Walking Through Acts
We continue in our walk through Acts. We pick up where we left off in the city of
Ephesus. It is a major city of the ancient world and it’s a place where a lot of
things are happening. I mentioned last week that it was a political center, a center
of commerce and of pagan worship. I’ll add one more thing to that list and that is
sorcery and magic. If you weren’t convinced last week that Satan had his grip
around the people of this city, you may be starting to see it now. However,
through the work of Paul, and Apollos and Priscilla and Aquila and other
Christians, that grip is beginning to loosen.
Acts 19:11
11 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul,
Do you find this phrase to be a bit strange? In particular the pairing of these two
words… extraordinary and miracles? Aren’t miracles by definition extra-ordinary?
You would be correct in that miracles are in fact extra-ordinary. So what Luke is
making mention of here is pointing to the fact that these miracles that were being
done by God through Paul were extra-extra ordinary. How were they extra-extra
ordinary? Let’s take a look at the next verse.
Acts 19:12
12 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.
Usually, miracles would be done through physical touch, God working through the
Apostles to the patient. Here we have people being healed and delivered possibly
without Paul even knowing it. In all the other places where we have read about
Apostles performing miracles, it was at least in the mind of the Apostle who their
patient was and what they were to be cured of. Here, pieces of cloth that had butjust touched Paul’s skin were taken to the sick and spiritually oppressed and/or
possessed and upon coming into contact with that piece of cloth, the patient
would be healed of sickness or delivered from demon possession. This is simply
incredible. However, we must bear in mind that the power of healing was not in
the cloth itself. We know that the true source of miraculous healing comes from
God. Some of you are aware of the prayer handkerchief scam that some
televangelists have employed as their strategy to get you to donate to their cause.
This would be an example of an egregious misuse of this Scripture we just read
about. First, we must understand that the Apostles and those that the Apostles
laid their hands on could work miracles and no one else. The attempts made by
some today to claim such Apostolic authority to work miracles are misguided at
best or are masters of manipulation and deception at worst. This kind of
deception still happens today.
Now that we understand the nature of the extra extra-ordinary miracles, we must
ask the question why? What’s the point? Would regular miracles be enough to
convince someone of the truth of the gospel message? Remember the culture.
Magic and sorcery is prevalent and pervasive. As I’ve alluded to before with Aaron
confronting Pharoah’s magicians. Pharoah command a miracle and so Aaron threw
his staff down and it became a serpent. Pharoah’s magicians did just the same, but
it turned out that Aaron’s serpent ate all the other serpents. I love how the Bible
describes it.
Exodus 7:12b
Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.
I believe there is a direct parallel to what is happening here in Ephesus. This is a
city that would not be surprised by miracles being performed. If they had
witnessed a miracle, it would be just another day for them. However, just as the
miracles performed in Egypt by Pharoah’s magicians couldn’t even hold a candle
to the ones God could do, the same goes for the ones worked through Paul that
would have piqued the curiosity of those witnessing them. They would have
thought to themselves, what kind of miracle is this? There is something special
about these kinds of miracles. And some men in particular took notice.Acts 19:13-14
13 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.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were
doing this.
You’ve got Jewish exorcists, people who had the ability to cast out demons. Pay
attention to the fact that they are Jewish and that one doesn’t have to be a
Christian to cast out demons. The ways that Jews took on the task of casting out
demons was to recite different incantations or the equivalent of magical spells to
cast out demons. There’s a section in the Dead Sea scrolls devoted to these
different incantations. Some sources state that Jewish exorcists would recite Psalm
91 over and over again to exorcise demons. However, according to our text, none
of these strategies previously employed were as good as what Paul was doing.
And so, they pay attention. Much like an aspiring young basketball player would
watch his favorite NBA player on the TV to try to imitate and learn from, these
Jewish exorcists took note of the name Paul used to drive these demons out. So
they “undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil
spirits.” There were seven of them who were doing this, the seven sons of Sceva.
It is indicated that they are of the priestly line somehow and there is much
speculation as to who this Sceva was, however, we will not get into that today.
Now there is a lesson to be learned in this as we will soon see. When it comes to
the spiritual realm, do not mess with the things that you have no clue about.
That’s why I will give this warning as I have in past sermons. Stay away from Ouija
boards, palm readings, tarot cards, fortune telling and any form of trying to
contact the dead in any way. In much the same way, these sons of Sceva were
using the name Jesus, but they had no idea what they were really doing. It must
be noted that these men were itinerant exorcists, so that’s how they made money
and no doubt, they jumped on this new more effective form of exorcism to gain
popularity which would in turn line their pockets with more money. I want to also
mention, that one who has a relationship with Jesus can invoke his name against
the forces of darkness, however, in the absence of that relationship with him,
nothing good can come of these efforts. Pair that with bad intentions and you’ve
got a recipe for disaster. Let’s look at how this turned out for these sons of Sceva.Acts 19:15
15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who
are you?”
It doesn’t say the man answered them. It says the evil spirit answered them. I can
only imagine the fear that struck the hearts of those men in that moment. And it
says to them, “I know Jesus and I know Paul, but who are you?” Imagine the blow
to the egos of those men. For they thought they would make of themselves
something by attempting to cast out demons using this “new formula.” It was
their occupation no less and they’re told, you’re nobodies! Let me ask you a
question that I’ve asked in various forms in previous sermons. Is your name known
in hell? Are Satan and his demons even bothered by the life you are living? Or do
they think, “oh they’re no danger to our cause, pay no mind to them.” Or are we
living in such a way that undermines everything Satan is trying to do, by living lives
bent on winning more souls to Christ. For every soul won to heaven is one
liberated from Satan’s grasp. I don’t know about you, but I’m a competitive person
and you can just ask JJ. I lost to her in Mario kart and I was visibly upset. Not one
of my brightest moments. And I see articles of basketball teams blowing out other
teams by over 100 points and there’s this debate going on about whether or not
that should even happen. But let me tell you one thing, there is not a debate on
the morality regarding the margin of souls won to Christ than the number lost to
Hell. The larger that margin gets, the more glory God receives. So, if you’re a
competitive person like me, it’s our job to work together to make that margin as
large as possible during our time here on earth. Is the opposing team even
worried about you? They weren’t even a tiny bit concerned about these sons of
Sceva.
Acts 19:16-17
16 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.
17 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.This sounds like it came straight out of a bad horror movie. Bad in the sense that,
to a lot of people, it just sounds hokey, fictional, made-up or even exaggerated.
But here’s the thing, this was a real thing that happened. This demon possessed
guy turned into a George St. Pierre and took them all out. And it is because of this
even that the people of Ephesus gained a proper respect for dealing with the
spiritual realm. Fear fell upon them, but at the same time, the name of the Lord
Jesus was extolled, magnified, revered, praised.
Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
As we survey all of Scripture, we see a recurring theme that God is bigger than
every threat we could ever face. In the book of Exodus, God is bigger than that
indecisive Pharaoh of Egypt. In the book of 1 Samuel, God is bigger than that giant
named Goliath who was all bark, but had no bite. In the book of Job, God is even
bigger than Leviathan; that which brings disorder and chaos and uncertainty in
our lives, God establishes his order and brings us His peace which is beyond our
understanding. In 1 Kings, God is bigger than the prophets of Baal and the god
they worshiped by demonstrating his power through fire. And the people who
were there to witness it responded this way.
1 Kings 18:39
39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he
is God; the Lord, he is God.”
Yes, fear that leads to a reverence of God is the only appropriate response when
coming face to face His power. Nothing can stand against Him.
Acts 19:18-19
18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging
their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought
their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the
value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.If you’ve been a Christian for more than two seconds, you will know that we are
tempted at every turn to fall into the patterns of sin we were engaged in prior to
our conversion. This is the very reason Paul writes in Colossians 3:5,
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
He’s saying, hey, I know that we have propensity to fall into sin, but don’t give
into. And don’t just resist it! Kill it! Sexually immorality, impurity, passion, evil
desire, covetousness. And I know it’s a difficult thing to do. Believe it or not, your
preacher (myself) struggles with sin and I have to remind myself every day that
Jesus died for me so I could be liberated from the power of sin and death. Not
that I would become sinless, but that sin would not have its hold on me. Whatever
that sin struggle is that you are holding onto, it’s time to let it go and cling to God
who will never fail us.
Many of the residents of Ephesus made the decision to let go of their activities in
the occult (in their practice of magic). And then they held a bonfire. They were
having a book burning. I know that’s not looked upon too kindly in our culture
today as due to our 21st century lens. But what was happening here was more
than appropriate for it was an outward expression of the people’s renunciation of
their sin. Don’t just say you’re going to stop doing such and such a sin. Get rid of
the very things that facilitate that sin. In this case, in the city of Ephesus, the
people burned their books on magic. Burning these books served two purposes.
One is that they wouldn’t be tempted to engage in that activity again. The other
reason is that it makes sure that no one else could fall under temptation if they
were to somehow get their hands on it. And yes, there is a cost to letting go of sin
in our lives. In this particular case, the amount given to us in value of the books
that were burned amounted to 50,000 pieces of silver. This amount has been
projected to be the equivalent of 130 years of a working man’s wage. So 40,000
times 130 would be around the $5 million mark. As Christians, we don’t just give
part of our lives to Jesus. We are to surrender it all to Him. Here’s the result of
what was happening there in the city of Ephesus.
Acts 19:20
20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.Piano to play here.
The more people were willing to give up their magical arts, the more that were
willing to accept Jesus’ lordship over their lives.
Reece,
“There is no such thing as a spiritual vacuum. Men will seek something to fill their
hearts. In this case, the truth as preached by Paul, and as accredited by the
miracles God worked through him, found a home in their hearts.”
Has the truth of God found a home in your hearts? Or does something else occupy
that space right now? Here’s my encouragement to you from the words of Paul in
Hebrews 12:1-2.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also
lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with
endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and
perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Too often, as we are progressing in our faith-walk we tend to fix our gaze on our
review mirrors far too much, rather than keeping our eyes forward looking to
Jesus. Let us always keep our eyes fixed on Him.