The Fruits of Repentance – Acts 19:13-20

One of the saddest things about modern religion is its general lack of serious seriousness.

To many people, religion is a just a waste of time – the ruin of a perfectly good Sunday.

They dread the two Sundays out of the year when they are expected to be in church.

They jokingly talk about the roof of the church building caving in if they enter on any Sunday that didn’t fall in December or Spring.

And when they do finally arrive at the House of God, they spend the entire hour looking at the ceiling or those open beams above their heads.

For many others church is just another form of entertainment; a past-time; a diversion.

There are members of a lot of fundamentalist Baptist churches which fall into these two categories.

I know some adults who fear the house of God more than they feared the dentist when they were children.

But there is LESS of which to be afraid in a gospel-preaching church than there is in a dentist.

I know some people who have gotten deathly sick every Saturday night, thinking that they may be asked to go to church again in the morning.

A third group of people are those who simply don’t care if there is a church on the corner or not.

They won’t bother it, if that church doesn’t bother them.

But then, thankfully, there are the few who know that the Lord is the most important Being in their lives.

The love the house of God, because it IS the house of God.

They know that the Lord declared his Church to be the pillar and ground of the truth.

And that is not just religious or spiritual truth, but all truth,

because Christ Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

Those people attend the House of the Lord in order to worship Christ and to learn more from His Word.

They realize they may spend a century on earth, but they will spend an eternity in either Heaven or Hell.

There are a few people in the world– a precious few – who take the things of God seriously.

I imagine that when Paul arrived in Ephesus, the city was adequately balancing its complicated religious life.

Most communities are able to do this most of the time.

The vast majority of its citizens were worshipers of the great goddess Diana and of the image which fell down from Jupiter (v. 35).

For the most part they didn’t know that they were actually worshiping and serving Satan,

but if any of them DID know that, they didn’t really care.

Sure there were a great many other religions in the city.

For example, there was probably a goodly number of Jews.

There were stanch Romans who dutifully considered the Emperor as their earthly god.

And certainly Diana wasn’t the only Greek or Roman god to be worshiped;

There were lots of displaced Atheneans who had brought their army of idols with them.

There were probably a few atheists and humanists,

And there were heathens with their more basic animistic deities, worshiping trees and rocks, animals and ancestors.

Yes, these various theological perspectives clashed from time to time,

but usually, the mixed society of Ephesus found a natural balance and tolerance for one another.

But then along came Paul empowered by the Holy Spirit and preaching Christ.

Not only was the Lord drawing to Himself some of the people from the Jewish synagogue ….

And not only were there a few of the Gentiles turning from their idols to serve the true and living God ….

But Paul was even having an effect on the unbelievers and the religious hucksters.

As we saw last week, the sons of Sceva were not believers in Christ, but they were attempting to incorporate the name of the Jesus, whom Paul preached, into their semi-heathen rituals.

I tried to point out that what we see in these men is a corruption of the true worship and service of Jehovah.

Our world today is filled with a multitude of attempts at melding God’s truth with Satan’s lies.

But the Lord is not going to be defeated.

He will have His perfect way.

In fact he will turn the wrath and foolishness of man against them.

When the vagabond exorcist sons of Sceva attempted to use the name of Jesus Christ as an incantation against a demon spirit,

that demon turned and tore them – and their clothes – to shreds.

“And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

I suppose that it’s a part of life to look back and think:

“I wish that I had done that differently; I shouldn’t have done that particular thing.”

Don’t you find it refreshing that even demons may have to say that.

If the evil spirit which dwelled in this man had simply refused to obey the exorcists then the religious status quo in Ephesus might have been preserved for a while longer.

But when it chose to fight and to humiliate its opponents, eventually all the city became a spiritual battleground.

If that demon had kept its mouth shut, the Word of God might NOT have grown and prevailed in Ephesus.

So in this scripture, we see the Lord turning the semi-placid religious world of Ephesus on its ears.

“Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.”

Not only was it FEAR, but it was REPENTANCE that fell on many of the people of that city.

I think that in verses 17-19 we can see an example of what repentance and conversion are all about.

This world needs to be stirred and shaken up.

I was talking to Missionary Tim Parrow on Thursday.

He said that a couple of his contacts have stopped attending the services.

He said that he thinks that they were embarrassed over something and now are ashamed to attend.

I replied that there are a lot of people who NEED to be embarrassed, but they still need to come to the Lord.

This world needs to realize that false religion is empowered and directed by Satan.

This world needs to know that false religion is a stench in the nostrils of God, and that He will destroy it.

This world needs to know that God will not be satisfied with any man until there is true repentance.

No, the business of spiritual things not a diversion, a joke, or a recreation.

Verse 17 says that as word of the spiritual skirmish between the sons of Sceva and this demon spread…

PEOPLE began to FEAR.

“And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all.”

Somehow the news of this defeat and the beating of the exorcists spread like wildfire throughout the city.

The Greek word which is translated “wounded” in verse 16 is “traumatizo” ( trow-mat-id’-zo ).

Those men were not only physically whipped, but they were traumatized, perhaps in several ways.

That kind of news was not going to be kept hidden.

So not only were the witnesses to this beating, and the sons of Sceva themselves, filled with fear, but the general population of both Jews and Gentiles began to be afraid.

Of course the Jews were left without a single argument against the teaching of Paul.

He had been telling them that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.

Some had believed, but many in the synagogue considered what he was saying to be blasphemous.

But now, what Paul had been preaching had been corroborated by an outside source.

In fact it was the very enemy of God which helped to prove that Jesus was the Christ.

So, even more than before the spiritual lives of those Jews was turned upside down.

They were in fear, not knowing which way to turn.

But not only the Jews, even the Greeks were filled with terror at what was happening.

I tried to figure out from the text here exactly what it was that they feared, but the Lord doesn’t tell us.

Perhaps that’s because different people were afraid of different things.

For some of them, there was the realization that something which was familiar and common-place was, in fact, dangerous.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this demon-possessed man was well-known around the city,

but he might not have been known as being a demon-possessed man.

He might have been one of the local bar-tenders, or butchers, a school-teacher, or one of their priests.

But now everyone realized that hidden in his heart was a powerful spiritual beast.

Who else among them might be possessed like this?

Some of the Ephesians may have already been familiar with occult and the unseen spirits,

but they had considered them to be helpful and friendly.

This is not an uncommon thing in some circles even today.

Now they were beginning to realize that their friendly spirit-guides were malevolent and evil.

So what did those people learn to fear?

Without a doubt many of them began to fear the Lord and His ambassador, the Apostle Paul.

This demon recognized both Paul and Christ, and IT apparently had some sort of fear of them.

If a powerful and malevolent evil-spirit had a fear of Jesus, then what about the rest of us?

There is very good reason to fear the God who puts fear into the hearts of evil-spirits.

There is good reason to fear the One who will cast those demons into the Lake of Fire.

There is very good reason to fear the God who has pronounced judgment upon all sinners.

There is very good reason to fear the God who has said that YOU may spend eternity in Hell.

Paul encouraged his friends in Thessalonica by saying,

“Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.

When he shall come to be glorified in his saints.”

There was good reason for the city of Ephesus to become filled with fear.

We need to pray that the Lord would do the same in our city, in our church, and even in us.

In addition to the city being filled with fear, the LORD was being MAGNIFIED with GLORY.

“And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.”

This word “magnified” means that the Name of the Lord was being enlarged and expanded.

There was a growing respect for the Lord Jesus.

People were talking about Him, and unlike earlier days, it was now with respect mixed with fear – awe.

It was healthy talk, not like the blasphemy which His name had drawn almost universally before.

And the door was being opened for the people of God to witness of their faith in Christ.

Luke and Timothy, Gaius and Aristarchus, Aquilla and Priscilla if they were still there, the twelve newly baptized people …

These and the other saints in Ephesus were being asked about their Heavenly Master,

and people were actually listening with interest to what they were saying.

Oh, how the United States of America needs this kind of awakening – a great awakening.

The Lord Jesus was no longer not just a new doctrine or a strange thing to their ears.

The purpose of the miraculous was being accomplished, and people were paying attention to the name: “Jesus.”

The word “magnified” also suggests that the Lord Jesus was being properly worshiped by some.

The Word of God was growing mightily and prevailing over people’s hearts.

I suppose that I shouldn’t read more into these words than what it actually says – or doesn’t say – but we aren’t directly told that MANY people believed, or WHAT it was that they believed.

We are simply told that THE believers came and confessed and showed their deeds.

That leads me to think that a major part of the magnification of the Lord was people’s saving faith.

There were growing numbers of people in Ephesus – Jews, cultured Greeks and uncultured heathen – who were turning from their idols to serve the living and true God.

They were beginning to think that the stories about the great goddess Diana were nothing but lies.

They were learning that spirits of their former gods were EVIL spirits, Satanic DEMONS.

They were believing that what they were being told about Christ Jesus and the Truth.

And thus there is evidence to suggest that they were believing that the Jesus really was the Messiah, the Son of God.

Some of these people were putting their trust in that Messiah; they were learning ABOUT him, and they were learning to LOVE him.

They were bowing before Christ, and before the cross of Christ.

The only explanation for these things was that they were being born again – given new hearts.

The stupidity of the sons of Sceva and the attack of the demon was being used by the Holy Spirit to bring lost souls to Christ.

Many of these people were COMING and CONFESSING and SHOWING their deeds.

They were coming to whom?

Apparently it was to Paul, to the church in Ephesus, and to Christ.

They were telling the saints about the things that were going on in their lives, trying to understand.

As they explained their fears, Paul probably took the opportunity to explain the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

This was not merely a fear of demons; it was a fear of God and a fear of the righteous judgment of God.

These things were a part of a larger revelation from the Lord – a larger ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The scripture says that they “confessed.”

This is an interesting word and much deeper than we understand it in English.

It’s the Greek word “exomologeo” ( ex-om-ol-og-eh’-o ), and it is found eleven times in the Bible.

The Greek word means EITHER to confess or to PROFESS.

The concordance says that it can mean to “acknowledge openly and joyfully,

to celebrate, give praise to; to profess that one will do something, to promise, to agree.”

These people who were coming to the Lord, coming to Paul, and beginning to come to church …

were CONFESSING that they were sinners and that they had been servants of Satan,

but they were also PROFESSING to have found themselves somehow changed.

They were finding that they hated and feared the things in which they had earlier rejoiced and had loved.

They were finding that they were beginning to love the things that they once hated.

“What is the meaning of this? What is happening to us?

“Why are we drawn to you and to this church of Christ, when a few days ago we could only laugh at it?”

As Paul explained the marvelous working of the grace God, these people began to understand things that were mysteries only hours before.

Not only were these new converts confessing their sins, they were making promises to the Lord as well.

By the way, notice once again what verse 18 says:

“And many THAT BELIEVED came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.”

Some of the “believers” may have been believers in Christ for some time.

They may have secretly maintained some of their old sinful habits and relationships.

Even Christians need to take inventory of their lives, looking for things which are actually the property of Satan.

Even Christians keep or pick up sins which they need to confess and throw away in order to glorify their Saviour.

What is it for you?

Do you have books and curious arts which need to be thrown into the Lord’s bon-fire?

Those novels and magazines that Christians ought not to read?

Is it the kind of music that you enjoyed before your salvation, which honors sin more than the Saviour?

Are there friends which pull you away from the Lord?

Many of these people were coming, confessing and showing their deeds.

And many of them came and brought their SATANIC BOOKS to be burned.

In my reading I ran into a good sermon outline on this point.

The preacher said,

It was the burning up of BOOKS.

It was the burning of THEIR OWN BOOKS.

It was the burning of COSTLY BOOKS.

But they were burning DANGEROUS BOOKS.

They burned them OPENLY because there was more involved than just getting rid of something evil.

And they burned them PROMPTLY AND THOROUGHLY.

There is no one in this room who appreciates good books more than I do.

I would much rather buy a book than borrow one from the library, because every one of them is a little treasure or a trophy.

And although I give books away to people whom I know will give them a good home,

to sell a book is painful to me,

and to throw a book away is something very rare.

I’m sure that some of these people once felt this same way, but now they made a huge bon-fire of books.

And they were expensive books

Aren’t nearly all new books expensive these days?

Aren’t the more important or the more rare the book the more expensive?

But even though it may take a good bit of money to rid oneself of a tumor, that tumor has to go no matter what the price might be.

These books were as deadly as a tumor, and the cost of destroying them was not a problem.

And we see that these new believers burned their Satanic and occultic books as a public testimony to the community.

It was a statement not unlike public baptism.

“Not only do I have a new life in Christ; I burn up and destroy my old life.”

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.”

The destruction of these books is a good ILLUSTRATION OF REPENTANCE.

I remind you that without repentance there is no connection with God.

The Lord Jesus came not into this world to call the righteous; it was his purpose to call sinners to repentance.

Christ has told us that unless we repent we shall all perish before God.

And, like the Saviour, his disciples continued to preach repentance.

“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

“Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.

“And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.”

To repent is not merely to utter a few sorrowful words confessing our sinfulness or our stupidity.

The Lord, who knows hearts, is not interested in shallow professions.

Repentance may, by definition, mean a change of mind.

But theologically it means a change of heart and a resulting change of life.

It means the burning of Satanic books because they are weapons used against our Saviour.

Repentance involves severa kinds of pain: religious, emotional, financial,

and even filial pain, as sometimes our friends and family turn against us when WE turn against our sins.

But these people really and truly, completely and thoroughly repented of this sin.

And so mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed.

This means first of all that more and more people heard and gave respect to the Word of the Lord.

But it also means that the Word of God, something which the Bible calls the Sword of the Spirit, began even more to prevail and overcome sinful hearts.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Oh, how this ministry of the Spirit and ministry of the Word of God is needed today.

What comes first?

The open and powerful repentance of the believers,

or is it that when the Word of God prevails, there is more open and powerful repentance?

Do you need to repent before God today?

Are there books and other sins which you are harboring in your heart?

Oh, please hear the Word of the Lord: “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.”