The Acts of the Apostles 74

Subtitle: A Riotous Crowd in Ephesus

Acts 19:21-31.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 4, 2024.

It almost seems to be par for the course that a mob would be stirred up against the Apostle Paul.  He had ministered in the city for around two years.  Yet, the impact that he and the believers has been making begins to stir up the pagans, those who worship the false gods.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Spirit leads Paul (21-22)

Paul is not a man who is focused upon his flesh, or doing whatever he wanted.  This is in contrast to how the average American lives their life.  Even as Christians, we can tend to treat God’s stuff as a list of things that we have attached to our lives.  As long as God is in the boat, we can drive as we please.

Yet, Paul had become a believer in Jesus by seeing his inability to righteously lead his life.  He was a man who had learned to pray about the Lord’s will and had come to a place of faith regarding the will of Jesus by the help of the Holy Spirit.  In short, we need to learn to capture the vision of what God desires to do through us for the Kingdom of Christ.  When we gain insight into God’s plan, we can reach a place where our will merges with God’s.  At least, our will becomes as harmonious with God’s will as is possible in our mortal flesh.

The book of Acts demonstrates that the early Church was led, empowered and helped by the Holy Spirit.  We are intended to continue that pattern through reading the word, praying and seeking His will.  We then commit ourselves to doing that will by faith.

We are called to die to the self-led life and to come alive to the Spirit-led life.  We should spend time in prayer asking this question.  “Jesus, what is the best use of my life?”  Along these lines, we have good counsel given to us from the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:17-20.  In general, we don’t seek to leave commitments when we become a Christian, but rather seek to redeem them.  If I married someone for ungodly reasons before I became a Christian, I shouldn’t seek to make it right by leaving them once I am a believer.  Rather, I stay in the relationship, but now I operate out of a desire to be used by Christ to minister to the other person.  I am the same person in the same situation, but now it is Christ living through me by the Spirit of God.  At least, this is the vision put in front of us.

No matter what great things we may be trying to accomplish, if they are not surrendered to God’s will, we are going after empty things, vanity.

In verse 21, Luke gives us insight to the road ahead.  Others looking at Paul’s choices and actions may believe that Paul makes some mistakes and gets himself killed in the end.  However, Luke shows us that Paul was being led by the Spirit of Christ, even when it led him to his death.

Paul’s plan would be to go back through Macedonia (northern Greece, e.g., Phillipi, Thessalonica), down to Achaia (southern Greece, e.g., Corinth), then to Jerusalem, and after that, “I must also see Rome.”

God sometimes has a necessity to certain things in our life.  In fact, we may not like some of them.  Think about Jesus on the night he was betrayed.  He wrestles with the Father in prayer over the coming cross.  In his flesh, it is something to be avoided, but his spirit is yielded to the will of the Father.

Yet, even when God has things that we must go through, not all of them are actively caused by Him.  God did not cause Judas to do what he did.  Judas did these things of his own volition and inability to guard his heart.  Yet, God worked the sin of Judas into His plan and purpose for Jesus.  God’s grace is always supplied for us to do his purpose and plan.

In verse 21, it literally says that Paul “purposed in the spirit.”   Some translations take this to mean within his own spirit, and thus, they sometimes translate it without the word spirit.  To them, this is a statement about internal dedication to a plan of action alone.  However, it doesn’t say in “his” spirit.  I believe it is far more natural to understand Luke’s phrase to be pointing to Paul’s determination having its source in The Spirit [of God].   When Paul is later warned by the other prophets that he will be taken prisoner if he goes to Jerusalem, it will be clear that Paul’s insistence to keep going was not a lightly made decision of his own flesh.  It was one made in the Spirit, with the help of the Holy Spirit.  The “must” concerning Rome is not a “must” of Paul’s flesh, but of God’s will in his life.  However, it has also become Paul’s desire and act of faith.

We should remember Acts 9:15-16.  At Saul’s (Paul’s) salvation, Ananias gave him the message of God, that he would be a “chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.”  Most of us will not testify before anyone of such great stature.  But, which is more important, witnessing to kings or a peasant?  Both are extremely important to that individual and can change an eternity of experience.  The Lord also told Ananias that, “I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”  I believe Paul’s prayer life had experienced such revelations from the Lord.  He knew what was ahead and the suffering involved.

It is not that God’s purpose is to make us suffer, per se.  Yet, nothing for God can be done in this fallen world without encountering it.  We encounter personal suffering when we deny our sinful flesh and follow the Spirit of God.  We also encounter suffering from people intent on serving self and from spiritual forces.  To live for God is a battle with self, the world, and the devil.  Yet, we should not fear this suffering.  We suffer for the Lord who suffered first for us.  This is our honor, but also bonds us deeper with the Lord as we grow to understood the love that compelled him to the cross.

With this plan to go to Macedonia in mind, Paul sends Timothy and Erastus ahead for several reasons.  They most likely carry correspondence from Paul to various churches, and would be able to see for themselves the response to such in each church.  Also, they would be giving the churches a heads up and enabling them to prepare for his coming.  We are told that he stayed in Asia “for a time,” after sending them.  I would gage this as a matter of months in light of the two years mentioned earlier.

A commotion occurs (23-31)

We saw earlier that friction in the synagogue had led to Paul and the believers in Jesus separating.  They met in the Hall of Tyrannus.  Whenever a mob occurs, there is a trigger event, whether it justifies a mob or not.  We have seen uprising against Paul before, and they pretty much led to his leaving town every time.  In Thessalonica, it was a mob instigated by Jews who would not believe in Jesus as Messiah.  However, it will be by Gentile pagans here in Ephesus.  Paul’s ministry and the growth of the church was noticeably impacting the religious economy of Ephesus.

Ephesus was famous for its temple to Artemis (the Latin form is Diana), but more on that later.

We are told that the commotion is “about The Way.”  Luke uses this term for the early Church again.  He will use it a total of eight times in the book, of which this is the fourth.  Saul of Tarsus had been a man arresting people of “The Way” in Acts 9:2.  In this case, Paul is part of The Way [of the Lord] and others are seeking to arrest him.

This commotion is stirred up by a silversmith in Ephesus named Demetrius.  It says that he was a maker of “shrines.”  These silver images were typically of a particular Greek god, but sometimes depicted a scene from their mythology.  They could be used within public shrines, but rich people would also buy them for personal shrines.  The fame of Ephesus for its Temple to Artemis would also make a shrine created in Ephesus more valuable and costly.  Demetrius makes his living crafting these shrine objects for rich people.

When we make our money out of something, even when it is a religious thing, we are easily led into sin.  Even Christians can do God’s things in a way that reflects anything but the image of God, and the Lord who bought them with his blood.  This would only be compounded in a person who serves a false god.

Demetrius gathers the silversmiths of the city and makes a speech.  Even if he didn’t intend to create a mob, the mob quickly takes over, and Demetrius is no longer in control.  He was the “releasing of water.”  He only began the strife, but the building up of pressure would grow to become greater than the initial action.  What is his message?

First, he reminds the group that they make their money through the trade of these images.  Second, he points to the fact that Paul has been persuading people to turn from these shrines.  This leads to the conclusion.  If Paul continues, our trade (aka financial interests) will be in danger, AND, the great temple of Artemis will be despised and its magnificence destroyed.

Notice how Demetrius shrewdly connects their personal, financial interests to the great glory of Ephesus and the temple of Artemis.  Essentially, he depicts the glory of Ephesus as being in danger, so any true Ephesian would refuse to allow this.  Ephesus had been famous for its temple to Artemis for over 500 years at this point.  Who wants to be the generation that jeopardizes that?

We should recognize that this same persuasive argument can be made by politicians.  We can have our financial interests conflated with the glory of the United States of America.  We can be told that our sons need to go over seas and die on a foreign field or America will diminish.  In truth, it generally is about the lower motive of profit, and not for the average citizen.

At this point, we have some descriptions of the crowd by Luke.  In verse 28, he uses the phrases, “full of wrath” and “cried out.”  In verse 29, he uses the phrases, “rushed into the theater” and “having seized” Paul’s companions.

This mob action is very different from a peaceful protest.  There is no sense of control and order.  However, even a peaceful protest can be easily pushed into a mob by actors of ill-intent who know how to manipulate crowds.  Our Republic was founded upon the idea that people need to be able to lodge protest against improper governance.  Typically, this is done through the courts, but not always.  Large groups of people can get the attention of governors far quicker than a single lawsuit.  This feedback mechanisms, if done appropriately, can serve to help redress grievances.  Yet, Christians should be wise in such plans and participation.  We need to be led by the Holy Spirit and not by a worldly person (Christian or otherwise) who uses persuasive arguments to bring about our joining them.  There are many manipulators who love to see a crowd because they are already set up to twist the narrative in a direction that works for them.

Paul finds out what is going on, and he wants to address the raging mob.  However, the believers in the city and some of the officials of the province of Asia talked him out of it.  Ephesus was the seat of the provincial rule of Asia.

Was this a lack of faith on the part of these believers?  Can’t God protect and use the Apostle Paul speaking to a mob in Ephesus and calming it?  Yes, God can do anything.  However, I believe that Paul would have done so if he really felt the Holy Spirit was urging him to do it.  Between the counsel of these two groups, and Paul’s  understanding that God wasn’t necessarily telling him to do it, the decision that Paul will not address the crowd.  Even though Paul is a man led by the Spirit, that doesn’t mean every thought that pops into his head is from the Holy Spirit.   Paul sees the greater wisdom of restraint.

If you enter such situations with the thinking that you need to prove that God is with you, then you may make foolish choices hoping He will back you up.  It is a better policy to pray about every endeavor and do that which God clearly leads you to do.

The Lord Jesus had been raising up a church in Ephesus over the last several  years, but we see here that the spiritual enemies of Jesus didn’t like it.  Whether it is the spirit of Artemis or not, Demetrius is also a man being stirred up by spirits that don’t like what Paul is doing.  Demetrius is not the main problem.  Perhaps, Paul could see himself, before he was saved, in these raging men.  We can be too easily offended by what people do, and lose sight that the real problem is the devil and his angels who are able to use people as tools. 

Yes, the devil uses people.  However, God is also looking for some people who will trust Him and fight the greater battle against the spiritual forces that hold our enemies captives.  May God help us to find and help to deliver those who can be saved from the kingdom of darkness.

Riotous Crowd audio

The Acts of the Apostles 73

Subtitle: The Power of God through Paul

Acts 19:11-20.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 28, 2024.

The spread of the Gospel was accompanied by healings, exorcisms and works of power.  Today, we will look at some more examples of some of the things that God was doing in Ephesus through the Apostle Paul.

The ministry of the apostles was a clash of the Kingdom of Christ with the kingdom of antichrist, the spirit of this world.  Yet, this cosmic battle is worked out in the lives of individuals.

Let’s look at our passage.

Unusual miracles occurred (11-12)

The idea of an unusual miracle is probably itself unusual.  The Greek literally says “no common works of power [miracles].”  So what does that mean?

It can be seen in relation to other believers, even other Christian ministers.  The things that God was doing through Paul were more astonishing than was normally happening among Christians.  There may be some truth to this.  However, we have already seen in Acts 5:15 that unusual miracles (healings) were happening through the Apostle Peter.  Of course, Jesus also had unusual works of power: a woman is healed by touching the hem of his garment, he walks on water, resurrections, and calming the storm in Galilee.  So maybe something different is meant here.

In the context of the passage, there is a contrast between what God was doing through Paul and the ineffective work of the itinerant Jewish exorcists (note that this could describe Paul, with the difference being Jesus in his life).  These Jewish exorcists had some level of success in what they did, but it was nothing compared to how God worked through Paul.  Like Moses being resisted by Jannes and Jambres in Egypt, they were trying to “compete” with Paul, but weren’t even close.

I think that Luke intends a mixture of both these concepts.  Definitely, he has shown that the power of God through the Church (especially the apostles) eclipsed many who were practicing sorcery in the areas they went (see Simon of Samaria in Acts 8:9 and Bar-Jesus of Cyprus in Acts 13:7).  The Jews here are not presented as practicing sorcery, by the way.  Yet, the apostles clearly displayed greater works of power than the average Christian of their day.

The Bible doesn’t teach us, “If Peter can do a miracle, then you can too.”  Rather, it emphasizes that God has giftings that He distributes in His wisdom.  Yes, theoretically, there is no limitation in what God can do through a believer in Christ because He can choose to do anything.  However, God has a specific calling for each of our lives with a distribution of His Spirit to assist in it. 

We should not let ourselves worry about the level of power God is displaying in our lives.  Instead, we should focus on being faithful to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  As we do that, we may even see God work through us in an increasingly powerful way.

Just like the tests that kids take in high school to determine their aptitude for certain professions, we can try to reduce the spiritual gifts of God to such a test.  I think that we should be very careful with such spiritual gifting tests.  No test can tell you what God is planning to do through you down the road.  Life has a way of taking you on a journey.  God’s gifts grow in our lives.  It is a relationship in which we are following Jesus and learning from him.  He may even bring forth new gifts in our lives at later times.

God does tend to use certain people in certain ways.  Yet, there are also scopes of the same giftings.  A person may have a gift of teaching within a local assembly, and another person may have a teaching ministry that has a world-wide scope. 

I don’t think we should think of these as lesser and greater scopes.  Our egos can’t handle such language, and it falls short of the truth.  It may be better to think of it as a wider or narrower scope (sphere of influence).  For those who lust for “greater” things, it is easy to miss the point that the greatest things we do is in those micro-spheres.  Our relationships with a spouse, children, family, local church family, co-workers, etc., are the biggest impacts that we can affect.  Don’t despise the day of small things for the Kingdom of God is built upon such things.  Small things are not small when God is doing it through us.  All ministries of wider scope can be traced back to relationships in the narrower scope.  The question is not how great I am, but how great God is.

This is where we should recognize that spiritual work for the Lord is impossible to be reduced to numbers, or metrics.  In the end, only God can show us in eternity all that was accomplished through us.

Let’s get back to our passage.  Luke gives us an example of an unusual miracle.  Articles of clothing from Paul were used to heal people and drive out demons from others.

The “handkerchief” is a word that covers everything from something you use to blow your nose to a sweat band you would tie around your head.  The “apron” is no doubt connected to Paul’s tent-making trade.  It would protect your clothes from the grime and wear-and-tear of such labor.

Though it is not said, it is most likely that the demand for Paul’s ministry was so great that someone (Paul?} came up with the idea to send these things to be placed upon the person in Paul’s absence.  I would assume that some believers would then pray for the person.  These clothes served as a representative object.  The Bible does not present this as a necessary thing any more than it presents the spit-mud that Jesus used to heal a blind man as necessary.  In some ways, they are an aid to faith.  However, God can also have symbolic reasons why He uses strange things.  Jesus and the mud harkens our minds back to God forming man from the earth and giving it life.  Jesus was the creator of man’s eyes in the beginning, and the way he healed that particular man was symbolic of this.

Some people today have turned this into a gimmick to solicit offerings from desperate people.  No one was making money and soliciting donations in Acts 19.  The healing of the centurion’s servant in Matthew 8 didn’t require any aid of faith.  We should not make a laundry list of powerful actions or objects that we need to heal people and cast out demons.  Rather, God is showing his gracious accommodation of our weakness of faith.  He is also demonstrating His ingenuity in teaching us about His power.

Let me finish this part by emphasizing that God did these powerful works “by the hand of Paul.”  There are two emphases here.  First, God is both the source and the doer of these powerful works.  God used Paul, but the gifts were only resident within him so much as the Holy Spirit was resident within him.  The power was not inherent in Paul’s person, but it is inherent in the nature of God.  We can look up to Paul as a man yielded to the leading and work of God in his life.  But, we should never elevate a person beyond that honorable place, a good example.

The second emphasis is that the powerful works were done “by the hand” of Paul.  The preposition has the sense of “through.”  Paul is a means, a channel, a vehicle for the power of God.  His calling, along with his faith in Christ and his faithfulness to the mission, brought opportunity to others to believe and be delivered by Jesus. 

Believers should watch their lives so that they are not a clogged up channel, or a broken down vehicle.  God has all the power in the universe, but He wants to work through you and me.  We need to be in such a relationship with Jesus that His will and purpose is moving forward in my life.  None of us are perfect, but we can keep focused on Christ and submitted to him.  All of us have some level of clogging in our lives.  However, the important thing is to be responding in faith to the things the Spirit of God is speaking to us about.

Some tried to copy his exorcisms (13-16)

Verse 13 tells us that some people were trying to copy Paul’s exorcisms.  I can imagine that word of his success was heard by others who trafficked in such things.  Their natural curiosity would lead them to find out how Paul was having so much success casting our evil spirit.  They are thinking in terms of tradition, formulas, words, and techniques.  However, casting out spirits for Paul (and for us) is not a matter of technique.

Luke gives us a particular instance in which some itinerant, Jewish exorcists tried to copy how Paul cast out demons.  They had developed a whole tradition of prayers and actions one could do to drive out spirits.  These were not 100% effective, but they had some level of success.  Jesus alludes to this when he is called Beelzebub by the Pharisees in Matthew 12.  He responds, “If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?”  Regardless of their level of success, The power of Christ through Paul (and other Apostles) was in clear contrast to their success and the way they went about performing them.

We must be careful in the Church today that faith in Christ and walking in the power of the Holy Spirit is the emphasis rather than a technique or a formula.  We have developed our own set of traditions around exorcisms.  We have our own formulaic prayers and rituals that can subtly replace the presence of the Holy Spirit in someone sent by Christ.  These are power-encounters between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness that operate through our faith.  We have general authority over evil spirits, and yet, Jesus warns that some kinds of evil spirits cannot come out without prayer and fasting.

These seven Jewish exorcists are sons of a chief priest named Sceva.  The mimicking Paul by saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.”  This already sounds a bit wimpy.  We cast you out by this guy someone else talks about?  Jesus had been declared a heretic and executed by the chief priests.  I’m sure these guys did not send a letter back to Papa Sceva asking if this was okay.  We could chalk it up to an experiment to see if it would work.  Regardless, this demonstrates the sad reality that no lineage of spiritual men can guarantee that we are anything more than a parody of our ancestors.  It is not enough to have a form of godliness.  We also need the power of God that comes from a relationship of faith in Jesus.

The men are going to fail badly.  This is not something to rejoice over, but to weep over.  These men persisted in not believing in Jesus, and yet, their pragmatism causes them to experiment with the name of Jesus.  There is much pragmatic experimenting going on in the Church today, precisely because we are not walking in faith with Christ.  We look for easier answers than changing ourselves.

When they attempt to exorcise the demon, it answers them.  Now, let’s understand right up front that all demons are liars.  You cannot trust anything they say, even when there is a thread of truth in it.  We find that with this demon.  The response is this.  “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

Notice that the demon puts the emphasis on reputation.  Who are you?  Your reputation must be pretty small because it has not preceded you.  Essentially, I’ve never heard of you, and you have no authority here.  However, the key is not about the demon hearing about your ministry.  It is not your reputation, but your relationship with Jesus.  These men are not in relationship with Jesus.  In fact, we can say that they are as much an adversary to Jesus as the demon is.  They have no authority because they don’t know the one who does have authority, Jesus.

Paul, on the other hand, was walking in obedience to Christ and was directly empowered and authorized by him.  In fact, Paul is in this place because he repented when he was confronted with the Word of God, the Lord Jesus himself.  The truth of his rebellion against Yahweh caused him to fall on his face in humility and beg forgiveness.

Human technique can obtain a certain level of effects.  However, true spiritual power comes from spending time with Jesus and being led by Him.

Of course, they don’t know what to say to the demon’s response.  This leads to the possessed man overpowering all seven of them and beating them badly.  The stories of the supernatural power of demon-possessed people are legion (pun intended).  It is partially because humans do not like pain and will only push themselves so far.  When the demon is in control of a person, they do not care about the pain they feel.  Yet, they are supernatural beings and appear to be able to animate a body at a level of power above what seems natural.  Regardless of how that works, these men run out of the building with their clothes torn off and bleeding.

Evil spirits cannot stand before the follower of Jesus Christ who has a living connection with Him.  I wonder if any of these seven sons of Sceva became a Christian after this.  In God, even a beating from a demon-possessed man can be the mercy of God confronting us with the truth and calling us back to Him.  God often uses the worst of things to reach our hearts and change our minds.  Can you imagine that testimony?  “The best day of my life was the beating I received from a demon possessed man because it showed me that I needed Jesus!”

These things had an effect on Ephesus (17-20)

We are told that this failed exorcism became widely known and fear came upon the people.  Such things are unsettling to people.  It is out of the ordinary and begs the question of just what is going on.  They realized that there was something powerful behind Paul and these Christians.

Because of this fear, the Lord Jesus was magnified.  That doesn’t mean that they all were saved.  However, there was a greater appreciation for what Christ was doing through His people.  There was a higher estimation of these Christians and the Jesus they were talking about.  Sometimes, we can be so busy compromising that we don’t understand how much we are diminishing Jesus in the eyes of the world.  May Christ be magnified through our faith.

Verse 18 tells us that many who believed, confessing and telling their (sinful) deeds.  Of course, this describes repentance.  To confess is to speak the same thing as another.  They were agreeing with God’s word and the statements of His Apostles.  They needed to agree that they were living lives of sin, and then turn towards following him.  This is the transformed life.

God wants to bless and save all of us, but that can only be done by coming into agreement with Him about sin.  I’m a sinner, and I am lost.  If it wasn’t for Jesus, I would be stuck in my sins and hopeless.  Now, I have put my faith in his work and his commands.   The transformed life is one that is lived saying yes to the Word and Spirit of God.  Revival is never about an exciting service, but always about a living a different life, following Jesus.

An example of their repentance and trusting Jesus is given.  The Bible speaks of works that are worthy of repentance.  What does it mean for people who practice magic to repent?  Verse 19 tells us that “many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.”  It was very expensive to buy occult knowledge.  These people could have chosen to sell them to others.  Throwing them away seems such a waste to our flesh.  The key is that they are seeing that their magic is worthless and Jesus is priceless.  There really is a day to burn books.  However, this is self-censorship and not a government enforced practice.  We can love to tell others what they should be doing to prove that they are good people.  However, we need to let the Holy Spirit teach us the drastic actions we should do that would make for true repentance.  They burned all of those books that valued up to 50,000 pieces of silver.  The term is not specific enough to know which coin is in view, but it is generally taken for a silver coin that was the equivalent of a day’s wage for a laborer.

Books are resistant to burning because the pages are compressed and it is hard for oxygen to get to it.  You have to keep tending the fire, turning things over, so that the fire can consume it all and turn it into ash.  It is not enough to start down a path of repentance.  We must stick with the works of repentance until the former things are ashes.

Finally, we are told that the Word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.  This word prevailed was used earlier of the demon-possessed man prevailing over the sons of Sceva.  The devil has his day when people do not stand with God and His Anointed One, the Lord Jesus Christ.  But, when we stand in Christ and do the works of faith that are led by the Holy Spirit, then the Word of the Lord will grow mightily and prevail in our homes, communities and Republic.

Power of God audio

Evangelist Joe Pyott

On Sunday July 21, Evangelist Joe Pyott preached in the morning service.  We apologize that the audio is not of sufficient quality to post.  Thanks for your understanding.

The Acts of the Apostles 72

Subtitle: Did You Receive the Holy Spirit?

Acts 19:1-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 14, 2024.

There is much controversy in the Church over the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, also called being filled with the Spirit. 

I do believe that Pentecostals need to refrain from labeling ourselves as having the Spirit, and non-Pentecostals as not having the Spirit.  As we will see in our story today, even being filled with the Holy Spirit is a work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who believe His testimony.

Think of it this way.  In the days of John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit was leading people to believe his message, repent of their sins, and prepare for Messiah.  However, that same Holy Spirit would lead them to embrace Jesus once John identified the Messiah for them.  Yet, those who embraced Jesus as Messiah before the cross, would need to listen to the Holy Spirit’s testimony to embrace the message of the cross and a crucified Lord.  They would then believe Christ and wait in the upper room until the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them. 

All of this shows that the Holy Spirit was in their lives and working with them long before they were ever baptized in the Holy Spirit.  This is the same dynamic with the men in our story today.

Let’s look at our passage.

Paul comes back to Ephesus (1-10)

It may be as much as a year since Paul had left Ephesus, promising that he would come to them again, God willing.  He had spent only a number of days with them that first time.  However, now he will spend over two years with them.

Let’s back up a bit and recognize that Paul had followed the original land route of the 2^nd missionary journey, and even ended up at the same place where he could go into Asia, or go northwest towards Troas and Greece.  The first time, we are told that the Holy Spirit forbade him from going into the province of Asia.  This led to him going to Greece.  Yet, this time, the Holy Spirit does not forbid him to do so.  Paul drops down into Asia and ends up on the coast in Ephesus.

Now, Ephesus was no small town.  It is estimated to have had a population of 150,000 to 250,000.  It was a bustling city with people coming and going, whether by land routes or by the harbor.

Luke also gives us a side note.  Paul ends up in Ephesus while Apollos was in Corinth.  This gives us some background to the first letter to the Corinthians, in which, Paul speaks about the ministry of Apollos there.  The letter of 1^st Corinthians essentially lets us know that Paul was in Ephesus when he wrote it (see 1 Cor. 16:8).

As Paul comes into the city, we are told that he finds “some disciples.”  The word “some” here emphasizes this particular group of around twelve disciples.  They may or may not have been Ephesians, or have been in the city for very long.  Yet, Paul just happened to run into them, probably while he was speaking to people in the marketplace.

In verse two, Paul also speaks of them believing.  From this, it is questioned whether or not they are truly Christians.  The word disciple as a qualifier is always used of Christians when it is alone.  The same is true of believing.  Yet, some look at verse 4 and give some kick-back to this.  Why would Paul explain to them that John expected his disciples to believe on Jesus if they already did so?

I don’t think we really need to solve the mystery of whether they were only disciples of John, or that they had accepted Jesus as Messiah.  Similar to Apollos from the last chapter, they believed John and perhaps knew Jesus as Messiah, but they were lacking the further work of Christ in his Apostles through the Holy Spirit.

We at least know that they are being led by the Holy Spirit, and now, He has intersected their path with a man who can give them further knowledge in Christ.  They are disciples who are simply deficient in knowledge.  Of course, we can all identify with that.  They are in step with the Holy Spirit, and that led them to one of the Apostles so that they could be helped.  This is the wonderful work of our heavenly Father through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

We are not told what leads to Paul’s question, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”  Does he suspect that they are not filled with the Holy Spirit?  Or, is this a question that he used to quickly discover exactly what they know?  We will not know until we ask him in the Kingdom of God.

I mentioned last week that there are some important distinctions between those who were simply disciples of John, and those who had become disciples of Jesus.  Both understood that repentance was in order.  Yet, once Jesus was revealed as Messiah, the disciples of John were intended to follow Him.  By doing so, they would discover the further truths of the cross, resurrection, Spirit Baptism, and the bringing in of the Gentiles.

This brings us to the odd response of these disciples.  The New King James Version translates it this way.  “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”  It sounds like they are saying that they weren’t even aware of the existence of the Holy Spirit, which is highly unlikely. 

The original Greek is typical of conversations.  We often say things while leaving out words because they are understood in the context.  The Greek literally says, “We haven’t even heard that the Holy Spirit is…”  Yes, His existence could be in view, but the context is speaking of the receiving of the Holy Spirit, not His existence.  They are most likely saying that they hadn’t even heard that the Holy Spirit is to be received.  Thus, they were unaware of the Day of Pentecost and the establishment of the Church.

Paul then begins to explain what they are lacking in verse four.  John intended them to believe on Jesus as Messiah and be baptized in his name.  This leads to them being water baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.  Their faith is no longer generally in a coming Messiah, but is specifically placed upon Jesus as the fulfillment of that promise.

Paul will, no doubt, connect them to other Christians within the city.  It is clear that they hadn’t ran into Aquila or Priscilla.  Otherwise, they would have instructed them in these things.  These disciples would now be more useful to the Lord.

It appears that Paul lays his hands on them and prays for them after they were water baptized.  When he did this, the Holy Spirit came upon them.  This is a synonymous term with being “baptized with the Spirit,” or being “filled with the Spirit.”  Here, we see that baptism in the Holy Spirit can happen at the same time as a person becoming a Christian.  Sometimes it occurs days or months later, but this isn’t necessary.  These disciples believe in Jesus, are water baptized, and then baptized in the Spirit within the same event.  I would say that Spirit baptism is subsequent to their salvation, but not delayed at all.

Luke doesn’t always do this, but he lists some signs that were evidence that they had received the Holy Spirit.  Of course, a person can know for themselves by the witness of the Holy Spirit within them.  Yet, the Bible does speak of external signs that let others know that Spirit Baptism has happened.  Peter witnessed Cornelius and the other Gentiles filled with the Spirit because something visible happened.

In this case, we are told that they spoke in tongues, and they prophesied.  Most likely they were not saying what would happen in the future.  Many people think of prophesy as always about future events.  In Acts 2:11, those speaking in tongues were understood by the crowd that was from all around that part of the world.  “We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”  This apparently doesn’t happen here, but the prophesying (in the common language of that area) most likely is speaking about the works of God. 

Christians should understand that God is doing a prophetic work through us, even when we aren’t a prophet within our church.  When you share the Gospel with the lost, you are speaking on behalf of God an authoritative message from Him.

Now, there are some in the Church today who say that these signs and spiritual gifts are no longer in operation.  They will say that they were only for the first century in order to lay a foundation for the Church.  They then say that these things disappeared and that the Holy Spirit no longer does them.  Of course, there is no Scripture that says this, though some may try to make one particular passage do so.  Until Jesus comes back, we will be in this age where the gifts of the Spirit are necessary for God’s people.  It reminds me of Paul’s argument in the book of Galatians.  Having begun in the Spirit (with Spiritual gifts) will we now be perfected in the flesh (without them)?

I think that these are generally rejected out of fear.  Fear that they seem strange, and also fear that they may lead to false prophecy and kooks.  However, the answer to false prophecy is not to shut down all prophecy so that we can be safe.  Think about it.  You would be squelching the Holy Spirit so that you can be safe.  That is not the way of Jesus, nor his apostles.  The apostles taught people to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that they could know the spirit of those who came into their midst.  They found out and called out any false prophets who ventured into their midst.  The flock was safe because they had shepherds who were filled with the Holy Spirit and had spiritual gifts.  They didn’t build a protective box around their lives and expect God to only work inside of it.  They followed the Holy Spirit outside of the boxes of their traditions, and ideas of men.  They didn’t perish in the wilderness of those who refuse to believe, but entered the promised land by faith and inherited.  May God help us to grow up in Jesus, learn of him, and grow in the Spirit.

Paul then preaches in the synagogue over the course of three months.  During this time, some grew hard to the Gospel while others embraced it by faith.  We must always recognize this reality.  When God is moving and filling people with the Holy Spirit, there are others who are being hardened by the truth.  This is the sad truth of the Gospel.  It is wonderful news to some, but to resist it is more damaging spiritually than if you had never heard it in the first place.  Behold the severity and the goodness of God.

These disciples didn’t have to know everything because they believed in the God who supplies everything.  In due time, the Father who knew their needs even before they did was bringing the solution to them.

Our world and our Republic have become very hard to the Gospel.  However, even now, God is still working by His Holy Spirit to draw people to repentance and faith in Jesus.  They may be hard, but hard people can go through hard things and be broken before God.  He is still showing people the way of the cross.  He is still filling people with the Holy Spirit and enabling them to say no to sin.  He is still equipping people with spiritual gifts, including tongues and prophecy.  He is still leading us to demonstrate the righteousness of Jesus to a world that is full of self-righteousness.

In the end, we will not do anything for Christ without the help of the Holy Spirit.  May God help us to be led by the Holy Spirit in this day when people do what is right in their own eyes at best, and follow the deceiving spirits of this age at worst.

Receive the Holy Spirit audio