Download September 15 2013 Bless Our Schools Sunday/Acts 19 – 20 Third

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September 15 2013
Bless Our Schools Sunday/Acts 19 – 20 Third Journey
Today’s message is in three parts. Maybe that’s
appropriate since things in three are so important to us.
You know, three strikes and you’re out; three feet in a
yard; three little pigs; three Stooges (or as my sweetie
would say, the three stupids); and then there’s three Billy
Goats Gruff; three little kittens who lost their mittens;
three teaspoons in a tablespoon for our cooks; three
sides to the triangle for our math or engineering types;
then there’s the good, the bad and the ugly…and finally
one of my favorites, three French hens – you get the
picture. Three’s and of course how about God the Father,
God the Son and God the Holy Spirit? Absolutely. Three is
very important to us.
So look with me today if you will to the third missionary
journey of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. It’s recorded
in the book of Acts. For those who have been with us,
remember we looked at Paul’s first trip along with his
companion and encourager Barnabas; then on the
second trip he took Silas and picked up Timothy along
the way, today we see him traveling primarily with
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Timothy….who is now his significant protégé in pastoral
ministry. They travel pretty much along the same route
Paul took on the second trip – beginning again in Antioch
of Pisidia where the term “Christians” was first used for
these new followers of Jesus …. So from Antioch they
went to places like Syria, yea, you heard me right, Syria,
then to Galatia, to several stops in Asia, to Macedonia, to
Achaia, and finally back to Palestine after some return
time in Asia.
So again, a three part sermon. In between we’ll have a
song so you can clear your brains from what happened
before, OK? The three parts could be called…..Come,
Holy Spirit; Clothed in Prayer, and Keep it short, stupid.”
Now that last one might keep us awake till the end, don’t
you think? Keep it short, stupid.
OK…..Come, Holy Spirit.
Paul comes to Ephesus and has this great God
moment….Let’s watch…Acts 19:1-10. (DVD)
Ok, our first phase is titled, Come, Holy Spirit.
Remember back before Jesus was crucified for our sins
and our salvation, he spoke to his closest followers
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saying that they would receive the Spirit. And receive the
Spirit they did at the great Pentecost event in Jerusalem
after Jesus left them to return to his Heavenly Father.
The gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was a sign of the
end of that time…..the time of Jesus physically with his
followers. Now the Holy Spirit is with them, as is the Holy
Spirit with you and with me when we claim Christ as Lord
of Lords, and King of Kings. Baptism by the Holy Spirit, in
this writing by Luke, gave the followers of Jesus the
power to proclaim the gospel with boldness, and even in
tongues that all could understand.
The first followers of Jesus were able to proclaim the lifegiving gospel of Jesus before “rulers and authorities”
scripture says, and they did so even at the cost of their
own lives. The Spirit guided them to bring this gospel far
beyond where they had initially thought it could go,
leading them to open the church to Gentiles like you and
me, like those in Ephesus.
Today for you and for me, the gift of the Holy Spirit at
our baptism draws us into the amazing event of having
the Holy Spirit of God poured out into us. We’re given
the opportunity and the ability to proclaim what God is
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doing even now in our world, and to do so with boldness.
Yes, the Holy Spirit even inspires us to risk it all for the
sake of the sharing of the good news of Jesus, and to
trust that, as it says in Matthew 19:26 or Mark 10:27 –
“With God all things are possible.”
When we enter into baptism we are encouraged to say
those baptized are baptized by water and the Spirit.
John’s baptism mentioned earlier was said to be a
baptism that would lead folks to repentance and looks
forward to Jesus. And repentance is a good and
necessary thing. Now that Jesus has come, all has been
fulfilled and when we repent and are baptized it’s is not
only water baptism for cleansing but it is also a
baptism….and sending of….a giving of….the Holy Spirit.
And baptism of the Holy Spirit initiates the person into
full fellowship with the Christian community.
The Spirit is a powerful wind that breathes through our
speaking and our acting to accomplish more than we can
ask or imagine, even to the point of transforming the
world…..just as the Spirit did through those very first
disciples.
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Friends I invite you to claim the power of the Holy Spirit.
Repent, be saved, and as you give your life to God in
Jesus Christ, be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
SPIRIT SONG is sung….
Ok, baptized with the power of the Holy Spirit….what do
we do with it? For our second of three parts this
morning….we said it’s about Clothed In Prayer
Paul, beginning in verse 8 of chapter 19, entered the
synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, (oh,
there goes that number three again) Paul presents a
persuasive argument for the Kingdom of God. And while
there was opposition….a pretty cool thing began to
happen.
Let’s check that out in chapter 19, beginning at verse 11
and continuing through 20. (DVD)
Now I hope the beginning of this passage of scripture
reminded you of something I’ve been offering frequently
during communion together. Do you remember there
have been times I’ve offered you a prayer cloth, anointed
with oil and blessed by God? This passage is the
background for why I do that.
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When we take action, or as some folks would say, put
feet to our prayers….great things happen in the name of
Jesus Christ. And if you noticed from this scripture
passage, bad things can happen when you surround
yourself with sorcery, witchcraft and the like. Don’t
forget that. We don’t need to go there, OK?
So the prayer, as it tells us in James 5:16, the prayer of a
righteous person is powerful and effective. That was the
message at the end of a passage I put together in my
mind when it comes to offering prayer cloths. James 5:13
begins with, “Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is
anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among
you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let
them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name
of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who
is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has
committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess
your sins to one another and pray for one another, that
you may be healed……and, then see that, yes, “the
prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is
working.”
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Each week we lift up our joys and concerns before the
congregation and to the Lord. Now is the time to, as
James wrote, be cheerful and sing praise….Any joys to
celebrate and give God praise for today?
(JOYS and Concerns slide)
Ok, how about the other part of the James passage…..is
anyone sick…is anyone suffering…..who do we need to be
lifting up in prayer?
Now as we enter into our next song, just as Paul
offered…..I offer you a prayer cloth. Anointed with oil. I
invite you to take a prayer cloth for yourself…….let it
remind you of God’s healing power…..healing of mind
and healing of body and healing of spirit……and then
maybe take another one……and take that to that person
who God is leading you to…..take it and tell them, “We
prayed for you today, and this prayer cloth is just a
reminder I want to give you to let you know I care….and
God loves you.”
LORD, LISTEN TO YOUR CHILDREN PRAYING is sung
Finally today we come to the third in our series of
threes……..the three wise men part…the three
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Musketeers part….or how about the best part…the three
flavors of Neapolitan Ice Cream……yummy. This part,
remember is the part I promised would be the part that’s
patterned after the KISS theory. You know, “Keep it
short, stupid.”
Paul goes on to Troas in Asia. He arrives in Troas on his
whistle-stop tour to proclaim the kingdom of God, and
time was short. Paul is giving a farewell address to the
following of folks and it says, “he prolonged his speech
until midnight.” The night he offered this was Paul’s last
among them, and there was a lot he wanted to teach
them. He couldn’t catch a later flight and prolong his
stay; he had to keep talking. “He kept on talking till
midnight” Yep, as Paul was concluding his third
missionary campaign, he, along with eight traveling
companions, came to Troas on the western coast of
provincial Asia. Here they waited for seven days, finally
meeting with the saints of that city on Sunday. It may
have been early evening when the assembly convened.
At some point the folks ate the Lord’s supper, meditating
upon the Savior’s death together. Also, the great apostle
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discoursed if you will to those gathered at length,
prolonging his presentation till midnight.
Let’s see what happens. Let’s see what happens in Acts
20: beginning at verse 7 and going to 12. (DVD)
I just love it. Now I’ve seen over the years that my
preaching has been blessed with an uncanny ability to
put old men and babies to sleep. They’re my primary
victims…..old men and babies. There haven’t been too
many young guys like Eutychus under my spell, praise
God.
I’ve recently been reading a great book tied to this
scripture called “ Saving Eutychus: How to preach God’s
Word and Keep People Awake.” Don’t you just love that
title? How to preach God’s Word and Keep People
Awake.
Poor Eutychus might have tumbled off his perch in Acts
20, but its humbling to notice that what took Paul many
hours of preaching to achieve-near fatal napping in one
of his listeners takes most preachers only a few minutes
on a Sunday afternoon. Yea, he accomplished this over
many hours, while the reality is it takes most of us only a
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few minutes speaking to a well-rested and caffeinated
crowd like you on a Sunday.
Saving Eutychus was written so a speaker could save
listeners from such a fate. Written by an Aussie and an
Irishman with very different styles who share a passion
for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Saving
Eutychus delivers fresh, honest, faithful and practical
insights into preaching the whole word of God, Sunday
by Sunday, without being dull.
Everyone who has ever preached knows something
about the mystery of the sermon that they thought was
brilliantly constructed but fell completely flat. But, praise
God, even a dud of a sermon can lead someone to
Christ.
Did you catch that? Yea. How could that happen? Well,
as the authors point out, God is God…and God can use
even anyone’s words to bring about his change in a
person’s heart. Praise God.
Saving Eutychus doesn’t just mean keeping him awake. It
also means doing our best to keep him fresh and alert so
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he can hear the truth of the gospel and be saved. If we as
a church have done our job on a Sunday keeping folks
awake won’t be a problem…and the pastor in the pulpit
or the teacher in the Sunday morning classroom will be
enthused to stand up ready to offer a message on a Bible
passage that they’ve wrestled with and that the Holy
Spirit has begun to apply in the pastor’s heart, the
teacher’s heart, and life.
We’ll know exactly what we want to say and how we’re
going to say it in a fresh and engaging way.
Most importantly, we will have prayed for God to reach
the hearts of our listeners with his word….not the
pastor’s or the teacher’s personal agenda…..no, God’s
word. When that’s happening, snoring isn’t an option,
you see. But again, none of this can happen without
prayer.
So where does a good sermon start? What do I need to
do? What do I ask you to do?
First and foremost, I ask you to be in prayer…..prayer for
this pitiful pastor plying his trade of unpacking the word
of God for the people of God in this time and this place.
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Be in prayer like we’ve been in prayer for each other
today……like we’ve been in prayer for our school
children, teachers, administrators, bus drivers….all those
auxiliary people that truly make it happen even behind
the scenes.
Pray for that outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the
people….that hearts will be opened to the Spirit’s power,
not my words, but God’s word through the working of
the Holy Spirit.
I invite you to ask most any pastor. How many times have
they, at the end of a Sunday worship, had someone come
up to them and say something like, “Thank you preacher
for your words today, when you talked about this or
talked about that…..that was just what I needed to hear.”
And the pastor, if they’re honest, will tell you, “I don’t
really recall talking about what that person referred
to….no, it was the power of the Holy Spirit…the working
of the Holy Spirit in the heart of that person who needed
a message from God that morning, and because the
setting was right, their heart was open…that message got
through….even in spite of the pastor.
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So that makes that part about the need for prayer even
more important. The book points to the possibility that,
believe it or not, pastors may be praying less than ever.
Yikes. The authors say that, by and large, we pastors are
talking less about prayer than say, 20 years ago. And
while there may be a resurgence in biblical preaching
he’s not sure that it’s been accompanied by a
resurgence in praying – especially prayer about
preaching.
So again, I invite your prayers for all pastors seeking to
offer the word of God, knowing that as it tells us in God’s
word, the time is coming, and maybe it’s already here as
it says in II Timothy 4 that “For the time will come when
people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to
suit their own desires, they will gather around them a
great number of teachers to say what their itching ears
want to hear.” Folks, like we said last week remember,
folks will look for and latch on to anything other than the
one true God to be God in their lives. Anything else will
take the lead spot in our hearts and rule our decisions.
Yes, we are week and sinful people….but gradually, we
seem to be losing sight of the fact that God uses even
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weak and sinful people to bring about his kingdom work
when they have hearts surrendered to God, and that he
uses them only by grace. I am a weak and sinful person.
By God’s grace I’m given the privilege to share week in
and week out with you what Jesus means to me….and
invite you to discover what a difference he can make in
your life, too.
Yes, as the Bible tells us, we may sow, and plant and
water – but only God gives the growth. God doesn’t use
people because they are gifted. God uses people because
he is gracious. If we believe that, we will pray….we will
pray before we speak and we will pray for others before
they speak. Acts 6:4 reminds us that the apostles gave
their attention to prayer and to the ministry of the
word.” I need to pray for my preaching…that it is
worthy….that it is filled with the Holy Spirit, not filled up
by me, me, me…that it’s filled with the Holy Spirit’s
power. And I invite you. I need you to be sure that we as
a church are praying for the preaching…..the preacher,
sure….but more importantly for the preaching of the
word and the reception of the word…..otherwise all
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we’re going to be doing is put a lot of the Eutychus’s of
this world asleep……eternally asleep.
Paul was present. The young man was picked up
dead…and Paul went down, threw himself on the young
and put his arms around him. And knowing the grace of
God was present in that moment just like the grace of
God is available to you and to me in all the moments of
lives, Paul said, “Don’t be alarmed. He’s alive.”
Friends, I invite you to be alive in Christ. To be baptized
in the Holy Spirit. To connect with God’s people through
your prayers and even your prayer cloths – moments you
reach out to someone in need in the name of
Jesus…..that you say, Come, Holy Spirit; Clothe us all in
Prayer, and, when offering our testimony to someone,
when all else fails, ask God – “God, help me to just tell
them I love them, because I know you do too. Help me
remember, just “Keep it short, stupid.”