Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
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. |
Revised 2014-12-17