The Debbie Taylor Williams Podcast

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Debbie Taylor Williams: Hi, this is Debbie Taylor Williams. Thanks for tuning into my podcast. I'm so glad you're here and pray the Lord will speak to you through this message.

Guest (Male): Holy Spirit, I ask that the fire of your presence burn powerfully in each of us this morning, so that we leave changed, more holy vessels and instruments for your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, we are looking at Acts 19. As you recall, in particular, we are staying in Ephesus. So I don't have a map for you today. We're going to see how Paul teaches in the school and it looks like Tyrannosaurus Rex, but it is actually Tyrannus.

So Paul preaches in the school of Tyrannus and we see how God performs extraordinary—would you say that word with me? Extraordinary miracles through Paul. But even though all of that is happening, we see that running right alongside the good race that Paul is running, evil is continuing to persist. We see another thing and that is that the confession that the believers in Ephesus do, their confession brings forth the word of the Lord being spread and the word of the Lord prevailing. That word prevailing, we'll see, means powerfully.

Now, have you been to Ephesus? How many of you have been to Ephesus? It was an incredible experience. There I am walking through the streets of Ephesus and I guarantee you that as Keith and I walked through the streets of Ephesus and we looked at the ruins in 2010, it was an incredible experience to think and to read Acts and to know that those are the steps, those are the stones, those are the places that he went.

Those are the ruins that we got to see and that is a grand theater that we looked at that Paul could have been dragged into, but thank goodness he wasn't. But where they had a capacity in this theater to seat up to 25,000 people. Now those ancient ruins of that street that you saw me walking on, that is a reconstruction. This image that you're looking at is a reconstruction of what Ephesus would have looked at during that time period. This was a very sophisticated society in Ephesus. They had fountains and monuments and statues and shops. On the slope of the hill, homes were owned by the rich Ephesians.

This is the temple to Artemis. It is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. So when you read in here about the temple of Artemis—or in Rome, it was called the temple of Diana—when you read about this and this multi-breasted goddess who was worshiped as the goddess of the hunt and other things, her temple was even more astounding and larger than the Parthenon. This statue that you're seeing is one that was actually recovered from the temple.

This is the grand theater I mentioned as it might have looked back in that day where wild animal battles and gladiator battles and public trials were held and theatrical productions. Paul had an incredible opportunity to witness and to make a difference in the lives of the Ephesians and then throughout. Let's read in Acts 19, beginning in verse 8.

Paul entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way, which is Christianity, before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. But also some of the Jewish exorcists who went from place to place attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.

And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus and I know about Paul, but who are you?" And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks who lived in Ephesus, and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. Many also of those who had believed kept coming and confessing and disclosing their practices.

And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone. And they counted up the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. Let's stop there and let's look at some of these takeaways that you and I can take home from this magnificent passage that we've already read together. First of all, we see beginning in verse 8 that Paul reasons and he persuades people about the kingdom of God.

And we see that what this means when you study the Greek and this passage and you dig a little deeper, when it refers to the kingdom of God, it's referring to the near approach of it. This is exciting because any person who is an unbeliever and they hear the word of God, which is able to then produce faith in them, the kingdom of God is near the moment they respond and say, "Yes, I believe." The kingdom of God is able to be so near. The Holy Spirit immediately enters into them. Oh, how precious is that.

So when you're talking to a person and they aren't a believer, you can tell them that the kingdom of God is near to them. But this term "the kingdom of God" also refers to its nature. The kingdom of God is holy. The kingdom of God is magnificent. The kingdom of God is powerful. You can let them know that. And you can let them know the conditions for obtaining citizenship in it. This word "citizenship" and "citizen" are used so often in reference to the kingdom of God.

Something has to be changed in a United States or an African or any other nationality because to enter into the kingdom of God and become a citizen of that, there are conditions for obtaining it. We have to be washed, we have to be cleansed, and we have to be given our entry, our passport, the Holy Spirit. And so Paul was preaching these things and he was teaching these things and it was every day and it was just like we come here. The people would gather and they would hear this wonderful word.

Now as we look at this, we see that the scripture teaches us in verses 9 and 10 that there was a time that Paul needed to leave the hardened Jews, in other words, and go speak and teach with those who were teachable. So we see as we look at this that as Paul spoke more and more and more in the synagogues, what was happening was the Jews' hearts were becoming more and more and more hardened. When you were a little girl, did you ever make a mud pie? And it was kind of wet, and you put it out in the sun.

And what happened after you put that mud pie out in the sun? It got hardened, didn't it? Well, when Paul was putting the word, the living word of God, with the flow of the Holy Spirit in their faces with the sunlight of the Holy Spirit shining on it, what happened to their hearts was being presented with the truth. It got harder and harder and harder and harder. Research, look up on your own over spring break: hardened hearts. The scripture says in reference to Pharaoh that Pharaoh's heart was hardened toward God.

And his heart was more hardened with every miracle that God did. It also says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. What does that mean? It means that as God did the proof, as God did the miracles, the effect it had in Pharaoh was he became more and more and more and more resistant. We see that just as resistance hardens the heart, our second point is there are times to turn from hard-hearted people to people with teachable hearts.

And we see also that as he went to the school of Tyrannus, that the faith spread in the hearts of those who are teachable. There are times that we have to turn from those who are hard-hearted, not that we don't keep praying for them and looking for another opportunity, but we sometimes have to turn. We're able to see in verses 11 through 12 that God performed extraordinary miracles, works of power through Paul's hands. And I know you had to have just stopped on and meditated on that scripture and how exciting that scripture is.

Friends, we are talking about our God and that he worked through another person's hands over here. And did that make you want God to work through your hands, your mouth, your eyes? I do. Have you prayed, "God, work through my hands as I'm typing this email to this person. God, would you work through my mouth while I'm talking to this waitress"? Oh yes, friends. This is the opportunity that we have. And in him working through Paul's hands, we are able to see God's heart because it's God working.

And so what do we see? We see God's heart to remove disease and evil. That is the heart of God. He doesn't want you diseased and sick and he doesn't want your loved one controlled by evil and forces of darkness. That's God's heart. But we're also able to see God's power over disease and evil and we're able to see God's plan. And what is God's plan? God's plan is Jesus come forth, redeem us, return to heaven. And as he spoke in John, that he would send the Holy Spirit who would be with us and in us.

Where is the Holy Spirit? In me. And that then he, Jesus, would work through me, through you. We just have so many exciting ways that we are seeing how God works. In verses 13 through 17, we read how the evil spirit retorted, "I recognize Jesus. Oh yeah, I got him." And that word recognize means "I know him through experience." I know him through experience because do you recall that evil spirits were once angels in heaven who fell in the rebellion with Satan? He says, "Oh, I know him."

And he said, "And I know about Paul." And that means "I've been informed about Paul. I know who he is. I don't know him personally. I haven't experienced him." And then he said that question, "But who are you?" And so we see our fifth point is that Jesus' name is not to be spoken frivolously or used as a magic incantation. We can't just say, "Oh Jesus, do this." We have to be sure that we are using that name at the provocation of the Holy Spirit in prayer and in intimacy with the Lord Jesus.

And I pray that if you hear Jesus' name being taken in vain and you ever have the opportunity to say, "Oh, do you know my Jesus too?" and they may be like "Who?" and give you an opportunity to share Christ. The next thing that we see as we look at this passage is that scripture teaches us that evil spirits do have that experiential knowledge of Jesus. Evil spirits know believers' names. "I know Paul. I know about Paul." Evil spirits can operate through religious people. These were sons of a Jewish priest and they turned on and jumped on him.

And we see that our sixth point: evil spirits are powerful, but they have no power over Jesus or spirit-filled believers. 1 John 4:4. If you are a Christian but you are not filled with the Holy Spirit, you can be influenced by evil. A perfect example is you can be a Christian and watch pornography and be influenced by pornography. As a matter of fact, there is a porn pandemic in our nation. The Lifeplan website quotes these statistics. It says that in the United States, the porn industry generates between $15 billion to $97 billion a year.

More income than the combined revenues of ABC, NBC, and CBS, and more than the combined revenues of the NFL, NBA, and MLB. More people view internet pornography every month than they view Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter combined. How early do we expose our children? 93% of boys and 63% of girls will be exposed to internet porn before the age of 18. The average age of exposure, first exposure, is 11 years old, but some surveys say eight years old. Can pornography, can evil influence believers?

Can it? Not be possessed. We cannot be possessed by evil, but can it influence us? Yes. A recent survey, and this was in 2021, found that 50% of Christian men and 20% of Christian women are addicted to porn. Not use porn, not view porn occasionally—they are addicted to porn. Let me read that for you again. 50% of Christian men. Does that shock you? 50% of Christian men. Does it shock you? Two out of 10 Christian women? Two out of 10 Christian women. Let's just say that we've got those 10 right there and two of them are addicted to porn.

So when we look at these verses and our passage in Acts 19 about evil, we not only get tickled and excited about "God, use my hands," but we have to also realize this passage is also talking about evil running parallel with the Lord's power running, and that we live in this world in a state of tension between evil and holiness, don't we? Between God's angels and Satan's angels. And the Bible clearly teaches us that evil spirits are powerful, but they have no power over Jesus or spirit-filled believers. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then you are not going to watch porn because the Holy Spirit could not be in the presence of that.

In verses 18 through 20, we see that believers confess and put away their unholy practices. And our seventh point then is that when believers confess and remove sin from their lives, the word of the Lord spreads and prevails. Friends, it's so important to notice in verse 18 it said, "Many also of those who had believed kept coming, kept confessing, kept disclosing their practices." So we can be a believer and have sin strongholds that maybe we came into faith with or that we in a time of weakness when we weren't walking with the Lord, sin crept into our lives.

Maybe we practiced something with the occult, with tarot cards, with psychic readings, with some New Age books we read, with something that popped up on our screen that was pornographic in nature and we were curious or we were researching the topic of some Christian topic even that led us to a website. You know those pop-up ads? Y'all know what I'm talking about on the internet? They can be wonderful and lead you to a Christian article or they can be satanic and have your eyes diverted over and you are addicted. You are seeing something that you've never seen before and you are enticed.

And so we see that it is important through this passage not only for unbelievers to confess, but for us to keep confessing anything that comes in our lives that is unholy. We need to confess sin. We need to put it out of our lives. We need to let the fire of the Holy Spirit burn in us so that we recognize "This is not good." And then we need to say, "Father, take this addiction I have," whether it be to porn, a critical spirit, unforgiveness towards somebody. We need to, as they threw their books on the fire for them to be burned, them saying "I'm not going to continue in this way."

We need to say, "Holy Spirit, fire of the Holy Spirit, burn in me and take my sin and burn it out of me. I want to be purged of it, I want to be clean." This is a lesson for us. We see this warning: that a person can be possessed by what they possess. A person can be possessed by what they possess. We can let our possessions of material things start possessing us where we are driven by possessions. We can let alcohol, we can let shopping, we can let a critical spirit, we can let fear, whatever we possess can start then possessing us.

And that's why it's so critical that we confess. And regarding practice in Philippians 4:9, Paul writes and he says, "The things you've learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice." Would you say that word with me? Practice. Say it louder. Practice. Practice these things. Say that. Practice these things. In Hebrews 5:14, the author writes and he says, "Solid food is for the mature," this is you, "who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." You know not to click on that picture. You know not to let that critical spirit take over you.

You know not to gossip because of practice your senses are trained. 1 John 3:10 says the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Do you know that verse, 1 John 3:10? The children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. So we are given an example in Acts 19 in these verses 18 through 20 from these Ephesian believers of how we are to deal as believers with sin.

In verses 21 through 22, Paul purposes in the spirit to go to Jerusalem and Rome. And our eighth point is that we see God can use me to the degree I understand my purpose. Read that with me out loud: God can use me to the degree I understand my purpose is to glorify Christ. 1 Corinthians 6:19 through 20 says, "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? You have been bought with a price. You are not your own. Glorify God in your body."

And so to the degree that you understand your purpose, your life mission, your reason for waking up this morning is to glorify God, to that extent he can use you. And God can also use you to the degree you cleanse yourself, I cleanse myself, of sin so I'm a holy vessel. Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:21 and he talks about how there are vessels of honor and there are vessels of dishonor. I don't want to be a vessel of dishonor. Do you? No. We don't want to serve people bitterness, we don't want to serve people our sin.

We want to serve people the Lord Jesus Christ—his words, his heart, his attitude. Oh, it's so important that we cleanse ourselves, that we practice these things. Now as we look at verses 23 through 27, I'm not going to read all of that, but I do want us to look at some of the highlights because Demetrius opposes Paul with a rally cry saying that Christianity is harmful for the individual. He draws them together and he says, "You're going to lose money." He says it's dangerous for the city.

The city of Ephesus is going to be harmed by this. He says Asia is in danger of the worship of Artemis becoming worthless. And he says worldwide. This is quite an orator, isn't he? He really knows how to work up a crowd. His words are strong. "Men, you know that our prosperity depends on this business. You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people saying gods made with hands are no gods at all."

Whoa. "Not only is there a danger of this trade of ours falling into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess of Artemis will be regarded as worthless and that she whom all Asia and the world worship will be dethroned from her magnificence." Oh, what a rally cry. What a rally cry. He did a good job. We see the danger of mob mentality because in verse 28 it says when they heard this, they were filled, not with the Holy Spirit, with rage and began crying out, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis!" And you read it, two hours.

Two hours. I want us to look at something here, how Paul and the Christians are accused of hate speech. They're saying that a god made with hands is no god. Paul and the Christians are being dangerous to our families, the city, the nation, the world, spiritually and financially. And so we see this reaction that they have. The town clerk's response is something I want you to focus with me on right now because there's a very important point there. He said that Ephesus, in response to this mob and trying to call them down, he said that Ephesus is undeniably the guardian of the temple of Artemis.

Is that true or false? Yeah, it is. It's the guardian of the temple of Artemis whose image fell down from the sky. True or false? False. This did not fall down from the sky. He said that Christians haven't robbed the temple or blasphemed Artemis. Is that true or false? That is true. But isn't it also true that Paul rejected that their idol of Artemis was a goddess, that it was made with hands? Yes, Paul spoke. He said that your idol is not a god. The town clerk said that the charge should be handled in court so the Romans don't accuse them of rioting, which is true.

But we see as our ninth point that truth mixed with false, which is what the town clerk did, is not true. In other words, be a good listener because you're going to hear preachers, you're going to hear speakers, you're going to hear newscasters. You and I are going to be bombarded with information and we need to be discerning listeners because a lot of times what Satan will do is he'll have a whole lot of truth in there, maybe three or four or 10 points of truth, and then he'll have one thing that's not true.

So we need to be very discerning listeners. And the 10th point that we see that is very encouraging is God can use unbelieving leaders for his purposes because that's what he did with the town clerk. In Acts 20, verse 1, Paul exhorts his disciples and then he leaves for Macedonia. And so we see this principle: as Paul purposed in spirit. Say those words with me: purposed in spirit. And that's a capital S. That means that Paul, in his time with the Lord, knew through the Holy Spirit prompting him what he was supposed to do next: that he was to go to Jerusalem and then at some point on to Rome.

Jesus is to possess us. We are to possess Jesus. Read John 17 to better understand Jesus' prayer when he prayed that God the Father would be in us and be in him and him in us and we all—I mean, John 17 is just magnificent. Jesus is to possess us, we are to possess Jesus. Jesus is to be the controlling voice in our heads. Jesus is to be the controlling voice in our heads. Amen? Amen. And his spirit, the one who controls our heart, our hands, our feet, and our mouth.

Oh, we have so much potential to be more than just earthly citizens. We have the potential to be the feet, hands, eyes, heart of the living God. Can I hear an Amen? Amen. Do you want to be that woman? Yes. Do you want to be that woman? Yes, yes, of course. So let's apply Acts 19. Have you offered your hands, your mouth, your feet to Jesus? You've got a listening guide there. You can write yes or you can write no. Write something. Current. You may have done it when you were 12. Have you done it this week, today?

Second, what sin might you be practicing that has power over you? It's an inroad for Satan. Will you confess it is a sin and burn it? Let the Holy Spirit burn it, rid it from your life, so the word can grow and spread in power. The word can grow in you, the word can spread through you, and the word can be powerful in you when and if you and I allow the Holy Spirit to burn out the sin in our lives. And third, will you purpose in spirit to do whatever, however Jesus leads you, just like Paul did?

It's a magnificent life. It has its trials, it has its temptations, it has its heartaches, sometimes physical suffering, sometimes emotional suffering. But it's the way, it is the truth, and it is the life to the kingdom of God, which is near and even in us. Oh, Father, we love you. We praise you. We give you glory. For we know, Father, that our lives are nothing except sin-filled apart from the cleansing, redemptive work of you, Jesus, and the magnificent taking up residence in our lives, Holy Spirit.

And so we pray, Father, that you bring to mind and burn away any sin in us, and that your spirit purpose in us and we recognize that purpose to glorify you and carry out whatever work you have for our hands, our feet, our mouth. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Debbie Taylor Williams: Thank you for listening to this podcast. To learn more about how to grow in Christ or to be saved, visit www.debbietaylorwilliams.com. Connect with me on Instagram @debbietaylorwilliams. God bless you.