Eliezer turns away from his magical practices; Paul and Sosthanes begin writing First Corinthians; Ephesus turns away from its magic practices.
Acts 19:17-20; Matthew 10:34-39; James 3:1-5; James 3:13-18
As morning light emerges, Eliezer footslogs among the numerous alleyways that run between the apartment buildings. On one particular alleyway, he identifies the familiar row of dilapidated doors adjacent to the narrowly paved road. Splintered by both time and the climate, the row of doors are spaced somewhat evenly and stretch for several blocks. “Behind one of those doors…” Eliezer muses, “sits an apartment within whose resident holds the keys to a portal into the demonic world.”
Finding his door, Eliezer boldly centers himself in front of it and begins to pound. “Wake up!” He yells out. “Wake up and open this door!” He continues to pound.
Neighboring doors open with the angry faces of those standing to see what might be the problem. “Shut up!” Some yell out. “Stop making all that racquet!”
Unflinching at the wafting criticisms, Eliezer continues to relentlessly pound… until the door finally creaks open.
“What!?!” A voice yells out while the door opens only a sliver. “What do you…” The raspy voice stops upon recognition of the man standing in front of it. “Eliezer? What is the meaning…”
Without waiting for an invitation, Eliezer thrusts the door open and marches directly at the resident who begins to back pedal. “You!” He yells out without stopping his stride. “You are directly responsible for my ruin.”
“Me?” The voice replies. “You accuse me? How dare you! It was you who sought me out.” He steps towards Eliezer and comes toe to toe with the man. “It was you who employed me, not the other way around!”
“Big mistake.” Eliezer replies. “A mistake I will not make again.”
“What is the meaning of this?” The raspy voiced man defends. “You hire me to curse the Syrian evangelist. Your Jewish friends turn their backs on you after things don’t work out quite like they wanted. And now you barge through my door without an invitation and accuse me of wrongdoing? I did what I was commissioned to do. The results were up to the spirits, not me. What don’t you understand about this?”
“That’s just it!” Eliezer replies. “I think I understand all too well now.”
“You understand?” The voice escalates. “You understand what?”
“You’re a fraud!” Eliezer bluntly blurts out. “You’re dabbling with evil spirits who promise you everything and deliver nothing.”
“What!?!” The voice replies. “Get out!”
“Oh believe me…” Eliezer shouts as he begins to make his exit. “I will. But know this. I have met the true God who has defeated death and the grave, the one who rules over all, and the one who is unscathed by your pathetic dabbling with the demonic world.” With a look of satisfaction, Eliezer opens the door and then turns around. “You are but a pawn, a worm in the demonic world… and they shutter at the thought of being confronted by the living God. You would do well to do the same.”
…
“No.” Paul says in a ‘matter of fact’ voice. “It really shouldn’t be about parading oneself around as a disciple of yours or Crispus’ or Timothy’s or Apollos’. For that matter, I’m glad I didn’t baptize any of the Corinthians.”
“But you did.” Sosthanes replies.
“What?” Paul asks. “Who?”
“Crispus…” Sosthanes says. “Does that ring a bell?”
“Oh that’s right. How could I be so forgetful?” Paul replies. He then takes a deep breath as the memories begin to reappear in his mind. “And Gaius.”
“Yes.” Sosthanes says. “And…”
Paul scrambles to remember. As if now able to focus, he blurts out. “Stephanas. You’re right! Oh my goodness. I baptized his whole family.”
Sosthanes smiles. “Yes, which brings us back to our problem. Some of Crispus’ disciples seem to be gloating to the disciples of other faith mentors. They are in essence bragging about how they are being taught by the former synagogue leader who was baptized by Paul.
In disgust, Paul exhales and slams a hand down on the table. “What the heck do they think any of that means?”
“Well, that is the conundrum.” Sosthanes ponders. “Here, they are leveraging their connections with your involvement with Crispus’ baptism as a means of superiority. They are making everyone else feel as if they are inferior disciples because of it.”
“Cliques?” Paul asks.
Thinking for a moment longer, Sosthanes then nods his head. “Yes.” He says. “Cliques.”
“Apollos and his friend Zenas.” Paul says. “They’re still around, aren’t they?”
“Oh yes,” Sosthanes replies. “They have quite a following, those two.”
Paul nods. “I see. So, are their disciples doing the same kind of thing–trying to strut their superiority?”
Collecting his thoughts, Sosthanes then lets out. “Yes… now that you ask, I do suppose there is some of that. You know how a disciple takes on the mannerisms of his mentor, right?”
“Sure.” Paul replies. “It happens.”
“Well.” Sosthanes thinks aloud. “Those who follow Apollos have a certain look and feel about them. He attracts men that are similar to himself. They’re all nice guys… but they are definitely the “go-getter, looking-to-debate” types.”
“Okay.” Paul replies.
“I mean… they don’t necessarily parade themselves around, bragging about how wonderful their mentor is…” Sosthanes muses. “But… they do like to challenge people and see themselves as God’s special agents, as if they have been assigned to hold everyone accountable to the standards they have laid out.”
Now laughing, Paul looks over at Sosthanes and buries his head in his hands. “This is absolutely absurd! Do you realize this? We’re breeding a new version of Pharisee. Was I crucified for Timothy? May it never be seen that way! Did Apollos or… or… Crispus die for the sins of the world? What possibly can these disciples brag about? What godliness in their own right can they possibly point to? If they’re to brag, let them brag about the Lord, Sosthanes. We’re all in this boat together, and we are nothing apart from Christ who has made our redemption, our right standing with God possible. Don’t you see it? By not doing anything to stop this, we’re paving the way for a far more destructive version of self-righteous pharisaism.”
“It’s partly the reason why I have come here.” Sosthanes replies. “Paul, we don’t know what to do with this. Furthermore, we are beginning to implode with all of the concerns that are taking us in several destructive directions. If we’re to continue, we need to hammer this out.”
“Self-righteous pharisaism… That was me! And, I have given all of that up to follow Christ.” Paul sighs. Suddenly remembering, Paul then asks: “My young Timothy, my son in the faith. What is he doing to address all of this?”
“Timothy is doing what he can.” Sosthanes replies. “In fact, I’ve seen him struggle over this probably more than any one of us.”
“Yes.” Paul says. “But… What is he doing to deal with these matters?”
Sosthanes smirks. “Timothy is not you, my friend. He is not a strong personality like you are, so he leads alongside the rest of us as best as he can… But, it’s not uncommon for us to get stuck and not know how to proceed. Which brings us back to you and needing your unique clarity as God’s chosen vessel.”
Paul nods and becomes quiet. Finally, he responds. “Okay… So then let’s work through all of the issues. We can put our responses in writing for you to take back and share with the church in Corinth.”
…
The door swings wide open, and a number of men walk out into the synagogue’s courtyard. A solitary figure stands boldly in the middle of the courtyard.
A high-pitched and nasally voice cries out, “What are you doing here? You know you are no longer welcome in the house of God.”
Eliezer doesn’t flinch and ignores the annoyance altogether. He looks directly at Elam, the puppetmaster who had turned the other leaders against him.
Staring back at him, Elam gives a slight smile and says. “Hmmmm. You seem to possess an impertinent spirit, my friend. I suggest you heed the counsel that has just been offered to you. Magicians and those who associate with demons are by no means welcome in the house of the Lord. The Law requires us to kill anyone who runs after other gods. Fortunately for you, Ephesus is not governed by the Law of Moses. But I wouldn’t test our patience if I were you.”
Smirking at the men just feet away, Eliezer shakes his head and replies. “Isn’t that rich! You commissioned me and even gave me money to consult with the magician to get rid of the Syrian Jew. And here you are now, disbanding me from fellowship to tidy up your own guilt.”
Elam smiles as he looks around at the others. “I assure you, my friend. Nothing of what you claim is true. Even such allegations of false witness can be worthy of death according to the Law. I recommend you leave, never to return or to bring your witchcraft among the people of God. To show your face here again… well, even the laws of Ephesus may not be enough to keep you safe.”
…
The bonfire pops and crackles behind Paul, producing a vibrant glow behind his silhouetted figure. A larger crowd continues to press in as he teaches.
“Do you not know,” Paul continues as he looks directly at Immer, “to tamper with sorcery is to invite the presence of evil into your worlds? To work magic is to become a slave to the demons you seek to entreat. You have no idea what you’re up against. You don’t control them. You invite them to control you. They’re playing with you, telling you what you want to know or hear, only to move you to do their bidding, to become their agents.”
Directly in front of Paul sits Immer and Yedaiah, two of Sceva’s seven sons. Immer looks back at Yedaiah. “That’s not what we were trying to do though.” He whispers.
Overhearing, Paul smiles and replies. “No, but you were aiming to confront a demon without the power of God working within you. Yes?”
The brothers look at each other and shrug in concession.
Paul laughs then catches himself. “Sorry. I don’t mean to make light of this, but seven of you were savagely overcome by one demon possessed man. Do I have that right?”
Gasps are heard throughout the crowd, as many try to get a look at the young men seated in the front.
Paul then asks. “Is it okay if I ask you to stand up?”
Immer and Yedaiah both stand and dozens of murmured conversations erupt.
Waving his arms to quiet the crowd, Paul continues. “Gentlemen, I don’t wish to embarrass you here. But, like you, I know that many here in this crowd have consulted with the demonic world and do so on a regular basis. While some have heard your story, there are still many who need to know what happened to you. You and your brothers have sought to become professional exorcists, going from place to place and removing demons from individuals for a fee.”
Embarrassed by the picture Paul just painted, the two nod their heads and say in unison, “Yes.”
“But the tables then turned.” Paul goes on. “When you met up with a possessed man who turned out to be much more than you bargained for.”
They nod, and more conversations flair up.
Paul continues. “You were simply outmatched by a spirit that was much more powerful than you. This demon possessed man shredded all of you and would have killed you had you not gotten out in time. No, you were not consulting magicians necessarily, but you were messing around with something much stronger than the seven of you.”
Paul then looks back to the crowd and asks. “Don’t you get it? When you mess with incantations, with spells, with mind-altering substances, with amulets, with curse tablets, with bones, with any sort of magician or tool that seeks to summon a spirit, you are inviting the world of the demonic into your lives and you are asking them to control your fates. What benefit is there to gain the world and forfeit your own soul in the process?”
Conversations light up throughout the crowd. “What are we to do?” A voice yells out.
Not wanting to wait, Paul yells over the crowd. “Stop messing around with magic and stop inviting the kingdom of darkness into your lives. Instead, turn to the Most High God who will protect you from the darkness. Turn to God who will guard you with the sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God who became human and died for your sins. If you want the power of God in your lives… If you wish to rid yourselves of dark torment… give up your demonic practices and let God do a permanent work within you.”
“He’s right!” A voice immediately yells out.
Paul looks back along with the rest of the crowd to see who just said those words. He then smiles when he makes out the face of Eliezer who begins to move towards the front.
Arriving at the front, Eliezer stands next to Paul and yells out to the shadowed crowd. “I’m telling you he’s right.” He says with fatigue in his voice. “Look, I know many of you from synagogue and I may even know some of you who aren’t Jewish. I have a confession I need to make in front of you. Moreover, I need to come clean with God.”
Paul glances over to see Aquila’s eyes fixed on the man standing next to him.
“I have consulted a sorcerer.” Eliezer admits.
A flurry of conversations emerge as Eliezer continues. “I have consulted a magician that I paid to get rid of this man. Together, we summoned spirits to rid us of this problem child. I won’t give you their names, but I can assure you there were others involved. It doesn’t matter though. I was a part of it, and I saw to destroy this man, this good man who has risked his own life to travel here to teach us.” Nearly laughing at himself, Eliezer takes a moment before continuing. “But it backfired and blew up in my face. No matter what we did to confront and remove him, we couldn’t successfully do it. Every scheme we devised… every step we took was countered by something much bigger than us.”
Eliezer looks over at Paul and shakes his head. “Man, I don’t even think you know what we were up to.”
Paul shrugs and mouths, “No.”
Eliezer then laughs and says, “He was just here continuing to do what God called him to do and trusting that God would take care of him. And you know what? That’s exactly what happened. God met him every step of the way and walked him through every problem we threw at him. God has protected him from the relentless barrage of problems we’ve tried to cause, problems he didn’t even know about. What did he do? He just trusted God and kept on doing what he was supposed to do.” He scoffs at himself. “I tried to break him, but God broke me. Do you know what it’s like to go against the wishes of the living God?”
The fire pops, causing both Paul and Eliezer to turn and see what might have caused it. Two individuals raise their empty hands, and the fire consumes the contents just dumped upon it.
“We’re done.” says one of the men standing there.
“No more magic. No more sorcery.” Says the other.
Paul looks around to see several among the crowd run away. He then looks over at Aquila and says, “Well that didn’t seem to go well. We scared them off.”
Aquila looks behind Paul to see three others approach the fire with their hands filled with an assortment of items. He smiles back at Paul and nods for him to turn around. “Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure of that.”
…
We’re going to stop here for today.
The seeds of Paul’s teaching have germinated into something much more and have now taken root among many here in Ephesus. Jews and non-Jews alike are regularly attending Paul’s sessions and have begun to see how their common interests in dabbling with the occult are being confronted by something far more powerful–namely a trust relationship with God. Magic was a profitable and widespread industry here in Ephesus. Luke even estimates how a large monetary amount, spent on the resources devoted to magic, was dumped into the fire. Fifty thousand drachmas worth of magic resources–a drachma for most was worth a day’s wage–was forfeited into the flames. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is! Those feeding the fire with their spell books, their incantations, their drug interests, their potions, their amulets, etc… were in essence saying, “Enough is enough. I’m tired of living this way and I want the Most High God to come into my life.”
This was true of many in the crowd, and it was especially true of Eliezer who had been scorned from just about everyone he previously thought were his allies. While Eliezer is a fictional character in this narrative, those with Jewish backgrounds were often confronted with having to make a decision to either stay in the synagogue or to move towards the church. Up until this time, many did both, but along with greater evangelism efforts by the early church missionaries came the greater resistance from those who were leading in the synagogues. A decision would have to be made and the division would be felt among a number of Jewish families. Jesus counted on this and said as much in Matthew 10.
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to turn a man against his father and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in law; and a person’s enemies will be the members of his own household.
“The one who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and the one who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And the one who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. The one who has found his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life on My account will find it.
– Matthew 10:34-39
Meanwhile, Paul is discovering how severe some of the issues are in Corinth, as Sosthanes gradually reveals them to him. One such issue was the self-serving nature of elevating certain mentors over others. Disciples of these mentors were bragging about the superiority of their own education and even their own godliness because they had a “celebrity” mentor. This problem was nothing new in this culture, and celebrity worship still remains a sore spot in our culture today. Even within the church, we boast about how wonderful our own teachers are and we feel better about ourselves when everyone else knows it.
James gives us an apt warning about being teachers. In fact, he discourages it by warning us of stricter judgment to come should our lives not reflect our words.
Do not become teachers in large numbers, my brothers, since you know that we who are teachers will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to rein in the whole body as well. Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their whole body as well. Look at the ships too: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are nevertheless directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot determines. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.
– James 3:1-5
It is interesting to me how James relates teaching to exhibiting self-control. The words coming out of my mouth can bring healing or harm. Those teaching others would do well to realize this. In fact, as this chapter continues, James goes on to explain how our words, and our teaching, can be incredibly destructive if used for personal gain.
Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and goodfruits, impartial, free of hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
– James 3:13-18
As teachers, we would do well to remember our place. It’s Jesus that matters. Not me. Like Paul, Peter, James, and the others, we are simply conduits of God’s work, so to think more highly of ourselves is to diminish God’s work in our lives and in the lives of others. While each individual is responsible for her own faith development, teachers have influence… significant influence. Consequently, our words need to be thoughtfully considered and so should our lives. In doing so, we will avoid all hypocrisy and not incur greater judgment upon ourselves.
I should also point out that while both good teaching and godliness are highly influential in the lives of others, they are by no means automatic. My faith does not automatically grow just because you’re teaching me, no matter how exceptional you might be. My faith grows when I trust God throughout the day more than I trust myself.
Of course, there is much more I can share here, but our time is up for this episode. Thank you for listening in, and may God use his teachers to positively influence you to demonstrate more faith in your lives. With that, let’s move forward together.