Episode Transcript
You're listening to the Travis Rutland Podcast. Travis Rutland is a spirit filled pastor and ministry leader who has been featured on International Christian Television. He serves as lead pastor of Liberty Square Church in Cartersville, Georgia and as president of Global Servants. His sermons focus on clear biblical teaching, practical truth and encouragement for everyday life. Each message is designed to strengthen your faith and draw you deeper into God's word. This podcast is brought to you, to you by Global Servants. For more information about Global servants, please visit globalservants.org now here's Travis Rutland.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: We started with the first journey, which was out of the Garden of Eden. And now we're ending with some of the journey, the missionary journeys of Paul. So turn, if you will excuse me, to Acts chapter 19 and we're going to begin reading with verse one, Acts 19 and one journey to Ephesus.
And it happened while Apollos, that's another missionary evangelist that was operating at the same time as Paul, and it happened while Apollos was at Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. Let's pray. God, we ask in the next few moments that you will speak to us, all of us. We want to hear from you this morning.
Speak to us. You have moved here through praise and worship. Your holy Spirit has descended in this place. Continue, speak to, challenge, convict us. Anything you want to do in these next few moments, but we are desperate to hear from you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
I have made no, you know, hidden secret about it. I love books. I love to read. I spend far too much time and money in bookstores. I enjoy books and always have. I am a bibliophile, so I really enjoy books. And so I always have, even since I was little. So when I was in high school, I was looking for a job. I was looking to find a job somewhere. A bunch of my friends, as teenagers do, worked in fast food. I did not want to work in fast food. I didn't want to deal with.
I didn't want to, you know, work the fryers at McDonald's. I didn't want to do any of that. So I was trying to find something where I could generate money, but that wasn't working at Crystal or whatever it was. And so I was struggling with that. And one day, even in high school, I went in the library, while I was in high school, at the library around the corner from my house, and I saw that they were hiring what they call pages. I don't believe they have this anymore in libraries because everything is electronic and online, but back then they had pages. And so I applied for the job and got it. I was the only male that worked at the library and I was the only employee under the age of 50 that worked at the library. And I'm just telling you it was the best job I ever had. I was a 17 year old basketball player that worked at the library and I loved that job. So my primary job was to put books back on the shelf. They give you a huge cart at the beginning of each. You know, when you show up for work, you get a big cart and you just put them back on the shelf. You learn how to operate the Dewey decimal system. You learn how to put. Fiction is categorized differently than nonfiction is. I loved. There was a moment where I was like, I want to be a librarian. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. Be honest. You just like this thing that you're doing. So I put the books on the shelf. The other thing that you did was you would occasionally get a call over the loudspeaker that said page to reference, page to reference. And so you'd go to the reference desk. And this is so long ago that there was no Internet and there was no electronic stuff. And so you had all the old magazines and newspapers either on microfilm or microfiche. And so you would go. But we didn't trust randos to handle the microfilm and the microfiche. So I had to do it right. So you just couldn' there and start grabbing the stuff because we don't want you to break it. So I would take them to the research, we'd find the magazine that they were looking for, I'd load it on the microfilm machine so they could do their research.
And it was the funnest job I've ever had. I loved that job.
Every Saturday we did a reading. The head librarian did a read, a children's reading hour or 30 minutes or whatever. And kids, parents would show up. Primarily, moms would show up with kids and they would read. The librarian would read a kid's book, encourage the kids to be at the library, encourage them to love books. All of those things my mom used to do with me when I was a kid. And so we would do that. And as the page, whenever I was working on Saturday mornings, I would help with that. I didn't do anything, I didn't read the books, but I would help get the kids organized and get them seated. And it was primarily moms. And so we would get it all and then the librarian would sit down and she'd read a book. One Saturday morning, I was standing in the back of the room. The reading time had started and I was just standing there, you know, waiting for it to be over so I could help her move the kids along and do all of that. And it was, you know, 25, 30 kids there and a number of moms. And all of a sudden I noticed out of the corner of my eye that there was a very attractive older woman staring at me, like really intensely.
And I was like.
And then she caught my eye and she kind of nodded her head. And I was like, I don't know what to do with my hands now. Like, I was very.
I'm 17 years old. I had no. I'd. No, I didn't know what to do. And then. So I kind of paid attention to librarian. And then I saw the corner of my. That she's going through the crowd, making her way next to me.
She comes up right next to me and she goes like this. Hi.
And I was like paralyzed with. I had no. I said hello. And so.
And she says to me, she says to me, I had a great time at your house last night.
What. What is going on right now?
She said to me, I had a great time at your house last night. And I was like, I almost had a stroke in the middle of the. And I thought, she's confused me. I'm telling you, I promise you this is a true story. A lot of preachers get on the pulpit and they lie. They just make stories up. This a true story.
They'll tell you anything to get a response. Not me. This. A truce. I had no. I thought, she's confused me with her 17 year old boyfriend. I was like, what is happening right now? What is going on? You had a great time at my house last night. I don't have a fun time at my house. I'm 17 years old. Nobody has a great time at our house. I was like, what is happening? And then she starts talking about how glad they are to have moved to Orlando where we lived at the time. And she was talking about getting settled. And as she was talking, I realized that she was the wife of the new associate pastor that my dad had just hired at his church.
And my parents had thrown a welcome to the church party for her the night before at our house.
And I had walked through on my way to leave and greeted everybody and then got in my car and went to hang out with my friends.
But she didn't say any of that, did she?
You can't just walk up to a 17 year old boy and say, hi, I had a great time at your house last night and not make his head explode.
So we had this moment where I had no idea what she was talking about, she had no idea what I was talking about. And we were trains running on opposite tracks that, that didn't understand what was going on.
All of that to say.
This is exactly what happens at Ephesus. This is exactly what happens at Ephesus.
Apollos had been through. Apollos was not aware of Jesus and was not aware of what Jesus had done. Apollos had been in Israel years earlier, several years earlier, and heard John the Baptist preach.
And so Apollos begin to preach the message of John the Baptist and travel around.
Now we are told at the end of the previous chapter that Apollos is then told by some Christians about Jesus, about what Christ did, that he was the Messiah. And so Apollos changes his preaching style and begins to preach Jesus. But he doesn't tell the people that he told in Ephesus before he leaves. He doesn't tell them the new message that he has received.
So Apollos leaves. We just read Apollos goes to Corinth. Paul is making his way through the upper regions and he comes to Ephesus and he finds a bunch of believers. And this is what happens. Look at you Will, at the rest of the end of verse one and finding some disciples.
Paul said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.
And he said to them, into what then were you baptized?
And they said, into John's baptism.
Then Paul said, john indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance. Let's stop right there.
So Paul begins to talk to these Christians, what he thinks are Christians, disciples, believers. He begins to talk with them and he's saying this and they're saying that.
And after a while Paul realizes I don't know what they're talking about. And they begin to think we don't know what Paul's talking about. And I love this part where finally Paul just stops and goes, wait a minute, were you guys filled with the Holy Spirit when you first believed? And they say we didn't know there was a Holy Spirit.
And Paul says, well then how were you baptized? How were you baptized by the way? That is the clearest indication of how we are to baptize. By the way, if you are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, then you would have heard that term when they were baptized. They say, we don't know a Holy Spirit. He says, okay, if you don't know a Holy Spirit, then how did you get baptized? Because I heard you guys talking about being baptized, so I thought you were believers. But if you weren't baptized in the name, if you don't know about the Holy Spirit, who baptized you? And they said, we only know about John the Baptist. Apollos taught us about John the Baptist. We only know about him. We were baptized under his baptism. And Paul says, okay, that's a baptism of repentance. And so it's fascinating to me. Paul does not. He will return to his original question, but he begins to build a structure that leads the. The church at Ephesus to where they need to be. And it is a structure and a journey that still holds up for us. I wanted to end with the. With this sermon, this last series, because as we talked about the initial journey east of Eden all those weeks ago, the first one we talked about, we talked about humanity's journey out of Eden through sin and all those things. Now Paul at the church at Ephesus gives us this template for how we move through these stages and what we have to do as we are called on this journey.
So the first thing that he deals with, he says to them, john indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance.
So the first thing that he begins to talk about the idea is this idea of repentance.
So we know that in the natural, when we hurt someone's feelings, when we are.
When we say something mean to someone, when we do something, when we accidentally bump into them, anything. How many times a day do you say, I'm sorry. Oh. Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to run into you. I didn't see you standing there. I'm sorry. Excuse me.
We understand that idea of apologies, of repentance, the same thing for all of us at one stage of our life or another, we have been sorry. Probably most of us, all of us, on a pretty regular basis, are sorry about the things that we've done in the spiritual.
Not talking about bumping into somebody at the grocery store, but those things. That sin that continues to beset us, that addiction that we seemingly can't seem to break free from, whatever it is that. That stuff. And what do we say? I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I hate it. I'm sorry. And so we understand apologies and repentance in the natural. We also understand it in the spiritual. And it is healthy, it is beneficial.
But stay with me. Repentance is insufficient.
Repentance is insufficient. That is not to say that we should not be doing it. That is not to say that we don't. Oh, well. Pastor Travis said I never have to say sorry again. I am not saying that. If you want to stay married for the next day, you're going to need to learn how to say you're sorry. Okay?
If you've got co workers, you're going to need to learn how to say you're sorry. I am not saying that you're not supposed to say you're sorry. What I am saying is in a spiritual component, repentance is insufficient for the task at hand. It is. It is not enough to simply be sorry. The reason is this.
The reason is this. In the moment.
You, you, you, you've, you've heard me talk, you've heard me tell my story.
I'm not going to tell you my testimony today. But you, for those of you that know this moment where you've done that thing that you hate and you look at yourself in the mirror and you hate yourself and you hate the sin and you hate what you've done and you hate who you've become, and you say, I'm never do. I'm sorry, I'm never going to do this again.
But that repentance in a silo, the repentance in a vacuum is insufficient for where God is calling us to be.
Do you see this? If we simply say we're sorry over and over again, what does Paul say elsewhere? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Do you see that? Shall we continue in sin so that we can continue to repent and continue to get in on grace? That's not sufficient. Saying you're sorry over and over again. If you're in a relationship with spouse, kids, whatever it is, co worker, friend, family member, if you are doing the same thing to them every single day, that is painful, that is hurtful to them. If you are saying the same hurtful words and then you apologize and then you do it again day after day after day after day, at some point that person is going to say to you, I don't want any more apologies.
I want you to stop doing this thing.
Do you see this?
Now? I'm not saying that repentance is bad. Please note that I did not say repentance is bad. I did not even say repentance is unhelpful.
It is simply insufficient to what we are trying to be about, to who we are trying to be, to the journey that we're supposed to be on. However it is necessary.
It is necessary. We have to acknowledge who we are, because List this is important too.
If we refuse to repent, what we are saying is that we have nothing that we've ever done that requires repentance. If we don't have to repent, then we have no need for a Messiah who forgives all our sin. You see? So what I'm saying is, don't get lost in this and say, oh, I never have to repent. Repentance is important, but it is not in a vacuum. It's not by itself. It is simply the first step in a journey that Paul takes the church at Ephesus through and that he is leading all of us to.
So first there is this moment of repentance. He doesn't say John the Baptist is bad. In fact, Jesus himself is baptized by John the Baptist. But what does John the Baptist preach? Repent and everything will be okay.
No, he preaches a message of a journey as well. What he says, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
Do you see that? So he is also preaching a message of repentance which leads to something else. He is not preaching repent and everything's okay. He is preaching repent for the kingdom of God is coming. The repentance is important, but it is simply a step on the journey towards what God is calling you to be about.
Now look at what Paul does.
Look at the end of verse four, we read that John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance. It's an important.
It's a step, but it's not the only step. It is not useless, but repentance is insufficient. Because what does repentance do? Look at the rest of verse four. He was saying to people that they should believe on him. Who would come after that is on Christ Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Now this is where Paul is leading them to. He says repentance was good, but repentance was supposed to lead you to something. You repent and then what you repent. And he was saying that the people that they saying to the people that they should believe on Christ Jesus.
We just talked about it last week. What does the Macedonian jailer say to Paul and Silas? What must I do to be saved?
What does Paul say to him? We understand repentance is implied, but he does not mention repentance in that statement. What must I do to be saved? And Paul says, believe.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall not, maybe not might. You shall be saved.
So repentance is important, but it is insufficient because it's not simply by itself. Repentance then leads to the moment of salvation.
So in this, we see now that belief in Jesus is vital. It is vital. It is the component. All right? Repentance always leads to a belief in who Jesus is. He is the Son of God. He is Messiah. He is the Christ. He has forgiven us of our sins. The belief in Jesus is vital. It cannot be missed.
It is repentance. Listen to me. Repentance is good, but it is not the foundation.
The foundation is belief in who Christ is. It is the linchpin. It is the thing that holds the whole thing together.
Now, here's the problem for.
Here's the problem for us as Pentecostals.
Not all of us, but some of us, some of the time, occasionally, okay, everybody stay calm. But occasionally I feel that Pentecostals often under emphasize the importance of salvation and overemphasize the filling of the Holy Spirit. But listen to me. Salvation is vital. It is the thing that everything else is built on. It is the thing.
But on the other hand, regardless of what other denominations will tell you, it is not the last step on your journey. And Paul makes that clear. And we're going to talk about that in just a moment. But salvation is the deal. What we can't do as Pentecostals is talk about or treat salvation like an odd relative that you have that comes to your birthday party. Remember this when you were a kid, you were a little kid, and your parents invite all your relatives to come to the party, and you've got that one weird aunt, and you're like, oh, man, Aunt Martha's here, right? And your mom's like, give Aunt Martha a hug. And you're like, but what do you do? You give Aunt Martha a hug because you know she brought a gift for you, right?
She brought a present to your birthday party. So you're going to give her a hug because you want that present, but you're not happy about giving her that hug. So you're like, right?
Many, many times I feel like Pentecostals talk about salvation like that. Like this relative that we have to hug in order to get the thing that we want so we can move on to the better presence. Nothing could be further from the truth. Salvation is vital. Belief in Christ Jesus. He is Messiah. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
It's. It is part of that journey. It is the moment of the journey. It is the foundation. Everything else is built on that.
It is not built on repentance. Repentance is simply the process that gets you closer to belief. But if all you do is say you're sorry over and over again and there is no belief that comes out out of the repentance, I'm telling you, you have missed it.
You've got to be sorry. You've got to acknowledge what you've done. I have sinned, as David said. I have sinned before you and you alone. But that is not sufficient.
We have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and we shall be saved.
Now, here's what we're going to do.
This sermon is the last one. It's going to be a little different. I planned it this way because we had communion.
We're actually going to receive communion now in this moment. So I'm going to ask the ushers if they'll begin to prepare the elements. They can come to the front or be ready in the aisles, whatever they need to do. And I know what you're saying, this is weird.
Okay.
It's good to keep you on your toes.
It's good to change it up a little bit every once in a while. All right, now I want you to. I want. While they're getting ready, I want you to see something that Paul himself writes to the church at Corinth. So turn, if you will, to 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, 1 Corinthians, chapter 11 and verse 23.
Paul is talking about communion. He says this. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take and eat. This is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Verse 27, very important.
Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man, a woman, let everyone examine themselves and eat of the bread and drink of the cup. What is Paul saying?
That repentance and salvation, communion, they all go together, right?
You have to. In that moment, as we hold the cup, as you hold that little piece of cracker, there is a Moment where you need to take ownership of what you have done.
Don't receive the cup in an unworthy manner. There is a moment where these first two steps on the journey to Ephesus flow together in this wonderful sacrament of the Church, which is communion. We hold the cup and the bread and we say, God forgive me. We repent of our sins, the things that we have done, the stuff that we have said.
We repent of our sin. And then what do we do? Do this to remember me. Remember what? That he is Christ.
That he is Messiah. That his bloodshed forgives us of all our unrighteousness. Do you see how they go together?
Now, this is what we're going to do. I'm not going to ask you to come to the front. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. This is between you and the Christ.
As the ushers pass out the elements in just a moment, as you hold them, I want you to enter into a moment of repentance for others.
There may be somebody here. And you say, I'm not sure I'm saved.
This is the moment. What better moment than when you are holding the body and the blood? Not literally, everybody stay calm. But you're holding the body and the blood, right?
What better moment to make Christ your Messiah than. Than when you are holding the very elements that remind you of his sacrifice?
If you are not saved, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Just believe on him in this moment. Make him Lord and Savior. Make him Messiah. Save you. I repent. I believe.
Hold the elements. This is your moment. I'm going to come back up and we're going to receive communion together. And then I'm going to continue to preach because I'm not done yet.
See if my voice holds out, but I'm not done yet. But as you hold these elements, repent.
And if you have never believed, what better moment to believe than this right here? Let me pray. Lord, we thank you for your sacrifice. We thank you for communion that reminds us. Your body broken for us, your bloodshed for us.
We thank you, God. We praise you and we glorify you. God, we thank you, God. We receive these elements. We receive them and we say thank you. We repent and we acknowledge that you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen. God, as we hold the elements, I repent of anything that is in my life.
Any way that I am unworthy to drink the cup and to eat the bread.
I repent.
God, I pray for every person here that we all corporately enter into a moment of repentance.
We do not want to eat or drink in an unworthy manner.
God, there may be some here that need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray over them in this moment.
You don't need to come to the front. You don't need to raise your hand. But I pray over you in this moment.
We all acknowledge that we are sinners, saved by grace. We all repent of the things that we have done and will do in the future.
But what we need, what we must do, what is vital is belief.
What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
For any here, any that in this moment are believing on you for the first time, or maybe rededicating their lives, I pray over them, God, that you would give them the courage to make you Lord and Savior, lord over every aspect of their life, leaving nothing, keeping nothing from you, offering themselves as a living sacrifice.
We do repent, but we believe your body broken, your bloodshed.
Jesus name. We pray.
Amen if you will take the elements. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread and when he had blessed it, he broke it and he gave it to each of them, saying, this is my body broken for you.
Take and eat.
Likewise, after the dinner, he took the cup and he gave it to each of them.
He said, this is my blood shed for you for forgiveness of sins.
This is a new covenant.
Take and drink.
I'm going to ask you, if you will, to put those cups to the side.
Following service, we'll have garbage cans in the lobby and you can throw them away there.
Now, this is interesting, right? Because we're working through the same journey that Paul is working through with the Ephesians. Because this church at Ephesus has no concept, as we said at the beginning. They're saying different things.
They are trains running on parallel tracks. They're never going to cross.
They don't. They're misunderstanding each other.
So they say, Paul says, how are you baptized? They say, with John the Baptist. John the Baptist. Baptism. He said, that's a baptism of repentance. He said, that's good, that's helpful. You acknowledge that you're sinful. But it is insufficient.
What repentance does is point us to who Jesus is, who Jesus is. That's the important thing.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And they do.
And it says they were baptized, almost certainly in water.
That would be what they would have done. Baptized them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They're baptized. They believe in who Christ Jesus is.
Now I want you to notice.
Now Paul circles back to his original question.
Why did Paul phrase it the way that he phrased it when he encountered the church at Ephesus?
Why didn't he say, do you guys believe in Jesus?
He didn't say that. That is not to say. We are not saying that Jesus is unimportant. I'm not saying this. We just talked about the fact that salvation is vital.
I want to challenge how we're thinking though.
This is a church. This is a first century church.
He says, look again at verse two.
Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
He doesn't talk to them about theology.
They're probably saying a lot of the right words.
They're talking about sin and repentance.
They're probably saying a lot of the right words. What is missing that Paul notices?
The power of the Holy Spirit.
The power of the Holy Spirit.
He says, something is off in this church.
Something isn't exactly right. Something is different.
He says to himself, every church I've ever been to, the church in Philippi, the church in Corinth, the church in Antioch, the church in Jerusalem, all of them are operating in the power of the Holy Spirit.
He says, they're saying the right words, but there's no power here.
They're saying the right stuff, but there's no power. There's no power for life. There's no power to overcome. There's no power for freedom. Something is missing.
He says, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
Because he can tell that what is missing in Ephesus is the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
They say we don't know about a Holy Spirit.
But again, for those of us who are Pentecostals, right, I want you to notice Paul doesn't skip to Holy Spirit.
Paul doesn't skip to Holy Spirit. Paul works through repentance.
Paul works through the absolutely vital moment where you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He works through that.
But then he says, now.
Now you're ready for the next step on the journey. He says, now you're ready to inherit the promise of the Father, return to Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father. Before you shall receive power, you shall receive power.
He says, now we can get back to what's missing. When I got here now, he said, we can talk about the thing that I knew was wasn't happening. But he said we had to work all that other stuff out first. We had to Talk about repentance. We had to deal with salvation. Salvation is vital. I'm not negating it. I'm not diminishing it. It is the foundation.
But so many Christians in the world are walking through life saved and beaten down and miserable.
It is not God's plan for your life to spend the next 30 years as a beat up believer.
It is not God's plan for your life to constantly just feel like the world and the devil are just kicking your brains in.
We shall receive power.
That is the next step. Salvation is vital. It is eternity.
It is heaven with Jesus. It's the presence of God. Salvation is vital.
But for this moment we need power.
Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?
And look at what happens.
Verse 6.
And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them. And they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
The filling of the Holy Spirit is power.
The filling of the Holy Spirit is power. This, what happens then is what Paul realized was missing at the very beginning.
Do you see that?
I want to point out two things that are important from a theological standpoint for us.
One is this is the clearest understanding of the idea that salvation and the filling of the Holy Spirit are two separate events. They are baptized. They believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and then full stop, right? They are baptized. Are they saved? They're saved. Are they Christians? They're Christians. It's not a trick question.
If they died right, then are they going to heaven? Yes.
Then they come up out of the water soaking wet. Paul baptizes all of them. Then it says, then when Paul laid his hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit.
They received the power. They received the power to make it through life. They received the power to overcome. They received the power to begin to get rid of some of the addictions that they've been repenting for over and over and over again. If you don't have the power of the Holy Spirit, all you're going to do is spend the rest of your life repenting for sin that you cannot overcome on your own.
You shall receive power.
You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. That is the journey at the church at Ephesus. And it is the journey for us.
It is the journey for us. Is.
Is the Holy Spirit operational in the salvation moment? Yes. I'm not fighting you on that. Yes.
Can you get saved and be filled with the Holy Spirit at the exact same time? Yes.
Yes.
But it is clear that there is a subsequent filling both in this passage and other Places in Acts believe on the Lord Jesus Christ filled with the Holy Spirit. The second thing.
Power.
Gifts. The supernatural was expected in the early church.
The supernatural was expected in the early church. Anybody tells you they're in Acts, Chapter two church, then they need to be expecting the miraculous supernatural move of the Holy Spirit at any moment in their midst. Otherwise they're being disingenuous.
Okay, so those things, two different moments, they can happen almost simultaneously, but two different moments.
And the power, the presence, the gifts, all the supernatural phenomena of the Holy Spirit was expected in the early church. That's how Paul knew something was wrong.
Nobody was operating in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And then when Paul leads them through and prays for him, then what? They're all operating in the power of the Holy Spirit. They're prophesying. They're speaking in tongues. They have all this stuff.
Do you see this?
This is what.
This is what this journey for us is about.
We are all the church at Ephesus.
All of us is the church at Ephesus.
We repent.
We take ownership, but we know it's insufficient. We believe Christ Jesus, Messiah, Son of God. Salvation moment. But that's not the end.
Please, I'm totally and completely sick and tired of arguing theological stuff with people.
But listen to me. That salvation moment is not the end for you.
I'm begging you. That is not the end for you. There is another step. The filling of the Holy Spirit is power.
It is power.
Are you tired of having to repent for the same thing over and over again?
You need the power of the Holy Spirit.
You've probably been saved. You almost certainly experienced that salvation moment. What you need is the power of the Holy Spirit.
Are you tired of constantly going back to the addiction and the bondage and the chain? Are you tired of being beaten down and beaten up?
Power of the Holy Spirit.
Do you see this? And that's how the journey at Ephesus goes for the church. And that's how it's supposed to be for all of us.
So let me close with this.
At the last church that I pastored, I was friends with one of the staff pastors at the First Methodist Church in town, First United Methodist. And I'd become friends with the staff past one of the staff pastors.
They did a series of Easter services.
And he somehow convinced the lead pastor to invite me to come to do one of the Easter services.
Not on Easter Sunday, but they did a service every night for the Easter week, for Holy Week, that is, service every evening for Holy Week. And they asked me to preach on a certain topic, and I did, and it was well received.
The next year, he did a summertime revival.
And I had shared at Easter time my background. I came out of the Methodist Church. My dad was a Methodist pastor for a long time. I was raised in the Methodist Church, so I think he thought I was safe.
So he invited me to preach at their revival that they do in the summer.
Well, I grew up listening to my dad preach revivals at Methodist churches.
So I thought, I'm gonna give them everything I got, right? I just loaded it up, and I just showed up there with two barrels full of the Holy Spirit, and I just preached the house down at this. At First United Methodist.
When I gave the invitation, a bunch of my people came to the service. But when I gave the invitation, not a single one of my people moved. I said, do you want to be filled with those? We talked about power. We talked about freedom. We talked about life, all of that. There was about 15 United Methodist folks that just came to that altar. It's probably more people than they had in that altar in 20 years.
They just came to the front.
I just went around and laid my hands on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. I didn't try to tell them anything. I didn't try to talk them about theology. I just said, receive the Holy Spirit.
This one woman had this amazing encounter with Christ.
It was powerful. Powerful as God moved.
I went back up into the pulpit. I dismissed the service. I closed, and she was still there weeping. I went to her, and she said to me.
She said, I've waited.
I feel like I've waited for this my entire life.
She said, have I received the Holy Spirit?
I told her, I said, lady, if you don't have it, nobody's got it. You know what I'm saying? I just. I thought to myself.
She said. I said, yes.
And she said to me, I'm free. That's what she said. I don't know what it was. I don't know what the thing was. I don't know what this. She said, I'm free.
As I was leaving, the pastor said, is that how it is every Sunday at your church? I said, not every Sunday. And he said, mm. And I was never invited back again, by the way.
I'm never invited back again.
Listen to me. I don't want to fight with anybody. I don't know what denomination you grew up in. I don't know what belief system you grew up in. I don't know what the theological background you Have. Listen to me, though. I'm begging you. I'm begging you.
You shall receive power.
Do you have it? Are you bound up? Are you in chains? Are you in bondage? Are you holding on to pain from the past?
Are you holding on to.
Are you holding on to wounds from your childhood?
Was there something said or done to you when you were a kid that has kept you in various levels of bondage for the last 50 years?
You can be free this morning.
You can be free.
You can receive power. You can have life. Those that the sun sets free are free indeed. We acknowledge what we've done. We repent. We believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and we shall be saved. And then we receive all that the Holy Spirit has for us. You say, well, I'm nervous. I'm nervous. What's the Holy Spirit gonna do to me? I don't know, man.
That's the wonderful thing about it.
You get a hold of the little end of the biggest thing in the universe and it might blow your circuits out.
You see what I'm saying?
But I.
I am unwilling to allow my fear of how the Holy Spirit might operate in my life to keep me from freedom, to keep me from power, to keep me from life.
We have done received communion. We have acknowledged that Christ Jesus is Messiah.
And now.
Now is the end of the journey to Ephesus.
The Holy Spirit, you shall receive power.
What does Jesus himself say?
We'll close with this.
If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him?
How much more will our Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him?
All you have to do is ask.
All you have to do is ask.
It is a filling, but it is also a constant refilling.
It is a constant refilling.
All you have to do is ask.
You say, I've been in Church for 50 years. I'm not asking that. I'm saying, do you have power?
You say, I've been filled with the Holy Spirit before. I'm not asking that either. I'm saying, do you have power?
No matter where you are on the spectrum of the journey to Ephesus, the end is always the power of the Holy Spirit.
Okay, I'm going to pray.
Chris and the altar team is going to be at the front. If you want somebody to pray with you, great. If you want to come down and just ask to receive the Holy Spirit, that's fine, too. How much more will our Heavenly Father give them who ask him.
All you have to do is ask. The altars are open.
We're going to take a minute. We're going to tarry here. We're going to pray. I don't want you to leave this morning feeling like you missed out on this.
You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. This is your moment of redemption and freedom and life.
Let's pray.
God, we thank you. I thank you for this moment.
God, ask that you finish this sermon in the hearts of every person here.
For those who need power, God, help them to ask. Help them not to be afraid to ask, to just open themselves and allow you to do anything you want in them.
God, just move in this moment, whatever you want to do. God.
The journey to Ephesus is a journey for each and each of us, all of us.
But it ends, always ends, with the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you need that power this morning, all you have to do is ask.
The altars are open. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to the Travis Rutland Podcast. If you enjoyed this message and you're in the Cartersville, Georgia area, we invite you to join us at Liberty Square Church. You can also watch online and connect with us on Facebook and YouTube. We'll see you next week for another message from Travis Rutland.
