Sermon Notes April 14, 2024

Series, “Studies in the Book of Acts

”“Meeting Satan Head On” Acts 19:8:27-41

John W. Montgomery, D.D

 

.Paul stayed in Ephesus for 3 full years, not his normal pattern. There was much work to be done there, and with a population of 300,000 people, it was the capital of the Roman province of Asia.

In the book of Acts, we see the spread of the gospel message throughout the world. The apostle Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, traveled to various places to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. In this passage, we will see how the gospel message caused a riot in the city of Ephesus and how the truth of God's word prevailed.

The city of Ephesus was known for its devotion to the goddess Artemis, who was believed to be their protector and provider of wealth. She is also associated with childbirth and virginity. The people of Ephesus were deeply entrenched in idolatry and did not know the true God.We live in a world filled with different false beliefs and idols. We must guard our hearts and minds against being swayed by these false teachings and remain steadfast in our faith in God.

 

The power of the gospel message was able to break through the strongholds of idolatry and bring about change in people's lives. The word of God has the power to transform lives and bring people out of darkness into the light. This passage describes how the gospel began to spread throughout Ephesus, resulting in many turning to the Lord and renouncing their superstitious practices.

1. Paul’s Opportunity, Acts 19:8-11The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16:8-9 - “But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me. Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9 But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. 11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul…” Acts 19:8-11

 

When Paul was publicly maligned while speaking in the synagogue, he went to the lecture hall of Tyrannus and taught the Word of God. He had a tremendous chance that he couldn’t pass up. We have such an opportunity in our city to share the Good news. Ephesus was a city of great wickedness, and the people had morals like animals. It was a place of spiritual darkness, and Paul brought them the glorious light of the gospel.

 

Paul saw this place of darkness as a place of opportunity because he had the opposite philosophy of many people today. Christians today don’t want to be in a dark place. They look for the nearest exit, wanting only to be in the well-lit areas. A dark place is when you are around people who reject the Gospel and live a different lifestyle than you do. These are people you feel uncomfortable hanging out with. However, these are the people that God wants us to witness to.

Did it ever occur to you that’s why God put you where you are? The Bible says that we are the light of the world. What better place to put a light than in a dark place? What purpose can you serve if you are not shining in dark places?”

 

We shouldn’t want to go to places that will drag us down, or seek out places where we will be tempted, but God doesn’t want us to be hermits, either. We are to be IN the world, just not OF the world. God has placed you right at the door – a door of opportunity. The question is: will we walk through that door?

 

Your workplace or school may be a dark place, but you can be a heavenly beam that all eyes will focus on, seeing the light in your eyes and wanting to step into that light themselves!

 

Verse 10 tells us what happened in just two years. “This went on for two years so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord”. Every single person heard the Word. Not all got saved, but all had the opportunity because Paul saw a door of opportunity and walked through it!

As Christians, we must continue to boldly proclaim the truth of God's word, knowing that it has the power to bring about change in people's hearts and lives.

 

The people were afraid that the preaching of the gospel would cause them to lose their business and belief in Artemis. The people's fear and greed stemming from their devotion to Artemis led them to lash out against the truth of the gospel. The enemy will use fear and false beliefs to try and hinder the spread of the gospel, but we must not be intimidated or swayed. We must stand firm in the truth of God's word.

 

We must be willing to face opposition and persecution for the sake of the gospel. We should not let fear or love for worldly possessions hinder us from sharing the truth with others.

 

2. Paul’s Opposition, Acts 19:8-10This was a wicked city. Would it surprise you to learn that it was a very religious city? It shouldn’t be because religion is one of the main tools in the devil’s tool belt. Paul had to deal with at least 3 kinds of religion in that region. These are the same that we have to deal with.

 

• Inadequate religion

Paul always took the gospel to the Jews first. For 3 months in their synagogue, he showed them that their religion was inadequate. Their Old Testament teachings had a purpose. Their purpose was to point them to their coming Messiah. But the Messiah had come in Jesus Christ, and they had missed Him, they had rejected Him and killed Him!

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Their religion was just an empty shell, a hull with no kernel of reality inside. Don’t ask people if they have found religion, ask them if they’ve found Jesus!

And all over our city people are steeped in religion that’s inadequate. On the outside they may dress fancy and look proper, but inside are dead men’s bones and the meat of the gospel has never grown there. They are social clubs and promote being good people and basically, they are making the world a better place to go to hell from! That’s inadequate!

Paul said, don’t be satisfied with empty rituals when you can have a vital, thriving relationship with the Son of God, Jesus Christ! Some were saved, most did not, and after 3 months they kicked him out of the synagogue.Verse 9 says Paul then moved his base of operations from the synagogue to the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This was a well-known school and they rented it in the off hours. He first dealt with their inadequate religion and then addressed their Imitation religion.

 

• Imitation religion, v11-12

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

Handkerchiefs and aprons that had been touched by Paul to heal the sick were not the norm and not intended for us to try to duplicate today. Throughout the book of Acts, God did special miracles at special times to validate the truth.

Paul was a tentmaker in a hot climate. His clothes would be sweaty. He would wipe his brow with handkerchiefs. And they noticed that if the sick or the possessed came into contact with his handkerchiefs, they would be healed.

I believe God was rebuking the pagan religion of that day. These pagans were well known for their emphasis on clean, white garments. They used them in their rituals and all had to be prim and proper, and sparkling white. I believe God was saying, your dead religion and your pristine white garments are powerless, but I can do miracles using old sweat rags!

 

What a great God we serve. These were temples of hell, thriving in that city, and the tentacles of demonic religion reached into every home. So, God gave this sign through these special miracles.

Here’s the imitation in verses 13-15 - “Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”

They were imitators, but not the real thing themselves. And these were not the last people to try to imitate Paul. Just turn on today’s Christian television and for a price, you can get a nice prayer cloth, or bottle of miracle spring water prayed over by the guy on the screen. Some will say, “Place, your hand on the TV and feel the power!

”Verse 17 says – “When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.” People know the real thing when they see it.v. 18-19 tells us that, “Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.”

 

Some of the ones who had truly been saved hadn’t yet made the clean break with the world that God wants His children to make. These new believers saw this demon attack on the counterfeit Christians, and they got under conviction and began to deal with the sin they were holding onto in their lives.

 

When Jesus is magnified, sin gets dealt with. Isaiah saw Christ in His glory and said, “Woe is me, I’m unclean.” God wants believers to change. He wants you to give up some of the old things for Him, and make sure and replace them with some new things. There was a book burning in Acts 19, when they added up what the value was, it was 50 thousand pieces of silver, which is equal to one year’s wages for 150 men!

Some may need to go home and pour something out, throw something away, flush something down! Some may need to get their home in order, get a handle on some things, or get married. Don’t look at the cost, it’s called sacrifice, telling God He’s worthy of it, and recognizing that HE paid the real price for you!

 

The demons of hell knew Paul. Do they know you? Are they threatened by your witness? I’d like to think that the forces of evil and Satan himself know the name Cedar Creek Baptist Church and pay attention to what our church is doing to defeat the forces of Satan. Is your life and witness a threat to Satan?Paul had to deal with inadequate religion, imitation religion, and an...

• Idolatrous religion, Acts 19:26-28,34-35

Ephesus had a magnificent temple, the temple of Diana.

Acts 19:26-28 - “And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.” Verse 34-35 tells us that – “…when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: “Fellow Ephesians, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven?

”Who is this Diana? She is known as Artemis in Greek mythology and was the goddess of fertility in Greek culture. Sex was the center of their worship. This was the biggest religion, and her temple was one of the 7 wonders of that world. But it was a pagan cult, idolatry of the worst kind. Hundreds of priestesses were available for a price. It was prostitution in the name of worship! This may have been a temple, but it was a temple of hell.That brings us to our final point. We have seen Paul’s opportunity and opposition, now we see…

 

3. Paul’s Overcoming, Acts 19:23-26“

About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. 24 A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. 25 He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all.

”Paul’s teaching in the school of Tyrannus is what we would call a storefront church. And down the street, you have this great temple of Diana, which took 220 years to be built, with 100 huge columns stretching up to the sky!

Imagine you’re walking down the street in Ephesus, and I told you, “See that little church over there…a guy named Paul is the Pastor. Well, he’s going to be responsible for bringing down the religion of Diana.” You would say, you are crazy, that will never happen.

 

”But that’s just what God did through Paul. Paul led them to Christ, and they didn’t need Diana anymore. A guy named Demetrius and his cohorts had been making a fortune off of selling statues of Diana, but sales were dropping fast! They weren’t worried about losing their religion, but their money!

Money is a powerful thing in people's lives. I read a letter written by a father to his daughter’s ex-fiancé: “Dear Tony, I have been unable to sleep since I broke off your engagement to my daughter. Will you forgive me? I was much too sensitive about your Mohawk, tattoos, and pierced nose. I now realize that motorcycles aren’t that dangerous, and I really shouldn’t have reacted the way I did to the fact that you have no job. I’m sure that many very nice people also live under a bridge in the park. Sure, she’s only 18, and she could go to Harvard on a full scholarship, but she wants to marry you! But you can’t learn everything about life just from books. I sometimes forget how backward I can be. I was wrong, I was a fool, but I have come to my senses, and you can have my full blessing to marry my daughter. Sincerely, your future father-in-law. P.S.: Congratulations on winning this week’s billion-dollar lottery!

 

”Paul is putting the devil out of business. He didn’t organize a march or a demonstration, or merely preach about it to the church. No, he got busy winning lost souls and they stopped going to those places!

History records that shortly after Paul’s departure from Ephesus the temple of Diana burned down. And it was never rebuilt, due to a lack of interested followers! But the church of Jesus Christ lives on! The power of the gospel will tear down the temples of hell, even in our area.There’s an open door, will you walk through it? We have many opportunities and sure, there are many obstacles, but we can be overcomers in Jesus’ name, and tear down the temples of hell!

Message Preached at Cedar Creek Baptist Church

Jacksonville, Florida 32205

April 14, 2024Sermon Notes is a Ministry of the Cedar Creek Baptist Church,1372 Lane Avenue South, Jacksonville, Florida 32205

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