Life Project Blog

Acts 19:8-20

In this passage Luke tells us of the wonders and marvels that came about in Ephesus and the surrounding area when Paul arrived there. The narrative begins in 19:8-10 in which Luke tells us that Paul spoke persuasively in the synagogue for a period of three months. In this period, many, possibly most of his hearers came to follow Jesus Christ. I say this because in verse 9 Luke uses the words, “but some of them” which strongly implies a minority, became “obstinate” and refused to believe. After this, Paul, as was his custom, took the message to the Gentile population, with the result that everyone in the region heard the message of the Lord.

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. (19:11-12)

Once again, we are reminded of all that had happened in Samaria after Peter was called upon to make a dramatic demonstration of the Holy Spirit coming upon the population in chapter 8, and in this community where Paul did the same thing in the previous passage.

In vv. 13-16 we have a curious account of some Jews attempting to drive out demons in the name, “of the Jesus whom Paul preaches” (19:13). It doesn’t appear from Luke’s wording that these men were followers of Christ who were working with the power of the Spirit, for the demons in question caused them to be badly beaten, and when the people heard this, they came to recognize that the name of Jesus was not a name to be tossed around lightly. Consequently, it was held in the highest respect thereafter― God was not messing around in Ephesus.

Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. (19:18-20)

Jewish sorcerers were not uncommon in Gentile lands, and they, according to historians, had a reputation for effective incantations. Here we see that after the incident mentioned above, many people including a number of sorcerers, came to sincere repentance and were willing to divorce themselves entirely from their past lives. In our text these sorcerers actually burned their scrolls with a combined worth of 50,000 days’ wages, an astronomical sum. In the Roman world. Scrolls were very expensive, and scrolls with magical incantations and formulas were very highly prized, and these guys were so moved to repentance that they destroyed a fortune.

Indeed, God was not messing around in Ephesus.

Paul’s work in Ephesus was about complete; he made arrangements to move on, but with so many amazing things taking place there, the Evil One was about to make his move…

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.

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.