Ephesians is probably my favorite book in the Bible. I love the passages on the power we have in “heavenly places.” Another favorite of mine is when Paul expounds upon our inheritance as saints. Likewise, I find the section on the five-fold ministry to be wonderful. Many consider this book to be the center piece of Paul’s writing with all of its rich revelation and knowledge. I am sure glad Paul had us in mind when he wrote it.
Oh, wait a second, he did not write it directly to us. Or did he?
Maybe deep in his prophetic insight and revelation with Jesus he had a hunch that future generations would be blessed with his words. Aside from that, who did he share the storehouse of wealth and treasure he had learned from Holy Spirit during all those years? Who were the recipients of such vast revelation knowledge that the study of this book constitutes our understanding of what kind of Church Jesus is building? What kind of people did God see fit to take these eternal words and begin to translate them into the earth, that it may be filled with the kingdom of heaven?
Luke describes how the Gospel came to Ephesus in Acts 19. In a nutshell, Paul finds some believers who were baptized into John’s baptism. After finding out they had yet to receive the Holy Spirit, he then introduces them to his buddy, Jesus; explaining to them that John spoke of Jesus as the one to come. This essentially rocked their planet so they were baptized into Jesus and when Paul laid his hands on them, the Spirit filled them and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. He then spoke boldly in the synagogues, in the public halls (pubs?).
This was an investment into this city and this people that consumed 2 years of his life. During that time God did some of the most extraordinary miracles in the New Testament. Handkerchiefs and aprons that were touched by Paul got zapped by Holy Spirit inside him and when they were brought to the sick and demonized, the people were healed and set free. This even spurred on the “religious establishment.” Sceva, the Jewish high priest had seven sons who tried to “exercise” authority over demons too. Their mistake was they tried to use Paul as a “medium” to speak with the name of Jesus. They found out quickly that speaking to demons without a relationship with Jesus isn’t helpful in the development of a deliverance ministry.
The result, though, distinguished Paul as one who truly knew God. Fear fell on the residents and they lifted up the name of Jesus in high honor. When this happens, Luke at last reveals who the people of Ephesus were involved in:
Also many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. (Acts 19:18-20, ESV)
These few sentences are the result of a man going into a city to love them and share the true power of God with them. He did not go in there with a bunch of apostles and prophets and start a fight. Nor did he tell them they were all going to burn in hell because they were all witches and warlocks, and who knows what else.
He saw these Ephesians as valuable enough that heaven would love to come and make a deposit in them of everything that Jesus lived, died, resurrected, and ascended for. He did not hate them and get mad that they got saved and delivered, like Jonah did at Nineveh. The result was marvelous.
Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in time it was revealed that the message that Paul had brought to them was more powerful than the power of magic that was rooted in their hearts, most likely for generations. They gathered together the books they possessed on the magic arts and burned them. Some of these books, I assume, were hundreds of years old and in the families for generations. The kids might have grown up reading them. They were not just burning the latest manuscripts form the New Age section at Books-A-Million. This was all some of them probably knew.
The value of the books was 50,000 pieces of silver. This was two thousand years ago. So, how much would that be today? To answer that, we cannot simply take what silver cost today and compare. We have to look at what silver was economically back then. One piece of silver was likely a day’s wage for an unskilled worker. If they made around $9 an hour in our standards, then they earned $72 for a day. If $72 was equal to one piece of silver, then we would multiply that by 50,000. Therefore, total value would have been $3,600,000 in our time. Many commentators place the value in the proximity of $27k -48K, but this seems to be measuring it against today’s market value.
Wow, that’s more cash than many of us will ever see. The witchcraft books burned equaled 3.6 million dollars! This is what it looks like when a whole city gets free. The same people became the ones to receive the rich revelation I mentioned earlier. From the descriptions written, Ephesus was probably the most witchcraft-prone city in the entire New Testament, apart from Pergamum.
How do we reach people in witchcraft? Do we really want to reach them? After all, the Old Testament says to burn them at the stake. Most of us approach them this way. I know I used to. I was mad at them, like Jonah. I wanted to beat them in a fight. In the film, “Furious Love,” director Darren Wilson shares his own journey into the world of darkness and how the love of Jesus shined light on them and set them free. These people need love just like everyone else who is lost in the world. Most of the church wants to fight them and cast them out. Remember though, Paul even says in Ephesians that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but spiritual forces of wickedness. We are supposed to rescue them, not drown them. We rescue them by setting them free from what’s pulling them under. Yelling at someone drowning in a whirlpool for “drowning in a whirlpool,” is kinda silly don’t ya think? We should command the whirlpool to cease and lift them out and set them on “firm ground.”
The only direct fight against witchcraft in the New Testament was against Elymas the magician, or sorcerer. He was trying to use witchcraft to directly oppose the Message of Jesus from being proclaimed in that area by desiring to persuade the proconsul to turn away from the faith. He was using magic on purpose to fight the Gospel, and he is the one that started it.
This brings up another point. In our time it seems psychics are on the rise. There is also an example of this in Acts. A spirit of divination was in a slave girl and she was pestering Paul and the gang with her proclamations. Paul set her free. He didn’t tell everyone she was a devil and that she should be cast out and avoided. It was a testimony to the area. Once again, our battle is not against flesh and blood, but the powers that hold people in darkness. When we love them, it disarms their attachment to the powers allowing us to demonstrate to them true power.
Our hearts must be for them. We are not in the Old Covenant and we are not commanded to kill them. We have Jesus and Holy Spirit. The desire to kill comes from fear. The desire to save comes from love, and love overcomes fear. I ask you this: What is worse, religion that denies the power, or those who long for supernatural power but find it in the wrong place? You decide. I am not advocating witchcraft, I am promoting loving it out of them.
I have been developing ideas for a fantasy novel that I want to write. In doing so I have studied the 3 most influential pieces of literature in this genre in the last 100 years. These are the Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. Like or not, that is the way that it is. I have seen the first two movies, but always preached against the third. I decided recently however, to buy the set and watch the movies. This came after I watched an interview with the author, J.K. Rowling. Although the movie and books do draw heavily from real witchcraft, which I do not applaud, I found that she doesn’t seem to be the evil mastermind witch that I had perceived her to be. I found her as a broken women with a rough up bringing, who used her gifts and creative imagination to create a supernatural world for her to escape to. The result or outlet of that was Harry Potter.
She sounds like she wants to believe in God but has yet to experience that supernatural love to bring her to His feet. If we are created in God’s image, the all of us have a supernatural draw to see the impossible in our lives. Here is someone expressing that. I think it’s evident in the story. She even stated it’s all about death, and I see it as her internal desire to overcome it. How do we reach her? All she needs is love and truth which will produce supernatural power in her midst.
So now, I give you an assignment. Read through Ephesians with the understanding that the people this letter was sent to were delivered from witchcraft. See them as one likened to J.K. Rowling who were looking for something supernatural in the earth. Heaven heard their heart cry and sent an apostle, a kingdom builder. The outcome was that a place known for witchcraft became a place known for the immeasurable riches of Christ.
But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7)
The ones delivered from witchcraft were given the immeasurable riches in Christ. When we avoid reaching those in witchcraft, we’re avoiding adding to our midst the ones with the potential to become the most powerful. And the salvation of witches, wizards, warlocks, diviners, and psychics seems to be accompanied by fresh revelation that benefits the whole chruch.
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