Acts 19:11-20:1 | Battle of the Gods

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

For a scripture reading this morning, please take your Bible or your device and make your way to the Book of Acts and chapter 19.

If you are our guest this morning, we want to welcome you.

We have been working our way through the book of Acts together as a congregation for almost a year, getting close to a year.

This morning we are in Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

We're going to read verse 11 through the end of the chapter in the first verse of chapter 20.

So just find Acts 19, 11, if you would follow along, as I read Luke's record of the early church for us.

Again, that's Acts 19, verse 11.

Acts 19:11

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, I command you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.

Now seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Skeva 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.

Now, after these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome.

And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way.

That's Luke's kind of pet phrase for the way of Jesus.

For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsman.

These he gathered together with the workmen and similar trades, and said, Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth.

And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods.

Huh, imagine that.

And there is danger, not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.

When they heard this, they were enraged and were crying out, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

So the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, who were Macedonians, who were Paul's companions and traveling.

But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him.

Even some of the Asiarchs, those are those are political officers in the region, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.

Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward.

And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd.

But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

And when the town clerk had finally quieted the crowd, he said, Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky?

Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash.

For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess.

If, therefore, Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against any one, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls.

Let them bring charges against one another.

But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly.

For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.

And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.

And after the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.

Amen.

This passage in Acts nineteen sounds a little otherworldly.

We have demons speaking.

We have demons using a man to attack others.

We have spontaneous miracles by by Paul and by aprons and handkerchiefs.

We have riots over idols.

It sounds like some ancient fairy tale, if we didn't know better.

But that otherworldly sense also sets us apart from this passage of scripture.

It makes it more difficult for us to comprehend what Luke is doing here, and difficult for us to apply it to ourselves, to modern Christianity.

So I want to explain what's going on in Acts 19 so that we understand why Luke recorded this for us today.

But to do that, I need to return to the text we considered last Sunday from 1 Kings 22.

I need to do that because 1 Kings 22 is in many ways an Old Testament parallel to Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Now, some of you may not have been here last week, so we'll do a little bit of refreshing from 1 Kings 22.

If you want to turn in your Bible there, you can do that.

But I've got some elements here to help refresh our memories.

1 Kings 22 recounts King Ahab's efforts to recover stolen land.

He had an enemy who had taken away property that he believed belonged to Israel, and he wanted to get it back.

And so he convinces the king of the southern area of Jewish territory, the kingdom of Judah, to join him in attacking the enemy.

King Ahab conveniently has his own collection of 400 prophets who will encourage him and serve as advisors for him, who claim to speak for God.

And they gave him the thumbs up.

They gave him the green light to go on this attack because they said, God will make you succeed.

However, Jehoshaphat was a righteous king.

And he wanted to hear from God's prophet, from Yahweh's prophet, not from Ahab's prophets.

So he asked if there was a prophet of Yahweh nearby.

That was troubling for the other king, King Ahab.

Because King Ahab believed that the prophet of Yahweh always foretold doom and gloom for him.

He never wanted to hear from God's prophet because God's prophet only spoke negatively to him and about him.

But Jehoshaphat insisted.

So Ahab summons the only prophet of Yahweh he knows, but a man by the name of Micaiah.

Micaiah is brought back by a messenger who encourages him to just go along with the 400 prophets.

Just agree with them and say that yes, this is the right thing to do.

God is going to give you success.

And that's exactly what Micaiah does.

He does that because he knows that Ahab will never believe Yahweh's prophet.

He's a sly manner of speaking.

Micaiah, the true prophet, knows that joining the claims of Ahab's prophets will let Ahab know that his prophets are not speaking truthfully.

Because if Micaiah agrees with the 400 prophets and Ahab doesn't agree with Micaiah, that means Ahab's not going to agree with his own prophets.

He's going to think they're all tricking him.

And that provides an opportunity for the true prophet to speak God's truth.

What was that truth?

Well, God showed Micaiah a heavenly vision.

In that heavenly vision, Micaiah saw the throne room of heaven, which is where we find the parallel to Acts 19.

You see, in this heavenly throne room, God announces his intent to kill King Ahab.

That's significant because it highlights the point of 1 Kings 22.

1 Kings 22 is all about God issuing a death sentence for the most evil, despicable, and hideous king in Israel's history.

That's the point of 1 Kings 22.

A wicked, godless man is leading God's people, and God has determined to kill him.

Now, on one level, we're okay with that most of the time.

We understand as Christians that God is sovereign and he is ultimately in control of all events and he directs the events of our world.

We understand that.

But it begins to be a little more difficult for us when we understand that God not only determines the end or the results of things, but also the means.

How he's going to accomplish things.

And in this heavenly vision, Micaiah sees that God has determined to kill Ahab.

How?

By using a lying demon.

Ahab then is caught in an impossible place.

He hates Yahweh, and he hates Yahweh's prophet, so he can't believe Yahweh's prophet, even if he is telling the truth.

But if he doesn't believe Micaiah, who says, yeah, go ahead and go to war, then he's also disbelieving his own prophets.

So what is he gonna do?

It's a political nightmare.

You can't win.

It's lose-lose.

But his hatred for Yahweh's prophet translates into hatred for Yahweh as well, and he refuses to trust God's word.

Like animals moving between chutes toward slaughter, Yahweh has narrowed the path where Ahab is caught in his own sinful patterns.

So ultimately, 1 Kings 22 shows that God is sovereign over the events in his world, including the demonic realm.

He not only determines the outcomes of situations, but he also uses evil to achieve his righteous ends.

And the compiler of the history of 1 Kings wants us to see that no matter how evil the leaders or the circumstances in God's world, God remains sovereign and he will bring about his determined results by his determined means.

And that brings us right up to Acts 19.

1 Kings 22 and Acts 19 demonstrate the same reality.

God is sovereign and he will accomplish his purpose by determining the result and how he will accomplish that end.

God is sovereign even over the spirit world that we cannot see, and he can and does use evil spirits to bring about his righteous desires.

So 1 Kings chapter 22 demonstrates that reality by setting up a particular tension.

1 Kings 22 · chapter mention

The tension for Ahab is am I going to listen to God or not?

That's the tension in 1 Kings 22.

The tension established in Acts 19 is who will win the battle of the gods?

The Lord Jesus or demons?

Will it be the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ who sent his spirit on the day of Pentecost?

By the way, happy Pentecost day?

Or will it be demons behind the idolatry in the ancient city of Ephesus?

That's what's before us in this chapter.

We're going to focus mostly on the first section, because the second section just kind of plays out the result of what happens in the first section.

But I want to place two key application points in the back of your mind as we consider this situation in the early church.

The first application point that I want you to kind of plug into the back of your mind is that this passage of scripture challenges our personal perception of how much spiritual activity there is in everyday life.

It really causes us to think: is there more going on than I recognize?

A second application is that this passage challenges our trust in God's powerful, sovereign work.

Keep these in the back of your mind as we consider how Jesus conquers the city of Ephesus.

This passage that we read in Acts 19 divides into two units where Jesus is working from heaven.

That's where the book of Acts begins.

But he's not finished.

He has sent his Spirit, and it's through his spirit that he continues to work on this earth through his people from his place of exaltation in heaven.

Even Paul here is in the background.

God is the primary actor.

God is acting about to bring about his intent in 1 Kings 22, just like God is acting to bring about his intent in Acts 19.

If you look at verse 11 of Acts 19, you will see that Paul is doing miracles, but the subject of the verb is God.

God is the one who is doing the miracles.

Paul is the means by which God accomplishes this in the real world.

God is working, even when it may appear that his people are doing nothing.

Paul is off doing his thing, and God is healing people from handkerchiefs and aprons.

It's incredible.

These two units then together reveal that Jesus conquers in the battle of the gods in the city of Ephesus.

And it calls us to trust in Christ's power rather than to dabble in the promises and the potency of anything else.

So look with me then in the first section, verses 11 through 20, where we see that Jesus conquers where demons reign.

Jesus conquers where demons reign.

God is doing this unmatched, miraculous work.

Diseases are leaving people, evil spirits are coming out of people when Paul's not even present.

God's people aren't present, but God is doing a powerful work.

And all of that stimulates a handful of men to get this wonderful idea.

Hey, let's try it.

Let's try it and see if we can do this.

I want to suggest to you that we begin to see here at the beginning of this section that Jesus' power cannot be restricted.

Jesus is working from heaven and that does not stop him.

His presence in heaven does not stop him.

In fact, the lack of workers, the lack of apostles, the lack of disciples does not stop God's work.

God is working even when his people aren't really there.

Notice in verse 11 again that God is acting powerfully and miraculously.

He's working through Paul, but God is acting.

Paul's merely the channel through which God acts.

And Paul sort of fades into the background doing his normal thing while physical and spiritual healings are taking place all around him.

God determined the means, though.

In some cases, it's Paul's hands.

In other cases, just so that Paul doesn't get all worked up and proud in himself, it's through handkerchiefs and work aprons.

It's incredible.

It appears as if Paul is the source of power, as if you could somehow plug into Paul or tap into the power within him and suddenly be able to do all that yourself.

But Luke is careful to remind us that God is doing these things.

Paul is not some magician of the dark arts who can mutter spells or tap something with his wand.

No, he is a servant of the Most High God.

You remember what he said in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7?

2 Corinthians 4:7

He said about the physical body, he calls it a jar of clay that breaks down and crumbles.

He says, We have this treasure in these jars of clay.

What is our treasure?

To be able to show that the surpassing power belongs to.

To God and not to us.

My friends, God will not be restricted by the lack of people to do his will.

Paul is surrounded by unsaved demoniacs in the city of Ephesus.

God's not going to be restricted by demons.

In fact, God can and will employ anyone and even anything, such as evil demons, to bring about his righteous ends.

Let that encourage you.

Serve the Lord Jesus with gladness and with boldness, because he is delighted to use willing and frail vessels.

He doesn't need you to be some incredible missionary like Paul.

He can use your handkerchief.

Trust him to use you, even in the midst of a spiritual war with demons.

Remember that Jesus is working from heaven to fulfill his purpose.

As God was working in 1 Kings 22 to bring about his intent to kill Ahab, here Jesus is working from heaven to conquer the places where demons reign.

We see this in some wandering Jewish exorcists.

In fact, it tells us specifically that Jesus' power cannot be co-opted.

You can't just plug into Jesus or plug into Paul and somehow become a receptacle and a vessel for power.

These Jewish exorcists remind us of Simon Magus, Simon the magician from Acts chapter 8, who wanted the power to give the Holy Spirit.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

These seven men think that Jesus and Paul are magic words over evil.

They want the power without the trust and the loyalty toward Jesus as their Savior, Messiah, and Lord.

And let me tell you, if you want anything of God's, other than his mere grace that goes to all humanity in general, if you want his saving power, his saving power to transform your life, to redeem you from your sin and to forgive your sin, you must come to him in faith and trust and believe in Jesus as Lord, Savior, and Messiah.

These men don't have any indication of that.

And the result is disastrous.

They get beaten up.

Seven men get beaten up by a demon-possessed man.

I don't know.

You might think seven against one is pretty good odds.

Unless the one is demon-possessed.

Notice the parallel to Paul in verse 11.

As Paul is a conduit for God's power, this unnamed man is a conduit for demonic power.

And notice that this parallel is the larger point of 1 Kings 22.

God used a lying demon from his sovereign vantage point to cause the death of King Ahab.

Here it's a positive result.

By implication, God uses this demon to declare to the whole city of Ephesus and beyond that Jesus is unlike any demonic power.

Words cannot conjure the Lord Jesus Christ.

His power cannot be co-opted or manipulated for personal profit or pleasure.

Now there may be moments where it looks like it can.

We see some of those in the Old Testament where God's power appeared to be mimicked by the Egyptian magicians, Janice and Jambries before Moses.

But Jesus is ultimately the only sovereign, and you either stand with him or against him.

It matters then, my friends, whose side you're on.

Demonic, dark powers are not to be trifled with.

There's no need to desire greater power.

For the one who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Rest in the God who is sovereign over all powers.

There's no need for fear then when you rest in the power of the sovereign God.

My friends, you walk in the path of Lucifer and demons when you desire more power than the presence of God living within you.

Now the result of this first unit proves that there is no need to fear when you rest in God's sovereign power.

Paul's untouched, Paul's unmoved.

The rest of the disciples are apparently unmoved.

It's just these seven men who think that they can somehow plug into these magic words that end up in a bad place.

And in the end, despite demonic power and influence, massive numbers of idolaters are transformed.

Look at verse 18.

Many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices.

There's a complete turnaround.

You have to understand that Ephesus was a hub for ancient magic.

For them, magic involved whatever they could conjure up to manipulate the spirits on one level.

They trusted in magical incantations for protection or for harm.

They trusted in rituals for their own benefit.

They trusted in sorcery and witchcraft.

Many of their sources revealed that they used things like astrology and horoscopes that exist today.

And the Jewish exorcists that are functioning here are part of that general culture.

They attempted to use the names of Paul and Jesus as power words to somehow influence or command demons.

But when believers in Jesus Christ understand the sovereign power of Jesus, they respond by practicing their faith publicly.

They confess their allegiance to Christ, they renounce any allegiance to another power, to other protection, and to prominence in the world by any other means, even if it costs them.

And boy, did it cost these Ephesians.

It says in verse 19, Luke recounts that the value of all of the books they burned came to 50,000 pieces of silver.

Now he doesn't tell us which piece of silver this is.

And the most common explanation is that it's the silver drachma, the Greek drachma, the Roman drachma, that was basically a day's wage.

Now if that's the case, based off of the most recent June silver spot price from Wall Street, this would amount to approximately$245,000 of book burnings.

That's a lot of investment going up in smoke.

But do you see how it demonstrates that these new believers in Jesus Christ trusted in his power and him alone, and they said, We no longer trust in these things.

Let's get rid of them.

God used the demonstration of the demon's power to bring about his righteous ends.

And so Jesus has entered the strong man's realm and bound him to free prisoners and lead them out.

That's something to think about as we contemplate the reign of Jesus in a world with a prominent demonic presence.

My friends, demonic influence is far more prevalent than you or I realize.

I don't think it's a biblical stretch at all to say that many of us encounter it daily without realizing it.

Don't let that lead you to fear.

For Jesus conquers where demons reign.

Don't treat the spirit world lightly, but trust that your king is greater than he who is in the world.

Rest in the truth that God sovereignly works out his will even through evil spirits.

Now the unfortunate situation with this demon-possessed man resulted in a new kind of understanding about the power of Christ.

And God used it to eliminate a vast amount of demonic material and turn hearts to him.

If you have not placed your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, let go of all of the power that you cling to and run to him.

If you are a Christian, is there something you're holding on to that sort of functions as a crutch to your faith?

Do you hold on to something that you think will help you, empower you, entertain you, but at the same time is sort of drawing you away from Christ, keeping you attached to another world, another place.

Luke calls us to trust in Christ.

And in his power.

Rather than play around with, dabble with anything that promises a power outside of him.

The next section recalls the reaction of the culture of Ephesus and the people of Ephesus to Christ's conquering power.

Verse 23, Luke tells us there was no little disturbance.

That's Luke's way of saying there was a lot of disturbance.

This stirred up the region.

You can't really describe it.

It's expanding.

The primary theme here in this second section shifts only a little bit.

Luke addresses idols instead of demons.

But scripture says that idols are nothing more than man-made objects backed by demons.

And Ephesus was an idol factory centered on the worship of Artemis, whom the Romans called Diana.

And in this result of the rest of the community, the rest of the culture, we see that Jesus conquers not only where demons reign, but where idols dominate.

Here, people get frustrated because there is an economic impact from people coming to Jesus.

The Temple of Diana, or Artemis, was a massive building.

It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

In fact, one ancient writer said that the only possible building that could compare to it would be Herod's Temple in Jerusalem.

According to the historian Pliny, the temple of Artemis was situated on a platform about 425 feet long by 239 feet wide.

The temple itself was 342 feet by 163 feet.

So if you are familiar with the football field, it's bigger than that.

It's surrounded by 127 columns, 60 feet tall and 6 feet thick.

36 of these columns were sculptured and overlaid with gold.

And the worship of this false God drove an impressive part of the Ephesian economy.

Now the people of Ephesus and the rest of Asia believed they were worshiping a real God.

But the Bible tells us that demons are behind these idols, these images.

And so the prominence of idol worship in Ephesus points to the prominence of demon worship.

But Jesus conquers where demons reign.

And so Jesus conquers where idols dominate.

Jesus goes, as it were, right to the gates of hell and conquers.

And when Jesus conquers, demons diminish in their influence.

And when demons diminish in their influence, the economy of Ephesus suffers because it's all wrapped up in demonic worship.

And we all know that when the economy suffers, people get angry.

Even here, when things get out of control and sort of mob direction, Jesus is working to undermine and destroy the enemy's domination.

You see, whenever Jesus inhabits his people, whenever Jesus dwells within and with his people, he begins to change them, to make them into his image.

And that means that they begin to impact everyone around them, and before you know it, it begins to impact larger and larger areas.

Jesus' presence is felt because he's conquering where these idols dominate.

And so riots erupt in Ephesus, dangerous enough that influential people refuse to let Paul go in and speak to the crowds.

Verse 35, one of the most powerful people in Ephesus attempts to calm the mob by reminding them of Artemis' supremacy.

Apparently, what really made them feel as though this was a divine being that they worshipped was because the temple housed some sort of asteroid that fell.

Some sort of rock, space rock.

So he reminds them: look, who doesn't know that the city of Ephesus is the temple keeper of the great Artemis and the sacred stone that fell from the sky?

Who doesn't know this?

It feels there, as though this man is about to undermine the way of Christ.

But nothing that he says tempers Jesus' work and Jesus' presence.

Instead, he goes on to declare Christians innocent of wrongdoing, innocent of blaspheming their idolatrous faith, and he sends the mob home.

Incredible.

So yet again, God's sovereign power over the spirit world is displayed without Paul having to say a word, without any Christians having to say a word.

He uses evil to bring about his righteous ends.

So do not allow yourselves to become overwhelmed when evil appears to succeed.

Because Jesus conquers where idols reign.

The power of idols cannot overcome Jesus' presence.

They're merely man-made images that cannot speak, cannot move, cannot save.

And so again, Luke calls us to trust in Christ's power rather than to dabble in the promises and potency of anything else.

And when we take a step back to the author of this book, Luke uses this section of Acts to show us that the gates of hell will not stand against Jesus' kingdom work.

Nothing stands in the way.

We don't minimize the power of the demonic realm by saying that.

Instead, we elevate the power of Jesus Christ.

Now we in our own power cannot stand against the evil world.

But Christ in us is not only the hope of glory, but he's the power that works through jars of clay to accomplish his purpose.

And he will be victorious in any battle of the gods of this world.

Jesus is sovereign over the spirit world, and he will use it to accomplish his righteous ends.

You have nothing to fear, but just walk in the steps of Jesus.

So this passage challenges us to understand the reality of the spirit world.

It's there, it exists.

And you may encounter it far more often than you have ever known.

It influences everything in our world, but we should not be discouraged by that influence.

Instead, we should stand firm because God is never defeated in a battle of the gods.

He is sovereign and supreme over all even demons.

And so then this passage challenges us to trust all the results of life and world, politics, actions, everything to our sovereign God who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, we confess to you that probably far too often we attempt to take things into our own hands.

We want control over our circumstances, over our lives.

We want certain things to happen, certain things to come about.

So we confess to you that in that way we are seeking to wrest control of life and circumstances out of your hands and into ours.

And turn our hearts towards you as we seek to trust you.

To follow you in your steps as you continue your kingdom work through us.

And now we we turn to not just be reminded of your power in this world, but your your power to strengthen us for what you've called us to.

We come together around your table, what we call the communion table, to be to be reminded of that and to be strengthened by your power for what you've called us to do.

Do your work in and through us to the praise of your grace.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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