SERVICES: SATURDAY 6PM | SUNDAY 9AM & 10:45AM. 

We Livestream at www.FaithFellowshipWeb.com/livestream, through the FFC App, and YouTube.

Revival in Ephesus

Revival in Ephesus
Words of Faith 7-5-16
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2016
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><

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 honor. [18] Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. [19] A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. [20] In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

I wonder what the Ephesus Globe would have headlined on that day. “Christian Revival Breaks Out” or “Religious Fanatics Burn Scrolls-- Inquiry planned.”
Ephesus was ripe for revival. The prosperity of Ephesus had come to be highly dependent upon pagan worship and the occult. The city had become more and more dependent on the tourist and pilgrim trade associated with the temple and cult of Artemis. Artemis was the multi-breasted goddess of fertility whose temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Along with this pagan worship came a significant interest in magic and sorcery.
It was here that revival broke out. There were believers in Ephesus from Paul’s earlier visit. There were Jews and Greeks. They were all overcome with reverential fear of the Lord, the realization that God really is God and He means business. The name of Jesus was held in high regard not as a magic phrase but as representing the very holiness of God.
They had learned from these events not to misuse the name of Jesus or treat it lightly. Believers began to confess publicly their sin. Christians renounced their secret acts of magic and several magicians were converted. In genuine revival, prompted by the Holy Spirit, the facades dropped away, sins were confessed and there was clear repentance.
Repentance in Ephesus took the form of publicly burning sorcery scrolls. Both converts and believers likely owned the scrolls. These probably included large scrolls of incantations but also small magical papyri rolled up in small cylinders or lockets used as amulets around the neck. These amulets of incantation were so common in Ephesus that they were called “Ephesia grammata” or Ephesian writings.
The total price of what was burned came to fifty thousand “days’ wages” for an average worker. It was no small deal. In today’s economy it would be several million dollars. Word of this repentance spread and the Word of the Lord was received with power in the region.
What precisely sparked this revival? Of course, the Lord did. We should never forget that only the Lord can cause a person to be born again and genuinely repent. The Lord used a number of influences to get the attention of the Ephesians. The extraordinary miracles of Paul surely drew attention but it was the beating that came to the sons of Sceva from a demon that seemed to really make the difference. People saw that the power of God was genuine and that the practice of sorcery was false. People saw the danger of the occult and the one true and living God who could set them free.
How do we respond to a text like this? Some have periodically called for the burning of CDs and occult material thinking this would create a revival. But that is backwards, the revival precedes the burning of offensive materials. Repentance is a move of God in our hearts. Perhaps the answer is simply to search our own lives with the aid of our Counselor, the Holy Spirit.

Lord, Is there anything in my life that is offensive to You? Is there anything that I have allowed to creep in and take Your place? Is there anything associated with the occult that I have allowed to influence my family and me? Lord, what would You have me do about those things? In Jesus’ name.

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2001, 2016
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SUBSCRIPTIONS - To receive the Words of Faith devotion five days a week, send an E-mail message addressed to join-words-of-faith@hub.xc.org. To stop receiving Words of Faith, send an E-mail message addressed to unsubscribe-words-of-faith@hub.xc.org. The daily devotion and archive are posted at http://www.faithfellowshipweb.com/cgi-bin/devotions/displayMonths.cgi
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.