Read Part One HERE
A WALK THROUGH THE BOOK OF ACTS
PART XIX - IV
I, Paul, am so aware that God can and does all kinds of situations for good. One example, for instance, is an event related to the sons of Sceva, a Jewish priest... They thought they could deliver some Jewish men from demonic spirits.... However, they were not able to do...Because they only knew about Jesus but did not have a personal relationship with Him... The news of what happened to them spread very quickly through Ephesus, the city I am staying at the moment.... Amazingly, as a result many more people have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.... Moreover, these same people have realised that God's power is real and should not be played with.... They have understood as well that they could no longer hold on to occult practices.... Because they cannot worship Jesus and their false gods... They have, therefore, openly confessed all their evil deeds.... And they have brought their occultic scrolls to me.... Earlier today we burned all these scrolls... And we all recjoiced together over the freedom that we have in Christ."... Please read the typed out attachment when you will learn that the believers in Ephesus gave up their valuable occultic scrolls....
ATTACHMENT A WALK THROUGH THE BOOK OF ACTS
PART XIX - IV
The story of the sons of Sceva spread throughout the city of Ephesus despite the fact that in those days Facebook, Instagram or Twitter did not exist.... And what had happened to them had great effect on the citizens as you can read in Acts 19:17
When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the Name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honour.
What happened next shows that these new believers took their faith in the Lord Jesus very serious as you can read in Acts 19:18-19
Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the crolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. (A drachma was a silver coin worth a day's wages)
These believers understood that in order to serve the Lord their lives had to be cleaned up in practical ways to show Him that He really was Lord over everything in their lives and not just over part of their activities. This despite the fact that for a number of them following Jesus came at a substantial financial loss since the scrolls they had burned had great financial value. They could have sold them but they did not do so for they knew that would dishonour their Lord... These scrolls were not just innocent scrolls but had been used for occultic practices. Such practices had not longer any place in their lives as followers of Jesus
This resulted in the Gospel message to be spread widely as you can read in Acts 19:20
In this way, the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
And that is how it should be for us as believers. We are to have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus that is to be shown in the way we live. We may not have occultic scrolls in our possession but we may have other things, such as habits, activities that dishonour the Lord. If that is the case, then we need to repent of them and let go of them so that we honour the Lord with our lives and are not obstacles to others coming to faith in Him.
Read Part Nine HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment