A Costly Grace

Believers

(Acts 19:18-20, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 10, 2013)

[18] Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.

God was doing extraordinary works through His ambassador, the Apostle Paul. These works came from Him and from the power of His Word. Daily lectures were reaching people all over the province of Asia. Miracles were also taking place.

God was at work. The best proof of that was not in the numbers of people who heard the message or in the miracles that had taken place. The best proof of the progress of the kingdom was in the changed lives of people who had put their trust in Jesus.

There were many people who had now come to believe in the Lord. This belief was more than an intellectual assent. They had entrusted their lives to Jesus and to the message of grace that Paul preached. All this was a gift of God, and expression of His mercy and kindness.

God's grace is free, but it is not cheap.

Most importantly, the grace that saves us was very costly to God. He gave His Son for us, that those who would receive Him, who believed in His Name, would have the right to be sons of God. The gift of eternal life cannot be bought, but it cost God dearly.

But there is another sense in which the true gift of heavenly life is costly to those who hear the message and believe. We need to change.

That costly response to the grace of God was happening in Ephesus. Verse 18 tells us the story in general, and verse 19 gives us a particular example of what was happening in that city.

First, in general, people who had believed in Jesus Christ were confessing and divulging their practices. There was an open acknowledgment by many that their old ways of life were not pleasing to God.

Too much talking about ourselves can be counter-productive. The main story of our faith is not us and how bad we were, but Jesus and His goodness and power. The point of the public confession of personal sin should not be an undue focus on self, but an acknowledgment of the power of God and a pledge to follow in a new way way of life.

Honest change in the direction of the kingdom of God can be very costly.

[19] 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.

The specific example of change given in verse 19 illustrates the point. Some of the people who had come to believe in Jesus in that city had formerly practiced magic arts that they had come to see now as prohibited by the Scriptures.

This was a contest between one set of books and another. The new believers had come to an understanding of the Hebrew Old Testament Scriptures through Paul's teaching and the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They saw that the Christ was Jesus, but they also saw that this Messiah was not only their Savior but also their Lord. That meant that they had to follow Him. As Paul instructed the people concerning the Law and the prophets, they saw the evil of their former way of life. They saw that the Bible prohibited occult practices where people sought access and information from an unseen world by secret words and practices.

There were people in the church in Ephesus who were once dedicated enough to dark arts to own special books that cost lots of money. These books told them how to have power. Now they saw that the Lord Jesus, in whom they had believed, said no to their old books.

Jesus says no to lots of printed material. He says no to books and images that are demeaning to people created in the image of God. He says no to everything that cannot be pursued in faith.

What do you do with all the old stuff in your life? What if it cost you a lot of money to get it in the first place? Do you sell it to someone else so that they can get trapped in it? Do you give it away to a friend who is still imprisoned in evil like you used to be?

What they did in Ephesus was to gather it all together and burn it. That was a powerful statement of freedom. It was costly, but the reason anyone would count it all up and remember that it came to 50,000 pieces of silver was because they were ecstatic to see it all gone. A set of books that they once thought of as precious possessions were now counted as worthy only of being burned. Now there was a new set of books, the Scriptures, the Word of the God who had brought them from death to life.

[20] So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

This kind of change in people's lives is powerful. It became a good word of holiness that spread from person to person and from house to house until it started to have an impact on the economy of the region.

The Lord Jesus who saved us by the power of His obedience and His blood is reigning now in resurrection power. He calls people from death to life. Getting out of death is His free gift to you. It cost Him everything. And when you grow in the Scriptures, you will see the unmistakeable call to a costly life that requires something of you.

Jesus wants your soul. What is a soul? It is that mysterious entity that makes you who you are. It is the combination of your heart, your mind, your will, and your passions. Jesus demands all of that. He shows you the way of truth and love and says, “Follow Me.”

Every dark power that whispers to you, “Keep me around, I have been your bosom friend,” needs to go away permanently. Objects, even costly possessions, that are symbols of a world of darkness need to be destroyed.

But who can cleanse the mind of memories that have captivated us? God can. More than that, God will. The One who gave Himself for us will be satisfied with nothing less than complete victory. He has the power and the love to rid us of every dark thought or image that once held us in chains. We can be free of all of that in Him.

The church has the privilege to say no to sin. The power to live a new life comes from the One who rose from the dead. Though evil may seem to win momentary battles in our souls, Jesus will have the eternal victory. You will be free.

Old Testament Passage: 2 Samuel 24:18-25 – David paying for the place of sacrifice

Gospel Passage: John 14:15-18 – If you love Me...

Sermon Point: Free grace was costly to Jesus and leads to a costly commitment to truth and love.