The Whole Way | Acts 18:23-19:10

Apollos was gifted but unfinished. Twelve disciples in Ephesus were sincere but incomplete — they had not even heard of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Zach traces the story of Acts 18:23-19:10 to show what happens when Jesus, by his Spirit, brings people all the way in rather than leaving them almost there. This is an invitation to stop white-knuckling your way through faith and ask the Spirit who already lives in you to fill you fresh.

Scripture: Acts 18:23-19:10
Series: Living by the Spirit, Following the Way

The Way Church KC is a community of misfits & saints in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City following the Way of Jesus & pushing back darkness — together. Join us Sundays or learn more at thewaykc.church.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to Sermon from the Way of First AC, the community of the Liz and Saints in Kansas City, following the way of Jesus organization together.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Good morning, everybody. How are we doing? Doing okay? I hope we're all doing okay. Um, are we awake this morning? If you're not, that's okay, because I'm not either. Um, so I am going to read Acts 18, 23 through verse 1910. If you guys could please stay in with me for the reading of the word. After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phryga. Phrygia, sorry, strengthening all the depos up disciples. Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished across to um Achaiah, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that Christ the Christ was Jesus. And it happened that while Paul Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples, and he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And he said, Into what then were you baptized? They said, Into John's baptism. 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. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all. And he entered the synagogue, and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 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. This continued for two years, so that all uh all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. This is the word of the Lord, you may be seated.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Amen, amen. Welcome everyone to the Way Church KC. If uh we haven't gotten a chance to meet yet, my name is Zach. I have the privilege of being the pastor here, and uh we're a new church plant. If this is your first time here, we're a two and a half-year-old church plant, and we exist to follow the way of Jesus and push back darkness together. And today is the day after the 4th of July. So obviously, there's some people traveling, obviously, there's some people that decided to sleep in, but you guys are not those people, so I'm proud of you. Good job. Way to show up on Sunday morning and on time on a holiday weekend. So we've been in a series walking verse by verse through the book of Acts. Our series is entitled Living by the Spirit and Following the Way. And we just concluded Paul's second missionary journey. And so I have a map for you guys again, like we did after the first missionary journey. But before that, I have a joke for you. So in my marriage, my wife is the funny one, and I'm like the boring, serious one. Um, so I didn't tell Chelsea that I was gonna take a rip at this, and I didn't like write the joke. Um, but it's in line with the map and where we're going. Okay. So bear with me. And if you don't laugh, that's okay. But I know Geordie and Zach are gonna laugh. I can already see it on their face. Alright, so once, not too long ago, a Protestant missionary to the Middle East came to a little village in the desert. He struck up a conversation with a young man and he asked in the boy's language, Son, do you know about Jesus Christ? The young man responded and said, Of course, everybody in this village is a Christian. The evangelist, delighted, he inquired, Wonderful, who brought you the gospel? Was it the Baptists? Was it the Presbyterians? Was it the Lutherans? Was it the Pentecostals? The young man responded and said, You know, I actually don't know. Everybody has been a Christian here for as long as I can remember. Let me go and ask the village elders. So the young man then walked over to a group of older men sitting under a shade tree, drinking a cold beverage and trying to keep cool. He spoke to them in their language briefly, and he walked back over to the missionary. He responded, they said it was Paul. I got one little one over there. So I think that's like um Chelsea's laughing because nobody laughed. So I'll take that. But hey, so it's in line with what we've been talking about, and uh it ties into the map we're gonna look at because Paul has covered some ground on his second missionary journey. You ready back there, Madeline? So in Paul's second missionary journey, we've looked at Acts 15, verses 36 through 1822. We saw 20 stops. Some of them were just like a brief mention within a verse. Um, and he's covered two continents. So, first, Acts 15, 36 through 40, Paul is in Antioch in Syria. This is where the journey begins from. Remember, this was their sending church. There's a sharp disagreement that arose. Barnabas sails for Cyprus. You see the island of Cyprus right kind of on the bottom left there. Um, and he goes there with Mark, and then Paul chooses Silas, and then the church commends them to the grace of the Lord. Second stop that we saw was in Acts 15, 41. Paul and Silas, they traveled through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches, passing near Tarshish, Paul's hometown. Next, we see Derby in Acts 16.1. This is the first stop back among the Galatian churches that Paul had planted on his first journey. So he is going back and strengthening the churches that they had first planted. Then they go to Lystra. This is seen in Acts 16, 1 through 5. This is when we're introduced to a young Timothy. He's well spoken of by the believers. He joins the team there. A spiritual son is added, and the churches grow daily. Next, we see Phrygia and Galatia in Acts 16 6. Remember, this is where the Holy Spirit forbids them from speaking the word in Asia. So this is that verse where we talked about a closed door. But actually, what we saw that it's the Spirit redirecting their mission. Then we see them in Troas in Acts 16, 7 through 10. They're blocked from Bithynia and they land at the coast, and Paul receives what we call the Macedonian vision. It says, Come over and help us. Then Luke, who is the author of the book of Acts, joins the team. Next, we're in Samothracy. That's Acts 16, 11. Um, we see an overnight anchor on the strait sail from Asia toward Europe. And so you kind of see, go back, yeah, you can see them traveling across the waters and stopping there. And then we stopped in Neapolis. Um, so they're now in Greece. This is the port where the gospel first touched European soil. Next, Acts 16, 12 through 40, we're in Philippi. We see Lydia believed by the river. A slave girl is set free. Paul and Silas, they sing at midnight. An earthquake opens the prison doors, and the jailer's whole household is saved. Then we're in Amphipolis in Acts 17, 1. This is a stop along the Via Ignatia, the great Roman highway that's heading west. So you can kind of see from 10 to 11, 12, 13, um, there's they're they're following this Via Ignatia, this Roman road. Next, we are in Apolloniah in Acts 17.1. Um, this is another day's journey down the Roman road toward Thessalonica. Then we're in Thessalonica in Acts 17, 1 through 9. Paul spends three Sabbaths reasoning from the scriptures. Some believe, and a mob accuses them of turning the world upside down. That's that sermon was a little more recent, so maybe you can remember how they were accused of turning the world upside down, and we want that to be the accusation that's brought against us. And if you remember, if you've read the New Testament quite a bit, Paul he writes first and second Thessalonians to the church at Thessalonica. Next, we see Berea. Acts 17, 10 through 4. We are introduced to these noble Bereaans who are studying, examining the scriptures, receiving the word with eagerness, and they're doing that daily to test, to see if the things they're being told are so. After that, we reach Athens, Greece, Acts 17, 15 through 34. Paul enters the city and he is provoked. His heart is broken by a city full of idols. Paul preaches at the Areopagus. He says, the unknown known God that you are worshiping is actually the God who made the world, the living God, and he commands all people everywhere to repent. Then we reach Corinth in Acts 18, 1 through 17. Paul meets Achilla, Aquila, and Priscilla. He works as a tent maker and he stays there for 18 months. The Lord says in a vision, do not be afraid, for I have many in this city who are my people. Then we are at Centre, another town in Greece. Acts 18, 18. This is Corinth's Eastern port, where Paul cuts his hair because of a vow before sailing for Syria. Almost there. Then we reach Ephesus in Acts 18, 19 through 21. He makes a brief stop here. Paul reasons in the synagogue and he promises, I will return to you if God wills. He keeps that promise on the third journey, as we will see today. Then we're in Caesarea, Acts 18, 22. Paul lands back in Judea after the long voyage across the Mediterranean, makes a stop in Jerusalem in Acts 18.22. Says Paul went up and greeted the church, reporting back before heading home to Antioch, the sending church, modern-day Turkey. Acts 18 22. They are home again. A journey that began, go back, please. A journey that began with the disagreement, ends with churches planted across two continents, and the gospel has entered Europe. As the result of this second missionary journey, we saw closed doors. We see the Spirit leading Paul from Antioch to Philippi to Thessalonica to Athens to Corinth. And churches are planted that receive letters that we still read today in the New Testament. The church at Philippi, the church at Thessalonica, and the church at Corinth. So if you're into history, if you're a map person, that is for you. We've kind of been doing that to recap each of his missionary journeys. So we'll do that again after Paul's third missionary journey. But with that, let's dig in. So we're picking the story back up immediately following the second missionary journey. Acts 18.23. If you have your Bible, you can go ahead and open it up to Acts 18. If you don't have a Bible, we'd love to give you one. Right outside of the sanctuary doors, we have Bibles for you to have, for you to keep, for you to mark up, all that fun stuff. So Paul is launching out on what we call his third missionary journey. Acts 18.23. The word says, After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. So this is where we are headed. We're headed toward Ephesus, like Paul promised at the end of his second missionary journey, that he would return to Ephesus. This is one of the great cities of the ancient world. Ephesus was home to the temple of Artemis. It was one of the seven wonders of the world, and it was soaked in magic, in money, and in spiritual power. This is the city. Ephesus is the city where the gospel is going to dig in and stay for more than two years. But before Paul even arrives, before he even arrives, Luke, it's like he he slows the camera down for us to show us two groups of people who were almost there. Almost there. And I want to, we've talked about this before. I want you to notice a little word that Luke uses in these chapters for the Christian life, for following Jesus. In verse 9 of chapter 19, which we'll cover in a little bit, and then again in verse 23, which we'll cover next week, he calls it the way, which is, if you saw the sign out front, the name of our church. And we introduced this at the beginning of the sermon series, but I want us to see, I want to draw our attention to that again today because this isn't a throwaway phrase. It's referring to the way of the Lord. It's referring to the way of Jesus. And the way of the Lord is Old Testament language. It is the vocabulary of the Exodus and Deuteronomy for the kind of life that God's people are actually supposed to walk in. It was never just like a set of beliefs that you align yourself with. It's not a vibe, it's not a feeling. No, it's essentially a road you travel, it's a journey you take. Following Jesus is a way in which you walk. We look at Isaiah in the prophetic literature. Throughout Isaiah, God promised that one day he would make a highway in the wilderness for his redeemed people. And then we see John the Baptist, which we're going to talk about today, John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord. And then Jesus later declared, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So when Luke calls Christianity, the early church, the early Christians, followers of the way or the way, he's not inventing a cool, kind of catchy nickname. No, he's announcing that every Old Testament promise about God's people returning home has finally arrived in Christ Jesus. So Christianity is not merely about forgiveness of sins, it is a whole new exodus. And that is what our church name is based upon. We're not, you know, having some catchy name. No, we're we're just followers of the way. We're following King Jesus. That's what we're about here, and that's what we're going to continue to be about. So here is, I think, the question that this passage lays out, just to kind of paint the picture before we dig in. And I I think it is an uncomfortable question. The question is this is it possible, is it possible to be sincere about God and still be missing something essential? Can you be gifted in a worldly sense? Can you be religious for all intents and purposes? Can you even be on fire and still not have the whole thing? This morning we're gonna meet a brilliant preacher, and then we're gonna meet 12 forgotten disciples. Both of them were closer than they knew and further than they realized. Closer than they knew, and yet further than they realized. And what we're gonna see this morning, we're gonna watch Jesus by his Holy Spirit finish what he started in them and then push back darkness across an entire region. I think if if if I'm being honest with you, what we see today, I think it is emblematic of the journey of church planting. I want to be honest with you about what the journey of church planting has been, has looked like. Maybe many of you relate. Maybe you're newer and you don't, but either way, bear with me here. Planting a church is hard. Oftentimes, when we first answered and said yes to this call, I'd sit down with people a lot older, a lot wiser than I, and they look me in the eye and say, church planting is the hardest thing you will ever do in your life. And I would hear that and I would kind of scoff. I'd be like, Yeah, you know, I'm sure it's hard, but like the Lord brought me out of a vicious drug addiction. How much harder than that can it be? But today I understand and know that as truth, as fact, because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things I've ever done. It's the wildest, craziest faith journey I've ever gone on. And I think there's several reasons. I think one of them is because there's a lot of like almost in church planting. There's a lot of almost. And nobody warns you what it feels like to be in that almost sort of place. Now, oftentimes a church that's planted in our style, in our context, you you often do not launch and watch it explode. Oftentimes the church plants that launch and explode are those with a lot of funding behind them that are being sent out by a big megachurch, but for all intents and purposes, like we got it out the mud. We we picked ourselves up by the bootstraps, Crystal, and just, hey, slow relational growth is our model. You know, well, some of us remember the days we were showing up at neighborhood church for a small Bible study and wondering if people were gonna show up and you know, maybe doing some worship, you know, whatever. Um, even before that, like Chelsea went and just took Louis back there, but and Jeremy's not here today. But I'm thinking of like when we were meeting in our living room for a small Bible study, and it was like me, Chelsea, my buddy Garrison, his wife Sophia, and their son Uzziah. And we're praying for this. But a lot of it was living in that almost. Now, you know, there's still that feeling. You pour you pour your heart into a Sunday. And then maybe the three people you were counting on were just not there. You you spend a year discipling somebody who you were sure the Lord was gonna do a work in their life, they were going to be a pillar in your life and at the church plant's life, and they quietly drift. Maybe they fall back into addiction. There are stretches where the numbers don't move at all. And you lie awake at two in the morning asking the ceiling fan whether any of this is actually working. That's real, like I've been there. Uh River, can you come here real quick? There's somebody that keeps calling me, and I well, it stopped. Hold my phone. Hello. Yeah, take that. Sorry, bro. Answer it if they uh call back because they've called me like three times now. And they're calling the church number, they're not calling myself. So, anyway, that's church planting right there, right? Where we're at, we're two and a half years in as a church, and can I just tell you that some of my hardest moments have not been in the failures? Because I think failure you can name, you can grieve, and you can move past. Some of the hardest moments have been in the almost. The sense that. That we're so close to something. We're close to seeing the full picture of what the Lord wants to do. Maybe we cannot quite see it yet. Having that feeling that God is doing something that we do not have eyes to see yet. And maybe you relate to that in the context of our church plants. Or maybe you relate to that in your own life, right? The almost of like, hey, we're 20 some odd days, two weeks away from our wedding, you know. Maybe it's the almost of, you know, whatever it is for you. Insert blank there. Whatever it is for you, go with me there. Because if you have ever felt that in your own walk with Jesus, be it sincere, you're trying, you're showing up, and still wondering if there is more than what you've got, then hold on to that feeling this morning. Because the scriptures are going to speak directly into that. This morning we meet a gifted preacher and 12 forgotten disciples who were almost there. And a missionary who spent two years in a rented lecture hall, showing up every single day, and God did something about it. That's where we're going. Let me pray and then let's dig in. Lord, we love you, we praise you, we thank you for this day, we thank you for your scriptures, for your word that is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, Lord. So I pray that through your word, you will speak to us, that you will pierce our hearts. Lord, that you will do a work that only you can do. Prepare our hearts, prepare our minds, prepare our ears for what you have for us tonight, Lord, this morning, Lord. I pray that you move me out of the way, and that you speak through me, Lord. Let your words be made clear. Thank you, Jesus, for living, for dying on the cross, for the forgiveness of our sins. We love you, praise you. It's in the mighty name of Jesus. And all God's people said, Amen. Point number one this morning is that a gifted believer still needs the whole way. A gifted believer still needs the whole way. Acts 18, verses 24 through 28 read, Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but where Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he was wished to cross to Achaea, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. So enter Apollos. Verse 24 tells us that he is a Jew from Alexandria, and let's not skip over that because Alexandria, it was the ivy league, if you will, of the ancient world. It was home to the greatest library on earth. So when Luke says that this man is from Alexandria, eloquent, competent in the scriptures, he's telling us that this guy, he's got the credentials, he's got the resume, he's got the eloquence, and he knows the word of the Lord. He is the most impressive person in the world in the room, if you will. And he probably knows it. He's probably got an error about him. One uh commentator sums him up perfectly. So Apollos is not a problem, but an asset. Luke even says that he was fervent in spirit. And so scholars, theologians disagree about that here. Some would say that that take that to mean that he has the Holy Spirit. Apollos being already spirit-filled, some would say, teaching accurately, speaking boldly. So you could make the argument that this is a real gifted, spirit-empowered believer. But yet, verse 25, he knew only the baptism of John. So there's some sort of gap here. John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. This is John the Baptist that we read about in the Gospels. His baptism was a baptism of repentance, of turning from sin and getting ready, preparing the way for the one who was coming. But the baptism of John, John the Baptist, it was the on-ramp, not the destination. So Apollos had the beginning of the story, but not the fullness of it. So watch what happens here. Verse 26, we see a tent-making couple, Priscilla and Aquila, blue collar, working with their hands, not academics like Apollos, and they hear this brilliant orator, this brilliant preacher, and they, the text says, took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. So notice that the very same word Luke used for Apollos, for his accurate teaching, it now shows up in the comparative with more accurately. So what Apollos knew he knew well, but it was just not yet complete. So they weren't necessarily they weren't correcting an error. They were filling out what was missing in Apollos' life. And notice, if you will, who does the teaching? Priscilla is named first, a woman and her husband. They're teaching quietly, privately, they're sharpening the most gifted preacher in the city. So there's no stage, there's no public call out, there's no shame, there's no, hey, get it together, Apollos. It's just, hey, can we can we show you something? And if you have a sort of hobby or gift or craft, I think of the creatives in the room, right? Like, you know that raw talent alone is different from a finished craft that you've spent years honing and working on. Or to put it, to illustrate it another way, I grew up playing basketball. And throughout the years, I played with some very, very gifted athletes. They had that raw talent, but they wouldn't have the fundamentals. They still needed someone to sit down with them, to coach them, to show them the fundamentals. And I think what that shows us is that the gifting is never enough. No, grace teaches us in that gifting. Gifting without discipleship, it stays unfinished. The fact of the matter is, is the most gifted person in the room is still a learner. The most talented person in the room is still a learner. And that takes humility, right? And there's a payoff with humility that we see here. We see Apollos show this humility to be taken aside and to be instructed. And I think I would argue that that humility is what turned Apollos from impressive to being useful. We see that in verse 27 and 28. He goes on to Corinth with a letter of recommendation, and he becomes a powerful help to the church, publicly proving from the scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah. If you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 6, it's that verse where it says, Paul watered Apollo, or Paul planted Apollos' water. Paul had planted in Corinth now Apollos' waters. So that begs two questions of us this morning. The first question is who in your life is allowed to take you aside? Who have you given permission to speak into your life? If you're sitting here, you're like, hey, I'm too gifted, I'm too smart, I'm too talented, I'm too far along, I'm too wise, I'm too proud to be discipled by a Priscilla and an Aquila. What I would argue is that you will stay unfinished no matter how eloquent you are. Because here's the thing, pride doesn't always sound arrogant. Sometimes pride sounds like, ah, I've heard this before. I've heard a sermon on this before. I've read this book before. Sometimes pride sounds like nobody understands me. Nobody understands my situation. Sometimes it sounds like I'm all good. I'm all good. Me, myself, and I, we can do this. But teachability has always been the mark of genuine discipleship. Think back to the gospels. We walked through the gospel of Luke. Jesus' disciples were teachable. They remained teachable. So that's the first question we need to consider. Who's allowed to take you aside and speak into your life? And the second question that we need to consider is who are you taking aside? Who are you taking aside? Because the person that God used here was not the professional. No, it was the tent makers who knew Jesus and loved people enough to have a private conversation, a knee-to-knee conversation, speaking life into the other person's life.

SPEAKER_03 32:24

The fact of the matter is, we don't need a seminary.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

One time there was a big storm and it knocked out all the power, and so Ashton led us in an acoustic set, and I just had to project my voice, and it was the sweetest Sunday we've ever had, I think. Where were we? You don't need a seminary degree, Rachel, to disciple somebody. What you need is the way of Jesus. You need not just like a piece of Jesus, you need the whole way of Jesus. And maybe a kitchen table, you know, somewhere to sit across from somebody, somewhere to sit knee to knee, speaking into someone's life. Because what what Apollos lacked was information. These 12 men, though, that we'll see here in this next section of text, they lack something even deeper. One, Apollos needed fuller instruction. But the others, those who we'll see in this next section, need the fulfillment of the gospel itself. So point number two this morning is that the spirit is not an optional upgrade. The spirit is not an optional upgrade. Acts chapter 19, verses 1 through 7. The text says, And it happens that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And he said, Into what then were you baptized? They said, Into John's baptism. And Paul said, John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him. That is Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all. So that's like a couple years, huh? Oh, anywho. I I like this better because I like talking with my hands. So, anywho, the the the camera cuts, right? So we go from this story about Apollos, and then we're introduced to these 12 unnamed disciples. Paul, he finally reaches Ephesus, like he planned at the end of his second missionary journey, and he finds guys who are and gals who are just known as some disciples. And right away, something feels off. And Luke, the author, Luke, wants it to. He wants it to feel off to us. Paul asks them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And I think that Paul is asking because something about their lives raises a question. Throughout the book of Acts, the Spirit leaves evidence. Not necessarily miracles in every instance, but every time a transformed life. And so Paul, as he's talking to these unnamed disciples, these some disciples, he senses that something is missing. And they say something, they respond in a way that's just stop us cold. They say, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. Not we are unsure about the Spirit, not like, hey, we're trying to figure out what we about this Holy Spirit. They did not know that the Holy Spirit existed. That's what is being seen. So here's what's going on. These 12 men are what one commentator calls the final fringe group. All through the book of Acts, the gospel has been reaching one group after another, one group on the margins after another. Remember, all the way back, an Ethiopian official, the Samaritans, the Gentiles at Cornelius' house. And now these disciples of John, way out on the edge. They had responded to John the Baptist. Repent, get ready. Someone is coming. But what we know is that John's ministry was always temporary. John himself said, I baptize with water, but he, he being Jesus, will baptize with the Holy Spirit. So these disciples, these unnamed disciples, had stopped one sentence short of the gospel. They never got the news that Jesus Christ had come. So their faith, in a sense, was real, but it was aimed at a promise. It was aimed at what was to come instead of resting on the person and work of Jesus. So Paul, he finishes John the Baptist's sentence for them. Says that John told people to believe in the one coming after him. That one is Jesus. And when they hear it, they are baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul lays hands on him, the Holy Spirit comes, and they speak in tongues and prophesy. Luke says that there were about twelve, and that number twelve is not an accident. What this is, is the Ephesian Pentecost, if you will. So it's mirroring Pentecost that we saw earlier in the book of Acts in Jerusalem. There's twelve Ephesians. There were twelve in Jerusalem. So Paul is using that same language for a purpose to show that it's the same spirit, it's the same power that is reaching the last group on the map. Now, just to clarify, I want to clarify two things carefully. Because I think that this is where this kind of stuff, this is where people can get hurt. First, what I think we see is that this is the only rebaptism that we see in the entire New Testament. So I wouldn't read this and say that it's a template for a two-stage Christian life. But there's a contrast that Luke sets up. Apollos, one paragraph earlier, he was never rebaptized. So what that should lead us to believe is he already had the Spirit. So we we gotta take this Apollos story with this some disciple story side by side. So these twelve are baptized into Jesus, and they had a genuinely, before this, a genuinely defective following of John. They had never actually come to Christ, is how I interpret that. So the tongues and the gift of prophecy here, they're not the gate that you have to pass through in order to prove that you're a real Christian. No, but they're God's sign that is hanging over these men that says they are all the way in now. They're in. They are all the way committed to following the way of Jesus now. And so sometimes it may look like that, like gifts of the Spirit. Other times it may just look like a transformed life. I don't think it's a one size fits all sort of thing. But everywhere else, the New Testament is clear. You receive the Spirit the moment you trust Jesus. Romans chapter 8, verse 9, Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13. So if you belong to Christ, the Spirit already lives in you. And the second kind of warning to us, I think we should hold this next to the first, is that we should not dare to try to explain away that power that we're reading about. The power of the Holy Spirit. Across Acts, Luke shows us that there's no set formula. There's no one, two, three, steps one, two, and three for how the Spirit comes. Sometimes the Spirit shows up before baptism, sometimes after, sometimes with tongues, sometimes not. Why is that? Well, what I would argue is that reason is because the Spirit is God. And God is sovereign, and God is free to do as he pleases. So the Holy Spirit goes where the Holy Spirit wills. I think our job is to desire the Holy Spirit, to pray for receiving and moving in the power of the Spirit. John Tyson, a pastor out of New York, he says that God goes where he's wanted. And I think we could say the same about the Spirit because they're three and one, the triune God. One commentator puts it this way. He, he being God, will not be cajaled or manipulated. So we don't perform the right ritual and pull him out. No, we ask. We depend. We make room. And he comes as he wills. So just as we close this point, let me just define him for anyone who grew up like these twelve, having not even heard. So I think we got in this in this body, we got some people on both sides, right? People that they grew up having not even heard, and people, oh, they heard, right? So the Holy Spirit is not a feeling or a vibe or just this church background. It's not the pads that play behind the music. No, the Holy Spirit is God Himself come to live inside of you. And with that, here's what I want you to hear this morning. If you hear nothing else, hear this. Repentance gets you out of Egypt. But the Holy Spirit gets you through the wilderness. That's a word that looking back at the Old Testament as we look at the Israelites' exodus from slavery in Egypt, and then they spent 40 years in the wilderness. Right? Repentance gets you out of Egypt. The Spirit gets you out of the wilderness. Gets you through the wilderness, rather. So some of us, we've turned from the old life on sheer willpower. And we are exhausted. Anybody ever been there before? It's like, hey, I'm trying to white knuckle my way through this life. But the fact of the matter is, is that we were never meant to follow the way of Jesus on our own strength. That is not the gospel. That's just a somewhat nicer person. No, the same Jesus who poured his Holy Spirit out on the twelve forgotten men in Ephesus is offering you his power today, right now. The Spirit is not a reward for the spiritually advanced. No, the spirit is a gift for the spiritually bankrupt. So if you find yourself in that place of like, man, I don't feel God. I don't even know where the spirit is in my life. Well, maybe, could it just be that you need to come to the Lord spiritually bankrupt? Hey, I have nothing in and of myself. Holy Spirit, I need you. I am broken in and of myself. I need you to fill me. He's a gift. The Spirit is a gift for the spiritually bankrupt. What we see as we continue on, once people are filled with the Spirit, Luke immediately shifts from what God does in believers to what God does through believers. Point number three, last point. Bold patient witness pushes back the darkness. Bold patient witness pushes back the darkness. Last three verses we'll look at this morning. Acts 19, verses 8 through 10. And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 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 Tyrannis. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. So the Spirit has fallen in Ephesus. Let's watch what he does through one ordinary faithful man. So Paul walks into the synagogue, and for three months he speaks boldly. He proclaims the risen Christ boldly. He's reasoning and persuading them about, and Luke picks his words carefully here, the kingdom of God. We've heard that language throughout the scriptures, but that phrase is actually rare in the book of Acts. It shows up at the very beginning of the book, and it shows up at the very end, and then also only at a few hinge moments within the book. So when Luke drops that phrase, kingdom of God, he's telling us, pay attention. Something significant. So Paul carries it into a secular faith. If religious people can be reached in religious buildings, then secular people have to be reached in secular buildings. And it is there that every single day for two whole years, Paul reasoned about Jesus. Probably making tents in the morning and then teaching in the heats of the afternoon. Until Luke says, all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord. Like, feel that, guys. All the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord. So revival in the city of Ephesus, it does not look like one electric night with some killer worship music. But what it looked like was a bivocational preacher showing up in a borrowed lecture hall in the heat of the day every day for two years straight until a whole region heard. The early church, they didn't wait for culture to become Christian before engaging it. No, they entered into the lectured halls. They entered into the marketplace. They entered into homes. They entered into prisons, riversides, synagogues. Because Christianity has always flourished on mission, not in isolation. I would make the argument, this is me just maybe shortly going on a tangent. I would make the argument that churches in the Western world that are dying are dying because they have become insular. They have become isolated. A church on mission, I would argue, is not a church. And catch the entire Trinity here working in one sentence. By the power of the Spirit, Paul preaches Jesus, the word of the Lord, about the kingdom of God the Father. You see the triune God right here in these verses. And that, friends, is how darkness gets pushed back. And here is the thing for us: Ephesus was a city of magic, idols, spiritual power. Ashton, you can come up to close this. Honestly, it's, I would say we could argue that Ephesus isn't that much different than a city like Kansas City, where people tell you that they are spiritual but not religious. Where we have our own personal idols, of the hustle and bustle, of the image that we're portraying to others, of the comfort that we've achieved, the next time, be it literal or figurative. Ephesus was spiritually crowded. People carried magical scrolls, they sought protection through incantations, they visited the temple for fertility, for success, for prosperity. And so I would argue like Kansas City isn't less religious than a place like Ephesus. No, I would argue that we've simply changed temples. Maybe we got the temple of success, the temple of comfort, the temple of sexuality, the temple of influence, the temple of politics, the temple of image. Whatever it is, we still worship. Every culture has lowercase G gods. The only question is whether they can save us. Spirituality, religion, was woven into business, into politics, into the identity of Ephesus. And the gospel did not conquer that city from a stage. The gospel conquered the city of Ephesus from a rented room one ordinary day from one ordinary person at a time. So as we close, the question is where is your hall of tyrannis? Where's your hall of tyrannis? Is it the job site? Is it the back room at Target? Is it the studio where you're working on your photography? Is it the shop? Is it the recovery meeting? Is it the apartment complex? Is it the coffee shop where you're already at every single day? That ordinary secular space. That is exactly where Jesus wants to push back darkness through you. You don't gotta be Paul. You gotta be faithful. You're not asked, nobody's asking you to be Paul. The risen Christ isn't asking you to be Paul. The risen Christ is asking you to be faithful in your Tyrannus. So Luke began this story with people who were almost there. And he ends it with an entire province hearing the gospel. And that's what Jesus does. He completes his people and he sends them out into the world. Here's the thread running through it all. Apollos was gifted but unfinished. Twelve unnamed disciples were sincere but incomplete. And Jesus, by his spirit, brought both of them all the way in, and then pushed back darkness across an entire province through nothing more impressive than daily faithfulness. And every single bit of it runs through the one John the Baptist kept pointing at. John the Baptist's whole ministry was a finger pointing away from himself. There's someone coming after me, believe in him. The one he was pointing to was Jesus. He lived a life that we could not live and died the death that we deserve to die and rose and ascended and poured out the very spirit those twelve had never even heard of. That is the gospel. It's not clean yourself up and try harder. Gospel is the finished work of Jesus Christ applied in your life and and through the Spirit of God. So let me just say it plainly to you, the way that I wish that someone would have back in 2015 when I was lost in the darkness, when I was living in the wilderness. You do not have to settle for almost. You don't have to settle for being gifted but unfinished. Not to be sober but stuck, not to be sincere but missing something. Charles Spurgeon, he once said, without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind, branches without sap, and like coals without fire. So the invitation is to come to Jesus for the whole way. If you've never trusted him, today is the day that you can believe in him. And if you already belong to him, but you've been running on willpower, you've been picking yourself up by the bootstraps, you've been white-knuckling your way through life, stop and ask the Spirit who already lives in you to fill you fresh. May we never be the ones who hear and harden. No, let's let's be the misfits and saints who receive the whole thing and then go back and push dark back darkness across Kansas City together.church.