Month: January 2016

And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.
Acts 19:41

The circumstances preceding our text today make it a truly amazing verse! In Acts 19, Paul’s travels take him to the city of Ephesus where he preaches the gospel more than two years. However, as we’ve come to expect in Paul’s missionary journeys, eventually the people can bear the truth no more, and in v. 28-29, the whole city is filled with wrath and in an uproar because of the apostle’s teachings against idolatry. In Lystra, this hatred of the gospel lead to Paul being stoned (14:19), and in Philippi, it resulted in his being stripped, beaten, and imprisoned. (16:22-23) It would seem the apostle was well on his way to a similar outcome when the whole riot in Ephesus fizzled out because of our verse above. It is the “he” in our text which makes it so surprising.  Per v. 35, “he” is the city clerk of Ephesus (similar to a mayor), and he doesn’t intervene and disband the angry mob because he agrees with Paul’s doctrine. On the contrary, we find that this man is also an idolater who worshipped the goddess Diana! So, what does our text teach us? That our God is big enough to use anything and anybody to deliver His children!

This fact should greatly encourage the church. Pro 16 contains several verses which highlight the truth that God is in absolute, sovereign control of all men. This town clerk would have been an enemy to Paul’s teaching that the Lord was the one true God, but Pro 16:7 states, “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Our enemies are under God’s control! They can’t resist us unless God permits it!! And if God will have them on our side, they will be. Even if they devise evil in their hearts against us, they may open their mouths and hear blessings come out instead of curses. Just listen to v. 1: “The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” Go ask Haman who built gallows on which to hang Mordecai in the book of Esther. Haman got a hard lesson on Pro 16:9 when he ended up being the one hanged. That verse teaches, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”

Of course, this sovereign control of God doesn’t extend only over the ungodly. We are taught in Jam 4:15 that all men should say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” No matter what plans we may make, God’s will is that alone which will always come to pass. No one can stop it. Even what we might call chance, such as casting the lot (an Old Testament equivalent to rolling the dice), is guided by the will of the Lord: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” (Pro 16:33) The only way to guarantee success is to get in line with God’s will. “Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” (Psa 37:4-5) When we delight in Him and desire His will, we can expect our plans to be established because our wishes will align with His purposes!

So, be encouraged, dear sheep of His pasture. “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luk 12:32) If He’s determined to give us the kingdom, it’s a done deal! Don’t let this year’s presidential race disturb your peace in Christ. Surely we desire godly leaders who will rule the people in righteousness and justice, but no matter who sits in the White House, he or she is ultimately under God’s authority. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.” (Pro 21:1) Remember, God gave His only begotten Son for our eternal preservation. If he loves us enough to make such a sacrifice, “how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom 8:32) If God is for us, who can be against us?!! (v. 31) Our God is big enough to make good on His promise that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” So, I hope you’re smiling, church. We of all people have reason to do so! 🙂

Love in Christ,
Jamie

This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
Acts 19:17

Our text today follows on the heels of our passage last week. After seven men who took Christianity lightly were brutalized by a demon (see last week’s post), “fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified”. This account is reminiscent of Acts 5 when Ananias and Sapphira were killed for lying to God. The result of this judgment upon them was that “great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things” and “believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women”. (Act 5:11, 14) In both accounts, when men had a proper fear of God, the Lord was glorified.

Inevitably, when you start talking about the fear of God, someone will quote 1Jo 4:18: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” This verse is a glorious one and is reason for rejoicing! The Lord Jesus has delivered all who trust in Him from fear. Heb 2:14-15 reminds us that He died so that “through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Praise God for that truth! If we were always conscious of the great love that bought salvation for us, how could we every be fearful? All improper fear, therefore, should be rejected as we fix our eyes on Christ; however, the Scripture repeatedly reminds us that the fear of the Lord is the one fear which must remain.

The two apostles which we have primarily followed as we have studied the book of Acts are Peter and Paul. Both men instructed the church to maintain a proper fear of God. In 1Pe 1:17, Peter wrote, “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work,  conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear”. An awareness that we will all stand before God and give account to Him should prompt us to live daily in the fear of the Lord. Paul said true salvation always includes it: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Php 2:12-13) If the Spirit is at work in us, the fear of God will be there!

In case you’re wondering, the Greek word translated “fear” in our verses above is the word from which our English word “phobia” is derived. Some may try to water the term down, but you do the word a disservice if you only say it means “reverence” or “respect”. Certainly those terms are included, but this term is nothing less than real fear. It is healthy because it is proper fear. It will help keep us in line as we walk through this life. It will prompt us to strive for holiness. It will encourage us to obey. As Proverbs reminds us, it is “by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil” (16:6), and the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (9:10). We desperately need it in a day when so much foolishness goes on in the name of Jesus Christ. May we properly fear before Him and find our experience to be the same as that of the church in Act 9:31: “And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.”

Jamie

Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
Acts 19:13-16

It was clear that these Jewish exorcists were in over their heads by the way they spoke of Jesus. Our knowledge of Him must be personal. Some people only KNOW ABOUT Him. They can recite facts and quote verses, but it’s nothing more than a parrot mimicking its owner. That’s not close enough for salvation. We must KNOW Him! “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (Joh 17:3) These men didn’t know Christ themselves. Rather, He was only “the Jesus whom Paul preaches,” and so they had no power over the enemy. These are those spoken of in 2Ti 2:25-26 “who are in opposition,” caught in Satan’s snare, “having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

We cannot simply know Christ by association. He must be more than our parent’s God, our spouse’s God, or our preacher’s God. He must be our God! Compare for a moment Ruth and Simon the sorcerer. Simon tried to buy the power of the Holy Ghost, but Peter rebuked him saying, “Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.” The sorcerer’s words revealed he still had a problem in his heart: “Then Simon answered and said, ‘Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me.'” (Act 8:22-24) We must approach God personally, not through some saint, if we will know Him. He must be more than just their God. He must be ours!

In contrast, when Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi, told her to return to her own people, the Moabites, Ruth wouldn’t hear of it. Naomi’s other daughter-in-law had already returned to her people and their gods, but not Ruth. She replied, “Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” (Ruth 1:16) What a joy to know Him as MY God! So is He to all His children. He prophesied it would be so in the new covenant, this covenant of grace in Christ Jesus: “I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.” (Heb 8:10-11)

Jamie