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to Acts Series The Book of Acts Series Acts, Chapter 19 John Baugh January, 2010 Acts
19 (New American Standard Bible) Significant
events in Acts, Chapter 19 Key events in Acts -
Chapter 19 1 – Paul comes to Giving the Holy Spirit to the twelve disciples
through Baptism in Jesus Christ 2 – Paul preaches in the synagogue for
three months Paul leaves the synagogue to teach in
the Paul teaches there for two years. Miracles in 3 – Jewish Exorcists attempt to use
the name of Jesus and Paul. Practice of magic in 4 – Paul proposes to go to 5 - Paul sends Timothy and Erastus to 6 - The Silversmith Riots in Paul at 1It happened
that while Apollos was at 5When they heard this, they
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6And when Paul had laid his
hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with
tongues and prophesying. 7There
were in all about twelve men. After visiting the churches
of From Chapter 18 of Acts –
verse 19-21 \18Paul, having
remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for
Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila In Cenchrea he had his hair
cut, for he was keeping a vow. 19They
came to Ephesus, and he left them there Now he himself entered the synagogue
and reasoned with the Jews. 20When
they asked him to stay for a longer time, he did not consent, 21but taking leave of them and
saying, "I will return to you again if God wills," he set sail from
In chapter 19, Luke records
his return. When he arrives in 2He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit
when you believed?" And they said to him, "No, we have not even
heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." 3And he said, "Into what
then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John's
baptism." (Acts 19:2-3) Evidently Paul heard these
disciples speaking about Jesus and thought they were Christians when he first
met them. But, as he watched them, he must have observed that something was
missing, and so he asks "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you
believed?" These people knew something
about Jesus, but as was the case with Apollos, their knowledge was incomplete
- something was missing. Perhaps Paul saw that there was no joy in their
lives, or peace, certainty or power and so he asked them, "Did you
receive the Spirit when you believed?" The disciples answered that
they had never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. John clearly taught
the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had come upon Jesus when
John baptized him, and he certainly knew of this and taught it. They likely
meant, "We have never heard that the Holy Spirit is now given, that he has
come, as John (and Jesus) announced that he would." Paul, understanding
that, asks them, "What were you baptized into?" And they replied,
"Into John's baptism." It was clear then to Paul what the problem
was. They were halfway Christians. They had come as far as repentance and
forgiveness of sins, but they knew nothing about the work of the Holy Spirit.
So he begins to instruct them: 4Paul said,
"John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to
believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus." 5When they
heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6And when Paul had laid his
hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with
tongues and prophesying. 7There
were in all about twelve men. Certainly Paul said more in
his instruction than Luke recorded in his short summary. Paul likely told
them about the death of Jesus, and what that accomplished with respect to the
old life they had been living; and then about the resurrection which made
available to them a risen life, a different kind of life, and then about the
coming of the Holy Spirit who would make all this real in their experience
continuously, moment by moment, day after day. After he instructed them in
this way, they were then re-baptized in the name of Jesus. When these disciples were
baptized the Spirit came into their lives. They believed on Jesus and
received the Holy Spirit. Luke mentions two gifts that they received. They
spoke in tongues and began prophesying. The first of the gifts they
received was speaking in tongues. This is one of the gifts of the Spirit Paul
lists in 1st Corinthians 12. It is very natural that it would be given
on this particular occasion, for, as Paul tells writes 1st Corinthians 14,
the gift of tongues is designed especially as a witness to unbelieving Jews
and these disciples were Jews who worshiped in the synagogue in Along with the gift of
tongues was also given the gift of prophesying. This is the ability to open
and expound the Scriptures in power and truth. The word prophet comes
from two Greek words: pro phaino. Phaino means "to cause
to shine" or "to make shine," and pro means
"before." So a prophet is one who stands before the Word of God and
causes it to shine, who illuminates people's lives with the power and truth
of the Scriptures. These twelve new Christians of Ephesus began to prophecy
as the Spirit illumined their minds. They saw great truth in the
Scriptures and began to declare it in power. This immediately was a sign to
the apostle that they had moved into the full-orbed experience of the
Christian life. It is interesting that one
of these gifts was designed for unbelievers (tongues) and the other for
believers (prophesy). Paul writes this 1st Corinthians 14. The gift of
tongues, he says, is for unbelievers, but the gift of prophecy is for
believers (1 Corinthians 14:22). Here in the community in
Ephesus both groups were present: The unbelieving Jews who still refused to accept
the truth of the Scriptures about Jesus, and those who had become Christians,
who, with Priscilla and Aquila, were rejoicing in all that the Lord had given
them and who needed this exercise of the gift of prophecy. When these twelve people
were filled, and the Holy Spirit had come upon them, they demonstrated the
fact by their possession of these gifts of the Spirit. Therefore no apostle
could ever again ask them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you
believed?" There was a difference about their lives. They obviously were
now filled with new power and strength. It came when they believed in Jesus. 8And
he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months,
reasoning and persuading them about the As always, Paul went to the
synagogue and spoke there concerning the At first it was welcomed.
In fact, the Jews here had made Paul welcome during his previous visit to But some of them resisted
Paul’s teaching and opposed Paul. When this happened, he withdrew from
teaching in the synagogue, taking the disciples with him. They moved into
rented quarters, the hall of Tyrannus. This probably was one of the lecture
rooms which the Greek teachers employed to teach philosophy and various other
subjects of the arts and culture of the day. Paul rented it, according to
some ancient authorities and a few translations of Acts, from eleven o'clock
in the morning until four in the afternoon. That was the time in Five hours a day, six days
a week, fifty-two weeks a year for two years, adds up to 3,120 hours of
lecturing. The content of those
lectures was likely the great truths contained in the letters he eventually wrote
to the churches scattered around that part of the world. TO have had the
opportunity to receive schooling from Paul for such an extended period of
time would have been a true blessing! It was during this time of
daily training (disciple making) by Paul that the church at Colossi was begun
by Epaphras and Philemon, who carried the gospel up the Lycus valley into the
cities there. Others who would have heard Paul’s teaching likely founded the
churches to which John later wrote his letters in the book of Revelation -- Luke also reports that the
word Paul shared was confirmed by signs: 11God
was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12so that handkerchiefs or
aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left
them and the evil spirits went out. (Acts 19: 11-12 NASV) Luke reports that the
miracles were "extraordinary." Others attempt to use Jesus’ name “who Paul
preaches” 13But also some
of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over
those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I
adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." 14Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were
doing this. 15And
the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I
know about Paul, but who are you?" 16And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them
and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that
house naked and wounded. The seven sons of Sceva
were a part of the family of a Jewish high priest, who apparently earned
their living across the region “from place to place”, as exorcists. When they saw the work Paul was doing, they
attempted to employ the names of Jesus and Paul as some kind of magic formula
by saying "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches." Apparently they were
fooling around with powers they did not understand. What happened to them as
they attempted to do his was that the man they were trying to heal (it is
interesting that Dr. Luke carefully distinguishes between the man and the
evil spirit who possessed him), was under the control of an evil spirit. The
spirit led him and empowered him to challenge these seven sons and to take
them all on single-handed. To imagine the result of the encounter is almost
humorous when the exorcists went screaming out of the house with their
clothes torn half off, bloody and wounded, as this man drove them out of the
house? It is interesting that the
evil spirit was angered by this use of the name of Jesus, and it is
interesting what he said in response to this adjuration. The spirit said
"Jesus I recognize ..." (using a word that means, "I know him
with a deep, instinctive, innate knowledge – a respect."), "and I
know about Paul ...," (i.e., I know his name, I know who he is. I don't
know him as well as I know Jesus, but know about him.), "...but who are
you?" That was the signal for his
attack upon them and their ridiculous escape from the violence of the spirit
possessed man. 17This
became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in This incident, perhaps
because of the humor involved, became known all over Luke now continues with the
two things that take place: 18Many also of
those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their
practices. 19And
many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began
burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them
and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20So the word of the Lord was
growing mightily and prevailing. Changes started with the
believers, who began to clean up their own lives, who came and divulged their
hidden practices, confessed what they were doing in private. Obviously these
were relatively new Christians and perhaps they had never thought that
anything was wrong with these practices. But as they sat under the teaching
of the apostle and saw the kingdom of God and how God longs to set people
free, they began to see that what they had been doing -- the astrology, the
reliance on horoscopes, the belief in the influence of the stars, and all
their other superstitious practices -- had held them in bondage. They began
to confess all this and therefore to be free from their bondage. And these changes
precipitated another movement. The pagans around them in the city began to
take a second look at their own practices. Many of them who had practiced
magic arts brought their books together and burned them when they became
Christians under the influence and power of the gospel, and thus they were
set free from their own deadly delusion. The new believers
surrendered all their occult literature. Luke reports it was a costly thing
to do. As they totaled up the value of these books, and the various
paraphernalia that was brought to be burned, it came to fifty thousand pieces
of silver, which was a tremendous sum in those days. Their giving these
things up was more than a financial yielding. It meant that these people were
changing the total pattern of their lives, as they saw that they could no
longer practice the occult and live as Christians too. In Paul proposes
going to 21Now
after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to
Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying,
"After I have been there, I must also see At this time there were
three things which occupied the apostle's heart and moved him to take this
action: 1 – He knew he must care
for the new Christians who had come to Christ in 2 – He had a desire to
penetrate to the very center of the Roman empire and culture with the claims
of Christ, to plant the gospel in the fullness of its power in the very
capital, in About this, Dr. G. Campbell
Morgan wrote: "That's not the 'must' of the tourist; that's the 'must'
of the missionary." When he thought of 3 – Luke mentions 1Now
concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of
Galatia, so do you also. 2On
the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he
may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. 3When I arrive, whomever you
may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem; 4and if it is fitting for me
to go also, they will go with me. (1 Corinthians 16:1-4 NASV) Then he reminds these
Corinthians, 5But I will
come to you after I go through Macedonia, for I am going through Macedonia; 6and perhaps I will stay with
you, or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on my way wherever I
may go. 7For I do
not wish to see you now just in passing; for I hope to remain with you for
some time, if the Lord permits. 8But
I will remain in It was Paul’s plan to stay
in 23About
that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the Way. 24For a man named Demetrius, a
silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little
business to the craftsmen; 25these
he gathered together with the workmen of similar trades, and said, "Men,
you know that our prosperity depends upon this business. 26"You see and hear that
not only in The silversmiths at The silversmiths of The lack of revenue
(profit) was what stirred up these silversmiths. They were disturbed by their
loss of income. However, Demetrius incited the mob in Artemis was the goddess
enshrined in the great temple outside She may have been carved
from a meteorite, because, later on, the town clerk reports that her image
had fallen from the sky. According to some of the copies that have been
excavated in archeological digs, she was the figure of a many-breasted woman,
enshrined as the goddess representing Mother. The silversmiths knew
exactly what emotional issues would arouse the people of Demetrius called on the silversmiths and other craft guildsman
to riot against Paul and the disciples by appealing to the loss of business
they would see if growth in the Way continued. In his appeal, he said, “Men, you
know that our prosperity depends upon this business. 26"You see and hear that
not only in He indicated that Paul was turning people away from worship of
the goddess Artemis. He was telling people that a likeness of her “made with
hands” (made by the silversmith guildsmen) was useless and that in addition
to a loss of trade (the real reason) that Paul’s teachings would dethrone her
from her pedestal of worship. The Riot 28When they
heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying,
"Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" 29The city was filled with the
confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along
Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Luke now reports that the
crowd, excited by a false emotional issue, quickly became a mob. They surged
into the theater taking Gaius and Aristarchus (Paul’s traveling companions)
with them. If you visit the site of 30And when Paul
wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let him. 31Also some of the Asiarchs
who were friends of his sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture
into the theater. Paul (with typical bravery)
wanted to go in and speak to the mob, but his friends recognized that the
mood of the crowd was ugly. Even the Asiarchs, the political rulers of the
province of Asia, who were responsible to the Romans and were friends of
Paul, were concerned and sent word to him not to venture into the theater. It is interesting that Paul
had made friends among these rulers. They understood and were impressed by
the message of Christ. Though Luke does not say they were Christians,
nevertheless they tried to protect Paul from this wild and raging mob. Luke
then goes on to show how impossible it would have been for Paul to have done
anything to quiet them: 32So then, some
were shouting one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion
and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together. 33Some of the crowd concluded
it was Alexander, since the Jews had put him forward; and having motioned
with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the
assembly. 34But
when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single outcry arose from them all
as they shouted for about two hours, "Great is Artemis of the
Ephesians!" What Luke reports here is a
wild mob that has no argument other than simply to chant, over and over again
(in ignorance of why they were together) a slogan which had aroused their
pride, fed their egos and their emotions. Luke indicates that the Jews
who were there were very concerned, probably because they had lived in This may be the same
Alexander to whom Paul refers in his letter to Timothy, who had become, by
the time Paul wrote, the bishop of the church at Luke tells us the crowd
refuses to hear Alexander and drowns out his words with a chant they continue
for more than two hours, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" Their
chant was finally quieted by the town clerk, whose office in those Greek
cities corresponded to that of mayor. Luke reports what happened: 35After
quieting the crowd, the town clerk said, "Men of 37"For you
have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers
of our goddess. 38"So
then, if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint
against any man, the courts are in session and proconsuls are available; let
them bring charges against one another. 39"But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be
settled in the lawful assembly. 40"For
indeed we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection with today's
events, since there is no real cause for it, and in this connection we will
be unable to account for this disorderly gathering." 41After saying
this he dismissed the assembly. This town clerk, whose name
is not given to us, is an admirable politician and orator. He intervenes at
precisely the right moment. The crowd, having exhausted itself with its senseless
roaring of the chant for two hours now, was probably inclined to listen at
last. So he stands up to speak, setting forth three logical points. 1 - "Yes, Artemis is
great; therefore there is no need to shout. 2 - We can count on her to
defend herself, so why worry? 3 - Nobody is going to be
able to overthrow a goddess as great as ours, so we don't need all this
commotion. 4 - "The men that you
are charging have really done nothing provocative. They have not blasphemed
the goddess; no such charge has been brought against them. Why should you handle this
matter any differently than through ordinary channels? The courts are open,
and if that doesn't satisfy you, the legislature is available. The normal
channels of protest are open to you, so why don't you use them? 5 - And "We are
seriously in danger of losing the freedom of this city as a result of this
indiscretion." The clerk certainly knew
that the Romans would tolerate anything except civil disorder. If an
unexplained riot occurred they were in danger of losing their status as a
free city, unencumbered by Roman rule. Apparently the clerk had
nothing more in mind than that which would normally concern a politician -
keeping the peace. He really did not care about the issues. He did not want
to examine them. He wanted only to keep everything orderly. So he did
everything he could to defuse the situation. The final sentence of this
story can be found in the first verse of Chapter 20: 1After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and when he
had exhorted them and taken his leave of them, he left to go to Copyright © 2010, by ToBeLikeHim
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