Life Project Blog

Acts 20:1-12

Today, most of us consider a long sermon to be somewhere from 35 to 40 minutes, but the Apostle Paul gives comfort to any modern-day preacher who is hearing about long sermons from critics, for Paul in this passage went on past midnight, and then until dawn in Troas.

The first six verses of this passage give details about places visited and who was in Paul’s party, but beginning with verse seven we see the events surrounding this epic sermon. The most interesting thing here is that Luke never even tells us what Paul was talking about!

Paul went on so long that a young man named Eutychus, who was seated in the window, fell asleep and then fell three stories to his death sometime after midnight… and we complain after only a few minutes. Luke tells us that Paul ran outside and raised the young man back to life, and then returned to his sermon and went on several more hours. We know that Paul went a little long because he was leaving the next day, but my oh my I wonder if anyone was awake when he was finished.

I take three lessons from this text:

First, preachers should probably keep an eye on the clock.

Second, young men shouldn’t sit in third floor windows.

Third, the power of God can overcome any calamity.

Next time, Paul bids farewell to the elders of Ephesus, and Luke tells us what he told them; see you then!

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”

“John’s baptism,” they replied.

Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all.

Acts 19:1-7

Paul arrived in Ephesus on a route from the north, and upon arriving he met a small group of “disciples” who had been taught by Apollos, apparently before he had been instructed by Aquila and Priscilla. It would seem that Apollos’ initial misconceptions had been passed to these men, who had not been properly instructed. Paul seems to have noticed that something was missing, and asked them if they received the Holy Spirit only to discover that they had not even heard of the Holy Spirit, even though they had believed.

What follows is quite interesting theologically, for Paul sets for us a clear linkage between baptism and receiving the Spirit (19:3-5), followed by events that parallel those we saw take place in Samaria in chapter 8. Notice that Paul explained to them that John’s baptism, which they had received, was a baptism of repentance, and that John had taught those who received to believe in the One who would come after him, Jesus, and that upon hearing this, the men were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus (cf. Acts 2:38). Then, as Peter had done in Samaria, Paul lays his hands on the men and they received the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts that made the Spirit’s presence obvious. Notice they had to first be baptized into Jesus Christ, and then they would receive the Holy Spirit.

At this point, it might be useful for us to consider that we are looking at an event that took place roughly 20 years after Pentecost, and for that length of time, the Gospel had spread orally from Jerusalem throughout the known world. As we might expect, as the great story was retold over those years, there was some confusion about some of the details that was beginning to be problematic. Of course, this shouldn’t be any great surprise, for even now after having the New Testament Scriptures for so many centuries, there is a great deal of confusion about these same matters. For example, what baptism should a Christian receive? As you know, asking a question such as that one will spark endless debates today, and having been in my share of those debates myself, I can assure you that not many of those debaters will mention this particular text, even though it is one of the clearest teachings on the subject.

At any rate, the men obviously received the Spirit, and the stage was set for the next part of the story, an amazing series of events that demonstrate the spiritual power of what was going on in that region…

Acts 18:18-28

Paul eventually left Corinth taking Aquila and Priscilla with him to Ephesus. Paul remained there only a short time, and then left the two in Ephesus, probably to set up a base for more operations in the future, and traveled to Jerusalem and then to Antioch, ending his second missionary journey. He remained in Antioch for an indeterminate period of time, and then left on his third missionary journey.

Meanwhile, back in Ephesus, Aquila and Pricilla seem to have been making some progress when a man named Apollos came upon the scene. He was an educated man who hailed from Alexandria, and an excellent teacher and debater, yet he still lacked a few fundamentals of the faith. Aquila and Priscilla quickly got him up to speed, and he became a powerful force for the Gospel. Soon he was off to Achaia where he was known to have debated leading Jews about Jesus, proving from the Scriptures that He is the Messiah.

Clearly this is a transitional text, covering the time from the winding up of Paul’s second journey and setting the stage for the drama of the third. Yet even with that said, it has an interesting and very relevant message for us today, for in these few verses, we can see a dramatic example of the way that discipleship is supposed to work.

Paul disciples Aquila and Priscilla, and when they were ready, he didn’t simply leave them to repeat the same things they had always done, rather he took them to Ephesus so that they could play a central role in the establishment of a whole new church in that city. Then Apollos comes along, a man who had a gift for preaching the Word, yet even though he was a very talented and gifted man, he still needed some guidance in his teaching, and Aquila and Priscilla provided that guidance, and soon sent him on his way to establish new congregations in another area. In this we see discipleship on the part of Paul paying dividends for the Kingdom, and then his disciples in turn passing the torch to newly trained disciples who go out and repeat the process with the result that the Gospel spreads throughout the region at a much faster rate than it would have otherwise been able to spread… and God being glorified through all of it.

Most of us don’t do that today.

At one point in my life, I taught a Sunday school class for 10 consecutive years, and never missed a Sunday. For the entire time, I had essentially the same people in the class; no one ever graduated. The reason that I didn’t miss a single Sunday as teacher was that there was no one else who would fill in for me. It wasn’t because the people hadn’t learned enough, and it wasn’t because they couldn’t have done a terrific job of it. It was because they had no concept of ever doing anything other than filling a seat on Sunday, instead they thought that that’s all anyone ever really needs to do, and no matter how often I told them otherwise, they simply could not comprehend that there was anything else for them to do, for they had sold out to the idea that they were going to be “lifelong Bible students”.

Teaching along with ministry was supposed to be someone else’s problem; leave that to the professionals.

Obviously that wasn’t the attitude in Paul’s day, and just as obviously it shouldn’t be ours today.

Soon, Paul would return to Ephesus, and he would create quite a stir; see you next time!

Acts 18:1-17

After leaving Athens, Paul moved onto Corinth, where Silas and Timothy would eventually meet him. While there, he once again began teaching n the synagogue. He quickly became acquainted with a man named Aquila and his wife, Priscilla who had been forced to leave Italy because of the decree of Emperor Claudius, banning all Jews from the region. Since all three of them were tentmakers, Paul worked with Aquila and Priscilla, remaining in Corinth for a year and a half.

After some time, the synagogue had heard enough of Paul’s teaching, and rejected it; Paul also had had enough of the synagogue as it turns out. Yet even so, some there had received his message, including the synagogue leader, and a fledgling church began in the city. Paul now turned his full attention to proclaiming the good news to Gentiles.

At some point in this process, Paul had an interesting vision from the Lord:

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God. (18:9-11)

Some time later, probably many months later, after Paul had obeyed the Lord’s instructions, an incident arose:

While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment.  “This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.” (18:12-13)

In the verses that follow, we see something unusual take place, for the proconsul Gallio has no interest in the matter, since it concerned Jewish law, and essentially told the Jewish leaders to take a hike; Paul was free to go. The crowd that had been ginned up by the synagogue leadership then turned on the synagogue leader, beating him right in front of the proconsul, who did nothing whatsoever to stop them.

God had important work for Paul and the others to do in Corinth, which was a vitally important city in those days. Paul had been faithful to the Lord’s command, and the Lord had seen to it that Paul’s work would continue, and had dealt with those who had attempted to interfere. Once again, there is an important lesson for us with regard to who it is that is actually in control of events.

God is most notable in Scripture for His restraint; He doesn’t throw His weight around as a rule, preferring for reasons entirely of His own to allow a certain leeway for men and spiritual opponents to exercise freewill. However, when His eternal purpose is being threatened, He steps in. Although it is difficult for many of us today to wrap our brains around it, sometimes He steps in and exercises His judgment, as in this case. We might say that this cannot be, for God is love and He would never act in a way that isn’t “nice”, but this is a rather naive view in my opinion, for love isn’t the same thing as “nice”. God’s love is unlimited, and His purpose is loving indeed, since it is all about forgiveness and the gift of eternal life in fellowship with God in His everlasting love. However, there is a line that must not be crossed in this model, for if a man rejects God’s grace and seeks to prevent salvation and grace coming to others, he will discover that he is dealing with a God of justice, who will not permit him to deprive others of God’s loving grace. Thus, the new synagogue leader learned a valuable lesson that day about messing around with God’s purpose… I wonder if he lived to tell the tale; Luke does not say.

Acts 17:16-34

As was the usual custom, Paul first taught in the Jewish synagogues upon his arrival in Athens. From there, he also taught in the marketplace where he came across some interesting people. Luke tells us that Paul had become “distressed” about the number and magnitude of “idols” in the city, for in the first century, Athens had become a center of art and philosophy; it was no longer a political center as it had been in centuries past, thus aspiring artists and philosophers traveled there to seek their destinies from all over the region.

While in the marketplace, he came to discuss his new ideas with Epicureans and Stoics who disputed both Paul and each other, as was their custom. Yet we should note that their disputations were collegial rather than hostile, which is the key to understanding this text. At some point in this process, Paul’s new debating buddies invite him to speak before the Areopagus so that all of the philosophers might better understand this new teaching of his.

For the modern-day reader, Luke’s use of the term “Areopagus” is slightly ambiguous, since it can either refer to a place or a council. As a place, it refers to a location known in English as “Mars Hill” which was the place where criminal and civil cases were heard and adjudged. As a council, it refers to a group of scholars who ruled on philosophical and religious questions, the same council before which Socrates had appeared 500 years earlier. Over the centuries following Paul’s appearance, scholars have debated which of these Luke was referring to, in fact, in literature, Paul’s speech in this passage is known as “The Mars Hill Discourse”, demonstrating the geographical interpretation. Of course, in verse 33, Luke actually tells us that Paul was before a council… For whatever it’s worth, I believe that Paul addressed the council, and the council met on Mars Hill.

Paul’s actual speech is recorded in 17:22-31; you really should read it, if you haven’t already for it is truly marvelous and well worth the effort. In fact, the King James version of this address is considered to be one of the true literary classics of all time and is required reading for students of both literature and philosophy in universities worldwide.

For our purposes, there are a few things I hope you will take note of:

First, I hope that you will notice that in spite of Paul’s distress with all of the idols he came across in Athens, he did not bother telling the group that they were wicked evil sinners who were destined for hell, even though he may have thought that to be true. He also didn’t tell them that all of their philosophizing was a shocking waste of time, and recommend to them that they seek actual gainful employment, which is a thought that comes to my mind. Instead, his approach was more along the lines of, ”here’s a new idea you might want to consider; I have news about your ‘unknown god’, he is revealing himself to you after centuries of mystery”.

By taking such an approach, Paul actually had their attention and gained a hearing, rather than just being laughed off the stage.

The second thing I hope we will all notice is that when Paul spoke to the Areopagus, God met the people where they lived through Paul. The moral of the story dear reader, is that if we will resist the temptation to behave as arrogant jerks, God can do a mighty work through us; notice that even though many of those who heard Paul did not receive his message, others did receive it, including at least two notables, to the glory of God.

“Hellfire and brimstone” usually doesn’t work.

Acts 17:1-15

The great adventure was not nearly over when Paul and the others left Philippi; it was just getting started. Luke mentions a number of towns they visited, and then tells us of some of the details of the visits to Thessalonica and Berea, and in doing so; we find an interesting contrast between the two communities.

In Thessalonica, Paul begins by teaching in the synagogue for three Sabbath days. He showed them, using the Scriptures, that Jesus was indeed the long-awaited Messiah, and a fair number of the people came to believe. Yet others were “jealous” and these decided to recruit a bunch of unsavory characters to instigate a riot, with the result that Paul and Silas left town, and Jason had a very close call before the magistrate; but a church was established in spite of all of this phony riot business.

When Paul and Silas reached Berea, they found a quite different group of Jews. These people eagerly examined the Scriptures as Paul taught, wanting to see if his message was true, and upon finding that he was indeed telling the truth, they gladly received his message about Jesus. From Luke’s narrative it would appear that no one in Berea was “jealous” of the message Paul and Silas taught, but word of their activities would soon reach Thessalonica, and the unsavory characters were soon dispatched to Berea, and Paul was soon secreted to Athens where the rest of his party would join him.

The contrast between the two communities is obvious enough; one had a large number who were jealous, and the other had a large number who were willing to verify what was true, and act according to their truth findings. As for the manufactured riots using unsavory characters… that is a political tactic that is still used to this day.