Books of the Book: Acts

The Mighty Word

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jim & Mark Howard

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Series Code: ABOTB

Program Code: ABOTB00021B


00:02 Welcome back to Books of the Book.
00:03 When we went to our break, Mark, we were taking our path through
00:07 Acts chapter 19 and looking at the different things that were
00:13 happening here in Ephesus and we talked about this effort by
00:17 these itinerant Jewish exorcists to use the name of Jesus as a
00:22 good luck charm. We learned that you can't use the name of Jesus
00:26 without having faith in Jesus. The name of Jesus without having
00:31 faith in Jesus is powerless and they learned that. We need to
00:36 recognize that too that the name of Christian or our profession
00:40 is powerless without a living active faith in Christ where we
00:44 have a genuine experience with him, where we're spending time
00:47 with him, where we have a relationship with him. So having
00:51 said that, we see that there was a response that happened here
00:54 in Ephesus as a result of this. Why don't you take us to that
00:58 beginning in verse 17. Well you know you read actually
01:01 verse 16 how the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on
01:03 them, overpowered them and prevailed against them and they
01:07 fled out of the house naked and wounded. This is all seven of
01:11 these young guys and so it says in verse 17, This became known
01:15 both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus and fear
01:19 fell on them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified
01:23 and many who had believed came confessing and telling their
01:26 deeds. There's a lot happening here. The name of Jesus was
01:30 magnified. Before they were name dropping. They figured we'll
01:33 just use the name of Jesus and we'll call ourselves Christians
01:38 or we'll cast out demons in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches
01:43 But when this event took place people learned that the name of
01:47 Jesus is not a name to play around with. This is something
01:50 that is serious. Don't take the name unless you have faith in
01:54 the name. So what began happening, again I'll read
01:59 verse 18. Notice, Many who had believed came confessing and
02:04 telling their deeds. Now you would say, Well if they had
02:09 believed haven't they already confessed their deeds
02:12 But what we see happening here is when they saw this experience
02:18 with these seven sons of Sceva, they realized, some of them
02:24 probably had believed but had maybe not made a full commitment
02:30 to the Lord or come clean on certain things and they were
02:33 playing around with the name and when they realized the name of
02:36 Jesus is nothing to play around with and a great fear fell on
02:39 them all and the name of Jesus was magnified. Those who
02:42 who believed came and began confessing and telling their
02:45 deeds and coming clean with the Lord and so you have a revival
02:49 taking place. Notice something interesting that happens in the
02:53 context of this revival. Verse 19 says also many of those who
02:56 had practiced magic brought their books together and burned
03:00 them in the sight of all, and they counted up the value of
03:05 them and it totaled 50,000 pieces of silver. Now there are
03:09 a few things here that we need to look at. Ephesus was a place
03:13 where magic was prominent. This is one of the reasons why the
03:17 Lord worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul to counteract
03:22 the magic influence in Ephesus. We're not going to take the time
03:26 to go into the Old Testament and look at the many places where
03:31 the Lord spoke very clearly and pointedly against the magic arts
03:36 For some people today, they don't realize the link to the
03:41 supernatural being basically the power of the devil and his
03:46 angels, not some other good power and white magic and black
03:50 magic that come people speak of. It's all the power of the enemy
03:54 if it's not the power of God. So these believers for whatever
03:59 reason who had been involved in magic had their books of magic
04:04 that they had not gotten rid of and when this situation took
04:09 place with these exorcists and the name of the Lord Jesus was
04:13 magnified, they realized their need to get rid of every trace
04:17 of these things in their lives that were militating against
04:21 their experience with the Lord. So it says, They took them
04:25 together and they had a big sale and they auctioned them off
04:30 because they totaled 50,000 pieces of silver. Just to give
04:36 our viewers an understanding: A number of scholars understand
04:41 this to probably refer to these pieces of silver as drachma
04:46 which are equivalent to a day's wages and if you figure that
04:51 50,000 pieces would be equivalent of 137 years'
04:55 worth of wages for a working person.
04:57 We're not talking about a little bit of
04:59 money here and there could have been a very great
05:01 temptation to just sell off the magic books and hey give the
05:04 money to the church, right? Yeah right. But they didn't want any
05:08 trace of this evil influence that had led them into sin
05:16 to be influencing somebody else.
05:19 So they took them and they burned them. I think
05:23 there's a lesson here for us. I've been in pastoral ministry
05:28 for about 13+ years now and there have been a number of
05:34 times where I have visited with members. I'm not trying to rat
05:37 anybody out but I've visited members in their home and I'm
05:39 surprised sometimes at the things they have, the media that
05:43 they have in their homes and yet they claim to be Christians.
05:47 Things that can't help but militate against their
05:51 relationship with Jesus. I think whether it be books or music or
05:56 movies, sometimes it's relationships or other things
05:59 that come into our lives,
06:00 those things that influence us for evil. I think
06:03 there's need in the Christian church today for a burning of
06:08 of the magical books. When they did that, when they put this
06:12 whole-hearted commitment to the Lord, what happened?
06:14 Well, verse 20 tells us the results. It says, So the word of
06:19 the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. You get this sense
06:23 that this word "so" that because they made the commitment and
06:28 the surrender of these things that were standing in the way
06:32 that it resulted in... Almost as if the word of the Lord could
06:36 not grow mightily there. The word of the Lord was being
06:41 prevented from growing in Ephesus until they made the
06:45 surrender of those things that they knew in their heart were
06:49 standing in the way. I wonder if there are any of our viewers
06:52 today as you're watching this program, you're thinking, You
06:56 know what, what Pastor Howard has just mentioned is something
07:00 I need in my life. I need to burn the magic books and maybe
07:03 you've been wondering why you've had an up-and-down experience
07:07 and from this program you're thinking maybe it's because of
07:10 that thing that the Lord Jesus has been putting his finger on
07:15 in my heart, in my life, in my habits and maybe as you said,
07:19 Mark, it's time for not only our viewers but all of us to take a
07:23 hard look at what we need to do to move those obstacles that are
07:28 keeping the word of the Lord from growing mightily. I pray
07:31 and hope that our viewers will take that challenge seriously
07:35 and that we will too. That's right. I can't help but
07:37 think of a young church member I had many years back, an 18-year-
07:41 old young man who had been convicted about some of the
07:44 music he was listening to and it's influence on his Christian
07:47 experience. And I'll never forget the day, in fact I had
07:50 preached probably on burning these magical books. But this
07:54 young man came to me after... That evening we had a service in
07:57 our church and he said, Pastor, he said, I went home today and
08:01 he said I took that music and I got out a ball-peen hammer
08:04 and I just wacked those CD's to pieces. What he was telling me
08:08 is, he had burned those magical books and his spiritual life
08:12 took off after that. I just can't help but think about that.
08:16 Sometimes we fear to burn the magical books. We fear what
08:19 we're going to lose, but we don't lose, we gain everything.
08:23 There's so many things, especially in media today that
08:25 are evidently and inherently sinful and we know it, but for
08:30 whatever reason, it's become common place and so we fail to
08:34 see the importance and it just blocks our life. We just
08:38 encourage you. Those things that are preventing the purity of
08:42 your faith, that we would take this council seriously and we
08:46 would take out that ball-peen hammer, or we would get that
08:50 lighter and we would just burn the magic books. Well in verse
08:53 21 it says, When these things were accomplished Paul purposed
08:56 in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and
08:59 Achaia to go to Jerusalem saying after I have been there I must
09:03 also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia two of those who
09:08 ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus but he himself stayed
09:12 in Asia for a time. Then it says, And about that time there
09:17 arose a great commotion about the Way. So there's a commotion
09:20 stirring up here in Ephesus, for a certain man named Demetrius
09:24 a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana brought no
09:29 small profit to the craftsman. He called them together with the
09:33 workers of similar occupation and said, Men, you know that we
09:37 have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover you see and hear
09:40 that not only in Ephesus but throughout almost all Asia, this
09:44 Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that
09:48 they are not gods which are made with hands. So not only is
09:52 this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute but also
09:55 the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her
09:59 magnificence destroyed whom all Asia and the world worship.
10:02 Poor goddess Diana. Can't fend for herself. That's right. Now
10:06 when they heard this they were full of wrath and cried out
10:10 sating, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Here you see this
10:13 picture of what's really happening. It's pretty clear.
10:17 The profits are beginning to go down because they're responsible
10:22 for making these things that ultimately the people are
10:25 worshiping and as Paul's influence and the gospel's
10:28 influence has come into Ephesus, fewer people are buying these
10:33 relics and idols. So you see this picture of once again just
10:38 like when Paul healed the slave girl and we found that she could
10:42 no longer bring profit to the master. They got upset. The same
10:45 things happens here and they're very upset and it begins to
10:49 create a major problem in the city.
10:51 That's right. It says in verse 29, the whole city. So the whole
10:55 city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with
10:59 one accord having seized Gaiuis and Aristarchus, Macedonians and
11:03 Paul's travel companions. And when Paul wanted to go into the
11:07 people, the disciples would not allow him and some of the
11:10 officials in Asia who were his friends, sent to him pleading he
11:13 would not venture into the theater. Some therefore cried
11:16 one thing and some another for the assembly was confused and
11:19 most of them did not know why they had come together. Now this
11:23 is interesting to me, Jim, because we've seen the Jews
11:26 stirring up the people. Now we have an event here where the
11:29 Gentiles are stirring up the people, so it's not exclusive to
11:33 the Jews. It's exclusive to carnal humanity. We're not going
11:36 tell the real reason. We're greedy or we're envious and so
11:39 we're going to stir people up. The people didn't even know why
11:42 they were there. You had a full-on mob mentality going
11:44 on. When they brought them into the temple and they began to
11:49 cry for two hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians and just
11:54 wanting the blood of these men. In verse 35, it continues on.
11:59 Why don't you pick up there?
12:00 Well the city clerk must have been inspired by God because the
12:05 city clerk is the voice of reason and he quiets the crowd
12:08 and says men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know
12:11 that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian of the great
12:14 goddess Diana and of the image which fell down from Zeus.
12:17 Therefore since these things cannot be denied you ought to be
12:20 quiet and do nothing rashly. He goes on to describe how
12:24 really if you're going to have an assembly then you should do
12:28 it lawfully and if you've got charges, we have a process for
12:32 that. Then at the close of it, in verse 41 it says, And when
12:35 he had said these things he dismissed the assembly.
12:38 Amazing! This mob, how are they going to get out of it? It seems
12:42 impossible and somehow the Lord intervenes and the mob is
12:47 dispersed and in verse 1 of chapter 20, Paul is headed off
12:51 to Macedonia to yet another adventure. Incredible adventure
12:55 at Ephesus. But we're out of time for today but we thank you
12:59 for joining us and we hope you'll join us again next time
13:02 on Books of the Book.


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Revised 2014-12-17