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Chapter 19 deals with Paul's work at Ephesus. Verses 1 thru 7 deals with 12 people who were in much the same condition as Apollos was, knowing only the baptism of John. While Apollos was over in Corinth, Paul arrived at Ephesus and was probably given the names of these 12 people by Aquila and Priscilla. He found then and asked a question that has confused people for 2,000 years. To them, he asked, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" What could Paul have meant by this question?
To answer this lets go first to Matthew Henry and see what he had to sat. "The Holy Spirit is promised to all believers, but many are deceived in this matter, thinking that they have received the Holy Spirit when they have not." "We should, therefore, examine ourselves and ask these questions." "The answers should lead us into an understanding of the question that Paul asked these believers."
Lets ask ourselves these questions:
The answer was easy for these 12 people, they had never even heard of the Holy Spirit, or that He existed here on earth. These people were obviously Jews and to them, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel and went up into the Heavens at the death of Malachi, for Malachi was the last of the Prophets, and this may very well have been true for the Holy Spirit did not return until the Christian Pentecost and this wonderful event had not been told to these 12 people.
This brought up another question. "If you have not received the Holy Spirit, unto what then were you baptized?" The answer was simply that they had been baptized into John's baptism. You may recall that John the Baptist baptized many for the remission of sins. Apparently, these Jews had been baptized with John's baptism, when they confessed their sins but were not told of the baptism of Christ unto salvation.
Paul attempted to explain to these 12 people what John's purpose was and what his baptism was symbolic of and then to explain their need to be further baptized in the name of Jesus. This explanation, nurtured by the Holy Spirit, was received and understood by the 12 and they were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. They received the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues and prophesying (witnessing)
These 12 men were equipped for the following:
Lets take a moment and look at these two gifts that these 12 men received.
What a change had been wrought in the lives and understanding of these 12 men. A
short time before, they had not even heard of the salvation of Christ or the gift
of the Spirit. Now, by the power of the Spirit, they were qualified to preach the
Gospel.
Paul's Ministry in Ephesus
["Click here for Acts 19:8-20"]
Verses 8 thru 20 of Chapter 19, continues the ministry of Paul at Ephesus. Paul spent 2 years in Ephesus and an additional year in the immediate area. The first 3 months he spent in the Jewish Synagogue, arguing and pleading with the Jews. It would appear that some believed and some were stubborn and would not believe. Dis-belief was something that Paul could stand but speaking evil of the "way of Christ" as some of them did before the congregation, he could not stand. So Paul left the synagogue, taking the believers with him.
He then went to the Hall of Tyrannus. Some believe that this hall was a church school run by the Jews for the purpose of studying the scriptures. It was open 7 days of the week. Others believe that it was a school of philosophy, run by the Gentiles, and belonging to a man by the name of Tyrannus who was a wealthy man of the city. Either way, it was convenient and available for Paul to use. For 2 years, Paul had lectures daily in this hall.
In the 3 years that Paul spent in this area, Verse 10 says that all the residents heard the words of the Lord, both Jew and Greek. Ephesus being the center of commerce and trade, law and religion and education for all Asia, attracted people from all over Asia Minor and Paul saw to it that they all heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul was aided by the miracles that he did. None have been recorded sense he cast out the Demons from the lady at Philippi. None were recorded at Thessalonica, Berea or Athens. But here at Ephesus, it would appear that many were done. Records show that God performed thru Paul, miracles that had not been done before by any of the other Apostles. We can only assume that the dis-belief was so great at Ephesus that God did extraordinary things to support the Gospel.
Luke speaks not only of direct healings by Paul but also of healings that occurred when pieces of clothing were carried from his body to the bodies of the sick. Both physical and spiritual healings were affected. Then, as usual, Satan got into the act. Jewish "exorcists", those who claimed to have power over evil spirits, became jealous of Paul's popularity and tried to command the same for themselves.
These Jews had seen Paul heal in the name of Jesus so seven sons of a Jewish Priest, named Sceva, attempted to duplicate what Paul did. Tradition has it that these 7 brothers traveled all over the world seeking gain by their "so called" ability to "call out" evil spirits. Here were men of the honorable tribe of Aaron, the tribe that was particularly consecrated to God, in league with Satan. Their attempts were blasphemy. They had no confidence in the name of Christ nor did they have any faith in it.
Notice the results of their blasphemy of God's power. First of all, even the evil spirits knew that they were false. They replied to these Jews, "Jesus, we know and Paul we know, but who are you?" Then they commanded the man that they possessed to lay hold of them and beat them up. They had their cloths torn off and were beaten and bruised over most of their bodies.
The warning was clear. There is no power over Satan to those who do not know Jesus. We must know Christ to have access to His power. All the residents of Ephesus, Jews and Greeks, became aware of this and fear fell upon them, and those who had been practicing exorcism came confessing their sin and divulging their practices. Some believers were also practicing witchcraft, some had written books about it which they had sold for gain. Some were making charms for bracelets and for hanging around the neck which they claimed would ward off evil spirits. All were attempts to duplicate Paul's power for the sake of money. All these people saw what had happened to the 7 sons of the Priest and became afraid and confessed their sins before God.
They showed their repentance by bringing their evil products and burning them and
then giving the money that they had acquired fraudulently to the church. It
amounted to 50,000 pieces of silver, about 8,000 dollars. As the result of this
repentance, God's Grace and power prevailed mightily. After this, Paul was led of
the Spirit to make some travel plans.
Looking to Rome
["Click here for Acts 19:21-22"]
Verses 21 and 22 of Chapter 19, describe those plans. First, he wanted to go back to Philippi and Corinth to see how the churches were doing. He had spent some 3 years at Ephesus and apparently had not heard anything from it or Corinth since he left. Secondly, he wanted to go back to Jerusalem to report to the Elders there of the success that he had had in Asia. Then thirdly, he wanted to go to Rome. Every body wanted to go to Rome at that time. It was the show place of the world. He wanted to see and aid the Christians there. He knew from Aquila and Priscilla that Jews and Christians were being persecuted there by decree of Claudius Caesar but recently Claudius had died and the persecution had stopped.
To expedite these plans and to give notice to Philippi and Corinth of these plans,
he sent Timothy and Erastus ahead while he remained a while at Ephesus. Their job
was to relay Paul's plans to the two churches and also to let them know that he
wanted to take back with him to Jerusalem a collection for the poor. Now we know
Timothy, but who was Erastus? Erautus was Treasurer of the city of Corinth whom
Paul had converted. He had accompanied Paul to Ephesus and assisted him there in
the ministering of the Word and now Paul was sending him along with Timothy to
Philippi and Corinth.
An Episode with the Silversmiths
["Click here for Acts 19:23-41"]
Now about this time, Satan was again at work. Paul's ministry at Ephesus was beginning to hurt the silversmith's business. Verses 23 thru 41 of Chapter 19, record this story for us.
The silversmiths had a good business making miniature replicas of the goddess Diana. To the Romans and the Greeks, Diana, which was her Latin name, was the goddess of the hunt, maiden sister of the sun god Apollo. Her Greek name was Artemis, although this name had been previously given to an ancient god of fertility many years before the Greeks developed their culture. The principle Temple to Diana was at Ephesus and the Ephesians considered themselves her keeper. A meteorite had fallen from the sky and was encased in the Temple along with her statue.
Diana was pictured as a lady with four rows of breasts, her garments were trimmed with rows of Sphinxes, nymphs, shells, bees and roses. Her crown was decorated with the signs of the Zodiac. This indicated her influence over the seasons on which agriculture depended. The richest and most elaborate statue of Diana ever found still exists in the National Museum at Naples.
The Temple at Paul's time was the fifth one to have been built at Ephesus. This one was built by Alexander the Great about 334 BC. and was listed as one of the seven wonders of the world.
For several years now, Paul had been in Ephesus and no trouble had developed, but God had blessed the efforts of Paul and an increasing number of Corinthians became Christians. So many were converted from the worship of Diana to Christianity that the business of making statues of Diana by the silversmiths begin to diminish. A man by the name of Demetrius, who himself was a silversmith, called a meeting of the silversmiths and reminded them of the fact that their livelihood depended upon the sale of the miniature statues of Diana and that Paul was having great success not only in Ephesus but all over Asia and that the result of this success could well mean the end of their business. He also suggested that it could mean the end of Diana, "She may even be disposed from her magnificence."
Well, how did the silversmiths take this information? They became enraged and confused and mob rule took over. They rounded up two companions of Paul, Gaivs and Aristachus, and dragged them into the theater. The theater was an open enclosure like the one in Rome and was used for entertainment. Men were placed in mortal combat in this theater for the delight of the rich and enemies of the state were fed to animals there also for their entertainment. Some believe that it was their intent to feed Gaius and Aristachus to the wild animals, but as we shall see, more level heads prevailed.
When Paul heard of this, he wanted to go into the theater, but his friends would not let him go. Also, the Asiarchs, Roman Officials, sent word to Paul not to go into the theater. These Roman Officials were appointed by Rome and they went into the towns under Roman rule and supervised the yearly festival in honor of the Roman Emperor. It would appear that these officials were either friends of Paul or they were aware that Paul was a Roman citizen and therefore had the protection of Rome. These people prevailed and Paul did not go into the theater.
Inside the theater however, there was much confusion. Everyone was talking and no attempt at order was made. Some of the more level headed people realized that the condition could get out of hand, not that they were so much concerned about Giaus and Aristachus, but they were concerned with the agreement that these "free cities" had with Rome that could be terminated if they could not maintain peace at all times. These people prevailed upon a man by the name of Alexander to attempt to calm the crowd and offer some defense for Paul's friends.
As Alexander stood up and motioned his hands in an effort to quiet the crowd, they recognized that he was a Jew not a believer or worshipper of Diana, and this only aggravated them all the more and they continue to shout for 2 hours more. "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Eventually the town clerk was able to quiet the crowd.
With order restored, Alexander began to speak. He made five very interesting points.
With these words of warning, cooler heads prevailed and Luke says that Alexander dismissed the assembly, and Gaivs and Aristachus were released.
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