SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/8/2018
9:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 Intro
to Acts 19:8-20
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 19:8-20
Message of the
verses: “8 And he entered the
synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and
persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some were becoming
hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people, he
withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school
of Tyrannus. 10 This took
place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord,
both Jews and Greeks. 11 God was performing extraordinary miracles by
the hands of Paul, 12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from
his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.
13 But also some of the Jewish
exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had
the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by
Jesus whom Paul preaches." 14 Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief
priest, were doing this. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them,
"I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" 16 And
the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them
and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17
This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear
fell upon them all and the
name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. 18 Many also of those who
had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. 19 And
many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began
burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them
and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord was
growing mightily and prevailing.”
In John MacArthur’s introduction to these verses he
writes some things about Satan and the influence that he has over mankind. As we read over this section of verses we can
see some of the activities that Satan uses against mankind and we will briefly
go over some of these in this first part of our introduction to these verses.
Why is Satan allowed to do what he does in influencing
mankind? Well we have to go back to the
fall of man as seen in Genesis chapter three when both Adam and Eve ate of the
forbidden fruit which plunged the whole universe into sin. Things are very much different in all of the
universe since sin entered this universe.
It not only effected mankind, but also it effected the earth and all the
things that God created in creation week. Paul talks about this in the 8th
chapter of the book of Romans.
Now since the fall of the human race mankind has been in
rebellion against God. Having so (they
think) torn God’s “fetters apart, and cast away [His] cords from [themselves]”
(Psalm 2:3), the imagine themselves to be free.
In reality, they have become enslaved to sin as seen in John 8:34 and
Romans 6:17 and Satan according to 1 John 5:19.
Our passage today is about the Ephesians and when Paul later wrote to
them he told them what the effects of sin were “1 ¶ And you were dead in your trespasses and
sins, 2 in which you formerly walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” I also think that will be good for us to look
at John 8:34 and Romans 6:17, and then 1 John 5:19 which are listed above
speaking of mankind being enslaved to both sin and Satan.
34 Jesus answered them,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” 17 But thanks be to God that though you were
slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to
which you were committed,” 19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole
world lies in the power of the evil one.”
I want to briefly talk about how Satan manipulates fallen
men by two ways as we conclude this part of the introduction to these
verses. The first way is that Satan
influences their minds. I am in the
process of reading about “The Battle for the Mind” and that book has taught me
much about my mind and how I am to use my mind, as all beliers are to have the
mind of Christ. As far as Satan influencing
the mind we read in 1 Cor. 2:14 “14 But
a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually
appraised.” Satan tries to blind “The minds
of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the
glory of Christ who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4).
Satan next tries
to exert a sinister influence over the fallen human will, though he
cannot force it to act. How does he do
this then? He does it by temptation both
externally, through the evil world system and then internally through sinful
human nature. Jesus spoke of this in
John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of
your father.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Prophecy, mysteries,
knowledge, and faith” (1 Corinthians 13:2).
Today’s Bible
question: “In the parable of the pounds,
how much did the last servant gain?”
Answer in our last SD.
6/8/2018 10:09 AM
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