All right, hopefully everybody can hear me again. Let's go ahead and pray together before we get into God's Word. Father, we thank you for guiding us along the way. And as we enter into these new paths where things are difficult and it's hard to know what to do, we can look to your Word and find guidance and find the truth that we can rely on and it does not change. Father we pray that you would show us that truth this morning and that you would teach us and help us to make the right application of your word. We talk often about the spiritual condition of the city of Corinth. And we know quite a bit about what a rough city that was that the Apostle Paul walked into, and how intimidated even Paul was to go into that city and try to share the gospel there. Well, something that doesn't seem to come up as often In books I've read, I've seen it but not as often, and sermons I've listened to, but the city of Ephesus was actually a pretty awful place too. As I've been studying for this part of Acts chapter 19 that we're going to be looking at today, I came across quite a bit of information about that city of Ephesus, the city that Paul has returned to now here in Acts chapter 19. And here is one description I found about Ephesus. It says, the major problem in Ephesus was that it was a center for witchcraft. Superstition, demonism, and witchcraft held this city in its thrall. A weird mixture of black arts, worship of demons, astrology, occult practices of various kinds, and superstitious fears had filled this city with priests, magicians, witches, warlocks, and quacks of every description. Sounds like Ephesus must have been a pretty dark and creepy place. We know that Satan has a big influence, a big following all around the world. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4, In whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel and the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Paul says that Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers, and that is common to man the world over. That is why man cannot comprehend the truth of the gospel without God's help. But there seem to be some places where Satan is very active, extra active with demonic and occultic types of things being very prevalent. We hear of some of the animism and things like that in some tribal places. And Ephesus must have been like that. One of those places where Satan was very active. It was the kind of place where a Christian family probably wouldn't want to take their kids for a nice summer vacation. Ephesus probably wouldn't be on your list of places you'd want to go. This was the devil's backyard. So could there be any hope for the gospel to have an effect in Ephesus? Could there be any hope for little old Paul to be able to make a difference with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, it was while Paul was in the city of Ephesus that he wrote the letters to the church at Corinth. And in 2 Corinthians 10 3-5 he said, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Paul saw his time there in Ephesus and what he experienced in Corinth as a war. And he recognized that he was going up against the fortresses of Satan. How do you confront the fortresses of Satan? Paul recognized that he wasn't the one doing the fighting. This was God's battle. And he was using God's weapons, not his own. So the first battlefield that we see here in Acts chapter 19 was at the synagogue. I remember when Paul had stopped in Ephesus just briefly before he made his way back to Antioch. And Paul was maybe there just long enough to wait for the next ship that would come and take him on the rest of his journey. But he used whatever time he had, however short it was, to go to the synagogue where he would find the Jews who were in Ephesus, and just to get a start at pointing them toward Jesus. And when he did, they loved it. They loved what they were hearing. They wanted to hear more. They asked Paul to stay longer. We told him that he wasn't able to at that point, but if it was God's will, he would return. So here in chapter 19 we find that it was God's will and so Paul did return and verse 8 is where he is now back to the synagogue. We look again at verse 8 of Acts 19. And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. I mentioned when we were in chapter 18 about how different places responded so differently to the gospel and to Paul preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. There were many of those places where Paul was pretty quickly got run out or beat up. But here in Ephesus, they actually wanted him. They wanted to hear what he had to say. And for three months, they listened as Paul told them the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now that's quite a while compared to some places that Paul had been. Three months, he reasoned with them. But unfortunately, that didn't last. Let's look at verse 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. This took place for two years that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. And so this tells us here that some of the Jews who were in Ephesus, they heard the gospel, they heard it boldly preached for three months. But after hearing the truth over and over and thoroughly explained for three months, they did not respond in repentance and faith. And because they didn't, their hearts grew harder and harder. Now we saw something happen like this in Corinth. How the people turned against Paul and didn't want to hear anymore of what he had to say about the gospel. We noted there when we were seeing what happened in Corinth that Paul was willing to bear with a loss. of insults against him personally, even persecution against him personally, but there comes a point when they start to blaspheme the Lord, and to speak against the gospel, that it's just time to leave. And it got to that point in Ephesus. It got to where it was becoming more of a fight with those who wanted to argue than it was an opportunity to proclaim the truth. And so Paul moved on. And he took those who had believed the gospel with him. It would not be good for anyone to stay in that environment where the gospel of Jesus Christ was being blasphemed. And so Paul left and he took the believers with him. So Paul finds a new location where they can meet and he can continue to teach. And we find here that that was at the school of Tyrannus. This was some kind of a lecture hall that Paul was able to rent for part of the day, every day. It got added into some text somewhere along the way that Paul taught each day from the fifth hour to the tenth hour. We don't know for sure if that was accurate, but actually it seems plausible. that is Greek time, from the 5th hour to the 10th hour. For us it would be from about 11 o'clock to 4 o'clock, which is the hot part of the day. It was the common practice in that time, that area, for shops to open in the morning when the sun came up for people to go to work, every morning until about 11 o'clock. They'd go home, they'd eat their lunch, they'd rest for a while, do their gardening, whatever they needed to do at home, and about 4.30 they would go back to work, the shops would open back up until dark. And so, if that was the case, then no one would have been using the School of Tyrannus during that time. And so Paul took advantage of that empty space and he used it for two years. It says he did this daily. Now what was the weapon of war that Paul used here in these verses against the fortresses of Satan? We just kept teaching the truth. He kept speaking the truth. What was the effect? Well, remember where this was. This was a city that was filled with witchcraft, it was filled with demonic activity, and Paul just kept teaching the truth, teaching the truth, teaching the truth, every day, so that, verse 10, all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. Now remember what we said about Asia and what that means here. This was the state or the region that the city of Ephesus was in. That wasn't talking about the whole continent of Asia. It was that region where Ephesus was. But that would include places like Colossae. It would include towns like Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. Do any of those towns sound familiar? Colossae is where the letter to the Colossians went, and all of those others I mentioned, along with Ephesus, were the cities that letters went to from Jesus, the churches in those cities, in the book of Revelation. All of those places that had churches there, they likely got started from people who heard Paul teaching the gospel during this time that he was in Ephesus. So we should not underestimate what God can do through just speaking the truth of God's Word. Think about the city of Ephesus and the kind of place it was. And through Paul just speaking the truth and staying steady at it, that truth went all over that whole region. So whenever we can, however we can, we should speak the truth of God's Word. It will be effective. As we go on to the next paragraph of Acts 19, we see that there were some other pretty interesting things happening in Ephesus. Look at verse 11 of Acts 19. Verse 11 says, God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul. So the handkerchiefs and aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out. Now that's pretty amazing, isn't it? We might think, well no wonder the gospel had such an effect and spread so far and wide if this was going on. But it didn't say that everyone in Asia heard the truth because of the miracles. It said everyone heard the truth because Paul continued to faithfully teach the truth. But this is pretty amazing. These miracles that went on here. Several years ago I received an envelope in the mail and inside this envelope was a folded up piece of paper and it had something printed on one side of the paper being folded. It looked something like a rock. And there was a note in the envelope that explained that this was an anointed prayer cloth. And if I would kneel on this cloth when I pray, then I would be assured of being healed or getting what it was that I was praying for or something like that. I don't remember real clearly. I didn't try it because I don't believe it. Whoever it came from probably got that idea from here in Acts 19. There are a lot of people on a few different cable channels and in lots of different churches around the world many of them are wearing very expensive suits some of them own very expensive private jets who say that healing like this can be and should be still happening all the time and they consider themselves to be faith healers and if you have enough faith and give them enough money they will heal you Now if there was any truth to that, now would be a great time to prove it. Now would be the perfect time to show what they can do, if they could heal like Paul did here. They could rid us of all of this virus stuff, and they would have people's attention. If they would go into just one hospital where this virus was really bad and heal everyone there, they would have everyone's attention. They seem to be strangely absent for some reason during this time. But I think a large part of the reason that they seem to be absent during this time, not healing people, is what it says in verse 11 that these were extraordinary miracles this was unique this was not something that was happening all the time this was not something that everyone was doing all Christians weren't doing this even all the apostles weren't doing this all of the time this is not something that we should expect to be repeated and remember where this was this was in Ephesus where there was all kinds of witchcraft and other demonic things going on, but through this, God showed that He is greater. God showed that freedom in Jesus Christ is far better than the bondage of Satan. People suffered affliction when Satan showed up. God brought healing. They didn't take potions or spells or magic words to cause this to happen. Someone could just touch a bandana that Paul had been using to keep the sweat out of his eyes while he worked on the tents in the mornings. Or they could touch one of the aprons that he wore while he was working on tents, the apron that held his tools as he worked. It was something so simple, so common, that came off of Paul that showed God's superiority over Satan. So what was the weapon of war that Paul used here? We could say he used miracles, but we could also say he just used whatever gifts God gave him to use. In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 12, Paul wrote, Notice what Paul says happened there and why it happened. They did these signs, wonders and miracles as signs of a true apostle. Now if you aren't a true apostle, and I can make it easy for you, you're not, because there aren't any today, then you won't be doing the signs of a true apostle. And that's another reason why I don't think any of these miraculous gifts are still happening today, is because there aren't any apostles today. Apostles needed to have their ministries authenticated. That was just at the foundation level of the church. That was needed. But God is still giving gifts to believers. We've talked about spiritual gifts many times. We don't have time this morning to get very detailed into spiritual gifts again now. But there are different ways that God enables all believers, through the Holy Spirit, to serve Him by serving others. If you are in Jesus Christ, if you have turned to Christ by faith, you have the Holy Spirit in you, you have spiritual gifts. And your spiritual gifts are some of your weapons of war to defeat the strongholds of Satan. So we need to use them, whether they're speaking gifts or serving gifts, whatever yours are, however God has gifted you to serve. We need to use those gifts so God can work through them like he did through Paul, through those apostolic gifts. Now in Ephesus, there were some people who thought what they saw Paul doing, what was happening through Paul, was pretty neat. And they wanted to get in on it too. Verse 13 says, 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. Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. These were some Jews who had been influenced by the culture that they had grown up in, a culture of Ephesus. And they thought that if they had the right magic words, that they could do these great things that they had seen Paul do. So they must have thought that there was something, some magical power in just saying the name Jesus. It seems like I've maybe heard that in some songs lately. I don't know if you've ever come across that, but saying the name Jesus is not a magic word. That's going to get us everything that we want. The seven sons of Sceva had maybe had some quote-unquote success in the past. Satan may have allowed them to cast out some demons or at least to give the appearance of it as a way of drawing people deeper into this occultic stuff that was happening there in Ephesus. But when they tried this, and to use the names of Jesus and Paul, this demon, where they tried it, didn't like it." And with some maybe kind of humorous results in verse 16, as this one demon-possessed man whooped the seven and sent them running, same clothes. But isn't it interesting What this evil spirit said in verse 15, I recognize Jesus and I know about Paul, but who are you? Why would a demon know about Jesus and Paul. Well, Jesus is God, so that makes sense. Demons know about God. They know the truth. Their theology, at least their head knowledge, what they know is right, is true. But why Paul? Why would they know about Paul? It was because Paul was a notable enemy. They knew Paul's name because they hated him. Same reason they knew of Jesus. They hate him too. Consider him an enemy. What do you think about that? Would you like demons to know your name? Because you are their enemy? I don't want to mess around with demons at all. But I wouldn't mind if they knew my name. Because it would mean I'm doing something right. If I'm representing God's love, they hate me for it. We should want that. We should want to be a notable enemy of Satan. And if we are speaking the truth and living the truth as Paul was, the demons are going to hate us too. They're going to know our names. All of this that was happening, the miracles that were happening, the failed attempt at a miracle by those who didn't belong to Jesus, all that Paul had been teaching, it was really having an effect in Ephesus. Verse 17 says, 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. A lot of people heard about what was going on. They heard about what happened with these people who failed. The truth was having an effect. In Ephesus, the whole surrounding region, and even in the church. Look at verses 18-20. Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. 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 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. Keep in mind that the culture of Ephesus was the culture that these new believers grew up in. And this is what they knew. It's all they knew. Until they became believers in Jesus Christ. So it was kind of difficult to give up all of the superstitions that they had been raised with and had known for so long and had even been very invested in. It says we find here that they spent a lot of money buying the books is something else that Ephesus was known for. If you wanted to learn anything about magic, black magic, witchcraft, you find all the resources you could ever want in Ephesus. They sold papers, they sold books, all of the information on that could be found in Ephesus. So when they got saved and they learned that all of this demonic stuff was wrong, How would you be if you thought of all of the money you spent on something like that for all of those years? It was kind of hard for them to give this stuff up. And they'd spent so much, invested so much in all these books about magic and witchcraft. But when God so clearly showed that he is far superior to Satan through the miracles, Through the hearing about the sons of Sceva getting whipped by a demon, but Paul doing these miraculous things, and demons not able to touch him, not because Paul was so strong, but because Paul belonged to Jesus Christ. And through hearing what Paul was teaching. They finally realized they needed to make a clean break with the junk of how they used to live. And all these books they had in their houses were a part of that. They needed to get rid of it. So they came, they confessed their sins, they started bringing out all these books and they burned them. They said it was 50,000 pieces of silver worth of books. And we don't know for sure which pieces of silver that's talking about. The most common consensus seems to be that it was the one that a piece of silver was equal to a day's wage for a common laborer. 50,000 days wage for an average worker. Now if you bring that to today and just make things simple and simple, if you figure $100 a day, that's about $5 million worth of books that they burned. Now these weren't the kids' school books at the end of the school year. I remember being a kid and at the end of the year I always wanted to burn my books, so glad to be done with them. This wasn't that kind of an issue. These were things that they had invested in. These were things that many of them had made their livelihoods by. They realized that that was wrong. They realized that these things were holding them back in their relationship with their new Lord. So they got rid of them. Notice it doesn't say that they sold them to try to get something back out of them from all that they put into them. These things were wrong. And they didn't want anyone to have them. They burned them. The spiritual weapon of warfare here, we could say, is repentance and sanctification. They turned away from the wrong, they separated themselves from what they knew was holding them back, and they grew to become more like Jesus Christ. So are there things in your life any things that you could identify that you know are wrong you know that are hindering your relationship with Jesus Christ if you can identify any things that you have in your possession or things you do that are hindering your relationship with Jesus Christ what good is it doing you? really? to keep those things? to hold on to them? to continue to do those things? Why are you keeping them? It's not doing you any good if it's keeping you from Christ. If it's hindering your relationship with Jesus Christ, it is not helping you. It is a weight that is holding you back, as Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 talks about. So if you know of anything like that, get rid of it. Unless it's your spouse. I say that kind of jokingly, but also seriously. Sometimes it might be a spouse that is keeping a person from growing as a Christian. Or it might be some other person in your life. But the Bible gives instructions on what to do about that, especially if it's a spouse. Getting rid of them is not one of the options given. 1 Corinthians 7, 1 Peter 3, verses 1-7 are a couple of places that teach about what to do. So back here in Acts chapter 19, let's look at the result of the use of these spiritual weapons of warfare against the stronghold of Satan in Ephesus. Verse 20 says, So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. Now that is not going to happen through the flesh. This is what happens when we use weapons with divine power. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3-5 that I read earlier. Let's use the weapons that God has given to us. What we saw here in this passage, speak the truth. Use the gifts that God has given to us. and separate ourselves from anything that hinders our relationship with the Lord. Those are some of the weapons that God has provided for us to battle against the strongholds of Satan. They are not fleshly weapons. They are weapons with God's strength behind them because they come from Him. So with the Lord's help, let's use them and let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for what you have shown us in your word about how Paul battled in that place of Ephesus where there was so much wickedness. We use the weapons that you give, the weapons that are effective against the strongholds of Satan. We pray, Father, that you would help us to identify them from your word that we have access to, that we would speak the truth, that we would use the gifts you've given to us, and we would separate ourselves from anything that's holding us back in a relationship with you. And that you would use us, as you did Paul, to spread the truth of your word far and wide. We pray that you would receive the glory as you do it. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.