Let’s take our Bibles out and turn to Acts chapter 19; you can find that on page 928 in the pew Bibles. Acts chapter 19. We’ll pick up in verse 11.
Back in 1939 and prior to becoming prime minister of the UK, Winston Churchill made a speech on London Radio. The month before both German and Soviet armies had invaded Poland, which then triggered World War II. And speaking about Russia, Churchill said this. He said, “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Well in some ways, Acts 19:11-20 is like that. What do you do with healing handkerchiefs and aprons that came from Paul’s workshop? What do you do with itinerant Jewish exorcists and the seven sons of Sceva? What about this massive book burning that we find by those who had been involved in magic and the occult in this chapter? It all seems so strange, like a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. In fact, this week as I was studying this passage, I googled, “What is the weirdest story in the book of Acts?” Strangely, to my surprise, this passage did not come up in any of the first few results that Google came up with, but what do you do with a passage like this?
Well, remember, Paul is in Ephesus in Acts chapter 19. In fact, much of this section of the book is focused on the city of Ephesus about how the Word of the Lord reached the city and how it reached the surrounding areas. We’re told at the end of the verses that we are studying tonight that “the Word of the Lord continued to increase and to prevail mightily.” And Ephesus was a major city in the Roman Empire, but it was a dark place. It was home to paganism and the occult and when the Gospel went there, the results were dramatic and disruptive. And yet, even with all that, what we find in this passage are some basic, fundamental, bedrock features of Gospel ministry and kingdom life that we find on display in Ephesus. These are the things that we should find and see in our own lives and in the church right here, right now. These are things that we find in the context of Ephesus, but which need to be contextualized or brought to bear in our own context, in Jackson, and everywhere that the Gospel goes. And so that will be our two points to think about from this passage – context and contextualization. How does the Word of the Lord continue to increase and prevail mightily today? Or to ask it another way – What things should we see if the Word of God is increasing and prevailing mightily in our own lives and in the world around us? Let’s look to Acts chapter 19 to find out. Before we do though, let’s pray and ask for God’s blessing and help on the study of His Word. Let’s pray.
Father, we make our prayer tonight the very thing that we find in these verses. We pray, we ask that Your Word would increase and prevail mightily everywhere we see it, everywhere we hear it. And we know that we can’t do anything about that except to rest and to look upon You, to trust in You and to have the work of Your Spirit working through us and in us. And so we ask for Your Spirit tonight, that Your Spirit would work mightily, that the power of Your Word would come to us in new ways tonight. Speak Lord, Your servants listen. We long to see Jesus. And we pray all of this in His name, amen.
Acts 19, starting in verse 11:
“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. Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 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. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.”
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.
First – context. This is what happens when the kingdom of God shows up in Ephesus. If you remember from last week, Paul arrived in Ephesus, he stayed there for over two years, three months he was in the synagogue in Ephesus, and then he went from there into the hall of Tyrannus where he taught and preached daily for two years. Someone has commented that what this is commonly called is “Paul’s third missionary journey,” which is not much of a missionary journey because he is there for over two years. It’s more like he relocated to do ministry there in Ephesus. And it says that during that time, all of Asia, all of Asia Minor heard the Word of the Lord during Paul’s time there. The Word spread broadly in Ephesus and beyond.
But, but this was Artemis territory. This was Artemis territory. In fact, the verses just after this tell us about how a riot broke out in Ephesus because of the offense that Paul caused to the reputation of the Greek goddess, Artemis. “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” the crowds cried out over and over again. Artemis, you see, was the Greek goddess of hunting, wild nature, chastity. She was a deity of fertility and you can probably guess what sort of activities usually surrounded the goddesses of fertility. Well that was the case in Ephesus as well. And though we don’t know a lot of details about what the worship looked like at the temple of Artemis, it was prominent, it was most prominent in Ephesus. And the footprint of the temple of Artemis in Ephesus was over four times bigger than that of the Parthenon in Athens. In fact, it was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. There was a Greek poet who was commenting about the seven wonders of the ancient world, a poet of that time. He said that he had seen the hanging gardens of Babylon, he had seen the pyramid in Giza, he had seen other of the seven wonders of the world but none of them compared to the temple of Artemis that was in Ephesus. It dominated the city, and the Ephesians were proud of their Artemis.
But you see, when paganism thrives, then so do all sorts of other kinds of perversions. And we see that, don’t we? We see that in these verses that we just read. In these verses we get a snapshot of the spiritual conditions of the religious climate in the city of Ephesus. There were evil spirits and there were exorcists and there were magic arts. And on the one hand, we were introduced to these itinerant Jewish exorcists, the seven sons of Sceva. He was a Jewish high priest and we read about that – it sounds strange to us, doesn’t it? And it is. It is strange, but it’s not like this is just some footnote on the pages of history. No, this was prominent in this time as well. I have several reference books on my bookshelf and they devote entire articles to things, to topics like what we were reading about here in these verses. In one, there is this article that talks about how the belief in evil spirits and the practice of exorcism was widely attested among Jews in second temple Judaism.
And the Jewish historian Josephus, he describes this technique that was used by an exorcist named Eleazar. And what Eleazar would do, he had a ring with a locket and inside the locket he put a root that had supposedly been prescribed by King Solomon. And then he put the ring with the root under the nose of a demon possessed man while invoking Solomon’s name and reciting incantations, all with the purpose and the goal of drawing this demon out through the man’s nose. And it’s this strange mix of tradition and superstition and spiritual darkness. There is another article about a collection of documents that was well known in the Greco-Roman world. They were called “The Magical Papyri.” And “The Magical Papyri” included all these incarnations, rituals, formulas, spells, hymns, all with the purpose of trying to coerce the gods and the spirit powers to accomplish some request. There was one in this “Magical Papyri” that was a recipe for a curse and it prescribed a ritual using bat’s blood and the body of a frog and making an inscription on a lead tablet. This is what I have been reading about this week! You never know which direction a sermon preparation might go!
But do you get a picture of what life was like in Ephesus in the first century? In fact, Shakespeare in his play, “Comedy of Errors,” it’s actually set in Ephesus and there are a few lines there that he says this. He writes about the reputation of the city. He says, “They say this town is full of cousinage,” or trickery, “as nimble jugglers that deceive the eye, dark workers sorcerers that change the mind, soul-killing witches that deformed the body, disguised cheaters, praying motobanks and many such like liberties of sin.” That was the reputation of Ephesus. One Biblical scholar, F.F. Bruce says that, “In no other city which figures in Luke’s narrative would such incidents as the ones we find here seem so natural as in Ephesus.”
And then came the arrival of the Gospel of the kingdom of God and the good news about salvation and Jesus Christ and it was disruptive to say the least. And the seven sons of Sceva, they tried to cast out demons like Paul. They say, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul proclaims,” but the evil spirit said, “Jesus I know, Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit jumped on them, overpowered them, beat them up and they fled out of the house naked and wounded. It was so terrifying that everyone in Ephesus heard about these things that had taken place. And then there was this other episode involving those who had been engaged in the occult. They had practiced what is called “magic arts” and they brought their books, they set them on fire, they did it in front of everyone. It was public, it was dramatic, and it was costly. Verse 19 says, “They counted the value of them,” of the books, “and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.” Now it’s hard to know exactly how much that would be worth in today’s dollars, in today’s value. If you read about it you read things like this. The —– drachma contained 67.5 grains of silver or approximately 14% of a troy ounce.” I don’t know what any of that means, but let me just say it this way. If you had the choice between fifty thousand pieces of silver, no matter how big they are, versus nothing, how often would you not choose the fifty thousand pieces of silver? They were obviously of great value to the people in Ephesus and these people gave them up and renounced it all and burned the books in a fire.
And you can start to see it, can’t you? You can start to see the ways in which the beliefs of the people were intertwined with the economy of the city. We’ll see more about that and the problems that that brought about next week, Lord willing. But you can see something of the disruption that the Gospel caused in Ephesus. Nancy Guthrie, she hosts a podcast for The Gospel Coalition called “Help Me Teach the Bible.” And in it she interviews pastors, teachers and she interviews them about teaching various books of the Bible or certain topics within Scripture. And one of the episodes about the kingdom of God, the person she was interviewing said when he is studying or when he is reading through some part of the Bible, the first question that he asks himself is, “What do I not believe here?” or “What do I not want to think about here?” And he says, “If the answer is ‘Nothing. I like all of this here,’ then that means I am not understanding the text, because as a sinner, the Scripture is always confronting us in one way or another.” And it should always be making us uncomfortable. It should always be disruptive in some way to all of us.
Do you see that? Do you see that in Ephesus? There is this intense conflict between the kingdom of God and the way of life in Ephesus in this chapter. And yes, much of it is unfamiliar, much of it is unique to the first century Ephesus; it’s strange and it’s foreign to us, and yet there is still a broader application that we can make when we think about what Paul writes to these same Ephesians later in the letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 6, he says, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” And he calls for all of us to put on the armor of God. That was true in Rome. That was true in Colossa. It was true in Galatia, and it is true for us as well.
And you know, it’s an extremely rare thing, but I actually had a conversation last week in which the topic of exorcism came up. More questions than answers, for sure, but this is not some sort of hypothetical, theoretical situation that we are reading about in Acts 19. And there are those in our own congregation that have been personally affected by the teaching and the grip of cults. I think about our young adults who went to Utah on a short term mission trip this summer, face to face confrontation of the Gospel of the kingdom of God with Mormonism. These are still a reality today, and surely these verses have something to say not just in the context of Ephesus but in our own context as well.
And the question we have to ask ourselves is, “What do we find in Acts 19 that we find everywhere the kingdom goes, everywhere the Gospel goes?” And that’s contextualization. That’s applying the good news about Jesus, the good news about the kingdom of God to any context. And here’s what we find. The first thing we find is that the kingdom comes in Word and in deed. In Word and deed. It would be easy for us to focus all of our attention in these verses on the extraordinary miracles that Paul performed, the ones that were done by the hands of Paul – these handkerchiefs, these aprons that he merely touched and then they went and they healed diseases and they cast out the demons. That can grab all of our attention, but don’t miss this. Don’t miss the fact that those signs accompanied Paul’s preaching about Jesus. And what do the Jewish exorcists say? They tried to mimic Paul. They said, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” The Jesus whom Paul proclaims. And even when we get this summary verse at the end of this section, we’re told, “so the Word, so the Word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.” The Word increased mightily. And that’s what we found in Jesus’ ministry as well. When Jesus came, He came teaching and preaching the good news of the kingdom and working signs and wonders. Paul and the apostles, after they were commissioned by Jesus and they received the Holy Spirit, they went out preaching the good news of the kingdom and working signs and wonders. But the signs validated the message and they demonstrated that the age to come had broken into this present age, that this was what resurrection power looks like. This is what we are looking like when Jesus comes again to fulfill all His promises and to make all things new. It’s about resurrection. It’s about renewal. And that’s the message that they are bringing and the signs validated that message. And even if we don’t look for these sorts of continuation of signs and wonders today – because that first generation of the apostles has passed away, the Scripture has been closed to us, we have what God has spoken to us – but the kingdom still comes in Word and in power.
How does that happen? How is the transforming power of the Holy Spirit displayed among believers today? Yes, it’s by the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God, but it’s also by working and carrying out deeds of mercy. And last week I talked about the importance of the mind, the importance of the Christian mind, the importance of engaging our minds, of thinking about how God’s Word impacts our lives. But here’s what I would say tonight. Oftentimes what we do is we have a tendency to compress all of the Christian life into engaging our minds and not going beyond that. And all of our Christian lives become listening to sermons and lectures and podcasts and participating in Bible studies and we never get out and demonstrate in Word and deed the power of the kingdom and the difference that God the Spirit makes in all of our lives. How do we show the effect of the Word and the power of God’s kingdom in our lives? It’s by helping the sick and the poor and the oppressed and the troubled. It’s by getting involved and helping in ministries like Families Count and Center for Pregnancy Choices and Mission First. It’s by participating in Serve Day. It’s by going to Peru and not just going to Peru but coming back and doing the same things we do in Peru right here in our own communities where God gives us opportunity to serve. It’s by getting out in the world to advocate for and to cultivate kingdom of God virtues like love and peace and justice and truth and doing that wherever we go, wherever God gives us opportunity. It’s Word and deed and we see that right here in this passage.
But it’s also fear and adoration. You’ll notice in verse 17 when the residents of Ephesus, when they heard about what happened to the sons of Sceva, it says, “Fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.” And what they realized was that the name of Jesus is no commodity to be used for personal gain. But aren’t we familiar with that? Aren’t we familiar with attempts to co-opt Christ or to exploit Christianity for personal benefit? And there are the health and wealth peddlers of a false gospel, there are the politicians who are out to get the evangelical vote; maybe it’s something as simple as ministry participation or church involvement as a way to build your resume or to gain or to keep someone’s approval and a reputation before them. But is there no fear? These are our souls that they’re talking about and the souls of others and the honor of Christ. Eternity is at stake. This is not something to mess around with. And the name of Jesus is not one to trifle with. No, we bow the knee to Jesus. We bow the knee to Jesus as Savior and Lord. We bow the knee to Jesus in fear and adoration. You know, one day every knee will bow, don’t you?
And it doesn’t matter if it’s Ephesus and the overpowering presence of evil spirits or today and the overwhelming grip of secularism. None but Jesus can do anything about it. None but Jesus can overcome every spiritual foe that we face, including death itself. None but Jesus. “None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good.” That’s why we have to rest all of our hope, rest your hope, rest your lives in Him. Give your life to Him. Give to Him your allegiance and your worship because He alone is worthy of all of our fear and adoration.
Word and deed. Fear and adoration. And then finally there’s faith and repentance. You know that’s what’s going on here at the end of these verses. That’s what’s going on when this crowd in Ephesus comes together to burn their magic books. Verse 18 says, “Many of those who were now believers came.” They believed. They believed and then they turned from their sin. Verse 18, “confessing and divulging their practices,” and then verse 19, “and they brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.” What happened? What happened when they heard the message about Jesus and when they saw the power of the kingdom of God on display among them? They responded in faith and repentance. That’s all. That’s all this is. It may look dramatic, it may look spectacular, but all this is, is simple faith and repentance. And yet that’s costly. In Ephesus, it was fifty thousand pieces of silver costly for something that was completely acceptable in their culture.
And when I read this passage, when I read this passage I thought about our former evening preacher, Derek Thomas. He tells a story about when he first became a Christian. He was a new Christian and someone told him that he needed to sell his record collection. He had a large collection of records, and so he thought that was what he needed to do and so he sold his records and he’s regretted it ever since! That’s not what this is! And his record collection wasn’t sinful, but I wonder what it might be in our own lives. I wonder what some of those things are that are perfectly acceptable, perfectly acceptable in the culture around us, among our peers, and yet they are opposed to the way of God and to the way of Jesus Christ. And what is it in our lives that if we were to trust and obey and to repent and to give those things up that it would be actually costly to us? Maybe it’s our habits on the Sabbath. Maybe it’s our attitude towards authority or what we watch, the way we speak. Maybe it’s in the area of sex and relationships. You know, things may look different than they did in Ephesus, but the need for faith and repentance remains the same. That never changes. When Martin Luther, when he posted his 95 Theses on the door in Wittenberg, Germany that in the end started the Protestant Reformation, this was number one on his list. The first of those 95 was this – “Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, when He said repent, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.” Faith and repentance, from start to finish, in Ephesus, in Wittenberg, and in your life and in my life too. That’s how the Word of God continues to increase and prevail mightily. How does it happen? Word and deed, fear and adoration, faith and repentance.
I know some of you like to play The New York Times games and puzzles, me too. A few weeks ago there was a wordsearch with the children’s book, Goodnight, Moon as the theme for the wordsearch. And the words in the puzzle were – mittens, kittens, socks, clocks, mush and nobody. And by the end I was crying. Because it’s not just about “Goodnight, Moon,” and “Goodnight, nobody. Goodnight, mush. Goodnight to the old lady, whispering hush.” It’s not just about that. It’s about babies and pajamas and sitting on your lap and reading bedtime stories and the years that have gone by too fast. And I couldn’t handle it. But see, this passage, it’s not just about magic and the occult and Ephesus. It’s about Word and deed and fear and adoration and faith and repentance. It’s about, “Praise be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ so that the Word of God may continue to increase and prevail mightily.” May it continue to do that in all of our lives and in the world around us wherever God gives us opportunity.
Let’s pray.
Father, we thank You for these simple, basic, bedrock truths of the Gospel and the kingdom of God. How we long to see them more and more in our own lives. We confess that too often we fail in one way or the other – Word without deed, adoration without fear, faith without repentance. We pray that You would give us all of these things as we remember again, as we preach the Gospel, preach the cross to ourselves, and we remember the good news of salvation in Christ. Would You then help the Word to prevail in our lives and everywhere we go, for Your glory and for the praise of our Savior, Jesus. And we pray these things in His name, amen.