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Seven Sons of Sceva

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THE TEXT

And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.

And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed (Acts 19:8–20).

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How to Give Your Testimony

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INTRODUCTION

The message today is on being ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you, and in particular, being ready to give your testimony. By God’s grace we are seeking to live together in this place and time such that we provoke questions and accusations, and we want the center of our answer to be a testimony of Christ in us.

THE TEXT

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having a good conscience; that whereas they speak evil of you, as of evil doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ” (1 Pet. 3:15-16).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The first task of preparing to give your testimony is to sanctify the Lord God in your heart (1 Pet. 3:15). You most revere God there. You must honor Him as Your Lord and Master. It is that reverence that drives you readiness to give an answer (1 Pet. 3:15). Notice that the center of our answer is a “hope” that is in us (1 Pet. 3:15). Christian hope is not light and fluffy optimism. Rather, Christian hope is a joyful, gritty patience expectant for glory (Rom. 5:1-5, 15:4, 13). The answer we give is to be done with meekness and fear, which is what grows when you set the Lord apart in your heart (1 Pet. 3:15). Having a good conscience doesn’t mean sinless, but it does mean forgiven, clean, and put right (1 Pet. 3:16). And you know you’re doing this correctly when their accusations only fall back on themselves in shame (1 Pet. 3:16). If you are feeling shame, either you don’t have a clean conscience or else you don’t understand how God makes you clean (1 Jn. 1:9). And remember “a good conversation in Christ” has never stopped people from making false accusations (1 Pet. 3:16). Jesus said that the false accusations come precisely because you follow Christ (Mt. 5:11, Jn. 15:18-21).

SANCTIFY GOD IN YOUR HEART

As you know, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). It is holy space because God lives there. But our bodies are not generic temples, they are unique and varied. And think about your body as the shape of your entire life. That shape comes from God working particular stories of grace in each one. This is Paul’s testimony: “And last of all he [Jesus] was seen of me also, as one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor. 15:8-10, cf. 1 Tim. 1:14-16). The first task of sanctifying God in your heart is simply submitting to Him as a holy God, admitting your sin, and turning to Christ in principle. But then you have to do the same thing in particular with everything in your life: your parents, your childhood, your vocation, your spouse, your children, and everything else, including your failures, weaknesses, trials, and sin. Your testimony is telling how the holy God has been at work, how you have contributed sin, how Christ has forgiven and restored, and all by His grace in order to display His grace in you.

IN PRAISE OF BORING TESTIIMONIES

You have heard us say before that we are aiming for boring testimonies for our children in our community. What we mean by that is that by the grace of God, we want our children growing up in the faith of their parents and embracing it, with faithfulness passing from generation to generation like runners in an Olympic relay race. By faith and God’s great grace, we want our children growing up in Christ, which will often mean that they don’t remember the exact moment when they first trusted in Him. And by that same grace, we pray that our children will never know a time when they were not walking with God. It is glorious to always walk with God, to have no rebellious phases. Some Christian traditions so emphasize the dramatic conversion story (biker gang rebellion followed by Damascus Road experience), that it almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. And kids who grow up only hearing those kinds of conversion stories wonder how they could possibly be a Christian since they haven’t even started selling drugs yet. But Scripture is full of ordinary covenant conversions: John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit in his mother’s womb (Lk. 1), David learned to trust God on his mother’s breast (Ps. 22:9), Samuel came to know the Lord as young boy (1 Sam. 3), and Timothy was taught the scriptures from his youth (2. Tim. 3:15). We want a culture of cultivating and encouraging faith.

BUT NOT REALLY BORING

Nevertheless, and even celebrating the ordinary “boring” testimonies of our children, we really must run back around the other side and insist that there are no boring testimonies. This is because amount of sin is not what makes a testimony amazing or powerful, but rather, the amount of grace. How much grace was needed for your salvation? Every son or daughter of Adam deserved death and Hell, and therefore, every Christian was purchased with the infinite price of the blood of Jesus. There is nothing boring about that. And when we say “grace,” we mean the presence of the Father beaming at the work of His Son in you, sealed and secured by the Spirit. The Triune God is the most extravagant, adventurous, creative, brilliant, gracious Being of all. If He is present, nothing is boring, nothing is ordinary. To sanctify this God in your heart is to see the presenceof this God in your life. Every salvation is also a salvation to an unspeakable glory. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). The process of a Red Wood sapling growing up into a towering tree may not look explosive, dramatic, or glorious in any given snapshot, but if you could see the whole thing from God’s perspective – all the atoms firing over decades, it would make you close your mouth with awe. And that is the hope that is in you.

CONCLUSION

Everyone in this room who knows Jesus has a testimony of His grace. For many of you, it is a testimony of growing up surrounded by the grace of loving parents, sibling, teachers, and friends. But do not take that grace for granted. Perhaps you do not remember when you first believed, but you should absolutely remember times when you have believed more. Maybe you don’t remember the first time you were forgiven, but you absolutely should remember many subsequent times when you were convicted of sin, confessed, and were cleansed. Maybe you don’t remember the first answered prayer, but do you remember the many others? Maybe don’t remember the first time His word encouraged you or helped you during a trial, but do you remember many others? That is your testimony, that is the hope that is in you. Christ is in you.

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The Mines of Difficulty

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INTRODUCTION

The second stanza of an old Isaac Watts hymn asks quite a reasonable question. It is a question that we—accustomed as we are to many creature comforts—should be willing to ask ourselves.

Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize
And sailed through bloody seas?

THE TEXT

“Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone; And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith: That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know. For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain” (1 Thess. 3:1–5).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

After mentioning how dear the Thessalonians were to him, Paul then says that when he couldn’t stand it anymore, he thought it best for him to be left in Athens alone (v. 1). He commissioned Timothy to go back to Thessalonica in order to establish and comfort them (v. 2). This was a significant move because Timothy was important to Paul also. Timothy was Paul’s brother and fellow-worker, as well as a minister or servant of God (v. 2). The reason for sending Timothy was because the Thessalonians were going through afflictions at the hands of their own countrymen, as he mentioned in the previous chapter, and he wanted to ensure that they were taught well enough when it came to such afflictions. He didn’t want any man to be moved by them (v. 3), and he wanted to remind them that as believers we are appointed to them (v. 3). Paul had predicted it beforehand, when he was still with them. He told them what was going to happen. We are going to suffer tribulation, he had said, and sure enough it came to pass (v. 4). The Thessalonians had seen it come to pass with their own eyes. That was the reason why Paul was beside himself with concern. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he sent Timothy to them to find out if the tempter had followed up the affliction with temptation, and in such a way as to unwind all of Paul’s labors there (v. 5). Notice that there are two elements that Paul is concerned about. The first is the trial itself, and the second is the devil’s interpretation of it. The real concern is the spin the devil puts on it. But remember what a liar he is.

THE UNBELIEVERS’ INTENTION FOR BELIEVERS

In the previous chapter, Paul had reminded the Thessalonians that the Jews in Judea were “contrary to all men.” They were full of malice and hostility. They did not want Gentiles to be saved. They murdered the Lord Jesus. They had killed their own prophets. They persecuted the apostles. Paul knew the heart of man, and he knew the inevitable reaction whenever renewed hearts come into contact with unregenerate hearts. There is nothing you can do that will prevent this reaction from happening.

The thing you can do is teach Christians what to expect. Far too many Christians think the negative reaction is the result of them being a poor testimony. The idea that it is because they have had a good testimony scarcely occurs to them. Did Jesus have a poor testimony? Is that why He was killed?

GOD’S INTENTIONS FOR BELIEVERS

But God governs all things, and this means that God must have a purpose or intention for us in our afflictions. What is He up to?

“And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:21–22).

“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:3–5).

We glory in tribulations, not because we are masochistic, but because we know that it is the pathway to the great city. But we sometimes look at the landscape, which can be pretty grim, instead of looking at what is really happening. And what is really happening is what we are becoming. The hard path fits us for the glory to be found at the end of that road. What is this difficulty? Look at it with the eyes that Paul wanted the Thessalonians to have. It is the love of God, shed abroad in your heart.

OUR OWN INTENTION

We must learn wisdom. This means we must reject the purpose that unbelievers have for our afflictions, and yet we must also embrace the purpose that God has for those same afflictions. We know that God does not tempt any man (Jas. 1:13), but we also know that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted (Matt. 4:1). And we are instructed to pray that God lead us not into temptation (Matt. 6:13). This is not a contradiction. The same event can be a trial and a temptation, and the same Greek word is used for both. The event that is assigned to us by God—“to which we were appointed”—is an event that has different intentions on either side of it. God uses it to strengthen you, and the devil wants to use it to weaken you.

So we must learn to walk straight, which means that we must first learn to think straight. The way into the kingdom of God is fraught with difficulty. But that does not mean that just because something is difficult that it must be the way into the kingdom. Remember that wrath was coming upon the unbelieving Jews “to the uttermost.” The destruction of Jerusalem was difficult, but that is the only thing that it was. “Good understanding giveth favour: But the way of transgressors is hard” (Prov. 13:15).

The diamonds of the promise can only be found in the mines of difficulty—and some of those mines go deep. But there are other mine shafts that are filled with nothing but useless rocks.

The check on your heart should be this: Are you pursuing Christ and His kingdom? Is that what you want? Is that what you want regardless? Then the diamonds are most certainly there. Seek first His kingdom.

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