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| Chapter 19 |
| Bible Text | Notes and Thoughts |
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1 ¶ And it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus; and finding certain disciples, 2 he said unto them, "Have ye received the Holy Spirit, having believed?" And they said unto him, "We have not so much as heard whether there is any Holy Spirit." 3 And he said unto them, "Unto what then were ye baptized?" And they said, "Unto John’s baptism." 4 Then said Paul, "John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe in Him who should come after him, that is, in Christ Jesus." 5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. 7 And there were about twelve men in all. 8 ¶ And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading about the things concerning the Kingdom of God. 9 But when divers ones were hardened and believed not, but spoke evil of that Way before the multitude, he departed from them and took away the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. 10 And this continued for the space of two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the Word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. 11 And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons from his body were brought unto the sick, and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them. 13 ¶ Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took it upon themselves to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth." 14 And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew and chief of the priests, who did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?" 16 And the man in whom the evil spirit dwelt leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling in Ephesus, and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18 And many who believed came, and confessed, and showed their deeds. 19 Many of those also who used occult arts brought their books together and burned them before all men; and they counted up the price of them, and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the Word of God grew mightily and prevailed. 21 ¶ After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome." 22 So he sent into Macedonia two of those who had ministered unto him, Timothy and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. 23 And the same time, there arose no small stir about that Way. 24 For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen. 25 These he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, "Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. 26 Moreover, ye see and hear that, not alone at Ephesus but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands, 27 so that not only this our craft is in danger of being set at nought, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshiped." 28 And when they heard these things, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" 29 And the whole city was filled with confusion, and having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia who were Paul’s companions in his travel, they rushed with one accord into the theater. 30 And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not. 31 And certain of the Asian chiefs, who were his friends, sent unto him, urging that he would not venture into the theater. 32 Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and the greater part knew not why they had come together. 33 And they drew Alexander out from the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with his hand, and would have made his defense unto the people; 34 but when they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for about the space of two hours cried out, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" 35 And when the town clerk had appeased the people, he said, "Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there who knoweth not that the city of the Ephesians is a worshiper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter? 36 Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly; 37 for ye have brought hither these men who are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. 38 Therefore if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a matter against any man, the law is open and there are deputies. Let them implead one another. 39 But if ye inquire of anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly. 40 For we are in danger of being called in question for this day’s uproar, there being no cause whereby we can give an account of this concourse." 41 And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly. |
Paul was moving through the area and comes to Ephesus where he finds a group of twelve men who said that they were ‘disciples’ of Christ but there was something missing. v2-7 "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" asks Paul. The presence of the Holy Spirit in a persons life proves that they belong to Jesus and born again. Rom 8:5-9, 16; 1 John 5:9-13; Eph 1:13. Their reply showed that they knew nothing of the Holy Spirit, they, like Apollo had turned to God following the message of John the Baptist, they may have actually been converts of Apollo. Some people feel that these men had been saved but need the "baptism of the Spirit" but this does not agree with the above scripture and also Paul realized there was something wrong. These men had been baptized under the message of John the Baptist, a baptism of repentance, this was done under the Old Testament covenants, but these ended with Jesus at Calvary. Heb 10:1-18. Paul explains the action of Christ on the cross and they are now baptized in the Name of Christ. The action of Paul in laying on of his hands is not a contradiction, it confirmed that Paul was God’s messenger, as the effect of the presence of the Holy Spirit was the same effect as previous at Pentecost, it joins the men onto the church of God as one body. See Acts 2:4-11; Acts 10:44-46; Acts 8:14ff. v6 What happened here, speaking in tongues, does not appear again in Acts, so it is not the normal for the church today, it was to show to the different groups, there was no Jew, John the Baptist followers, Samaritans, Gentiles, that they were all one in the Lord. 1 Cor 12:13. No where are believers told to seek a Baptism of the Holy Spirit or speak in tongues, we are however told to be filled with the Spirit. See Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, see how many times he talks about the Holy Spirit effect on our lives. v8-9 Paul is able to speak in the synagogue for three months before the opposition appeared, Paul left the synagogue and moved into a school house, taking the believers with him. He continued to minister for two years under these conditions. v11-12 The spread of the message was very successful, due to the believers carrying the message out to the surrounding towns a God using miracles and acts of faith through Paul to help spread the message. Ephesus was the center of the occult v18-19 and God allowing Paul to use "special miracles" was demonstrating God’s power in a Satanic stronghold. But Satan always tries to oppose the work. v13-19 Jewish priests were known to get involved with casting out demons, Luke 11:17-20 but for them to use the name of Jesus would be unusual as it would be admitting His authority. These men did not have the authority from Jesus, they did not even have any sort of fellowship with Jesus, so this is why they used it together with the name of Paul when they tried to cure a man who was demon possessed. The result was not what they expected, the demon’s response was v15 "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?." The demonized man then attacks the seven priests. As a result of this many believed and "the name of Jesus was magnified." The cost of the books destroyed, as the people turned to Jesus, is estimated to be about the annual wages of 150 men. If these men had been able to cast out the demon then the name of Jesus would have been challenged and dishonored. See a similar event Acts 16:16-18. v21 Luke reveals Paul’s plans as led by the Spirit, this includes the first mention of his proposed visit to Rome. This was fulfilled, but not as Paul expected. While Paul remained in Ephesus, Timothy and Erastus visit the various churches proposing a "love offering" collection for the poor saints of Jerusalem. v23-41 Objection appears, the spread of the message was affecting the worship in the Temple of Diana, many shops sold shrines for the worshiper to take home and their income was suffering. Satan now gets the silversmiths with Demetrius as leader to make a public protest. 1 Tim 6:10. The Love of Money! The silversmiths were encouraging idol worship and immorality, corrupt, sinful behaviour. They were interested only in their money not the free grace of God that Paul was preaching, but they did not mention this fact they used pride and honour of the Ephesians for their city and encourage the greatness of the temple of Diana. They could not find Paul so seize two of Paul’s helpers, Gaius and Artitarchus and dragged them into the Roman amphitheater. Paul wanted to go into the theatre but was held back by the believers. v32-34 The crowd were confused, most had just joined the crowd not knowing why. We now see race prejudice, a Jew named Alexander is put forward to tell the people that the Jews did not agree or support the message. He never had a chance, as soon as the crowd realized he was a Jew they shouted for two hours "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" The Jews are not allowed to worship idols by God and this behaviour was very hurtful for a Jew. v35 It was the city clerk who eventually brings the situation under control. He did it for a political reason, Ephesus was a "free city," the Romans would be very pleased if they had an excuse to remove this status. The clerk calmed the crowd down telling them how great their city was, he continues by telling them that the prisoners were neither robbers or had blasphemed the goddess Diana, there was no cause for their action. If the silversmiths had a problem they should bring it before the town leaders. The message has received "official approval" in Ephesus. This calmed the crowd and they went home, probably please to have saved their city and temple of Diana, very few would have tried to find the truth. Ephesus and the temple have now been destroyed, the position of the city is now only visited by people interested in history, yet Paul wrote four letters to the believers in this city of Ephesus, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Revelations, these are still giving todays believers encouragement and help. |
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