos to continue languishing in his ignorance, they corrected him. They “explained to him the way of God more accurately.” And to Apollos’s credit, he received their correction and became a better man because of it. In fact I would say he got saved and filled with the Spirit as a result of their influence. 

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Now while this was happening in Ephesus, what was Paul doing? Well look at chapter 19, verse 1, and let’s keep going.

1 And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. 

When we last saw Paul, he had travelled from Corinth to Ephesus to Caesarea to Jerusalem and then to Antioch. And Acts 18:23 says after he spent some time there (in Antioch) he embarked on his third missionary journey. And he went from one place to the next “through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples” (Acts 18:23). So he went back to these places where he planted churches previously and made sure that they were doing okay. And he strengthened them. “Keep teaching the Word. Keep following Christ. Keep growing as a disciple. Keep pressing on even though you’re persecuted. I’ve been persecuted too. Here are my scars.” He strengthened them. 

And eventually, according to verse 1, Paul came to Ephesus (see map). Now unlike Paul’s second missionary journey, Paul takes a different route this time. Instead of going from Galatia to Phrygia across the sea to Philippi and Thessalonica and Athens and Corinth, and then across the sea to Ephesus. This time Paul goes straight from Galatia and Phrygia “inland” to Ephesus. He takes a more direct route. If you remember he tried to go this way earlier, but the Holy Spirit blocked him. Now the Holy Spirit is giving him the green light to go directly to Ephesus.

Paul returns to Ephesus  (Click for Map)

And Ephesus is the place where he told the believers earlier, “if God wills I will return to you” (Acts 18:21). This city becomes even more strategic than Antioch (if you can believe that) for the spread of the gospel in the coming years. 

And so in Acts 19:1, it says,

Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 

Now just a point of clarification. These weren’t disciples of Christ, as we’ll see in just a moment. These were disciples of John the Baptist. That’s important. Remember that!

2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” 

Because, you know, that’s what happens when you believe. You receive the Holy Spirit. 

And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

Huh? Okay, what’s going on here with these guys? 

Listen, let me try to explain. There are two instances in Scripture where the indwelling of the Holy Spirit follows conversion. The first instance was at Pentecost in Acts 2. And that was a unique, transitional period where God first empowered his saints with a visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit. So the disciples in the upper room were saved, they believed in Jesus’s death. They believed in his resurrection. But they weren’t yet indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Not until Pentecost. And at Pentecost (Acts 2), the Holy Spirit came down and lit them up like a Christmas tree. 

The other instance was in Samaria (Acts 8:14–17), where Samaritans got saved through the preaching of Philip. But God delayed the coming of the Holy Spirit until Peter and John came and laid hands on them. That was a unique situation. I don’t know for sure why God delayed the filling of the Holy Spirit, but I think it was because God wanted to affirm in the minds of the Apostles that non-Jews were now saved and part of the family of God. Peter and John needed that visible authentication. 

But other than that—other than those two instances—the Holy Spirit comes upon a person at conversion. In fact, in the Reformed tradition, the understanding is that regeneration precedes conversion and the verbalizing of one’s faith. Others would articulate it as coterminous—in other words, your demonstration of faith is simultaneous with the regenerative work of the Spirit. Either way, you don’t get saved and then later receive the Holy Spirit. That’s not normative. 

Let me put it this way “If you’re saved, then you’re indwelt by the Spirit. And if you’re indwelt with the Spirit, then you’re saved.” “If you’re not saved, then you’re not indwelt by the Spirit. If you’re not indwelt by the Spirit, then you’re not saved.” Everyone with me? Romans 8:9 says, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”

So when I see these “disciples” who don’t have the Holy Spirit, I assume “unsaved.” They are unsaved. And I think the Apostle Paul assumes likewise. Look at verse 3.

3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.”

 Now stay with me here, because I want to be clear about what’s happening. These individuals, similar to Apollos, have heard about John the Baptist. And maybe they’ve even heard about how John the Baptist baptized Jesus. But they haven’t heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Some scholars have concluded, and I know why people conclude this, that these individuals were saved under the Old Covenant, as OT saints, and now they’ll transition into NT saints. Here’s my problem with that. Maybe that’s the case, but when the veil was torn… when Christ’s atonement was made on the cross… the OT saints who had died before that were redeemed by Christ’s blood. And the Old Covenant was superseded by the New Covenant of Christ’s blood. And from that point onward, no one was “saved” without faith in Christ and faith in his finished work on the cross. And so I believe that these “John-the-Baptist-disciples” in Ephesus were unsaved when Paul got there. That’s my take on this passage. 

Now whether you agree with me or not, I think we can all agree that God in his mercy took this group of John-the-Baptist-followers, and God, in his mercy, used Paul to reach this group. And God used Paul to reveal to them the full gospel of Jesus Christ and dispel their ignorance. 

Look at verse 5.

5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 There were about twelve men in all. 

Write this down as #2 in your notes. This is the second of three episodes in Ephesus—three episodes that prove “Ignorance isn’t Bliss.” The first of those episodes involved preaching theology without the cross (Acts 18:24–28). The second involves…

2) Discipleship without knowledge of the Spirit (Acts 19:1–7)

The Spirit’s presence was manifested here in Ephesus by the speaking in tongues and prophesying. This was very similar to what happened in Jerusalem in Pentecost. Now I want to be clear about this. There are a number of ways that the Spirit’s presence in a person’s life is manifested. Even in Scriptures, we see that. Sometimes it’s speaking in tongues and prophesying. Sometimes the Holy Spirit’s presence was felt through an outpouring of joy. Sometimes it was felt through an increased boldness to speak about Christ (Acts 4:8; 4:31; 13:10). Sometimes it’s the leading of the Spirit (Rom 8:14) or the mortification of the flesh (Rom 8:13; Gal 5:24) or the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22–23). Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you’re not filled with the Spirit unless you speak in tongues. That doesn’t square with Scripture. The important point here is that the Holy Spirit’s presence was demonstrated in a tangible way. That was part of the assurance that NT believers had that they were saved. 

And the question I have for you this morning isn’t do you speak in tongues as a demonstration of the Spirit? It’s more simply, is the Holy Spirit’s presence discernible in your life? You might say, “Pastor Tony I don’t speak in tongues and prophesy like they do in the book of Acts.” Okay, I don’t either. But do you have the joy of the Holy Spirit? Is the fruit of the Holy Spirit being manifested in your life? Do the sense the Holy Spirit’s conviction over sin? Are the gifts of the Holy Spirit being manifested in your life? Don’t just consider the “sign gifts.” What about serving? What about teaching? What about giving? What about faith? What about leadership? What about hospitality and mercy? Can you sense the Holy Spirit’s impact upon your life? And Here’s something to ask others—Do other Christians identify the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life? 

I heard a pastor say once that before he got saved, he could sin and sin and sin and there was just a little bit of guilt about that sin. But now after faith in Christ, when I sin, there is such strong conviction that comes into my life. It’s terrible! It’s terrible, but it’s wonderful. Because it’s evidence of my salvation. The Holy Spirit’s conviction is evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence inside of you, a deposit of your eternal inheritance. 

Some of you possibly don’t sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit because you’ve been ignoring his conviction again and again, and your conscience is seared to the point you don’t even know if he’s there anymore. Don’t do that! If that’s you today, then I challenge you to repent of your sin and ask God to re-sensitize your heart to the convictions of the Spirit. And stop grieving him.

Others of you possibly don’t sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit, because you’re unsaved. You don’t have the Holy Spirit living inside of you! It doesn’t have to be like that. Ignorance isn’t bliss. You can have your sins forgiven, and the power of the Holy Spirit deposited inside of you today. 

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Thirdly. Write this down. Here’s addition evidence that ignorance isn’t bliss.

3) Spirituality without faith in Christ (Acts 19:8–20)

Now what happens in the following verses. This is one of the saddest and one of the funniest events in Scripture. It’d be even more funny, if it wasn’t so sad. 

Look at verse 8.

8 And [Paul] entered the synagogue 

Paul was fresh off converting these “John-the-Baptist-disciples” in Ephesus. 

and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 

So similar to Corinth, Paul gets frustrated with the Jews and changes strategies. And he goes to the “hall of Tyrannus” which was probably a public gathering place in Ephesus full of mostly Gentiles. 

10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. 

People came to Ephesus from all over Asia because Ephesus was a major metropolitan area. Some estimate that the population of Ephesus was something like 250,000 people at this time. The only larger cities in the Roman Empire were Antioch and Rome. 

And if you remember, God didn’t allow Paul to go to Asia earlier to preach the gospel. He got blocked by the Spirit and sent to Macedonia (Acts 16:6–10). But now, God is bringing Asia to Paul to hear the gospel in Ephesus! And it wasn’t just Jews or just Gentiles, either. According to Luke, it was “both Jews and Greeks.”

11 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 

So we dealt with this a little bit with the Apostle Peter. God used Peter to do incredible miracles like this. Peter’s shadow was even healing people (Acts 5:15). And now the same kinds of things are happening with Paul. 

By the way I believe that God used these extraordinary miracles to authenticate the preaching of the gospel and to accelerate the message throughout the ancient world. Even in the way that these miracles are described, you can see that what’s happening is unusual. It’s an outworking of Paul’s Apostolic power. Luke even calls these miracles, “extraordinary.” Miracles are already extraordinary, right? But these, even as far as miracles go, are unusually extraordinary. 

Can God do miracles like that in our day? Sure, he can. Does he normally? No. I don’t think so. Not that I’ve seen anyway. So if you get a letter in the mail with a prayer handkerchief and a money envelope, you have my permission to tear that up and throw it in the trash. 

Remember, I’ve said this before, but let me say this again. We want to “experience the apostles’ teaching, not teach the apostles’ experience!” I don’t think what’s happening here with Paul is normative or prescriptive for us. It was unusual. It was extraordinary. 

And watch what happens next in verse 13. 

13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 

Alright, here’s where things get really sad. Luke tells us that there was a group of Jewish exorcists, not Christians by the way, who watched what Paul did and said to themselves, “Cool. I want to do that too.” And so these guys try to use the Name of Jesus like it’s some kind of “Hocus-Pocus” or “Abracadabra” incantation, and they try to do what Paul did. In the words of Al Mohler they wanted “a Jesus you can use, rather than a Jesus who will save.”

I told you a few weeks ago that in the Roman Empire there were these Jewish magicians that would travel around and do this kind of stuff. You might remember that guy Elymas Bar-Jesus in Acts 13? He was a Jewish magician like these guys. 

And verse 14 says, 

14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 

This isn’t a Holy Spirit beatdown. This is an evil spirit beatdown. These guys get slain in the spirit—an evil spirit! And they are so afraid of this demoniac, that they run away naked and wounded. 

By the way public nakedness was very shameful for Jews. Even to be seen in only your loincloth would have been mortifying for a Jew. So it’s a testament to how terrified they were by this evil spirit, that they would run out in public naked. These guys were terrified. 

Look at verse 17.

17 And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 

I find it interesting here that the name of Jesus was extolled. Because you might think that this story would call into question the power of Jesus’s name. It doesn’t. People fear the name of Jesus even more than they fear those evil spirits. 

18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. 

 Ephesus was known at this time for its “spirituality.” It was a place where charms and amulets and sorcery and other types of occultism were common. And so this episode with the seven sons of Sceva scared these believers straight. And they got together and burned all of their remnants of the occult. Maybe some of y’all need to do something similar this afternoon? 

And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 

My goodness, that’s a lot of dough! That’s the equivalent of 50,000 days’ worth of wage. That’s 138 years’ worth of wage for the average worker at this time. We’re talking millions of dollars’ worth of books that they burned. This group of people decided that Jesus is awesome and this stuff stinks. They decided, “Jesus is awesome, and we don’t need this stuff anymore.” This is real spirituality right here. This is real faith in action. This isn’t the feigning of spirituality; this is real spiritual vitality that is borne out of faith in Christ. 

Here’s what I think happened. The Holy Spirit started to bring conviction on these Ephesian Christians. And they started to feel remorse over their books of magic and their amulets. 

And here’s the thing - When the Holy Spirit gets a hold of you… when you get a taste of that new life in Christ… nothing competes with that. Nothing in this world satisfies like that. And the silly trinkets and trivialities of this world are nothing more than fuel for a fire. 

When Christ gets a hold of your life, you’re willing to dispossess yourself of everything in order to gain more of Christ. That’s what living by the Spirit looks like. Paul said in Philippians, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (3:8). That’s what these Ephesians are experiencing here. Have you experienced that before? 

And look how the LORD responded to their action. 

20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

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Now let me close on this note. I asked you a question earlier, and I want to come back to it. Do you have the Holy Spirit inside of you? Do you the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through you? Because I believe in two realities. You either have the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, or you have the life-threatening powerlessness that comes from his absence. Let me say that again, you either have today the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit and the life-threatening powerlessness that comes when the Holy Spirit is absent. Which is it for you? 

When I look at this passage in Acts 18-19, I see one unifying theme – The power of the Holy Spirit. You either have it or you don’t. Paul had it. The seven sons of Sceva didn’t. Priscilla and Aquila had it, Apollos didn’t. Not at first. What did the disciples say to Paul when he asked him if they had received the Holy Spirit? “We didn’t know there even was a Holy Spirit.” Well that’s unfortunate. And Paul’s like, “let me tell you about him.” 

You either have the Holy Spirit or you don’t. You are either saved or unsaved. You either have faith in Christ leading to eternal life or you have faithlessness leading to eternal death. Which is it? If the answer to that question is faithlessness leading to eternal death, or if your answer to that question is “I don’t know, Tony,” I want you invite you right now to confess your sins and receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Do that with me now. I want to ask everyone in this room to be really still and really quiet. And let’s together bow our heads together before the LORD. And I want to challenge you. Is the Holy Spirit in your life? Is there evidence of his presence in your life? Are you saved? If the answer to that question is no, then I want to ask you to do this in the quietness of your soul. This is how a person gets saved. I want you to admit before God that you are a sinner. I want you to tell him right now. God, I’m a sinner. I can’t save myself. I need you. But don’t stop there. It’s not enough just to acknowledge that you are a sinner. You need to do something that Apollos did 2000 years ago. You need to do something John Wesley did 300 years ago. You need to believe in the Name of Jesus Christ for your salvation. Believe in his death. Believe in his resurrection. Believe that your sins were paid and forgiven by his blood. Call upon his now and ask for his forgiveness. And ask him to fill you with his Holy Spirit. The Bible says “everyone who calls on the Name of the LORD will be saved.” Call upon his name now. The Bible also says, “If we confess Christ before men, he’ll confess us before our Father who is in heaven.” The Bible says “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” Do that now also! Confess him as the LORD of your life. 

“God, I ask that you would make the power of your Holy Spirit discernible and evident in the lives of your saints. For anyone who has made a decision today to follow you for the first time, make your power and your presence great, LORD. Show them your power. For anyone in this room who has grieved your Spirit or quenched the power of the Spirit, forgive us, LORD. Give us a new great sensitivity to your Spirit. May we be attentive to your leading in your life! May we be obedient to your convictions! May we be a Spirit-led and Spirit-empowered body of believers! I pray this in the Name of Jesus. Amen!”