New Testament
Lesson
Acts 19:13-18
13 Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to use the name of
the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the
Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest
named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit said to them in
reply, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” 16 Then
the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered them all, and so
overpowered them that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. 17 When
this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, everyone
was awestruck; and the name of the Lord Jesus was praised. 18 Also
many of those who became believers confessed and disclosed their practices.
A few years ago I went to Haiti on a
mission trip, and in getting ready for the travel I had to go to the doctor’s
to have some shots -- Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B.
So I went to the doctor’s to get my
shots.
This lady comes into the examination
room and she swabs down my arm with
alcohol, and then she starts fumbling around with my chart and fumbling around
with whatever she has brought with her.
Finally she says, “You know, I need one of those needle things.”
“A syringe,” I suggest.
“Oh yes, that’s it. I need one of those things. Be right back.”
She comes back in and she swabs my arm
down with alcohol, and then she hesitates.
“You know, I need to get the vaccine.
I’ll be right back.”
A few minutes later she comes back in
and she swabs down my arm with more alcohol.
She looks at me and asks me, “It does go into the arm, doesn’t it?”
She says she’s going to ask someone
about that and she leaves.
She comes back and says someone else
will be giving me my shots.
Suits me!
We start talking and at some point in
the conversation she says she didn’t get much sleep last night because she was
so excited about her new job. Today was
the first day she was working in the doctor’s office.
The only thing that kept me from
asking this lady about her last job was the fear of hearing her tell me that
she had worked at McDonalds, or some place like that.
I’m sure she was trained, but she just
didn’t seem to have any experience.
At least no first hand experience.
A lot of us are like that woman. We have lots of second hand knowledge, but no
first hand knowledge or experience in certain areas of life.
I watch a lot of medical shows on
television – ER and shows like that. I
know all about subdural hematomas and defibrillation and saline solutions.
Well, I don’t really know about
them. But I have this second hand
knowledge about life in a hospital.
I have second hand knowledge about
what the White House is like because I have watched lots of episodes of West
Wing.
I have second hand knowledge about the
military, because I talk to people who serve in the military.
Second hand knowledge is good, it’s
helpful, it’s interesting – but it is no substitute for first hand knowledge
and experience.
In our New Testament lesson from the Book
of Acts we read about a time when the news of Jesus Christ was growing. The whole world was beginning to hear about
Jesus – but for many people this news was second hand information.
As the New Testament reading from Acts
tells it, “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 Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come
out." What’s interesting here is
that they did not know Jesus personally.
Their Jesus was a second hand Jesus.
And
of course, it does not turn out very well for them. As they were trying to deal with a demon
possessed person, the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know
about Paul, 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.
It
is a dramatic illustration about how dangerous “second hand” knowledge about
Christ can be.
Here
is the question for the day -- Is your Jesus a second hand Jesus?
Do
you know of Jesus only from what you have seen in the movies, or from
what you have read in books, or by what you have heard from teachers and
preachers?
I
said a moment ago that second hand knowledge was a good thing – up to a point.
Knowing
Jesus second hand is never quite sufficient for us.
It
is not enough to know about Jesus.
One
must know Jesus personally and through one’s own experience.
How
do you do that? For many people, Jesus
is an abstract thought. They know about
him like they know about Abraham Lincoln or about George Washington.
How
do you make Jesus personal in your life?
In
our reading from Acts, there are three things the people do to move from
knowing ABOUT Jesus, to the point where they know him PERSONALLY.
1.
Respect the Name
First – there must be a respect for the
name and person of Jesus Christ.
In
the Book of Acts, news about the power and authority of Jesus begins to
spread. As our New Testament lesson puts
it, “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.”
Many
people who know about Jesus will never move to the point of personally knowing
Jesus because they do not hold the name of Jesus in high honor.
Have
you ever seen the movie "O God?" George Burns plays God himself, who
has come to earth to speak with a grocery manager named Jerry Landers. In one
of their conversations, Jerry, without thinking, says to himself, "O
God!"
God!"
And
God says, "Yes, Jerry? What is it?"
And
Jerry says, "Huh?? Oh, it’s nothing, Lord. It’s just an expression. A
figure of speech. Nothing more."
And
then God says, "Jerry, that’s why I’m here. I want people to know that I’m
not just a figure of speech. I’m more than just a phrase that people blurt out
when they get frustrated. I want you to tell people to take me seriously. That
I am the Lord!"
For
all too many people, Jesus is an empty phrase.
An empty word. The name of Jesus
is spoken as a curse, or as a word of exclamation.
More
than that, people often ridicule Jesus.
Now,
you can make fun of preachers – and I know you do! Some of you email me your best preacher
jokes! Some of them are actually funny!
Well, the jokes about Presbyterian preachers aren’t funny – but I’ve heard some
hilarious jokes about Baptist preachers!
And
people can make fun of the church. The
Lord knows we deserve it. We don’t
always practice what we preach and sometimes we deserve for folks to poke fun
at us. A little humor can sometimes help
the church understand the way the world sees us so we can correct ourselves and
put us on the right track.
But
it always hurts to see people ridicule Christ.
I’m
not saying we can’t use humor to teach about Christ – I’d be the last to say
that! But what I am talking about is the
disrespectful humor and comments the world often aims at our Savior.
If
you want to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you must respect the name
and person of Jesus Christ.
That’s
what happened in the Book of Acts.
People began to respect the name and person of Jesus Christ, and if you
want to have a relationship with Christ, that is what you must do.
2.
Confession
The
second thing you need to do is to be open and honest with God about who we
are. The old fashioned word for this is
– confession.
In our New Testament lesson, when the
word gets around about the power of Christ, people begin to respect the name
and person of Christ – and then, in the words of our New Testament reading,
“Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds.”
Confession helps move us from the
point of knowing about Jesus to the point of actually knowing the Person of
Jesus.
One
of the most important moments in our worship services comes with the prayer of
confession and the assurance of God’s grace.
God
knows our sins and failures. He knows
when we have failed to love others. He
knows when we have been selfish.
Confession
is not telling God anything He doesn’t already know.
But
it is our act of admitting of our sins so we can get our past out of the way
and be freed of guilt.
It is not so much that God needs to
know what we have done – he knows that!
WE need to get it off our chest and out of our souls.
When
we sin, we are separated from God.
Our
joy disappears,
our sense of God’s
presence evaporates,
and we live in a
gray world of uncertainty and frustration.
If
we continue to sin, then we continue in a separation from God and Christ. We spiral downward into despair, regret,
anger, and deep-seated bitterness.
We
got to put the past behind us!
Confession helps us heal our souls and helps open us up to a personal
relationship with Christ.
That’s
what the people in the book of Acts began to do – they confessed their sins so
they could move from just knowing about Jesus, to the point where they
personally knew Jesus.
3.
Repentance
The
third thing we must do, and this comes right after confession, is repentance.
This
is not only a turning away from sinful activities, but a change of one’s mind
and heart. It is a change of one’s
lifestyle.
Referring again to
our New Testament reading, after the people make their confession, they destroy
the things that tempted them. As the
Book of Acts puts it, “A number of those who practiced the occult collected
their books and burned them publicly; when the value of these books was
calculated, it was found to come to fifty thousand silver coins.”
Repentance means that I own responsibility
for my part in what was unsatisfactory behavior. I accept responsibility for my part in what
is and what will be new behavior.
Repentance is owning responsibility for what
was, accepting responsibility for what is, and acting responsibly now.
It is responsible action. It is not a matter of punishing ourselves for
past mistakes, hating ourselves for past failures, and depressing ourselves
with feelings of worthlessness.
Repentance is finishing the unfinished
business of my past and choosing to live in new ways that will not repeat old
unsatisfactory situations. In the full Christian meaning of the Word,
repentance is a process. It is a thawing
out of rigid lifestyles into a flowing, moving, growing, repenting process.
A Sunday School teacher once asked a class
what was meant by the word "repentance." A little boy put up his hand and said,
"It is being sorry for your sins."
But then another little child girl also raised her hand and said,
"It is being sorry enough to quit." (Donald Grey Barnhouse)
There
are so many people who know about Jesus, but they have never built a
relationship with Jesus.
They
know a second hand Jesus – not a first hand Jesus.
If
you know about Jesus, but you don’t know him personally, this is a good time to
begin that process of knowing him personally.
It is a good day to confess one’s sins and to repent and turn from a
former way of life and to turn toward a life devoted to Christ.
And now unto
God the Father,
God the Son,
And God the
Holy Spirit be ascribed all might, power, dominion and glory, today and
forever, Amen.
Copyright 2017.
Dr. W.
Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights
reserved
Ministers may
feel free to use some or all of this sermon in their own ministries as long as
they do not publish in print or on the Internet without ascribing credit to the
author.