Introduction
British author J.K.
Rowling and the Harry Potter books she has written have taken the
world of publishing by storm. If you Google the words “Harry Potter,” it
brings up over 62 million websites! All told, the five Harry Potter
books have sold a combined 250 million copies worldwide in 42 different
languages.
The books chronicle
the fantasy adventures of Harry Potter, a plucky orphan boy stranded
in suburbia in England. While living with a nasty aunt, uncle, and
cousin, Harry discovers he has magical powers. Soon he is attending
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is dedicated to
turning out young wizards who use their magical gifts to good ends.
And while not exactly a model student at Hogwarts, Harry finds his
true powers, and he even boldly challenges the evil one, Lord Voldemort.
In the world of make-believe
and fairy tales, magic, wizards and sorcery are delightful elements
of fantasy and intrigue. My kids have gobbled up the Harry Potter
books. However, in the real world of spiritual warfare, it is quite
a different story. This morning we come to a passage of Scripture
that at first glance may look like it has more in common with a Harry
Potter fantasy novel than real life, but if you think that, you couldn’t
be further from the truth. As we consider these things today, I want
you to notice: 1) the city of Ephesus; 2) the seven sons of Sceva;
and 3) the lessons we can learn.
I. The City of Ephesus
This is not
the first time we have heard of talk about magic in the book of Acts.
You will recall that back in Chapter 8, Simon the Magician denounced
the practice of dark magic in real life. In Acts 13 a sorcerer opposed
the gospel and was struck blind by the apostle Paul. But the thing
that stands out in our text today and makes it different from all
the other references is where it takes place – the city of Ephesus.
Ephesus was the capital
of Asia Minor in what is now modern-day southwest Turkey. Paul traveled
there during his third missionary journey, after having planted a
church in the city during his second journey, which is briefly mentioned
in Acts 18. Ephesus was the political and commercial center of a
large and prosperous region. The city is located on the Cayster River
not far from the Aegean Coast, and in the First Century AD it had
a large and thriving port. As a result, it became the chief link
for communications and commerce between Rome and the East. Merchants
flocked to it, and it was a melting pot of nations and ethnic groups.
The city, which had
a population of over 250,000 people, was a leading center for learning
and knowledge, and it was home to one of the greatest libraries in
the ancient world – the library of Celsus, whose ruins you can still
see today. It housed between 12,000 and 15,000 scrolls, which was
considered enormous at the time. It also had an outdoor amphitheater
that could seat 25,000 people (that’s bigger than the Pepsi Center),
and a music hall called an “odium” which seated 1,500 people. They
had a sewage system for the city – you can still see the toilets
in the bath house today! But what makes Ephesus so intriguing in
the context of my earlier comments was that the city was also known
as the magical capital of the world. Special books containing secret
spells and magical formulas were published in Ephesus and distributed
all over the ancient world, and the city had a reputation for being
a center of demonic activity.
It was to Ephesus that
Paul traveled during his third missionary journey, and there the
Lord gave the apostle the power to work extraordinary miracles. All
anyone had to do was simply touch something Paul had used in the
course of his work as a tentmaker – a handkerchief or work apron,
and the person was healed instantly. Why? It was to demonstrate that
the Jesus whom Paul proclaimed is greater than the powers of darkness.
In this city known for its magical arts, the power of Christ overcame
the powers of darkness.
When we read of these
things, it may seem to some of us like this is a world far, far away
with demons, magical powers, exorcisms. But is it really so distant
from our own world in the 21st century and perhaps even
our own experience? What about Haitian voodoo? Korean shamanism?
African animism? What about Wiccas right here in Boulder County?
The powers of darkness are still very active in some parts of the
modern world today.
A number of years ago,
I was in the Dominican Republic on a short-term mission project.
A woman brought her sick daughter into the clinic where I was working,
and as soon as she came into the building, the little girl began
to let out blood-curdling shrieks. Immediately the physician in charge
noticed a voodoo amulet tied around the girl’s neck, and he ordered
us to take the charm off the little girl and take it outside and
burn it.
It was a little leather
pouch which a witch doctor in her village had given the girl as a
part of a dedication ceremony. It contained a broken cross and torn
pieces of Scripture among other things. At first, when we tried to
burn it, the pouch wouldn’t catch on fire, but eventually as we tore
it open, the pouch and its contents began to burn. When we finished
our task and came back into the clinic, the little girl was calmly
sleeping in her mother’s arms, exhausted from the spiritual warfare
that had taken place.
In our culture we have
our own superstitions, our own magic; we have our own horoscopes
and crystals, Ouija boards and tarot cards – right here on the Pearl
Street Mall. We’ve got Halloween and Dungeons and Dragons. We’ve
got Sabrina the Witch and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It
all seems rather benign, and perhaps much of the time these things
are innocuous. And yet, people today display an increasing fascination
with the occult and a heightened interest in the dark side. Perhaps
there are a few things you and I need to throw onto that bonfire
in Acts 19. In what ways are you dabbling in the occult, even in
innocent ways?
Whenever we involve
ourselves in the spiritual forces of darkness, we need to be careful
and realize we are playing with a power that is greater than any
of us realize. The seven sons of Sceva found that out in our text.
II. The Seven Sons of Sceva
The passage
tells us that some Jewish exorcists, upon coming into contact with
Paul and his preaching about Jesus, attempted to make magical use
of this new name they had heard. It was thought that if a person
could say the name of a spiritual power, that person had authority
over that power and could use the name for their own means. The seven
sons of Sceva assumed that they could utilize the power of Christ
to their own ends by saying His name in their incantations. But they
soon came to realize that the name of Jesus is not a name to be trifled
with!
There are a couple of things that I want to say and make very clear this
morning. First, demons and evil spirits are a reality, not a myth. Scripture
is very clear in its teaching at this point. The New Testament refers to demons
as spiritual beings who are hostile to God and to His people. They are evil in
their intent, and they are not a powerless group. We could spend an entire sermon
on the subject of demons, but suffice it to say here today that they are real,
they are up to no good as far as you and I are concerned, and they have some
considerable influence over non-believers and believers alike.
Second, it is often
said in modern times that demon-possession was simply the way people
had in the first century of referring to conditions that today we
would call sickness or mental illness. However, the New Testament
distinguishes between sickness and demon-possession. For example,
in Matthew 4:24 we read of "sick people who were taken with
various diseases and torments, and those who were possessed with
demons, and those that had palsy." None of these classes
appears to be identical with the others. Demon-possession was a spiritual
reality that demonstrates the bondage that Satan has on the world
apart from Christ.
Luke identifies these
Jewish exorcists as the "seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high
priest." It is probable that the title was a self-designation
manufactured to impress clients. When they tried to use this more
powerful name in their exorcisms, Sceva's sons found they were dealing
with realities far beyond their ability to cope. The demon they were
trying to exorcise turned on them violently, and they fled from the
house bleeding and naked. The name of Jesus, like an unfamiliar weapon
misused, exploded in their hands; and they were taught a lesson about
the danger of using the name of Jesus in their dabbling in the supernatural.
It is one of the more comical scenes in the Bible.
There is a cosmic, spiritual battle that is raging,
and you and I are in the middle of it, whether we realize it or not.
The forces of darkness are waging war against God and His holy angels,
and these principalities and powers are mighty. They are evil, and
they are cunning. Satan would love nothing more than for us to believe
he doesn't exist, for when we are unaware of the enemy, he is that
much more dangerous. Write him off as a myth, relegate him as a figment
of one’s imagination, or make him into a caricature of a little man
in a red suit with horns and a pitchfork. That's what he wants you
to do. But do not be deceived, my friends. Satan and his minions
are real, and their influence is deadly.
When Lorie and I lived
in Dallas a number of years ago, I recall waking up in the middle
of the night and sensing an oppressive force of darkness in our room.
The presence was so close and so ominous that I actually swatted
at it in front of my face. Just then I realized that Lorie was also
awake, and she asked me, "Do you feel it, too?" I said, "Yes," and
we began to pray together, calling upon the name of Jesus and the
power of His blood, asking for His deliverance from evil. Soon the
presence of evil left our room, and there was stillness and peace
in the house. I went and checked on the boys in their bedrooms, and
I prayed for God's protection over them.
The fact of the matter
is that Satan is a mad dog on a leash, and there is nothing he can
do without the Father's permission and the Father's ability to rescue
us. But make no mistake about it, there is a spiritual battle between
good and evil, light and darkness, and you and I are in the middle
of the battlefield.
III. The Lessons We Can Learn
I believe
there are at least two lessons we can learn from this passage which
I want to point out by way of application. First, these Jewish
exorcists tried to tap into the awesome and miraculous power of Jesus
Christ without knowing the Savior themselves. The response of the
demon is one of the great moments in Scripture: "Jesus I
know, and Paul I know, but who are you?! (Acts 19:15)" And
at this, the man who had the evil spirit jumped on the seven Jewish
exorcists and overpowered them all. The lesson is: We cannot appropriate
that power of the Holy Spirit if we don't know Christ personally.
Notice the fact that these seven sons did not take Jesus into their lives;
they simply added His name to the repertoire of "magic" in their trade.
In other words, they were trying to exploit the moral power of a life in which
they had no share. Many people are like that today. We want the "bennies," the "perks" that
Christianity has to offer, but all too often we don't want the demands of discipleship.
However, we must come to realize that you cannot have one without the other.
You cannot have the blessings without the responsibilities.
When I was growing up in
Atlanta, one of the great joys of my early childhood was a monkey swing
we had tied to a limb of a huge oak tree in our back yard. Our monkey swing
consisted of a round, wooden seat with a single piece of thick rope that
ran through the center of the seat and on up to the limb of the tree. One
of the great challenges of my early years was to try to swing up higher
than the drain spouting on the roof of our house! We must have caused many
heart-pounding moments for my mother with that monkey swing.
One day my older brother,
Bill, was having a rather difficult time with the swing. It seems that
he kept running into the trunk of the tree to which the swing was tied
as he was trying to swing higher and higher. Finally, he became so exasperated
with the whole affair that he jumped off the swing, stormed into the house,
and sternly informed my dad that we were going to have to cut down that
oak tree because it kept getting in the way of the monkey swing! What
my brother did not understand is that the tree he wanted to cut down so
that he could swing more freely was the very thing that was holding up
the swing in the first place!
Many people are like that
in their dealings with God. They want to have the power of God, the peace
and joy of the Lord, and they want salvation and God’s sovereign protection,
but they do not want Him to get in the way. They don't want God to get
too involved in their lives personally, because He just might call them
to change some things! And they are right! He might! But we cannot have
one without the other. God is not like a light, something we can turn on
and off when we need it. The call today is for people who yearn after the
Lord in such a way that they seek to conform their lives according to the
will of God in Christ.
The second lesson I
want to point out is that our story concludes by relating that many people
turned to Christ as a result of this incident, and they gave their lives
to God. The result of their conversion was that many who believed now openly
confessed their evil deeds, and they revealed their secret spells. A number
who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them
publicly. The value of the scrolls that were burned came to 50,000 drachmas.
A drachma was about a day's wage, and so to convert that figure into today's
dollars meant that these scrolls were worth about $3.2 million! But more
important than the sacrifice of these books on the occult was the fact
that these new Ephesian believers realized the truth that we cannot
serve two masters.
Matters of the occult
are still one of the enemies of God, even in subtle ways. If you are dabbling
in the occult, my friend, you cannot serve two masters. However, for most
of us this morning, our struggle is not between Christ and the occult.
Our struggle between two masters is more subtle. It involves trying to
hold a foot in two worlds -- trying to be accepted by Christ and be accepted
by the world. For many of us we are afraid that our commitment to Christ
might cost us something that is important to us. Perhaps it is our popularity,
or that promotion we have been hoping for, or that big deal to go through.
Perhaps it is that guy or gal we have been seeing lately. Or perhaps it
is our reputation for being a well-balanced person, and we fear that if
we take a stand for Christ, people will think we are a fanatic. But, friends,
we cannot serve two masters.
It is like trying to have
one foot on a dock and the other in a canoe. We cannot hold that position
for very long. Either we will have to get back on the dock or get into
the canoe. There is no room for fence-riding in the Christian Faith. Our
Lord Himself said in Mark 8:34-38: "If anyone would come after
Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever
wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me
and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the
whole world, yet forfeit his soul?.... If anyone is ashamed of Me and
My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will
be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father's glory with the holy angels." The
words that Joshua spoke in the 24th chapter of the book that
bears his name are as relevant as the day he first spoke them: "Choose
this day whom you will serve.... But as for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord. (Joshua 24:15) "
We cannot serve two masters.
As those Ephesian believers learned for themselves, when they made a clean
break and abandoned the very things that were their livelihood, there is
freedom, joy and adventure when we choose to serve Christ, and leave the
rest behind.
Conclusion
In Lloyd C. Douglas'
book, The Robe, there is a character name Marcelus who becomes
enamored with Jesus and decides to become His disciple. He writes
to a woman he loves back in Rome named Diana about his conversion.
She writes back these telling words, "What I feared is that
it might affect you. It's a beautiful story; let it remain so. We
don't have to do anything, do we?"[1]
When we come to Christ,
there must be a break with the past. We cannot go on living as we
had before. The name of Jesus which the Jewish exorcists sought to
invoke is no name to be trifled with. He is the sovereign God of
the universe -- the King of kings and Lord of lords. And we who name
His Name for ourselves are called to worship Him on bended knee.
He deserves nothing less than our total commitment, and He will settle
for nothing less in our lives. Amen.
