God’s Word for You

Acts 19:17-20 Burning books

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Sometimes when we read a Bible story we want to ask, “What happened next?” Often the answer is, we’re not told. But that’s not the case here. Seven exorcists, charlatans, were overpowered and beaten up by a man possessed by a demon because they tried to command him with the name of Jesus and the name of Paul. What happened next? Luke wants us to know:

17 When this became known to all the Jews and Greeks who lived in Ephesus, fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was praised. 18 Then many of those who believed started to come, confessing and admitting what they had done. 19 A great many of those who practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. When the value of these books was added up, it was found to come to fifty thousand drachmas of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord kept spreading and kept growing stronger.

First, the incident caused fear in the Ephesians (both terror and respect) as the news spread. Luke uses the effective phrase “fear fell on them,” like “evening shadows falling on the gates of the city” (Nehemiah 13:19). Second, as fear fell, the name of the Lord Jesus was lifted up and praised. There were probably more people who were afraid than who praised Jesus, but it’s important to note that both things took place.

Then a remarkable thing happened. Repentance blossomed like a field of flowers opening to the sunlight. Man by man, woman by woman, the Ephesian people began to come forward with the shameful evidence of their past sins. Superstition and other sins were set aside as people brought out their horoscopes and burned them “in front of everyone” in the city. Families tore down the magic sayings and counter-curses from their doorframes and threw them into the fire as well. They were saying with their actions, “We will trust in God and stop following our old sinful practices.” I knew a woman many decades ago who was an outstanding Christian. She taught Sunday school and sang in the church choir, but she struggled with astrology. It was a kind of fun pastime from her childhood that she could never quite let go of. Those kinds of temptations are powerful, especially when we disguise them in our hearts as entertainment. But a sin is a sin.

Then something else began happening in Ephesus. The ‘ordinary’ sinners were accompanied by the astrologers themselves, magicians, sorcerers, diviners, necromancers (see Daniel 2:2 and 4:7 for longer lists ), everyone who dabbled and made a living from the occult. These people, who had also come to faith in Christ through the gospel preached by Paul, brought their expensive magical spell books and astrological guides and threw them, one by one, into the fire “in front of everyone.” The tense of the Greek verb tells us that this kept happening, again and again.

It is essential to remember that no one burned other people’s books. No one commanded anyone to burn anything. Individuals came forward and said, “This is causing me to sin,” and burned their own property. When governments or religious groups command books to be burned, the gospel is never at work. We cannot force people to seem more religious with any benefit to their souls.

Notice that the change of heart was among those who believed in Jesus. There were also those who didn’t come to faith: they were the ones who were afraid. A magician might set aside his magic for personal reasons, like Prospero breaking his wand and drowning his magical book in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, but among believers this was evidence of faith, a change in their lives.

In the case of the Ephesians, this change was added up like cash. They burned 50,000 drachmas’ worth of magical books. Some of the things might have been fairly cheap, but obviously some of them, many of them, were not only valuable, they were virtually priceless. But since they led away from true faith and devotion to God, the world is a better place without them. Jesus said: “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:20). That doesn’t mean that our hands cause us to sin, but we should be willing to let go of those things that do, as painful as it might be.

What part of your life leads you into sins you can’t control? Is it a part of the internet? Or Netflix? While we can set parental controls to avoid things like pornography and some forms of gambling, I don’t think that there are electronic ways of preventing ourselves from finding other ways to sin, blocking astrology, idolatry, covetousness or hatred. And unless we act like responsible Christians, we can’t control the excuses that keep us away from regular worship and Bible study. Most people would never want to give up their 50,000 drachmas worth of idolatries and temptations.

There is also a horrifying thought that a Christian might need to ask: Am I causing someone in my life to sin? Should I be willing to be cut out of their life, for their eternal good? We would pray that God would enable us to grow in our faith in such a way that this wouldn’t need to happen, that we wouldn’t be a constant temptation to someone we love. But if I’m a drinking buddy with an alcoholic, am I helping them? If I play cards with a friend who has a gambling problem, am I helping him? Maybe our friendship needs to move away from the card table and onto the tennis court, or away from the bar and into a couple of kayaks. Maybe cutting off your hand or burning 50,000 drachmas worth of ancient scrolls isn’t exactly what you and I need to do, but maybe we need to change the way we live, the way we find our entertainment, or the location of where we spend our time—all for the safety of each other’s souls. For Jesus’ sake.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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