Acts 19(08–20)

Introduction

It’s been weeks since we were studying the book of Acts together. In fact, the last time we studied Acts together was in the middle of September and now it’s the end of October. But since then we’ve had an invitation service and then we had our communion service when Michael Rutledge was preaching. And then it was the harvest and then it was the BB enrolment. And so, it’s been quite a while. But in the last passage we studied, we read about this man called Apollos who came to Ephesus. And do you remember? He preached boldly in the synagogue and with great fervour about the Lord Jesus. But Priscilla and Aquila, who had been with Paul the Apostle, and who were there in the congregation in Ephesus, noticed one small blemish in his ministry. His understanding of baptism was defective. And so, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And afterwards, Apollos moved on from Ephesus and went to another place where he was a great help to the believers.

And some time after Apollos left Ephesus, Paul arrived there. And he discovered these disciples who were living in a kind of salvation-historical time warp, because it seems that, although they had heard from someone that the Saviour was coming into the world to save his people, they didn’t realise that the Saviour had already come. And once they heard from Paul that the Saviour had already come, and his name is Jesus, they put their faith in him and were baptised in his name. And the Holy Spirit came on them the way the Holy Spirit came on the believing Jews in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost; and as he had come on the believing Samaritans in Samaria in chapter 8; and as he had come on the believing Gentiles in Cornelius’s home in chapter 10. The Holy Spirit came on these believers in Ephesus to show that they were his people.

And when we studied that passage we thought about how the Lord Jesus is the perfect Saviour and we’re not to wait for another Saviour. We’re not to bide our time, waiting and hoping for some other kind of Saviour to come. We’re not to sit still and do nothing. We’re to believe in the Saviour who has come, who is a perfect Saviour who has done all things necessary for our salvation. We’re not to sit still and do nothing. We’re to believe in him.

Today we come to verses 8 to 20 of Acts 19. And Paul is still in Ephesus. And let’s work out way through the passage and then we’ll think about its significance.

Verses 8 to 10

In verse 8 we read that Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months. This was what Paul normally did when he arrived in a new city and we’ve seen him do this several times before. Whenever he arrived in a new city, he usually began in the Jewish synagogue. We often think that the Lord Jesus and the apostles were always preaching in the open air. But in fact, if you read the gospels and Acts carefully, you’ll see that more often than not they preached indoors: usually in a synagogue, where the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles used to gather for worship and instruction; and occasionally they preached in other buildings. And so, for three months Paul preached in the synagogue in Ephesus.

Luke says he preached boldly and that he argued persuasively about the kingdom of God. So, he preached boldly or freely. He didn’t feel constrained in any way and the Lord gave him a kind of liberty to proclaim the message boldly. And while the NIV says he argued with them, we mustn’t think he was quarrelling with them. They weren’t squabbling with one another. It means he reasoned with them. He gave them reasons for believing his message about the Lord Jesus. And in this way he tried to persuade them and to convince them about the kingdom of God. His message was about the kingdom of God, because his message was about the Lord Jesus, who is God’s Spirit-Anointed and Conquering King who came into the world to save his people from our sin and misery and to give us everlasting life in his everlasting kingdom. And Paul kept this up for three months.

But then some of the Jews became obstinate. And we’ve seen this before, haven’t we? When Paul preached, some believed, but others became obstinate. They did not believe. And sometimes they opposed Paul and they persecuted him. And Luke tells us that in Ephesus some of them became obstinate and they refused to believe and they publicly maligned the Way. When Luke refers to ‘the Way’, he’s speaking about Christianity. So, these people publicly maligned the Christian faith. They would not believe Paul’s message and perhaps they began to heckle him. And since it became difficult for Paul to go on, he left them.

He took those who had believed his message and he began to have daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. The word translated ‘discussions’ in verse 9 is the same word which was translated ‘argue’ in verse 8. So, it means Paul reasoned with them or he taught them every day. And this went on for two years. And so, every day, for two years, Paul went to the lecture hall of Tyrannus and taught the people who gathered there about the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God’s Spirit-Anointed and Conquering King who gave up his life on the cross to pay for our sins and to make peace for us with God.

And according to Luke in verse 10, all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Isn’t that remarkable? Paul was in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. That’s where he conducted his ministry. And somehow, everyone in the province of Asia managed to hear the message. We sometimes think that when we gather in church on Sundays and throughout the week for worship and instruction that it can’t possibly have any effect or benefit on the people outside the church. And yet, here’s Paul, in the days before mass communication — and so before the TV and before the radio and before the internet — and he preached in this lecture hall for two years. And as a result of his preaching ministry, the message reached everyone. It’s remarkable.

Verses 11 to 16

But let’s move on to the next part of this passage where Luke tells us that God did extra-ordinary miracles through Paul. Who was it who performed these extra-ordinary miracles? It was God who performed them. God did them. Paul was only the instrument in his hand, but the power to perform the miracles came from God himself. And because of the power of God, even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul were taken to the sick and they were cured of their sicknesses and evil spirits. This recalls what we read about Peter in Acts 5 where it says that people laid the sick in the streets so that Peter’s shadow might fall on them as he passed by. Exciting things were happening in Jerusalem because God was working through Peter. And exciting things were now happening in Ephesus because God was working through Paul. And as Luke says, God was doing extra-ordinary miracles there. Miracles themselves are extra-ordinary. But these were even more extra-ordinary than normal miracles. God was at work in that city in remarkable ways.

And, of course, when something remarkable is happening, you’ll always find copy-cats, won’t you? There will always be other people who want a piece of the action. And so, Luke refers to these Jews who used to go about driving out evil spirits. And once they saw what God was doing through Paul, they thought they would copy Paul. And so, like Paul, they invoked the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. The commentators explain that what exorcists typically did in those days is that they would use magical incantations or spells which included Hebrew words and the names of God to try to overpower evil spirits. And one commentator gives an example of the kind of things they said and it includes around nineteen names. And I suppose they hoped that at least one of these names would be like saying ‘open sesame’ and it would do the trick so that the evil spirit would yield to them. And since Paul, who preached about Christ, was able to perform extra-ordinary miracles, these exorcists hoped that they could use the name of Jesus and get the same result as Paul.

But it back-fired on these seven sons of Sceva. When they invoked the name of the Lord Jesus over a demon-possessed man, the evil spirit replied that they knew Jesus and they knew Paul, but who are you? The evil spirit knew the Lord Jesus, because he’s the Son of God. And the evil spirit knew Paul, because he had been set apart by the Lord Jesus to be his apostle. But who are these seven sons of Sceva? After all, they hadn’t been appointed by Christ to minister in his name. They had no authority from Christ to use his name in this way. They weren’t even members of his church. And so, who are they? They’re only pretenders. And these men, who hoped to overpower an evil spirit, were themselves overpowered when the man with the evil spirit jumped on them and beat them until they ran away, naked and bleeding.

Verses 17 to 19

And when this became known to the Jews and Greeks in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear. This recalls what happened in Jerusalem whenever Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead. Do you remember them? They tried to lie to the Holy Spirit about the money they received from selling some of their property and which they were giving to the church. It was their money. They could do what they wanted with it. But instead of being honest about the amount they were giving to the church, they lied. And as a result of trying to lie to the Holy Spirit, they both dropped dead. And afterwards great fear seized the whole church and all those who heard about it.

And a great fear seized the people in Ephesus. And as a result, the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honour. No doubt this means that no one tried to repeat what the seven sons of Sceva had tried to do and no one used the name of the Lord Jesus in one of their magic spells. But I think it also means that they began to think about the Lord Jesus in a different way and that he’s not someone they can disregard, because he’s clearly mighty. After all, look how the Lord Jesus was able to use this evil spirit to punish the seven sons of Sceva for misusing his name.

And Luke goes on to tell us how many of the believers in the city came and openly confessed their evil deeds. Isn’t that interesting? Luke is referring to believers. So, these are men and women who had already confessed their sins to God and who were trusting in Christ the Saviour for forgiveness and eternal life. But you and I know — don’t we? — that even though we believe in the Lord Jesus, we’re still sinners and it often takes a long time for us to give up our sins. There are certain sins we love and we want to hold on to them. And there are certain sins in our lives that we don’t even notice. But there comes a time, when God shines the light of his law on our hearts to expose our sins to us. And he persuades us that we need to get rid of them. And that’s what was happening in Ephesus. The believers came and confessed their evil deeds.

And a number who had practised sorcery brought their scrolls and burned them publicly. These scrolls probably contained magic spells and curses and that kind of thing. The commentators explain that people in those days would have used spells to defeat their enemies and to thwart their competitors and to protect themselves and their families from harm. And believers who possessed scrolls containing these magic spells now burned them.

Perhaps they had already given up those practices, but they kept their scrolls ‘just in case’ they ever needed them again. Or perhaps they were still consulting their scrolls and trusting in these things for daily help. But now they brought them together and they burned them so that no one would be able to use them again. And someone did the sums and worked out that the total cost of the scrolls which were burned that day came to fifty thousand drachmas. And the little footnote in the NIV tells you that one drachma was a day’s wage. So, you’d have to work for fifty thousand days to buy all those scrolls. But because God was working in the hearts of his people, those scrolls were now worthless to them. In fact, they were less than worthless, because they now realised how evil those magic spells were and they wanted rid of them for ever.

Verse 20

And this part of Acts ends with Luke telling us in verse 20 that in this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

The word of the Lord spread widely in the sense that more and more people believed it. Paul was preaching the word of the Lord in the hall of Tyrannus and his preaching was having an effect on more and more people and more and more people were being convinced and converted to faith in Christ.

And the word of the Lord grew in power in the sense that it had an effect on the people. It sunk down into their hearts and exposed to them their sins and it showed them what they needed to change in their lives. It therefore had an effect on their hearts and what they loved and desired; and on their minds on what they thought; and on their wills and on what they did. And as a result of what God was doing in their lives through his word, they confessed their sins and they gave them up and they began to live better lives.

The word of God

And we should notice how Luke puts a focus on the word of the Lord in this passage. This passage — from verse 8 to verse 20 — is like a sandwich. Just as a sandwich is two slices of bread with something in the middle, so this passage begins and ends the same way and it has something in the middle. With a sandwich, the filling is normally the most interesting thing. That’s where you have your meat or cheese or whatever it is. But with this passage, the most interesting thing is the bread: the bit at the beginning and the bit at the end. And the bit at the beginning and the bit at the end is about God’s word. It’s about the power of God’s word. And it’s about the power of preaching God’s word.

In verse 8 Luke tells us that Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months. When the Jews became abusive, he didn’t give up. Preaching God’s word was too important for that; and it’s what the Lord had called him to do. And so, instead of giving up and doing something else to reach the people, he moved to the lecture hall of Tyrannus and continued to speak boldly to the people who gathered there. Every day for two years he spoke boldly about Christ the King and he reasoned with them. Yes, God enabled him to perform extra-ordinary miracles, but those miracles weren’t the main thing. The main thing was what he did every day for two years when he went into the lecture hall of Tyrannus and explained to the people who the Lord Jesus is in whose name he was able to perform those mighty miracles. He explained who the Lord Jesus is and why they should believe in him for salvation.

And as we noted earlier, even though he conducted his ministry in the lecture hall of Tyrannus, all the Jews and Greeks in the province heard the word of the Lord. And as we read in verse 20, the word of the Lord spread widely so that more and more people were hearing it and believing it. And it grew in power because the people who heard and believed it were changed by it. I recently saw a video of a tiger being taken back into the wild after receiving some treatment. And when the door of its cage was opened, the tiger bounded out of the cage with a leap and ran deep into the jungle. And through Paul’s preaching ministry in the hall of Tyrannus, the word of the Lord bounded out of Ephesus with a leap and ran from place to place throughout that province, changing lives wherever it went.

I’ve said before that many Christians today are sceptical about preaching. They think it’s a waste of time. It might have been worthwhile in the past, but the times are different now and people aren’t used to it and they won’t understand it and they won’t put up with it. If we want to reach people today, we need to do something else, because preaching the word of God in church is a waste of time. That’s what many people think and say.

But that’s the voice of unbelief speaking. It’s the voice of unbelief, because those who say it don’t believe that the Lord is able to do what he said he will do, which is to build his church on earth through the reading and preaching of his word. That’s what God did in Paul’s day. Wherever Paul went, he preached the word of the Lord and people were converted and little churches were planted. And the lives of the people were changed. And through the preaching of his word in the next few centuries, God extended his kingdom throughout the Roman Empire. And God turned the Roman world upside down as more and more people gave up their sins and began to live good and upright lives.

And down through the generations, God continued to use the reading and preaching of his word to change lives and to transform nations. Today is Reformation Sunday, because it’s the last Sunday in October and the Reformation in Europe is said to have begun on 31 October in 1517. And at the time of the Reformation, God transformed Europe through the preaching of the reformers: men like Calvin who preached in Geneva every day of the week and twice on Sundays. And he preached like that, because he knew that God was able to do extra-ordinary things in the lives of his people through the preaching of his word in the power of his Spirit. Or then there’s Martin Luther who is credited with starting the Reformation when he posted his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517. He said that he did nothing and the Word of God did everything. He did nothing except teach and preach and write about God’s word. Apart from that, he did nothing. But the word of God did everything at that time to change Europe for the better.

Yes, God enabled Paul to do extra-ordinary miracles in Ephesus. And the Lord Jesus put the seven sons of Sceva in their place. That too was extra-ordinary. But what was even more extra-ordinary is how God used the preaching of his word to change the lives of the people so that they gave up their sins.

And so, we shouldn’t listen to the voice of unbelief when it says to us that preaching the word of God in church is a waste of time. And we should pray to the Lord to do extra-ordinary things through his word in our day and that the lives of people everywhere will be transformed for the better.

And that’s what we need, isn’t it? Think of the way that life in the western world has deteriorated so much in recent years, because people have turned away from the Lord. And so, we need the Lord to change the lives of people for the better. And we need him to change our lives too, because all of us fall short of being the people we should be. And how does God change people? The chief way that he does it is through the preaching of his word about Jesus Christ, who is the only Saviour of the world.