Religion Gone Wild Vienna Presbyterian Church The Rev. Dr. Peter G. James Acts 19:8-20 February 10, 2019
During the time I was in seminary, Chris and I lived in an apartment in Beverly, Massachusetts for three years. Salem was the town next to us. Salem was home to the controversial witch trials of 1692 that resulted in the execution of twenty people accused of witchcraft. The city remains a haven for people attracted to the occult. Sorcerers, witches and clairvoyants of all kinds congregate there. The picture on your screen is the patch worn by Salem city police. Salem s mascot is a witch on a bicycle (don t know what happened to the broom!). We made it a point to avoid Salem during the Halloween season. Ancient Ephesus could have been Salem s clone. This bustling port city served as headquarters for magic arts in the first century. The city was a haven for sorcerers and magicians. It was a hotbed of black magic. Ephesus was home of the fabled temple of the Greek goddess Artemis (Roman: Diana). The picture on your screen is a facsimile of this colossal structure, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was about the size of FedEx Field. The temple was made entirely of marble. One hundred twenty-seven columns supported this massive temple, rising 60 feet into the air. The next picture is what remains of this temple today. Artemis was the daughter of Zeus, the twin sister of Apollo. She was the goddess of all
sorts of things: fertility, the hunt and astrology, to name a few. Paul arrives in Ephesus after a successful 18-month mission to Corinth (19:1). He continues his practice of ministry first at the local synagogue. When his preaching encounters considerable resistance, he shifts operations to the lecture hall of Tyrannus (19:9). The name Tyrannus means tyrant. It could be a nickname given to a teacher by his students. Paul s preaching at the hall of Tyrannus continues for two years. It is unusual for an itinerant evangelist like Paul to invest so much time in a single location. Paul s mission in Ephesus becomes among the most fruitful years of ministry. Ephesus will have strategic importance in the advance of the gospel throughout Asia Minor. In verse 11, we read, God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that touched him were taken to the sick, their illnesses cured and the evil spirits left them. God not only does miracles through Paul; God does extraordinary miracles through him. The practice of praying over handkerchiefs (sweatbands) and artisan aprons is atypical for Paul. Yet, extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. If the gospel of Jesus can triumph in the magic capital of the Roman Empire, it can succeed anywhere. I titled this sermon Religion Gone Wild. In a spiritually supercharged environment like Ephesus, extraordinary
measures are called for to combat the occult. In verse 13, we read about itinerant Jewish exorcists who cast evil spirits out of people. Apparently, even people who follow the Torah dabble in black magic. They watch Paul work his magic, or so it appears to them, and try to emulate him. They adopt the exact same language: In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out (19:13). They regard Paul s words as magic incantation. They are unable to differentiate between magic and miracle. In verse 14, Luke tells us about the seven sons of Sceva, who is a Jewish high priest. We have no record of a high priest named Sceva, so perhaps he is high priest by his own self-designation. The evil spirit asks these seven sons, Jesus, I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you? (19:15). Somehow, the evil spirit is able to recognize these seven sons as impostors. This is where our story goes wild. The evil spirit jumps these seven sons and drives them out of the house. Do not miss the irony here. The seven sons specialize in driving evil spirits out of people. Now, the tables are turned and this evil spirit drives them away. While the demon recognizes the power of Jesus, he knows these counterfeit exorcists are no match for him. News of this demonic beat-down sends shock waves through the city. People are seized with fear and hold the name of the Lord Jesus in high honor (19:17). In verse 18, we read Many of those who believed came and openly confessed what they had done. A
number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publically. The people who burn their sorcery scrolls are not heathens; they are followers of Jesus. These new converts have been trying to add Jesus to their pantheon of deities. Now they know. Jesus will not share company with evil. Their public confession breaks evil s spell. Sorcery thrives on secrecy and mystery. Once these believers publically confess their sorcery, evil s spell is broken. Luke estimates the cost of this book-burning to be 50,000 drachmas. Several million dollars worth of scrolls go up in smoke. What to make of this religion gone wild story? Three applications come to mind. Why do my applications always come in threes? Maybe it has something to do with the rule of three. Look it up sometime! First application: We dismiss the devil too easily to our peril. The devil s influence is all over this story. God empowers Paul to drive evil spirits out of people at the outset of this story. These seven impostors jump on the exorcist bandwagon and try to emulate Paul. Evil cannot cast out evil, so this evil spirit turns on them. How do you explain the prevalence of evil spirits in Paul s day? Evil spirits do not seem to have the same prominence in our time. An evil spirit has never spoken to me. I have never witnessed an evil spirit accosting someone. So, what gives? Here is my take on things. When God comes to earth in Jesus Christ, the devil and his legion of demons go on high alert. Jesus is the one person able to smoke them out of their
hiding places. The forces of evil intensify at Jesus coming. They come out of hiding to do battle with Jesus. The stakes are high. That s why the battle plays out in prime time. The devil prefers to work behind the scenes. His mission is clandestine. He would rather work the edges of the room and not draw attention to himself. Would any of us be attracted to evil if we recognized how monstrous and evil it really is? No, of course not. The devil s greatest ploy is to trick us into thinking he cannot be real. We scoff at the caricature of the devil in pitchfork and tails. Since we cannot believe in this parody of the devil, we conclude he must not exist. In his preface to The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis writes, There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devil. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. While some of us have an excessive and unhealthy interest in devils, most of us dismiss them altogether. Paul writes, in his second letter to the Corinthians, that the devil masquerades as an angel of light. Evil masquerades as something attractive and alluring. Do not dismiss the devil. Evil is real and personal. The demonic forces look for openings to exploit our weakness for his sinister purposes. Paul writes, We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in this dark world (Ephesians 6:12). Second application: We cannot manipulate Jesus to get what we want. The sons of Sceva attempt to capitalize on Jesus name to promote their black magic. They have no clue about Jesus identity. They try to manipulate Jesus to get what they want. Let me illustrate how we fall prey to a similar temptation. As sincere Christians, we try to obey God and do the right thing. We imagine something in return from God. We subconsciously expect God to reward our good deeds and attempts at obedience. We expect God to come through for us when we pray for sick people to be well. We expect the right job or the person of our dreams to come along through prayer. Prayer doesn t work this way. Jesus is not our errand boy or good luck charm. He is not our genie in a bottle to grant our every wish. There are no magic incantations to get Jesus to do what we want. He does not answer prayers as reward for good behavior. God is not beholden to us. God is sovereign. His ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts. I cannot explain why some things happen as they do. If Jesus prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane ( Father, not my will but yours be done ) teaches us anything, it teaches us to surrender our finite will to God.
We do not pray just to get what we want. We pray to align our wills with what God wants. Prayer teaches us to want what Jesus wants. Third application: Jesus + anything else is idolatrous. I said two Sundays ago, An idol is anything we think we need, apart from Jesus to make us happy, satisfied and fulfilled. The believers in our story hold onto their magical practices after coming to faith in Jesus. Once they recognize this duplicity, they take drastic action. They burn their scrolls and make a clean break with their past. I have been reading the Old Testament account of Israel s kings. So few kings are fully devoted to the Lord. It s always God + something. God and Baal. God and ancestral religion. Elijah s question at Mt. Carmel is key: How long will you limp between two opinions? If God is God, follow Him. If Baal is god, follow him (1 Kings 18:21). The practice of adding Jesus to something else is our problem also: Jesus + our infatuation with money; Jesus + our preoccupation with sex; Jesus + our obsession with appearance; Jesus + our need to control. What idols rival our allegiance to Jesus? What god has preeminence in your life other than Jesus? Jesus + anything else is idolatrous. Jesus is Lord. He is Lord alone. Our exclusive allegiance is to him.