"Conviction" (Acts 19:17-19)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/16/2018 10:19 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  “Conviction”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 19:17-19

            Message of the verses:  “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.”

            I have to say that this section was actually fulfilled about 25 years ago with my son.  He was having a very depressed summer when he was 15 years old, and one of the problems was the music that he was listening to, and so after much talking to him he came to work with me, and because I worked in a very large foundry there was always some kind of fire going on and so he threw all of his CD’s into what is called a cupola and burned them up.  The depression got better after this, not right away, but it did get better.

            These verses took place after these would-be exorcists’ fate as their fate “became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus.  The result of this was that “fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified.”  Now when Luke talks about the name of Jesus he is talking about everything about who Jesus is, the fact that He came from heaven, born as a child to a virgin mother, Mary, that He grew up in subjection to His mother and step-father, that at the age of 30 began His ministry, which began at His baptism.  He followed what His Father had planned for Him to do through the power and strength of the Holy Spirit, including dying on a cross for the forgiveness of all who would believe in Him.  He rose from the dead, and after 40 days he went back to heaven sitting at the right had of His Father where He makes intercession for His children, all those who have been born again into His family.

            The people in Ephesus knew that they should not be having anything to do with these kinds of pagan occult practices and so “many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.”  MacArthur adds “Thus they displayed the turning from sin that marks genuine repentance.  Praxeis (‘practice’) here refers to their secret magic spells, which were generally believed to be rendered useless if they were divulged.  They turned from their magic as the Thessalonians turned from their idols (1 Thes. 1:9).”

            It was because of their conviction that what they were doing was wrong, and we will see that what they did was something that cost them much in money, but in the end because of their genuine repentance they knew that it was right to do this.  “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.”  It is good to know that they did this in public so all knew what they were doing.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “It fell and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7”26-27).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between you and me’?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/16/2018 10:40 AM

 

"Domination" (Acts 19:20)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/15/2018 9:26 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  “Domination”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  Acts 19:20

            Message of the verses:  “So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.”

            You may have noticed that I skipped verses 17-19, and the reason is that because of the busyness of the morning I have decided to so this section because it is very short and save the longer one for tomorrow when I have more time to devote to the longer section.

            What we have been looking at throughout this long section of the book of Acts is how powerfully the Word of God has been working in the lives of the people of Ephesus as Paul spent two years there preaching and teaching the Word of God, and it went so well that all of Asia heard the Word, so we can say that a great revival took place there.  Now we come to the end of this section as this verse states that the Word of the Lord continued to grow mightily and prevailing.  That word prevailing has a large number of meanings as I look it up in the Online Bible Greek/English dictionary.  It means to be strong, but it also means to avail which is what it was doing in the hearts of the Ephesian believers, and I must say that that is what it is suppose to do in the lives of all believers as we grow stronger in the Lord from the study of His Word and allow His Word to have first place in our lives.

            John MacArthur writes “Luke’s brief summary statement (cf. Acts 6:7; 12:24) pulls the passage together and emphasizes the dominant position the Word of God achieved in Ephesus.  All satanic forces of the occult and magic arrayed against the Word could not overpower it.  The bold preaching of the gospel, the confirming miracles, the defeat of exorcists, the resultant awe and respect for the name of Jesus, and the public repudiation of the magical arts demonstrated the invincible might of God’s Word.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  In order for the Word of God to have this kind of effect on my life I need to continue to study it each and every day. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  That the Lord will give us a good day with three of our grandchildren today as we will take them on a mini adventure.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “As tongues of fire” (Acts 2:3).

Today’s Bible question:  “What did Jesus teach regarding building a house on the sand?

Answer in our next SD.

6/15/2018 9:42 AM

           

"Competition" (Acts 19:13-16)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/14/2018 8:45 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                         Focus:  “Competition”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Acts 19:13-16

            Message of the verses:  “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.”

            We can see that the Jewish exorcists decided to add to things that they would say in order to cast out demons.  John MacArthur quotes John Polhill:

“Ancient magicians were syncretists and would borrow terms from any religion that sounded sufficiently strange to the deemed effective. These Jewish exorcists of Ephesus were only plying their trade.  Paul’s ‘spell’ in Jesus name seemed effective for him, so they gave it a try.”

            We ran into something like this in Acts chapter eight when we law Simon Magus, the man who though that he could buy the power that the apostles had with money, and found out that it was not for sale.  Now we see in verse 13b that these Jewish exorcists “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."”  These were not Jewish Christians for they did not even know who Jesus was, only that He was the One whom Paul taught.  MacArthur writes “Exorkiston (exorcists) appears only here in the New Testament.  It derives from a root word meaning ‘to bind with an oath’; ancient exorcists attempted to expel demons by invoking the name of a more powerful spirit being. Exorcists were common in the ancient world, even among the Jews (Matt. 12:27; Acts 13:6).  Their fanciful spells and ritual formulas were very different from the absolute authority delegated by Christ and exercised by the apostles.”

            I suppose that in using the name of Jesus that they thought that it was a magical charm to be used by them, but that is not true at all, and these exorcists soon learned the truth of this.  At any rate they tried their new ritual out saying “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.”  However unlike Paul they did not know the Person they named nor have His power delegated to them.  Luke identifies these men as the seven sons of one Sceva who was a Jewish high priest.  Nothing else is known about this man.  MacArthur adds that “there was never a Jewish high priest by that name.  Either he was a member of one of the high priestly families, or more likely, he appropriated the title to impress his clients.”  We have this kind of things actually being done in our time today, as some call themselves doctors or professors who do similar things.

            It seems that their gig was up when they tried to cast out a demon for the demon said to them “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”  We know from our past studies in Mark and also in James that demons certainly know who Jesus is, but they did not know who these sons of Sceva were as they would soon find out.

            It was because that they did not know who Jesus was, nor had any rite to use His name that what happened to them happened:  “the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all seven of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”  John MacArthur writes “Presumably, Satan had allowed them in the past to appear to succeed.  It can be helpful to remember that Satan’s kingdom is inconsistent and random.  Even his demons do not act consistently, and they form a house divided against itself, which cannot stand (Matt. 12:25-26).  Here, however, God overruled the confused efforts of those fools for His own glory.”

            So what about today, as we have written there are people who are trying to do these kinds of things today.  I have heard of a couple of cases from first of all to a friend of mine who told me a story of a small woman who, from what he said was possessed by a demon and several large men tried to confront her and she beat them badly.  When I was listening to Hal Lindsey many years ago on a taped message he said that in preparation of him writing “Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth,” that he cast out a demon from a woman, and stated that he felt that God allowed him to do this in the preparation of writing his book.  John MacArthur writes:

“This story vividly illustrates the danger for any who assume messianic or apostolic power over demons and Satan and thus carelessly meddle in the supernatural realm.

“Satan would have wished these sons of Sceva to succeed, so that the domain of darkness could compete with God, as Pharaoh’s magicians did with Moses (Ex. 7:22).  But the attempt to provide competition for the Word was thwarted.  In fact, it completely backfired and only brought greater conviction among the Ephesians of the power of Jesus’ name and the truth of Paul’s preaching.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to say that as far as some believers today, who are led by the Spirit of God to do this kind of thing that it could be done today.  However I also believe that there are people in this world today who try to exploit others for the all mighty dollar who would not stop from trying to do things like these seven sons of Sceva.  I realize that there are those who believe that this kind of thing can only be done by the Apostles, which we know are long gone, but like I said I have not made up my mind on whether God allows certain believers to do this kind of thing today.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Lord will give me a better opinion of this as I always seek the truth from God through His Word as His Spirit teaches me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “No” (1 Kings 18:24-29).

Today’s Bible question:  “How did the Holy Spirit appear on the day of Pentecost?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/14/2018 9:46 AM

               

"Confirmation" (Acts 19:11-12)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/13/2018 9:58 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                       Focus:  “Confirmation”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 19:11-12

            Message of the verses:  “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.”

            We have been looking at the power of God’s Word as we work our way through these thirteen verses in the nineteenth chapter of the book of Acts.

            Paul spent two years in Ephesus and during those two years I have to believe that through the preaching of God’s Word that many people were saved, not only in Ephesus, but in all of the surrounding towns around Ephesus as we read earlier “This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks (Acts 19:10).”  In our study today we will learn that God would use great miracles in order to show that His Word, that is the things in His Word, especially about salvation, can be seen as true.  Paul would preach to the Ephesians about how they can be saved, and then we read that extraordinary miracles would be done by the hands of Paul, and this would confirm that what he was telling them was true.

            These kinds of miracles were a standard feature of apostolic preaching.  So one may ask why we saw these great miracles, which by the way were called “sign gifts of the Holy Spirit,” during this time period. The sign gifts only lasted until the completion of the New Testament, and as the church age began we saw many of these gifts being performed through the apostles, and as the church age grew, and as time went on they were seen less and less.  In one of the letters that Paul wrote in his later life to one of the churches he spoke of one of his friends who was sick, and near death, and yet God raised him up from the sickness, but this was not done through a miracle through Paul, but through prayers from the saints.  I have written this before, but it bears repeating and that when I was a very young believer and head all about what we call the Charismatic movement and was talking to the friend of mine that was mentoring us and he simply said that God cures us every time except the last time.  This made perfect sense to me and so that is how I still understand things like this. 

            As we look through these two verses we see some of the miracles that Paul did, things like healings and curing diseases and then casting evil spirits out of people.  These are things that were done through the power of the Holy Spirit through Paul and as one my suspect they got the attention of people during that time period showing them that the Word of God was true.  We now have the entire Bible and we can read about these things that happened, and we can read about how a person who is born a sinner can be saved through believing that Jesus paid it all.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There are times when I wish the Lord would take care of problems that I have with my EBS, but I suppose as I look back on these things that God has taught me to trust Him more.  7/17/2023 10:02 AM  A month or so I began to take a product to help my food digest better and this has taken care of most of my EBS problems.  PTL

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord with these issues, that as He promised they will bring glory to the Lord.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Did the prophets of Baal bring down fire from heaven?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/13/2018 10:42 AM  

PT-2 "Proclamation" (Acts 19:8-10)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/12/2018 8:54 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-2 “Proclamation”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 19:8-10

            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.”

            We talked about how long that Paul was able to speak in the Synagogue at Ephesus, but in the end things were mostly the same as when he spent shorter times talking to the Jews happened here and that is they became “hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people.”  John MacArthur writes the following about the word hardened saying it “is from skleruno, a word always used in the New Testament to speak of a heart hardened against God (Rom. 9:18; Heb.  3:8, 13, 15; 4:7).  The imperfect tense of the verb shows that the hardening was a process.  Over the course of Paul’s three-month ministry in the Ephesian synagogue, some hearts gradually hardened against the gospel.  When the truth is rejected repeatedly, it hardens the heart, and the message of salvation becomes an ‘aroma from death to death’ (2 Cor. 2:16).  Their refusing to repent and believe the gospel is classified as being ‘disobedient,’ since belief is a divine command (Acts 17:30; cf. Mark 1:15).”  (I know that I quoted more than the meaning of the word in the Greek translated “hardened” but sometimes I just keep going because of the things that MacArthur writes have so much meaning.)

            We see the word “Way” in verse nine, and this word goes way back in my walk with the Lord as I remember having on my backpack “One Way” meaning that Jesus is the only Way.  However this word in the early church was an early title for Christianity.  “and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem (Acts 9:2).”  “23 About that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the Way (Acts 19:23).”  “14  "But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets (Acts 23:14).”  “22 But Felix, having a more exact knowledge about the Way, put them off, saying, "When Lysias the commander comes down, I will decide your case’ (Acts 23:22).”  Not only did these men with the harden hearts from the Synagogue not want to hear any more from Paul, and the message of life, but they went out and spoke badly about those who were Christians.

            Paul got the message from these men and so he did what he always did when the Jews turned down what he was trying to give them and that is that he “withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.”  So it looks like there were some who had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Paul was speaking in the synagogue as Luke identifies them as disciples that Paul took away with him, and then he began to speak daily in the school of Tyrannus.  MacArthur writes “Tyrannus may have been the owner of the lecture hall or the philosopher who taught there. If he was a teacher, his name, which means ‘our tyrant,’ may be a nickname given him by his students.”  Some NT manuscripts say that Paul taught there in that school from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM.  F. F. Bruce writes the following:

“Tyrannus no doubt held his classes in the early morning hours.  Public activity caused in the cities of Ionia for several hours at 11 AM and…more people would be asleep at 1 PM than at 1 AM.  But Paul, after spending the early hours of the day at his tent-making (cf. Ch. 20:34), devoted the hours of burden and heat to his more important and more exhausting business, and must have infected his hearers with his own energy and zeal, so that they were willing to sacrifice their siesta for the sake of listening to Paul.”

MacArthur goes on “Paul did not go off duty at 4:00 PM but continued ministering well into the evening hours (Acts. 20:31), no doubt instructing from house to house.”

            In studying the book of Revelation, the 2^nd and 3^rd chapters, we used verse ten to explain how six of the seven churches began, and that verse states “This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.”  We know that Paul had a grueling schedule, but at the same time it was greatly used of the Spirit of God to bring many souls to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “David” (1 Samuel 17:13-14).

Today’s Bible question:  “According to 2 Peter 1:21, how did the prophecy of Scripture originate?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/12/2018 9:34 AM

 

PT-1 "Proclamation" (Acts 19:8-10)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/11/2018 8:24 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-1 “Proclamation”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 19:8-10

            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.”

            We are today and will be for a few days  talking about the power of God’s Word, and in this section we will see the power of God’s Word in the proclamation of it by the apostle Paul.

            How do we unleash the power of God’s Word?  Well the first thing we do is to proclaim it, which is what we see Paul doing in these verses from Acts 19.  When Paul was first with the Ephesian Jews as seen in 18:19-21, he established a cordial relationship with them and so once he came back there what he found was the door still open and as seen in verse eight “he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.”  John MacArthur writes “The imperfect tense of parresiazomai (‘speaking out boldly’) emphasizes the continual nature of Paul’s proclamation.  Boldness was a hallmark of apostolic preaching (Acts 4:29) and Paul’s desire for ministry (Eph. 6:19).”  Paul in his preaching held nothing back as he was uncompromising confrontational.  We see in verse eight that this went on for three months.  Now as we have been studying the book of Acts for almost a year as we begin out study on the 17^th of June last year, and then when we got to the part of seeing the missionary journeys of  Paul we have seen that he always begins by talking to the Jews in each town that he visits, but the point that I want to make is that I don’t believe that he ever spent as much time speaking to the Jews as he did in Ephesus as we see he did this for three months, a very long time.  We don’t really know how many of the Jews became believers, but they certainly had the chance to do so as they listened to Paul.  We see that Paul was reasoning with the Jews and he was also persuading them about the kingdom of God, something that all Jews look forward to.  MacArthur writes “Reasoning is from dialegomai, from which the English word dialogue derives.  Paul did not merely lecture, but again was responding to their questions and challenges.  ‘Persuading is the present participle of peitho, and means ‘to convince by argument’ (cf. Acts 28:23).  He was obviously in the midst of a whole congregation of unbelieving Jews.  Yet he unflinchingly and directly challenged their whole religious system, calling them to repent and believe in Jesus as their Messiah and God.”

            I want to try to answer a question that was raised in my mind as I have been reading over this passage for the last few days, and that has to do with what we read in verse eight were we read that Paul was “reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.”  What was Paul talking about when he was persuading them about the kingdom of God?  We know that in the Old Testament that God promised the children of Israel a kingdom and then in the NT book of Revelation we see that it will last for 1000 years:  “1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time (Rev. 20:1-4).”  As Paul was preaching about the kingdom of God we know that it encompassed more than what we read about in Revelation as far as the length, for I am not even sure that Paul knew the length of the promised kingdom for Revelation was not written yet as it was written around 90-95 A. D. Paul may have know how long the kingdom would last, but if he did he never wrote about the length of it.  MacArthur writes “To teach the kingdom of God is to teach the things concerning Christ and salvation (cf. Acts 28:31) (‘preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.’) and righteousness (Rom. 14:17) (‘for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.’)  It is to teach how to enter the sphere of salvation and live there in communion with God.”  Well I think that this answers my question of what Paul was teaching when he was teaching about the kingdom of God.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at what Paul was doing while speaking and teaching and persuading the Jews for three months I know that to be an effective witness of Jesus Christ I have to be persistent, but not to be degrading.  I know that the gospel is offensive; as people do not want to admit that they were born sinners and continue to sin because they were born sinners, and that sin is offensive to the Lord, so this can make a person uncomfortable for sure and even make them become offensive in their reaction to the gospel.  However God is just and will not allow a person into His heaven without having been washed in the blood of the Lamb, for the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died for me on the cross so that I can have eternal life with Him.  2Co “5:21 For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”   That is what is called the great exchange.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to talk to Mike, my brother in law, about his need for the Savior, and so I pray as I have prayed for him for over 35 years that the Holy Spirit of God will open up his heart today as the Lord willing we will be playing golf with two of my friends who have a great desire to see people come to know the Lord. 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Beyond the river Shetharboznal” (Ezra 6:6).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was the youngest son of Jesse?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/11/2018 9:14 AM        

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