A Book Burning Revival Acts 19:13-20

Introduction

All through out the book of Acts we have seen a pattern in almost every city that Paul went too. That pattern is the Gospel was preached, souls were saved, and there were always a group of people who were upset.

Last week we looked at Pauls second time in Ephesus, where he preached the Gospel to a group of 12 people who got saved, and then he went to the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews there for 3 months until finally they ran him out. Instead of giving up Paul takes his message to the school of Tyrannus and preachers there for a space of 2 years and the Bible says in verse 10 that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

This morning we will see three truths about the Christian life.

You can’t fake it until you make it - false teachers will always be revealed. vs. 13-17

In verse 12 we see Pauls Apostolic office being lived out as he is healing the sick and diseased and then we come to the phrase the evil spirits went out of them.

Paul had the power over the evil spirits because of the power God gave him through the Holy Spirit.

In verse 13 we are introduced to some vagabond Jews.

That word vagabond means wanderer.

They had likely seen or heard about Pauls power over the evil spirits, but they didn’t know the source of his power.

The Bible describes these wanderers as exorcists, which is one who pretends to expel evil spirits.

They took it upon themselves to call over some people who had an evil spirit and in the name of Jesus they adjured or summoned them by Jesus whom Paul preaches.

These Jews didn’t know Jesus personally, they knew him in the fact that Paul preached him.

They were pretending to be someone they weren’t using a name of someone they did not know.

Isn’t it amazing that wherever God sends someone to minister, Satan sends someone as almost a “copycat ministry”. That’s what was happening here, these 7 men were pretending to be someone they weren’t.

Jesus warns of this in his parable of the tares

Matthew 13:24–30 “24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Matthew 13:36–43 “36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. 37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; 39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Peter experienced this in Acts 8 with Simon the Sorcerer

Paul experienced this in Paphos as well

Acts 13:4–12 KJV 1900

4 So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. 5 And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister. 6 And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus: 7 Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. 9 Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, 10 And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.

Wersbie said this “Satan imitates whatever God’s people are doing, because he knows that the unsaved world cannot tell the difference”

2 Corinthians 11:13–15 “13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” `

Illustration: When I was younger I remember always wanting a pair of Oakley sunglasses. They looked cool all of the professional baseball players wore them, but they were really expensive and I never wanted to put out the money for these glasses. So I was always on a hunt for a deal on these Oakley sunglasses, and one day an add came across my feed for cheap Oakleys. 15.99 plus shipping for this $150 pair of sunglasses. I should have known something was wrong, but I put in my card information and bought the sunglasses. A couple weeks go by and the sunglasses show up in the mail and I am super excited. I open the box and inside the box is a case, it almost looks like the real thing, but there is something off about the logo, so I unzip the case and pull out a pair of knockoff Oakley sunglasses that I am too embarrassed to wear.

Don’t get swept up by knock off Christianity. These men were pretending to be something they weren’t using a name that people would know to try and gain a following, but there plan would soon backfire.

Not only were they trying to use the name of Jesus, they were also using there dads name Sceva who was a chief of the priests there in Ephesus.

It was not unusual for the priests to seek to cast out demons, but they would never do that in the name of Jesus.

They tried to use the name of Jesus and then Paul, but look at the response of the evil spirit.

He said Jesus I know.

The greek word for know here means to know by experience.

They knew the all-powerful Son of God, They had been confronted by Him, and it didn’t matter if it was a single demon or a legion of demons they could not overcome him.

John Phillips put it this way “The vast experience demons had acquired of the human race was of no use when confronted with Jesus. He was man as God always intended man to be — man in the full image and likeness of God. He was holy and harmless and separate from sinners. He did not give in to temptation, because he was encased in an impenetrable armor of personal holiness.”

They knew they were under subjection of Jesus, but they knew these men didn’t know Jesus.

They also said Paul I know.

They knew that Paul possessed the Holy Spirit and the Power he had through the Holy Spirit.

Then the evil spirit asks who they were

Not trying to scare anyone this morning but evil spirits watch us, and they know when we are prayed up and they know when we are backslidden.

Thats why the Bible calls satan a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

Stay prayed up and in Gods will.

The evil spirit leaped out of the person they were possessing onto these seven men and caused them to run out of the house naked and wounded.

What a scary time for them.

In verse 18 we see that this was made known to all those who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks

The bible tells us that fear fell on them

The name of the Lord Jesus was magnified or lifted up.

True Christianity will always cost us something vs. 18-19

Ephesus was a city that was full of idols, magicians, and occults. These wandering Jews weren’t the only ones that were practicing exorcisms and magic, but the city was full of it.

The Bible tells us that many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds.

They confessed that they were meddling in magic and things like that.

They took it a step further and they brought all their books that dealt with curious arts and burned them in front of everybody.

The books that were burnt had a value of 50 thousand pieces of silver which if we were to convert that to todays money it would be around 1 million dollars.

Two thoughts on that:

there would have to be a lot of books to make the value to be that of around 150 working mens salary for a year.

When is the last time we turned something off because it didn’t line up with the word of God? When is the last time we threw a book away because it didn’t line up with the word of God? When is the last time we gave something up because it didn’t line up with the word of God?

True repentance cost the people of Ephesus something and true christianity always costs something.

When Christians yield to the word of God, it will always grow and prevail vs. 20

When we get rid of the filth in our life, and fill it with the word of God, the word of God will grow and help us prevail over sin. And when we are yielded to the word of God and obeying it, the word of God will grow on others and prevail.

Read your bible pray every day and you’ll grow.

Conclusion

Is there something in our lives this morning we need to throw in the burn pile?

Are you truly saved this morning? If not come this morning and we can show you from Gods word how you can be saved