Well, I'd love for you to look at your bulletin and you can see the title of our sermon tonight, make every Church a Mega Church, if you can see that there. Mega church. Maybe you've heard that. Who's heard that phrase before? Anybody heard that before? Usually when we say mega church in English, we mean a church that has a high attendance, a large number of people attend that church, therefore it is a mega church. You would use it in a sentence, you'd say something like, I don't want to go to the mega church, there's no place to park at that church. That would be a way that you would use it in a sentence. And it's amazing what people know churches for people know churches for well, that church, they got this great building, that church has this great choir, that church has this great kids’ ministry, or this great pastor. Well, there's one thing that church should really be known for, no matter what size it is, church should be known for Jesus Christ. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? Flip your bulletin over you'll see the verse where the Greek word megas, or the verb of it megaluno is used. Acts 19:17 says, “this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was…” what does it say there, everybody? “extolled”. You know what you could say the name of the Lord Jesus was mega. Okay, it was megaluno. It was magnified, it was enlarged, it was showed to be how great it was. God's going to do an amazing work to build the church and Ephesus, and nobody's going to be talking about the size of it the parking lot, the pastor, you know, what people are going to be talking about? Jesus is doing something in Ephesus.
So, I want to invite you to turn with me to Acts chapter 19, verses one to 17. And we want to talk tonight, as we study this inspiring example in Acts 19:17, about how our church can be a mega church. And by that we mean the Greek definition. How can we make much of Jesus Christ? How can we go through the cities that we live in, like we're carrying a flag, a banner, like, we've got an airplane flying one of those signs over our city, we're making much of the name of Jesus, that his name would be great that he would be known? That's what we're going to see happens here in Ephesus. We're going to see it in three different sections of what God does in this city. And out of respect for God's word, I'm going to ask if we would all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. I'm going to read Acts 19:17. And I'm going to invite everybody on the front lawn, everybody watching online, why don't you stand with us, and let's read God's Word together? I’ll read it, please follow along. Acts 19:1.
“And it happened 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 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 the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.’ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?’ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.”
That's the reading of God's word, please go ahead and have your seat. And so, this is just halfway through what happens in Ephesus. It goes through all of chapter 19; we're only going to be able to get through the first 17 verses, and then we're going to study again extraordinary miracles that God does in the city. But could you imagine if I came up here today and I told you that all the residents of Huntington Beach, over two hundred thousand souls, that all of them were living in great fear, and they all thought the name of Jesus was made mega size, that they all thought Jesus was great and worthy of glory. That's what it said there in verse 17, looked back at that, “all the residents of Ephesus,” who had fear upon them, and the name of the Lord Jesus was made mega to them; it was as shown to be for how great it really is. Jesus, his name is lifted high, his name is magnified. It's like, all of a sudden, everybody realizes who Jesus really is. And that happened to all the residents in this city of Ephesus. I don't know what you're thinking here tonight. I don't know why we all gathered together in the name of Jesus, but I want to see every single person who lives around here see the name of Jesus exalted. Is anybody with me on this? I don't know what you want to do, what you're hoping, what you're praying for with your life, but my goal is, I would like to see more people know how awesome Jesus really is. And that's what I wish when anybody talks about our church. I hope they would think of us being a church where Jesus is made mega, where his name is exalted here among us.
And so, we're going to see if you've got the handout there in your bullets, we're going to see three different things that happen in Ephesus that lead to the name of Jesus being extolled. And the same thing we want to see happen here in Huntington Beach, Long Beach, all the cities around here. So, let's go back to the first point comes from these first seven verses, where Paul, when he comes to Ephesus, he finds some disciples, we know by verse seven, there's twelve of them, twelve disciples, and it has a good ring to it, does it not to choose twelve disciples? And Paul finds them here in Ephesus. And look at verse two, he asked this question, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Do you guys have the Holy Spirit when you believe? And the answer is, no, we have not even heard there is a Holy Spirit. So, these guys, they’re disciples, but they don't know the whole story, all they know is the baptism of John the Baptist. Now that might sound familiar, because if you go back to chapter 18, verse 25, we saw that there was this man Apollos who came to Ephesus, and 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. So, it's quite possible that these twelve disciples were made disciples by Apollos, when he came to Ephesus, before Aquila and Priscilla pulled him aside. And they said, hey, did you know that Jesus actually came, that he died on the cross for our sin, that he rose on the third day that he revealed himself to over five hundred eyewitnesses, that he ascended into the clouds in heaven, and the Holy Spirit came down like a mighty rushing wind? Like, Apollos didn't know all of that. He just knew the Hebrew Bible. He just knew about John the Baptist preaching, a voice in the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord. He didn't know the Lord had actually come, and now the spirit had come among the believers and these twelve disciples, they didn't know that either. And so, Paul, he's got to inform them… If you go back to chapter 19, verse 4, yeah, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him. That is, Jesus. Yeah, you guys need to know his name. You need to know who he is. See, here is Paul right away, he's starting to make much of the name of Jesus to these twelve guys. And what Paul is going to make very clear is, it doesn't matter how religious you are, it doesn't matter how many good things you've done, it doesn't matter how much of the Bible you know, or how much church you've been to, if it's not about Jesus, you're missing the entire point. That's what he's going to say. Baptized into John, being disciples of Apollos, being a good moral religious person, that doesn't make a difference in your life; you've got Jesus, or you've got nothing. What John was all about, he was the forerunner of the Christ. You guys need to believe in Jesus. And they do. On hearing this, they're baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And Paul lays hands on them, the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and just like when the Holy Spirit showed up in Acts, chapter 3 on the day of Pentecost, they start speaking in tongues as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit there among them.
So, the first thing that Paul has to do when he comes to town, is he has to make clear, who are we really believing in? And what do we really believe? He has to make sure that our faith is accurate. Let's get that down for point number one: We need a faith that is accurate. We need a faith that is accurate. Just the fact that you believe is not the point. The point is, what do you, who do you believe in. A lot of people tell you I have faith. Oh, they might even say I've got faith in Jesus. I'm a Christian, I go to church. Great. What is your faith in exactly? What exactly about Jesus? What exactly about the name of Jesus? Do you believe in that saves you because these guys had a faith, but it wasn't an accurate faith in Jesus. So, unfortunately, this passage, even to our very day here in churches in Southern California, this passage gets misused, our text of Scripture. Because I'm sure that some people here were told that you needed to believe in Jesus. And then later on, you needed to receive the Spirit. And you knew that you would have the Holy Spirit, when you were able to speak in tongues, and you didn't have the Holy Spirit, unless you could speak in tongues. Anybody here ever been told that at about at a church before? Unfortunately, there's been a lot of churches saying that and one of the places they're pulling that from is right here in Acts 19. And this is supposed to be a bad example, and people are using it as a good example. And people have started to think that you'll believe at one point, and then later on, there'll be this second filling of the Holy Spirit, or this later baptism of the Holy Spirit, and you don't really have the Holy Spirit unless you speak in tongues. If you've ever heard anybody say that, that is not true. Okay? You can have the Holy Spirit and not speak in tongues. Tongues is just one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Everybody gets a gift. But there are a variety of gifts. So, let's make it very clear here today, you don't have to speak in tongues to have the Holy Spirit. Can I get an Amen from the congregation here today? Okay?
That's one of the ways that people are talking about faith that is not accurate. That's not what this passage is saying. These guys didn't know the full story of Jesus. Once they heard the accurate gospel, that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, that he put on flesh and became a man, that he died on the cross for our sins, he rose from the dead on the third day, he is right now at the right hand of God, exalted, raised up. And once they heard that they believed in Jesus; Paul laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. And yes, there were tongues, there was prophecy. That was the evidence of the spirit, but they received the Spirit because they believed in Jesus. That's how it's supposed to work, and people, people are not very good at talking about faith in Jesus in an accurate way. I would go so far as to say, it is very likely that everybody here has heard a wrong view about faith in Jesus Christ. It might even be harder to find the right view. There are so many wrong views. So, a lot of people they would look at a passage like this, and they would make it about baptism. We’ve got to see two baptisms here tonight. We’ve got to hear testimonies of salvation. Well, so many people think that they're saved, not because they believed in Jesus and received the Holy Spirit, they think they're saved because they got baptized in water. In fact, there are churches that tell you if you want to be saved, you have to get baptized in water. And there's a lot of people getting baptized in water, and they can't tell you really what it means to believe in Jesus, what they're even really trusting in. So, there's so much confusion about water baptism. We’ve got to make sure that we really understand an accurate faith.
Go back to Acts chapter 2, and let's just review that the book of Acts has been saying the same thing from beginning, all the way now to chapter 19. If you go back to it chapter 2, verse 36, when Peter preaches the first sermon. Remember the pointy-finger sermon of Peter, when he was calling out people in Jerusalem, you killed Jesus, but God raised him from the dead, and he's preaching that gospel? Well, it says, people work were cut to the heart here. This is Acts 2:36-38, the end of Peter sermon, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him God…” has made Jesus, “both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” You killed him; God exalted him. You crucified him; God raised him up to the highest place, to the name that is above every name. And the people, that says, “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will,” what does he say here, everybody? You “will receive the gift of…” who? The “Holy Spirit.” So, this has been the message. Okay? You’ve got to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. You get baptized in the name of Jesus, and you receive the Holy Spirit, who now God puts in your heart, and gives you a new heart, he gives the power of his Spirit in you. And from the moment you believe in Jesus, and you receive the Spirit, you're living a whole new life from that point on. That's what he's been saying here. And he's saying, Acts 2:39, “the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” This promise of salvation is for all who repent and believe in the good news of Jesus. And if you've repented and believed in Jesus, that means there's some things… one, you should get baptized in water as a public profession of the internal reality of your faith; two, you've got the Holy Spirit indwelling you now. You will have a whole new life by God's power working in you.
That's what they've been saying from the very beginning of the church, from the beginning of the book of Acts. They've been saying, this is how it works. Go over to Acts chapter 8, and we'll see another example, when Philip goes to Samaria. Maybe you remember this guy there, named Simon, the magician. He was a man we met in Samaria. There's going to be some magic in Ephesus. Well, we've already met a magician named Simon. Look at Acts 8:9, “there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.” There's our word of the night, megas. Simon was going around like he's the name you want to know. If you live in Samaria, you want to hear what Simon says because he's the magician. He's the great one. And then Philip shows up. And he’s saying, no, we're going to make a different name great around here. We're going to make someone else mega, not Simon. No, he comes in, he preaches Jesus. Acts 8:12, “But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.” So that's what we do. We tell people about the kingdom, we tell them that the kingdom is at hand, we tell them the time is fulfilled, all the prophecies, they have come to pass, and the name that you need to believe in, the one who came from God to save you, his name is Jesus, and you need to believe in his name. And we make much of the name of Jesus, people believe, and they get baptized. Later on, Peter and John come, and when they show up in Acts 8:14-17, “when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” So, in the book of Acts, we have to understand this.
If you've been studying the book of Acts with us, I need you to understand the context. You might even want to write this down, if you're taking notes: The book of Acts is a transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. Okay? The book of Acts is a transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. If you want to understand what's really going on, you’ve got to see how the relationship that people have with God is fundamentally changing. In the Old Covenant that God made with Israel, he made it through his law that he gave them in exodus 20. He made a covenant with them. It's reiterated in Deuteronomy 5. God's covenant with the people of Israel is that they would keep his law, they would be blessed, and ultimately his law would be fulfilled by a messiah. So hey, God's made a covenant with us. We're God's people, and they're looking forward by faith to what God's going to do through the seed of Abraham, through the son in the line of David, they're looking forward to a savior. But see, there's a New Covenant, there's a different way that people are going to relate to God. And this New Covenant is prophesied in Jeremiah 31, it's prophesied in Ezekiel 36, that God is not just going to tell people to keep his law on the outside, God's going to write his law on their hearts, he's going to give them a new heart, he's going to put his spirit within them. And when they have the Holy Spirit within them, they will be able to live in the divine power of God working in their life. So, there's a transition in the book of Acts is when it happens. Because the Christ has come, the Christ has died, the Christ is risen. And now we're going from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. And so, now you're not just looking forward by faith, you're actually looking with faith, at Jesus at his name, the Savior, you're seeing what Jesus already did. And when you believe in Jesus, you receive the Holy Spirit. But as that transition is spreading out over planet earth, it's guys like Peter and John, and guys like Paul, apostles, the ones sent by Jesus who are laying hands on them, and that's when the Holy Spirit is coming. So, it's a once in a lifetime transition going from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. So, if you hear somebody say, well, I don't think we get the Holy Spirit till later, because that's what happened in the book of Acts, you should immediately say to them, yeah, but the book of Acts is a very unique transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. That's the context a lot of people are missing in this book. Whenever people in a new area believe, it's like one of the apostles are coming and laying hands on them, and then they're receiving the Spirit. And that's a sign, hey, the New Covenant is here, because they believed in the name of Jesus, they've been baptized in the name of Jesus, and the new covenant is all about making the name of Jesus mega. And you've got to make sure you know who Jesus really is. You’ve got to make sure that what you believe about Jesus is the right information, that you really put your trust in who Jesus really is, and that you have experienced then the transformation of the power of the Holy Spirit working in your life. Okay? Jesus himself said that on the Day of Judgment, there will be people and they'll come and say, Lord, Lord, and he's going to say, depart from me, I never knew you. And in Matthew chapter 7, where it says that, what does it say? Is there going to be a few people or there's going to be how many? Many people are going to have some kind of faith in Jesus, but it's not an accurate faith. It's not a real trust that Jesus died to pay for my sin, Jesus rose to give me a new life, and as I have transferred my trust from myself, and anything that I can do, and I'm trusting in what Jesus has already done, I receive the Holy Spirit, and I now have the power to walk in newness of life. We’ve got to make sure that your faith is accurate. And we’ve got to understand it clearly from the Scripture, because we got people going around that are disciples, but they don't know the full story. And after Paul shows up, and he's able to give them the full story, these men believe, they get baptized, the Holy Spirit comes upon them in a mighty way. They are speaking in tongues, they are prophesying, but the key was, they really understood the name of Jesus. We're not going to see Jesus do great things if we don't really trust in who Jesus accurately is. It's so important, we will make no apologies here at our church, for trying to help everyone have an accurate faith in Jesus because if you don't have an accurate faith in Jesus, you really don't have any kind of faith at all. You’ve got to know his name, you’ve got to know who he is, and what he has done.
And so go back to Acts 19, and you'll see that the first seven verses with these twelve disciples we had to clarify who Jesus really was, that he had died and risen again, and that there was a promise of the Holy Spirit for all who believed in him. And when that was clarified, boom, we saw the power of salvation in their life. Now, that's just the beginning of Paul kind of coming and picking up on work that Apollos had already done with these guys.
Now look at Acts 19:8-10. This is where we'll get point number two. Paul does what we've seen him do in so many cities in the book of Acts, now “he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.” And not everybody likes Paul's message in this synagogue here in Ephesus. People are stubborn, they are unbelieving, and they start speaking evil of the Way. Before it was ever known as Christianity, it was known as the Way. This is the way, follow the Way. And that's what they were saying. No, don't go that way. We don't believe in the way they were rejecting the Way of Jesus that Paul was presenting to them. And so, he withdrew from them, and he took the disciples with him, at least these twelve guys, and they went to reasoning daily in the Hall of Tyrannus. So, Paul is going all in, he's having daily services, daily teaching times in the Hall of Tyrannus. That's all we know about it. We don't know anything really more, or what the Hall of Tyrannus is about, but we know that every single day, Paul is teaching people who Jesus is in the city of Ephesus. He's like, you guys don't want to believe me in the synagogue. We'll take it over here. And this is an amazing verse, Acts 19:10, “This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.”
Now, I don't know what you've heard about Asia, but it's a pretty big place. Anybody know about Asia, right? I mean, even if we're just talking about Asia Minor, even if we're just talking about the country of Turkey, we're saying that for two years, Paul is bringing the book, he's preaching the name of Jesus in Ephesus, and it fills the whole country. It fills not just that city even. I mean, somehow he's preaching just in that city, but the word of the Lord, the message of Jesus Christ is spreading all over the region, from city to city, from person to person, from mouth to mouth. So, this is an amazing statement to be able to say that everybody who lives in Asia heard the word of the Lord, they heard the good news about Jesus, everyone heard about Jesus. I can tell you where we live right now, not everyone around here is heard about Jesus Christ. But when Paul was going at it every day for two years, everybody heard the word. Okay? So that's powerful. That means that there was a message that Paul was giving, that was so clear, it was so articulate, that it could spread, not just Paul preaching it in an articulate way, but people echoing, repeating, spreading by word of mouth, what Paul is saying, from city to city, from house to house, from person to person.
So, let's get this down for number two: We need a message that is articulate. We need a message that is articulate. We need to be able to preach about who Jesus is in a way that is clear to people, in a way that people can understand, in a way that makes sense when you hear it, and it's clear to you. And in fact, one person could hear it, believe it, get into it, and they could go and spread it to more people. So, the fact that this message is heard by such a large area of people is powerful. And let's just make it very clear here tonight that the only way anyone will ever believe in Jesus is, first they have to hear the Word of the Lord, and faith comes by hearing the word of Christ. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? So, it's a big deal when people hear the Word because they can't ever believe, they can't ever be saved, unless they first have heard. Hearing is essential to salvation. And they covered the entire area. They covered Asia with the Word of the Lord. That's powerful. That's really spreading the good news in a mighty way.
Go over to Acts chapter 20. Look at verse 17 because Paul is going to meet with the leaders of the church in Ephesus. What God does is in this city, it is mega, and the name of Jesus is extolled. And later on in the next chapter of Acts, he gets the elders of the church together, and he begins by reviewing what happened. Look at Acts 20: 18, after he “called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them, ‘You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia.” Okay? You guys know what I was doing the whole time I was there. And he's referring to Asia just like it did in verse 10. I was “serving the Lord with all humility, and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house.” When I was there, here's Paul reviewing what happened in Ephesus. He said, “I didn't shrink” back. I wasn't afraid. I didn't hold back. I didn't pull any punches. I was there reasoning daily in the Hall of Tyrannus, and I was giving it everything I had. You guys were there; you saw it. I was preaching to big groups of people, I was going over to people's houses and talking to them at their houses, I was doing everything I could to spread the message of Jesus Christ, to declare to you the Word of God. In fact, look what he says in Acts 20:21, I was “testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” So, this is now later on, he can look at the guys who became the leaders of this church in Ephesus, which is one of the most famous churches in the history of all churches, and he can look at those guys who became the elders of the church, and he says, you guys know how I was when I was with you. You guys know that I was there every single day teaching. And I didn't hold anything back. And I was teaching it to the large group, I was teaching it to the small group, I was teaching it to anybody who would listen.
So, we need to make sure that we are expressing an articulate message. And we need to get that message out as far and as wide as we can. Okay? And I just want to make it clear to everybody here that I am committed, and I'm the main guy preaching here at the church, I need to get better at preaching. So, I'm asking if everybody will pray for me. All right? I want to get better at preaching, I don't plan on going anywhere or doing anything else. My goal is that these sermons will get better here on Saturday nights. That's what I'm living for every single day. And I would appreciate it that you would pray for me, because we need to make sure that our message is clear and it's understandable, and everybody can hear it. Because they can't believe unless they hear.
Now, I'm not the only guy preaching around here. We’ve got other elders who will be up here preaching, we’ve got all kinds of deacons out there leading fellowship groups. I mean, we got a lot of people who can handle the Word of God accurately here at this church, but you need to be praying every single time we get together in a group like this. There are people who are here for the first time hearing the Word of the Lord. Every single time we get together, and we open up this book, and we start reading the Word of the Lord and explaining it, there are souls in this room, there are souls on that front lawn, there are people watching this online right now, and they need still to believe in Jesus Christ. And so, like people’s souls are on the line right now when we open the Word. That's why it's so important that we make this scripture, that we explain it in a clear way, in a way that people can understand they can hear it, they have a spirit can work in their heart, and they can believe it. Like would anybody liked for someone to believe in the name of Jesus here tonight? Okay? We all say Amen right now. Who prayed for that to happen before we ever came here tonight? That is what we need. We need to have this sense of anticipation, that when we gather together, and we open up this book, something is going to happen, a message is going to ring out, and it's going to spread far and wide. It's going to go out and people are going to hear it. And Jesus name is going to be exalted as more people come to believe in him. And then the people who already believe in him, they're going to see him high and lifted up, and they're going to live in obedience, they're going to want to worship the Lord., they're going to want to really lift the name of Jesus high. Like we need that to happen. I mean, people's souls depend on hearing the word of the Lord and that's what we're here to do.
So, I am begging you, I am asking you, will you please pray for these services before we have them? Will you please spend some time, because by nature, I am not a very clear person? Okay? You can ask my wife. I am very vague when I speak in communication. I have a degree I paid money for four years, I went to an institution of higher education. And I invested something around $80,000 in a communications print media degree. And my wife will look at me regularly and be like, that’s what $80,000 got us? You know what I mean? That's what we got out of it. I mean, it's a great joke between me and her, because it because it is hard to be clear, it is hard to say things in a way that everybody knows exactly what you're talking about, without ambiguity without generalization, without exaggeration. No, to just say it exactly how it is straightforward. Don't add anything to it, don't take it away. Here it is. That's what people really need to hear. There's so much fluff. We don't need more fluff. Okay? People need to hear the raw, unedited truth of the Word of God. And when they do, it'll transform their lives. It'll change them from the inside out. And so, we need to make sure that the message here is very clear. And so, we need to pray for that.
But it's not just whoever's preaching up front, because Paul, as far as we know, he's in the Hall of Tyrannus every day, reasoning for two years. He's not going all around Asia, spreading the word of the Lord. So, it's not just Paul that's preaching it, it's clear that it is spreading in the main way that the gospel spreads at this church, at any church. The main way the gospel has spread throughout history is via word of mouth. And so, I need some help with my mouth. But now let's talk about your mouth. Are you telling people a clear message about Jesus Christ? Are you spreading the Word that we gather together in here? Are you spreading it to more people outside of the gathering? So how have you done? Just being honest with yourself right now. I know that I need to get better at preaching. What about you? Are you telling people about Jesus? Is that something you want to get better about? Are you good at explaining the gospel? Do you explain it in a way that's confusing? And you can tell people get lost. Or do you say it in a way that comes from Scripture and is clear to people? So, how are you doing at articulating the message? Because if it's not clear, and it can't go from person to person, it's not going to spread?
So, one thing we have done, has anybody ever heard of the three most important words before? Okay, so this is something in there, right there. Look at Acts 20:21. Look what he says his message is. Let's make sure we all understand what the message is. And we can all articulate it. He's “testifying both to Jews and to Greeks.” Here it is, “repentance toward God, and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” So, we say right there, what he said, those are the three most important words: repentance and faith in Jesus or in the gospel, the good news, the Word of the Lord, in the name of Jesus. Everybody here, we need to have a clear message that we're telling people they need to repent, they need to have faith or believe or trust, and it needs to be focused on Jesus, the good news that he is the Holy One of God, the Anointed One, and he died for us, and rose again.
And so, we have this little tract, you can pick it up on your way out. And it's not a tract that's meant to be like given to somebody, it's meant to be a visual aid as you explain to someone, hey, well, Jesus said, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel. That's what everybody is expected to do is they're expected to have repentance toward God and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. These three things keep coming up over and over throughout the Scripture, repentance and faith in the Gospel of Jesus. And so, you need to be able to explain, everybody here should be able to explain, here's what the gospel is very clear, who Jesus is and what he did. Here's what repentance is, it's a change of your mind. It's a turning from living one way to living another way. Here's what faith is. Faith means it's not you trying hard to do it yourself. It's you saying, I can't do it. And you're trusting in what Jesus already did because it is finished. It is paid in full. Jesus is the one who saves us. That's why his name should be mega in our lives. Everybody here should be able to articulate that to someone. If you can't articulate that to someone, I am here pretty much every day of the week. I will meet with you we can go over it together. Okay? We all should be able to understand the message that was said there in Acts 2021. The message that Paul says summarized what he was teaching the repentance, the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I need to get better at preaching that, we all need to keep spreading that word of mouth. That's how we're going to see everybody hear the word of the Lord where we live. And there are people around us who have not heard the Word of the Lord. If you think, oh, I've heard it so many times, I've been to church, most people have been to church. Most people know the word of the Lord. That's not the America we're living in anymore. We're not living in the America that you grew up in. We're live in that in the America that people are growing up in and they don't go to church, they don't learn the Bible from anybody. They're not hearing a lot of a lot about Jesus in the colleges and the high schools right now. Now, I guarantee you somebody that lives very close to you has never heard the Word of the Lord. And they could hear it from you. Or you could invite them here, and they could hear it as we preach the Word. But we need everybody around here to hear a message that is articulate about Jesus Christ.
That's what happened in Ephesus, the word spread, and it reached a large group of people. Now go back and look at Acts 20:11. Here, look what it says happened next, extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, like I think miracles in and of themselves are extra ordinary. So, what are extraordinary miracles. Okay, these must have been amazing things. Like what Paul was doing there, I mean, it must have been awesome to see the miracles, the full display of the power of God that was working through Paul. Now, you might want to jot down 2 Corinthians 12:12, where Paul says about himself, that the “signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.” So, Paul is doing things here, where he's laying hands on people, and they're receiving the Holy Spirit. And he's doing extraordinary miracles where people are being healed of diseases, demons are being cast out of people. I mean, this is perhaps what's so extraordinary. Look at Acts 19:12. They're taking “handkerchiefs or aprons that have touched” him. So, imagine somebody is sick over here like they're going to die. They're like, go see Paul, they grab like a napkin or something. They run, they touch the napkin to Paul, they run back touch the sick person, the sick person is healed. People are like, wow, this is amazing. Who's ever heard of something like this? Well, Paul says the reason he was able to do these signs and wonders and mighty works is to show that he is a true apostle. He is a true sent one of Jesus Christ. Guys like Peter and John and Paul are in a unique category of men who are eyewitnesses to Jesus. And sometimes they even show that they have been sent by Jesus by doing miracles, similar to the kinds of miracles that Jesus himself did when he walked on the earth. That's a Paul, he's got a level of street cred here, where the diseases are leaving people, the evil spirits are coming out of people, like the reputation of the mighty works that God is doing through Paul. I mean, everybody's talking about this. This is the chatter this is what is the hot topic there. Everybody, have you heard about what this guy Paul's doing? I heard that so and so got healed. No way. I heard that so and so’s son got a demon cast out of them. Are you kidding me? Wow, Paul has come to town. And Paul, what he's doing is what we'll see what's going to happen. Look at Acts 19:13. Here are some of these “itinerant Jewish exorcists.” Moms don't let your kids grow up to be itinerant Jewish exorcists. All right? That's not the trade school you want them to go into right there. Some of these guys, I mean, what a title right there. So, they decide there's power in the name of Jesus.
See, this is what I need everybody to understand what is happening here, because something is happening in Ephesus. People are getting to an accurate understanding of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is working in their lives. The message is spreading far and wide, miracles are being done, healings and casting out of demons. And so now these Jewish exorcists, I don't know, doesn't sound like these guys were believers. Doesn't sound like they were guys getting baptized or receiving the Holy Spirit. Okay? These are some other Jews who maybe are traveling from town to town, but when they get to Ephesus, they hear… you know what they get? This is the impression they get, they don't go in and start talking about like how awesome Paul is, or how awesome the people are, or what's really cool about the new church that's forming in the Hall of Tyrannus there. No, they say the name of Jesus is what they get out of all of it. There's power in the name of Jesus. See, this is if people come and interact with us as the church, we don't want them talking about us. We don't want them talking about this. The eyes of our church, we got nowhere to park around here. We don't want him saying anything. We want people if they interact with us, we want them walking away thinking, well, there's power in the name of Jesus. Jesus is doing something there among those people. Even the itinerant Jewish exorcists are like, wow, there's so much power in the name of Jesus, we should start using that when we're trying to cast out demons. And so, they add a jury you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims the message is so articulate, even the other exorcist traveling from town to town now know what the message is. And so, the seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva, they’re some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists doing this. And they go to an evil spirit. And they're like in the name of Jesus, who Paul proclaims. And the demon speaks to them. And the demon says, Jesus, I know and Paul, I recognize, but who are you? I mean, the demon then beats these guys up, strips them of their clothes and sends them running away in a panic. I mean, what a scene that they fled out of that house, naked and wounded. I'm casting out the demon in the name of Jesus. No, you're not, says the demon. Right? You're not from Jesus, you're not with Paul, you're somebody else. See, even the demons can recognize who's really got the name of Jesus upon them or not. And these guys did not. So, the demons have no fear of them. Oh, the demons tremble at the name of Jesus. But they could tell these seven sons of Sceva, they didn't really know Jesus. So, they chase them away. And look at Acts 19:17. All the residents of Ephesus know this. Okay, there's not a person in town now that doesn't know what happened here, that there is some kind of power going on with Paul. And those people over there in the Hall of Tyrannus. Like, there is something going on over there, and everybody's afraid of it. And the name of Jesus is mega over Ephesus. It's like his name is now in the sky. And people can see that there is something mighty, something authoritative, something not of this world in that name of Jesus.
That's the kind of effect that we should want our church to have, that every church no matter where they are, how big they are, what kind of facility they meet in, every church should want the people around them getting a mega view of Jesus Christ. That should be why we exist, and it happens here in Ephesus. Can you imagine if every single person who lived in Westminster, in Garden Grove, in Fountain Valley, all the people who live around here, if fear fell on all of them, and they all knew that the name of Jesus was mighty? Would you like to see something like that happen? That's what happened here. I mean, just an amazing recognition. Notice, at this point, they are not saying, oh the demons, they're not saying, oh the healings, they're not saying like, oh, the message of Paul. No, they're getting the point. The point is, Jesus, who he is. That's what is seeming mega about the church in Ephesus to all the residents of the city. This should be the goal of our life. This should be the goal of why we gather together, of what we do throughout the week as individuals. The thing we should be praying for this church specifically is let us all be forgotten, but the name of Jesus be remembered forever. Let his name be known by everybody who knows him. I hope to preach; I hope to die. And I hope people just remember Jesus. See, that should be our goal. And the people here they got it. It says the name of our Lord Jesus was megaluno. It was magnified. It was enlarged, it was shown to be how great it really is.
And see, later on, when Paul writes the book of Ephesians, it's like he wants to bring this idea back up. go to Ephesians chapter 1. And he wants them to see this. I mean, that must have been such an amazing sense in the city of Ephesus. I mean, how exciting it must have been, not just with the miracles, not just with Paul teaching, but to see people have a fear of God. And like a reverence, like that the name of Jesus was not the name that could just be taken in vain, but it was a name to be revered and respected. It was a name that you should really see with the right amount of reverence and awe. That's how people were thinking about Jesus in Ephesus. And here in Ephesians, chapter one, Paul is praying for this church later on when he writes to them, he's praying that their eyes of their heart would be open to see. And one of the things he wants them to see is in Ephesians 1:19. What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great mind. The same power, the same great mind that he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him, Jesus, as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him, who fills all in all. It's like, when Paul is writing back to the church and Ephesus. It's like, hey, have you guys become blind? Or have you guys become nearsighted? Like, don't you remember the power that was working among us? Don't you remember how everybody knew the name of Jesus was extolled in Ephesus? Like, have you guys forgotten that Jesus is the name with all authority over heaven and earth? Like, have you guys forgotten that Jesus is the one?
He has so much authority that he upholds the universe by the Word of his power. Jesus has authority over the physical realm that we live in, over the planet that we're on, over the physical body that we live in, that Jesus has authority to heal us from every disease. Do you remember that? And he's been given a name, and the name of Jesus, it's so far above every other name. In fact, make a list of all the other names whenever you see that in the Scripture. Like it says there in Acts 19:21, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion. What do we mean by rule, authority, power, and dominion? We're talking about demons there. We're talking about the spiritual forces of evil that exist in the heavenly places, the demons that made the seven sons of Sceva flee because they didn't really know Jesus Christ. Jesus has authority over Satan and all of the demons. He has power over them. His name is above their name. Hey, here's a news flash for everybody. Jesus has authority over all the governing authorities here on planet earth. Jesus has authority over your employer, he has authority over your parents or over your spouse, Jesus has authority over all authorities. He is quite literally the name above every name. He's like, did you forget who you believed in? Did you forget how awesome it was when we were in that city, and everybody knew who Jesus was? Have you forgotten who he really is? Because there is nobody like Jesus. He is the Lord of all, and we must acknowledge his authority.
Let's get that down for number three: We need to acknowledge his authority. The name of Jesus is the name by which we are saved. And it is also the name that has been exalted above all names. And so when God raised Jesus up from the dead, when God exalted Jesus and sat him down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool, the father said to the son, you now have all authority in heaven on earth, you now are the ultimate name, the ultimate king, the ultimate Lord, master ruler, that's who Jesus is.
Let's see, you hear people say stuff like, I made Jesus Lord of my life. You hear even Christians say, I made Jesus Lord of my life. Let's just make it very clear. Jesus is Lord of your life, whether you make him that or not, God already made Jesus Lord of your life. So, you're just acknowledging what is true in the universe. You're now aligning what you believe with ultimate reality that there's a spiritual realm full of angels and demons, and there's a physical world that we live in, and we have bodies, and Jesus is the Lord over the spiritual and the physical. He's been given the name that is above every name over both this age and the age to come. And every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess, see, maybe the reason that everybody around us doesn't see the name of Jesus as mega is he's not really mega in our own lives. He's not really set apart in our own hearts. Like maybe we need the eyes of our hearts opened here tonight that when you say you believe in the name of Jesus, you're saying you believe in the Lord of heaven and earth. You're saying you believe in the one with all authority. And if he wants a disease to be healed, the disease doesn't stand a chance. If he wants a demon to be cast out, well, the demon’s going to beg him to throw him into some pigs or something. And the demons are going to start trembling when Jesus speaks in his authoritative voice. So, we need to make sure that we understand what was understood in the city of Ephesus, that the name of Jesus is a name above every other name. It is a name that is lifted high. And that should be what defines our lives. What defines our church is, we want every church especially this one that we're a part of, we want it to be a mega church, because the name of Jesus gets exalted here among us. And our neighbors, our coworkers, and our family members aren't going to think Jesus is awesome if we're not thinking he's awesome, and if we're not talking like he's awesome. Because make no mistake, Paul's saying, no, you need to remember, he has a power that is working in us, the same power that rose Jesus from the dead. I mean, so think about that, all the all the physical victory over death and sin that takes place, all the spiritual victory over Satan and the demons that takes place, when Jesus rises from the dead by the almighty power of God, he has won a triumphant victory over his foes forevermore. And so many Christians are living like we got defeated when really we want and there's victory in the name of Jesus. You can overcome the world. In the name of Jesus. Like everyone who really has faith in the name of Jesus, do you know what his name means? It means he has authority over every other name. And we must acknowledge his authority. And we have to have that thought in our own hearts. And so, the question really comes, if Jesus is going to be mega in our church, is he mega in my life? Is Jesus magnified in my soul? Have I set apart in my heart that Jesus is holy, there's no one like him? There's nothing that compares to him, there will be no rivals of Jesus, no idols of Jesus. In my life, Jesus stands in a place more than my family, more than my career, more than anything else that I care about in my life, there is Jesus in my heart name above every name. That's what we need to say. So that we can see Jesus extolled in our lives. Let me pray for us.
Father in heaven, we thank you that we get to study this amazing book of Acts. And the miracles you did through Paul in the mighty work where people believed in Jesus, and the message was spreading throughout all of Asia. And even the demons and even the Jews, everybody knows what is happening because of the name of Jesus Christ. And God, we pray, that we would set apart Jesus in our hearts, that we would put his name, and acknowledge that it is above every name, that we would know Jesus as Lord and king. That our souls here together tonight would magnify the Lord, and when people talk about our church, they wouldn't talk about our style of music, or they wouldn't talk about the fact that we're on Argosy Avenue, or they would talk about wow, there were people there talking about Jesus when they got baptized. There were people there talking about Jesus during the sermon, there were people there talking about Jesus. After the sermon, there were people there singing about Jesus, like they really knew him. Like they wanted his name to be exalted. Please, when people see us, let them see Jesus, when people come to know us, let them know his name. God, we are asking you to do something that only you can do by the great power with which you raised Jesus from the dead. We need the name of Jesus exalted here in Huntington Beach. We need the name of Jesus carried like a flag, like a banner, we need somebody to carry the name of Jesus into Long Beach. There are so many people, hundreds of thousands of people around here, who at this present moment do not believe in Jesus Christ. And have they really heard about him? Have they really seen someone who believes in Him? Have they ever been to a church that really made Jesus mega? God, please let us be those people. Let this be that church. Let this be a place where you are pleased to do what you've done in heaven. Do it here among us and magnify the name of Jesus Christ. We asked you to do this according to all that his name means.