Many years ago Hal Lindsay wrote a book entitled, “Satan Is Alive And Well On Planet Earth.” And, you know what – he was right. Satan is alive and well on Planet Earth. But you know what – Jesus is More Alive and He’s More Well on Planet Earth! We’re going to see that truth as we come to Acts 19 today.
Teaching Notes:
Jesus Triumphs Over Satan’s Stronghold
Acts 19:8-41
In Acts 19 we come face to face with Paul’s incredible ministry in Ephesus. The city of Ephesus was a lot like Corinth. Both cities were very large population centers in the ancient world. Both cities were commercial centers in the ancient world. And both cities were strongholds of Satan. Satan dominated Corinth through idolatry and sexual immorality. Satan dominated Ephesus through idolatry, demons, and the occult. We are going to see this morning that though Satan once dominated Ephesus, Jesus began to dominate Ephesus through His servant utilizing Jesus’ Word, Name, and Spirit.
As we begin today, let me give you a very brief study in demonology. You need to realize that Satan is a very real being. He’s just as real as you or me or God. He is not equal with God. In fact, he was created by God. From what we can gather in the Word of God, Satan was once a very beautiful and wise angel, who lifted himself up with pride and wanted to make himself like the Most High God. God, in judgment cast him out of heaven along with 1/3 of the other angels who followed Satan in his rebellion. These creatures are referred to in the Bible as demons, unclean spirits, and evil spirits. They are set in opposition to God and His people. Though they are invisible to our eyes, they are very real, and they are set to do mischief in the earth.
When Jesus walked the earth, He often cast these evil spirits out of people. In fact, along with preaching, and healing, casting out evil spirits made up the majority of Jesus’ earthly ministry.
1 John 3:8 says “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” Jesus successfully resisted Satan’s temptations in the wilderness with the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. He then went to the cross and “disarmed the rulers and authorities; He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him” (Col.2:15). Jesus exercised complete authority over Satan and his demons when He walked this earth. When Jesus ascended to heaven He gave this same authority to His church. In Mk.16:17 He said, “These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons.” We see the church taking up Christ’s Name, and using to cast out demons in the book of Acts. Consider Acts 5:16 “also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.” Or, consider Acts 8:7 “For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice” as Philip cast them out.
So, in our study this morning we find the apostle Paul ministering in Ephesus, the great city in which Satan held such a powerful stronghold. Now, this is not the first time Paul has set foot in Ephesus. Remember in 18:19, after Paul left Corinth, he went to Ephesus, preached in the synagogue, and dropped Aquila and Priscilla off, and then took off for Jerusalem to burn his hair he had cut in order to fulfill his Nazirite vow. Afterward, he made his way back to his home church in Antioch, and spent some time there. In 18:23 Paul begins his 3rd missionary journey. He starts by ministering in the churches he had planted in Galatia on his 1st missionary journey, and then he heads through the upper country, and comes to Ephesus. Remember that he had said in 18:21 to the Jews in Ephesus, “I will return to you again if God wills.” Well, God did will, and so Paul was good to his word. And when Paul returned, he found some of John the Baptist’s disciples in Ephesus. These disciples had never heard the news that the Holy Spirit had been poured out as a result of Christ’s death and resurrection. Well, Paul preached the gospel to them, they believed, were baptized, and they received the Spirit with the supernatural sign of speaking in tongues and prophesying.
This morning we are going to see how Jesus Christ triumphed in Ephesus – the place of Satan’s Strongholds. We are going to see that He triumphed through His Word, His Name, and His Spirit – the very same way that He will triumph today in every city, including Rancho Cordova or Sacramento!
1. Jesus Triumphed Through His Word: 19:8-10
A. In The Synagogue: 19:8. Continued speaking boldly for 3 months. Now 3 months was a very long time. In most places Paul was kicked out of the synagogue within just a few weeks. These Jews were more receptive than most. Remember, that when Paul first reasoned with these Jews, they asked him to stay for a longer time. Evidently, there were many Jews who were very interested in what Paul had to say, and were weighing it carefully.
Boldly: Paul was not the kind of velvet-tongued preacher who will soften his message so nobody leaves or gets offended. He spoke boldly the truth, and let the Holy Spirit use the truth to do His work. That’s the kind of preaching I believe in – declare the Word of God as truthfully and as accurately as you possibly can, and leave the results to the Lord.
Reasoning and persuading: reasoning refers to dialogue, two-way communication. Paul was not lecturing. He would declare God’s truth about Jesus being God’s Messiah, and when objections started to be raised he would answer them. His preaching in the synagogue was more like a Q&A session, than a sermon. Remember Acts 17:2 – Paul was reasoning from the Scriptures! So, here we see Paul using God’s Word evangelistically – to prove that Jesus was the Son of God, Savior, Messiah, and King and the fulfillment of all the Jewish prophecies. And he must have been pretty successful, because the next verse says “but when some were becoming hardened and disobedient…” If only some were becoming hardened and disobedient, that must mean that many were not, which means that many Jews were opening their hearts and minds to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. So, Jesus is using His Word to triumph in Ephesus by converting Jews in the synagogue.
B. In the School of Tyrannus: Because some were speaking evil of The Way, Paul thought it best to withdraw. He didn’t want the new convert’s minds polluted by this blasphemy against Jesus, so he took the new Jewish disciples, along with the 12 disciples of John who had been converted, and Aquila and Priscilla, and they left the synagogue and moved into the School of Tyrannus.
Evidently, there was a local philosopher who taught in a lecture hall in Ephesus named Tyrannus. His name means “tyrant”! It’s not clear whether he got his name from his mother or his pupils! There’s an ancient manuscript which includes the little note in vs.9 that Paul lectured between the 5th and the 10th hours, which would be 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. It was the custom in Ephesus, to work from sunrise to 11:00 a.m., then take a siesta during the hottest portion of the day, and then work from 4:00 p.m. to about 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. So, folks would sleep for about 5 hours at night, and then sleep another 3 hours during the day. Evidently Tyrannus was willing to rent out his lecture hall during the hottest hours of the day to Paul. According to one author, it was said that in Ephesus there were more people sound asleep at 1 p.m. Than at 1 a.m.! We know that Paul was working his tentmaking trade because in Acts 20:33-35 when Paul was speaking to the Ephesian Elders, he speaks about working with his hands to minister to his own needs. So, what was Paul’s schedule like? He would work from 7:00 a.m. To 11:00 a.m., then he would teach the Word from 11:00 to 4:00 p.m., then go back to his tentmaking trade until about 8:00 or 9:00 p.m., then he would teach the word from house to house (20:20) until late into the night. You have to admire Paul’s zeal, and self-sacrifice for the sake of God and His glory! Notice that Paul was reasoning daily. If he taught 5 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 2 years, he would log in 3,600 hours of teaching! No wonder Paul could say “I have taught you the whole counsel of God!”
All who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord: this is an absolutely amazing statement! Jews and Gentiles all heard the Word. But how did this work? Paul couldn’t personally herald the word to every person in Asia! That would be like saying that you went out and got God’s Word to everyone in California! Impossible. No, what Paul did was train up and equip leaders to take the Word to the outlying areas of Asia. It was at this time that many churches were planted such as the church of Laodicea, Colossae, Hieropolis, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, and Philadelphia. It appears that Epaphras planted the church in Colossae (Col.1:7; 4:12). Perhaps Paul had personally discipled Philemon and Archippus. So, in the School of Tyrannus, Paul was living out what he later wrote in Eph.4:11-12. Paul was an apostle who equipped the saints for the work of service. Paul taught the Word of God to many people who then took the word to other areas and planted gospel churches. It reminds me a lot of the Jesus Movement in which Chuck Smith just taught the Word, and God raised up many men like Greg Laurie, Raul Ries, Mike McIntosh and Jon Courson, who went out with the Word and planted churches which grew into megachurches. In the synagogue we see Paul teaching the Word in order to bring lost people to faith. In the School of Tyrannus, we see Paul teaching the Word to bring saints to maturity and equip them to go and make disciples. Jesus used His Word in Ephesus to save and to sanctify. The Word does it all! In fact look at 19:20. Here Luke gives us one of those quick summary statements that sprinkled throughout Acts: “So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.” It wasn’t Paul’s fame that was growing, but the word of the Lord! That’s what Jesus used to pull down Satan’s strongholds.
Application: Brothers & sisters, I’m convinced that Jesus will use the same thing today to pull down Satan’s strongholds in Rancho Cordova. We need to be proclaiming His Word everywhere – in our new church building, in homes, in coffee shops, and in parks. The same word will save the lost, and equip the saved to go and make disciples. What we need is a church built solidly on God’s Word. We need men of God who will rise up and boldly proclaim God’s truth without flinching, call a spade a spade, and tell people what God has already said. When that happens, the Spirit of God has something He can use to save and sanctify. Let’s commit again that we will be a people who base our lives and our ministries on the Word of the Lord! Amen?
2. Jesus Triumphed Through His Name: 19:11-17 (esp. 13,17)
A. In The Miraculous Ministry of Paul: 19:11-12. We can see how Jesus triumphed through His Name, as we examine these miracles of Paul. Notice that these miracles were done by the hands of Paul. What does that refer to? Well, probably, that the apostle was laying his hands on the sick and demonized and healing them. This is how Jesus ministered (Luke 4:40). Jesus Himself said this is what would happen (Mk.16:17-18). So, I believe what is happening is that Paul is laying his hands on the sick and demonized and praying for healing in the Name of Jesus.
Notice that these are extraordinary miracles. These were exceptional and unusual miracles. How so? Well, the next verse tells us. The handkerchiefs would be sweatbands that tentmakers would wear around their heads, and the aprons were tied around his wast while working on making tents. Now, the obvious question is “how did putting a handkerchief or sweatband on someone who was sick or demonized heal them?” Surely, there was no magical properties in these sweatbands and aprons! We are seeing again what we saw when the woman with the issue of blood touched the fringe of Jesus’ garment and was healed, or the people in Jerusalem got within Peter’s shadow and were healed. Evidently these things became the point of contact where the individual exercised faith, and God responded in faith and brought healing & deliverance. I believe that’s why we lay hands on the sick, and anoint them with oil. There’s nothing special about our hands or oil. But these can be aids to our faith. The woman with the issue of blood just knew that if she could touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment she would be healed. Likewise with the people who got within Peter’s shadow, and those here who had an apron placed on them. If you don’t expect or believe anything will happen when you are anointed with oil, probably nothing will happen! So, here we see Jesus triumphing over those who were possessed by demons as Paul placed his hands on them, or had aprons sent to them. No doubt Paul prayed in the mighty Name of Jesus. We know that, because in the next section we find some Jewish exorcists who tried to copy Paul by using the Name of Jesus.
B. In The Mimicking of the Jewish Exorcists: 19:13-17. In the ancient world there were exorcists who traveled about and sought to cast out evil spirits, usually receiving a fee for this service. They were generally superstitious, and used various formulas. When they saw how successful Paul was in casting out demons through the Name of Jesus, they figured they would try it for themselves. 7 sons of the chief priest, Sceva, tried out this trick, but it backfired. In fact what they got was a Reverse Exorcism. Instead of casting the demon out, the demon cast them out! Here we have the first recorded instance of streakers!
The evil spirit said. When an evil spirit possesses a person, it can speak by using that person’s voicebox, but the sound that comes forth will be different from the normal voice of the individual.
The man in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them. Notice that the evil spirit spoke, but the man leaped on them. He was able to beat up 7 men! Evidently, in the fight, he tore their clothes off, so that they ran naked and wounded. In Mark 5:4 we read of a man possessed with many demons who was able to break chains and shackles in pieces, and no one could subdue him.
Fear fell upon them all. As this event was made known all the people learned that the name of Jesus was holy, and you don’t just take it upon your lips unless you are His follower. Why was the Name of the Lord Jesus magnified? Because they saw that when someone who had surrendered his life to Jesus (Paul) used that Name, great miracles took place. But when someone who didn’t follow Jesus took that Name, they were beaten and stripped naked. The Name of Jesus was exalted and magnified among the people by these incidents.
Application:
1) The Necessity of Having a Saving Relationship with Jesus: “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” There are many people who will perish in Hell because they have no saving relationship with Jesus Christ. They only know the Jesus the pastor preaches or that their wife believes in!
2) The Need to Avoid Copying Someone Else’s Ministry: These 7 sons of Sceva went about copying Paul, without His annointing. Some say, I think I’ll try to dress that like that guy, and preach like him, and do the same things he does,” thinking that they will see the same spiritual annointing. Wrong! God has made you, you, because He wants to do things through you that He’s not going to do through that other guy! God wants to use your personality in communicating His truth and love to others.
3) Do the demons know your name? They knew Jesus and Paul but not these other guys, because they were no threat to Satan’s kingdom. You bet they knew Paul, because Paul was doing some major damage to the kingdom of darkness. Are you doing any damage to Satan’s kingdom? Are you invading his kingdom and rescuing hell-bound sinners? Are you being used of God to see healing of broken marriages, sicknesses, demonic possession? Is God using you to help believers grow in holiness? In all these ways we pull down Satan’s strongholds. Is your name known in hell? I hope so!
3. Jesus Triumphed Through His Spirit: 19:18-41
A. In The Conversion of the Occultists: 19:18-20. Here we see a true work of the Spirit of God in revival! There’s no doubt that these people who were involved in the occult are being genuinely converted, because they are repenting, confessing their sins, and renouncing their evil ways. Notice, they kept coming. There was a steady of stream of new converts coming out of the occult. It was believed that in order for magic spells to work, you had to keep them a secret. If anyone found out about the magic spell, it would stop working. So for them to disclose their practices, meant they were done with the occult altogether!
Burning their books. These were books filled with incantations, and magic spells. They were extremely valuable. Notice the price – 50,000 pieces of silver. A piece of silver was called a drachma, and it was equivalent to a day’s wage for a blue collar worker. So, let’s figure out what that would equal in today’s economy. Let’s figure $120 per day for a manual laborer. If you multiply $120 by 50,000 you come up with $6 million! Talk about a supernatural work of the Spirit of God! There must have been thousands of people being converted out of the occult.
Application: If you have become a Christian you should destroy anything related to the occult, and avoid any contact of any kind with it. God condemns all forms of occult in the Scriptures, including astrology, sorcery, witchcraft, divination, or calling people from the dead. If you have used any books, games (Dungeons and Dragons, Uiji Boards), or any other paraphenalia in connection with an occultic activity, destroy it. Don’t sell it on Craigslist or have a garage sale. You’re just putting that damnable stuff in the hands of other people whom it can harm. Destroy it. If you have had any part in going to psychics, palm readers, tarot card readers, astrology or seyences, repent of it and renounce it completely. If you continue to dabble in these practices, you are giving the devil a foothold in your life.
B. In The Conversion of the Idolaters: 19:21-41. The Temple of Artemis (Dianna) was one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. It was built in 550 B.C. of pure white marble and was 425′ x 220′. It had 127 columns that were 60′ high (think a 6 story building). In this temple was the image of the goddess Artemis. It was an ugly thing – a piece of stone which looked like a many-breasted woman. Vs.35 says it fell down from heaven, so what we probably have here is a meteorite, which they people worshiped, and built a temple for!
So what was the problem? Paul’s ministry was resulting in the salvation of so many people that the silversmiths and craftsmen’s pocketbook was feeling the crunch as they forsook their idols for the True and Living God. Evidently these craftsmen were making little souvenirs like you would find in the gift shop of some major attraction. These would be little models of the Temple or statuettes of the goddess. The people would buy them and put them in their homes as charms.
So how did Paul have such an impact on the idol trade in Ephesus? It wasn’t by picketing the temple, or staging an anti-idolatry rallies. Nor was it by speaking against the goddess Artemis publicly (notice that they weren’t “blasphemers of our goddess” – vs.37). Paul just preached the truth and sent others out to preach the truth, and so many people came to Christ that there were fewer and fewer customers available. Of course Demetrius framed his objection to Paul using other motives such as Ephesian pride – their temple would be regarded as worthless and the goddess would be dethroned from her magnificence (27)! Note: the best way to defeat pornography or abortion or sex trafficking is to preach the gospel. When people are converted God will deliver them from all these evil practices, but not before.
The Theater: This theater had a seating capacity of somewhere between 25,000 and 50,000 people. That’s like going to see a SF Giants game! Try to imagine that theater filled with anxious and angry people, all screaming at the top of their lungs “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” for 2 hours. Eventually the town clerk was able to quiet down the crowd and send them home, realizing that this riot was not the way to settle the problem the craftsmen had with Paul.
The Power of the Spirit: Whenever someone is converted we have the evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit at work. No man will ever be regenerated apart from a supernatural sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. So as you look at all these occultists and idolaters being converted in Ephesus, we are seeing a dramatic display of the Power of the Spirit!
Application: Oh may we see the same again in our own day!! God come down! Convert men and women who have turned to the occult and idols instead of the True and Living God. We see occultists and idolaters everywhere in our own day. Everyone has a god that they worship; the only problem is that it is usually not the True and Living God. Many are seeking answers in the spiritual and supernatural, but just not in the Word of God. We need to do exactly the same thing Paul did – preach and teach God’s Word, pray for people in Jesus’ name, and cry out that God would pour out His Spirit in supernatural power to convert lost people. Yes, Satan has a stronghold in Rancho Cordova, but Jesus can triumph over it with His Word, Name and Spirit. However, He needs some willing instruments. He needs people who will proclaim His Word, pray in His Name, and be filled with His Spirit. Are you willing to be one of His instruments? Let’s pray.
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