The Word of the Lord Prevailed Mightily
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Acts 19:1-7, 13-20
1. While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2. And he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said, "No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." 3. And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism." 4. And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus." 5. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. 7. There were about twelve of them in all. 13. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches." 14. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15. But the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?" 16. And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17. And this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all; and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18. Many also of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19. And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20. So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily.
The sorcerers we amazed at the power Paul invoked through the Holy Spirit! It was far more than they could accomplish, even with the most powerful spells and incantations. They didn’t understand that the baptism Paul preached was not from man, or through the power of man. They foolishly assumed that Paul possessed magical powers! But when the Holy Spirit did come on the twelve whom Paul baptized, it was cause for repentance! Such power! God used even the evil spirits to work for his purpose!
Sometimes it takes more than a quiet coincidence, or hearing a faint whisper in our ear for God to get our attention! It would be so much easier if we didn’t have television and radio noise 24/7 and cars and trucks and buses and fire engines and police cars all blasting us and assaulting our senses make it nearly impossible to hear that whisper! If life were all easily divided into black and white, right and wrong, good an bad, we could discern so much more clearly what to do and how to act in any given situation. But life in 2004 presents us so many “gray areas” so many things that seem right in certain situations that really are partly wrong—which means wrong! Good and bad as concepts are reduced to political party attack ads and blurred by exceptions made for the wealthy and the famous in terms of jail sentences and other consequences of breaking the law.
But it really comes down to one thing: we believe or we don’t. Right is right and wrong is wrong. That’s just how it is. Jesus left no room for equivocation! He challenged anybody who responded to him with, “but . . .” There was no time for hesitation or doubt! Repent, reform. Accept God’s gift of grace, earned for us by Jesus. Live accordingly.
I don’t know about anybody else, but I’ve got a lot of work to do! Those evil spirits seem to abound in my comings and goings. But God uses even evil to accomplish the greater good! Jesus hung on a cross for us—no evil spirit, no matter how powerful, could offer us that much love, hope and grace.
I hope today you’ll burn those books of how you lived before you were saved and proclaim the good news of the Risen Christ without hesitation and extol the name of Jesus.
Mary
