August 09, 2023 | Be On Mission
Believers Burn Their Pagan Scrolls
Scripture: Acts 19:11-22(NIV)
11 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.
13 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?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
17 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. 18 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. 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
21 After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.” 22 He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.
Devotional
Ephesus was a spiritually confused city. It boasted the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient world. Everywhere there were spiritualists who practiced black magic, sorcery, and pagan rituals. The residents and visitors to the thriving city ate it up. Spirituality of all types captured their imaginations.
It makes sense that they would rely on Paul’s handkerchiefs and work aprons to do the healing work. It’s plausible that Jewish exorcists would try to get in on the act, even though they didn’t even know anything about Jesus. And it’s completely believable that many Ephesians used demonic scrolls to practice sorcery. Such was life in Ephesus.
In those days long before the printing press, hand-written scrolls were of great value. A drachma was equivalent to a day’s wages. Fifty thousand drachmas would be multiple lifetime’s worth of money. The scrolls that were publicly burned by the new believers represented a release from their dependency upon worldly wealth and ungodly beliefs. Those who joined up must have had great influence in Ephesus, for “the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.”
Too often Christians in America throw up their hands at the latest decision of the Supreme Court, Congress, Statehouse, or local school board. We bemoan the work of social media influencers, musicians, and movie producers. The proliferation of gambling sites, sexualized restaurants, and crude billboards disgust us. We just want to run and hide.
But the world needs us. People who don’t know Jesus are “without God and without hope” as Paul would later write to them (Ephesians 2:12). They need to hear the good news, that there is hope in Jesus Christ. He alone can free us from the ungodly attractions and philosophies that the world offers. How is Jesus prompting you to make a difference?
Poem
Don't Play
Don’t practice divination
Seances, don’t attend
Don’t mess around with witchcraft
Or voodoo curses send
Don’t mess with evil powers
You know nothing about
For they will take you over
Both inside and with out
Don’t mess with Spirit’s graces
You are not called to share
Until you know your Savior
Through His Word and in prayer
Don’t play around! Be warned now!
It’s not a game for fun
Vict’ry alone, in spirit world,
Comes through God’s only Son
So when the Spirit calls you
And you’re deeply known by Him
Then you enter into battle
By His power, not by whim
