PT-3 "Intro to Acts 19:8-20"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/10/2018 7:15 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 Intro to Acts 19:8-20

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 19:8-20

            Message of the verses:  “8 And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. 10 This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. 11 God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. 13 But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." 14 Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" 16 And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. 18 Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. 19 And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.”

            We have been looking at the power that Jesus had over demons while He was on planet earth, as He had the authority to cast out demons, and He also had such absolute control over them that He could even forbid them to speak.  Jesus did not want the demons to talk about Him, and where He came from or why He was here, that was not in His best interest and that is why He caused them not to speak.  In Mark 5:1-13 we read a description of one of the most terrifying examples of demon possession that is found in the Scriptures:

“1 They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. 2 When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, 3 and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. 6 Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; 7 and shouting with a loud voice, he said, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!" 8 For He had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" 9 And He was asking him, "What is your name?" And he said to Him, "My name is Legion; for we are many." 10 And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. 12 The demons implored Him, saying, "Send us into the swine so that we may enter them." 13 Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.”

MacArthur adds “The cure of even this individual, infested with numerous demons, posed no difficulty for Jesus.  He commanded them to enter the pigs, so that all watching would have no doubt that they obeyed Him.  It was a dramatic display of power over the spiritual forces of evil.

            In Luke 4:33-35 we see that the demons exhibited a terror that stems from their knowledge of their fate:

“33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Let us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are-the Holy One of God!" 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet and come out of him!" And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm.”

            These demons knew their fate would eventually land them in hell for Jesus stated that hell was made for Satan and his demons, but they did not want to go there before they had to go, as they still had some evil things they wanted to do.  Now there are some demons that were so evil that they were chained in a place where they could not leave. “6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, (Jude 6).”  The angels here mean the evil angels.  Matthew 8:29 also speaks of the demons who were aware of their fate which is eternal destruction in hell, and so the demon fearfully asked Jesus if this was the time:  “And they cried out, saying, "What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?"”  This is Matthews’s account of what we looked at in our verses from Mark chapter five.

            We have had men throughout history debating about who Jesus is, and yet the demons never had a debate of who He is, and I find this very interesting.  James writes “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”

            Now Jesus also extended His power over demons as He delegated it to some of His followers.  Let us look at a couple of examples “5 These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; 6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 “And as you go, preach, saying, ’The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give (Matthew 10:5-8).”  Now I want to look at Acts 8:7 “For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed.”  This was done by Philip the evangelists.  Acts 16:18 “She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And it came out at that very moment.” 

            John MacArthur writes “Such miraculous power over demons was unique to a few individuals during the apostolic age, being basically one of the ‘signs and wonders and miracles’ that constituted ‘the sings of a true apostle’ (2 Cor. 12:12).  By the time Hebrews was written, its author spoke of such miraculous signs in the past tense:

“3 How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, 4  God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.”

            I realize that this is said to be seen by some today, and yet I think that it is perhaps some phony things that people do in order to get unsuspecting people to send them some of their hard earned money.  MacArthur adds “The assumption that a believer has authority to command demons and Satan, or to bind them, is fiction.  Even Michael the archangel would not be so bold ‘But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" (Jude 9)” And reducing the Christian life to a demon hunt obviates believers’ biblically mandated responsibility to pursue true sanctification by holiness and godly living.”

            We can’t find it in the Scriptures that after the Apostolic time that NT believers have the authority to cast out demons, or to bind Satan.

            As I normally do I will quote the last paragraph of John MacArthur’s introduction in order to show where we are headed as we look at these verses from Acts 19.

            “This rich text shows how powerfully the Word of God dominated the city of Ephesus.  Verse 20 summarizes the passages:  ‘So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.’  The power of God’s Word is evident through its proclamation, confirmation, competition, conviction, and domination.”  We begin in our next SD by looking at “Proclamation” from Acts 19:8-10.

Answer to yesterday’s SD:  “David” (2 Samuel 9:7).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where was Tatnai governor? (This is a difficult question, so look for the answer in the book of the OT priest Ezra.)

Answer in our next SD.

6/10/2018 8:01 PM