ACTS  19

1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples

 2 and asked them, Did you recieve the Holy Ghost when you believed? They answered, No, we have not even heard that there was a Holy Ghost.

 3 So Paul asked, Then what baptism did you recieve? Johns baptism, they replied.

4 Paul said, Johns baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.

5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the the name of the Lord Jesus.

6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues, and prophesied,

7 There were about twelve men in all.

8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God.

9 But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.

11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul,

 12 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.

13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon posessed.They would say, In the name of Jesus who Paul preaches, I command you to come out.

14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.

15 One day the evil spirit answered them, Jesus I know, and  about Paul, but who are you?

16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped  on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.

18 Many of those who now believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds.

 19 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.

20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

21 After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. After I have been there , he said, I must visit Rome also.

22 He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus to Macedonia while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.

 23 About that time there arose a great disturbance about the way.

24 A silversmith named Demetrius who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in no little business for the craftsmen.

25 He called them together along with the workmen in related trades, and said, Men you know that we recieve a good income from this business.

26 And uou see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man made gods are no gods at all.

27 There is danger that not only our trade will loose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshipped throughout the province of Asia and the world will be robbed of her divine majestry.

28 When they heard this they were furious, and began shouting: Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

29 Soon the whole city was in a uproar. The people seized Gaius Aristarchus Pauls traveling companion from Macedonia , and rushed as one man into the theater.

30 Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him.

31 Even some of the officals of the province,  friends of Paul sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater.

32 The assembly was in confusion. Some were shouting one thing some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there.

33 The Jews pushed Alexander to the front, and some of the crowd shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people.

34 But when they realized that he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said, Men of Ephesus does not all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great god Artemis and of the image, which fell from heaven?

36 Therefore since these things are undeniable, you ought to be quiet and not do anything rash.

 37 You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess.

 38 If then Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against  anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges.

39 If there is anything fyrther you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly.

40 As it is we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of todays events. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion since there is no reason for it.

41 After he had said this he dismissed the assembly.

And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath and cried out saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Acts 19:28 

 Therefore rejoice you heavens and you who that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea for the devil has come down to you having great wrath, because he knows he has a short time. Revelation 12:12

IDOLS AND DEMONS

 Thomas J. Grace

1 Apollos goes to Corinth where he must have heard many of the stories about Paul that Priscilla and Aquila would have told him while at Ephesus. Apollos would go to the church there and also the synagogue where he would debate with the Jews and explain how Jesus was the Christ.

      Paul who has been to Jerusalem and spent some time visiting other churches he had began was now in Ephesus where he had promised he would return if it was Gods will.  There he found some disciples 2 and asked them Did you recieve the Holy Spirit when you believed? As Paul spoke and prayed with them their own questions must have prompted him to ask this perhaps he had a disernment of spirit about the belief of these men. Their response was, We have not heard there was a Holy Spirit. These men might have been taught by Apollos or some early disciples of John the Baptist who might have left Jerusalem as soon as Christ was crucified. 3 Paul determines they only know Johns baptism which while Jesus was alive was not in the name of Jesus. Paul who was not a believer during the time of John the Baptist would have to explain what he knew about John and his baptism by the story he would have heard maybe from Luke who describes Johns life and ministry in the gospel Luke wrote.  4 Paul told them that Johns baptism was for repentance and his message was to believe in Jesus. Matthew 3:11 I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one more powerful than I,  whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Perhaps they had heard of John teaching about Christ and knew this saying, they did know about Christ His life death and resurrection.  5 Paul took the men and baptized them in water in the name of Jesus. 6 Paul put his hands on each man they recieved the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues and prophesied. 

      We see Paul in two different actions  first puting the men in the water to baptize them them another contact. Paul places his own hands on each man and prays for them to recieve the Holy Spirit. There is no delay for training or teaching and both events take place but they have occurred in the oppisite order at other times such as with the group in Cornelius house. where they first were filled with the Holy Spirit then taken to the water to be baptized.  Gods concern is for people to be saved and believe in His Son Jesus Christ not for special ritual order of events as man would like to enforce on believers. The strict order of the law was the cause of many problems and disputes among the Jews. Paul allows the men to believe and allows God and the Holy Spirit to act between them and these men. Certainly these men were not familiar with speaking in tongues and only the Holy Spirit could have produced this gift in action in them. This would be a sign to the men and a sign to Paul that the Holy Spirit was present with him as he would begin his ministry in the city of Ephesus if he was still searching to see if this was Gods will for him to be in Ephesus this would be his proof to assure him it was Gods will for him to return just as he had said. 7 There were twelve men just as the twelve apostles but these men would not become Pauls followers and we are not told of any of them remaining with Paul.

     8 Paul goes to  the synagogye and is welcome there for three months where he may teach on the sabbath this is a long time before the problems begin in this synagogue. There he argues persausively about the kingdom of God. He must have persauded many there to believe in Christ this would also convince Paul he was where the Lord intended him to be. Although Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles the Holy Spirit always gave him a time be teach the Jews first because of his own deep love for his own people and his desire for all Jews to know Christ as their Savior. 

     9 Some of the Jews in the synagogue became obstinate and refused to believe when they became organized they decided to attack Paul and his teaching about Christ in the synagogue. Paul seems to do something new and maybe it was forced on them by the Jews that would not believe. Here the Jews that do believe seem to leave the synagogue which we have never heard Paul advocate before, they may have all been forced out but some how they did leave when Paul was forced out. In other cities they would begin to meet in the homes of other believers which they may have already been doing, but here in Ephesus they have begun meetings in a school called Tyrannus which was the first Christian Bible College. These people may have requested a large meeting hall for their worship so they would not break up their fellowship with one another and would allow each of them to benefit from the teaching of Paul. It may have been for a matter of safety also to protect themselves from other attacks from both Jews and Gentiles and provide a large worship center for the Gentiles that would soon be coming in.

     10 For two years Paul had a school and a place of worship where he would train properly all new Christians beyond any training that was possible in the past. These new Christians would leave capable of being pastors elders and evangelist they were trained to pray for others for healings and miracles and to tell the story of Christ. All the people of Asia  heard the word of the Lord as they came to the school to listen to Paul and many more by the students that left the school and traveled to other cities to bring the word of God to new places and people. 11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul. 

    11  What combination of Moses, Elijah and Christ miracles  signs and wonders plus gifts of the Holy Spirit took place there for us to hear the word extraordinary. All other great miracles are told and described in detail throughout the Bible while here we are given few details. 12  Handkerchiefs and aprons that Paul had worn or touched were taken to people who were sick and could not travel to the school meeting place. They would be placed on the sick person and illnesses were cured which would be long term diseases that could have caused death or a lifetime of being disabled. Many evil spirits were driven out of people which would free them from many problems and help them leave many false worship practices that took place in the idol temples. We see in the old Testament where Elisha directed Naaman to his cure for leprosy without first meeting him. 2 Kings 5: 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, Go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed. Jesus met a Centurion who asked for his servant to be healed and they spoke about command and authority and without seeing the servant Jesus healed him. Matthew 8:13 Then Jesus said to the Centurion, Go! It will be done just as you believed it would. And his servant was healed at that very hour. So we see these and other non contact healings by Jesus and this is important to us who will pray for people to be healed who we may have contact with or may not know as we pray for some people we are only told of. These people and us will not have personal contact with Paul Elisha or Christ

     We are not told how many people left with these clothes and how far they traveled with them to heal and spread the gospel they must have been multiple use clothes to heal many people. Why did not all these people have the gift of healing if this was the work God wanted done by a large group of Christians to reach and show Gods power Love and mercy for people. It could have been that the spirit of God was so full in Paul as it was in Christ that these clothes were soaked  with the power of God and could carry from Paul to this apron to be brought to others in need. If Paul had been present for every healing and demon cast out a problem could develop such as when the people declared that Paul and Barnabas were gods Acts 14:11 When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language. The gods have come down to us in human form. This both men denied and it resulted in Paul being stoned which he did not want to repeat.

     As each person went out Paul would have them make it clear to the sick person and all present that it is Christ that does the healing.  They could explain the transfer of power from God through Paul into the clothes and delivered by them to the people in need. 13  Some Jews who claimed to have the same powers that Paul had been given by Christ as gifts and power of the Holy Spirit went around and tried to cast out demons.  Sceva and his seven sons may have also been thrown out of the synagogue because of their sorcery.  We see  the aprons and the proper transfer of Gods power now we see a improper transfer claim that does not work. Without faith in God and belief in Christ as your Savior and the work of the Holy Spirit it is dangerous to attack such demons.  They did try to command the demon to leave in the name of Jesus as a second hand name they dont know in refrence to Paul who they did know this was a improper chain or transfer of power request because they do not know Jesus.

     14 Seven sons of Sceva a Jewish chief priest were doing this. The chief priest would be at the temple in Jerusalem and there was no deputy chief priest system so this claim was also a fraud.  This chief priest was like the sorcerer that Paul met in Acts 13:6 They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar Jesus. 15 The demon answered the seven sons the demon could have ignored all their commands because they had no power but spoke up to torment them. The demon said Jesus I know and Paul I know of but who are you he was not fooled by their false claims of Christ power they did not have.  See the difference even in the demon knowing Jesus and Paul even he knows where the power comes from and who delivers it. Yes demons know Christ and what and who His workers are such as Paul and all the apostles along with the workers and Christians today. The demons and evil spirits often cried out when they were confronted by Christ and they recognized Him as the Son of God. The demon did not know or recognize these seven men as having any power and knew they could overpower these men who would not be protected by God.

     16 The man with the demon began to beat the seven men severely so that they ran out to the street naked and bleeding. This is a rare event that a demon becomes violent in Mark chapter 5 we are taught about Legion who had to be taken out of town and chained and bound but he always broke free.  He may have harmed people before these drastic measures were taken but only Christ was able to cast out the many demons that were in Legion. These seven men may have made another error when Jesus cast out demons the people had requested that He do so. The man with the demon made no statement that he wanted help the seven men may have decided to cast out this demon on their own as a public display for themselves to show they had some power.  17 When this story was told throughout the city of Ephesus both Jews and Greeks feared and the name of Jesus was held in high honor.

     Suddenly demon playtime was over when they heard these demons could attack and harm them, the demons they considered harmless such as fortune tellers and sorcerers that amused them were now  a possible threat and danger.  One man with a demon beat seven men and they were aware of many men with demons that could become dangerous. 18 the people came to the school at Tyrannus to see Paul and confess their deeds that took place in the idol temples and they would repent of their actions and beliefs that associated them with demons. 19 The people who were sorcerers and those who believed in their magic came together and burned all their scrolls which contained magic spells and rituals for the worship of false gods. These were expensive books and were a sacrifice and loss for the people to be free of the power of the false god in their lives. This would also be a large loss of income for many people who were paid for these services.

     20 The word of the Lord spread and grew in power.  This is the third time we are told of great power and Gods works in Ephesus verse 11 told us of extraordinary miracles verse 17 told of fear that caused the name of Jesus to be magnified, and here in verse 20 the word of the Lord grew in power. Three times in the two years Paul was in Ephesus God provided power and miracles for the church to grow. As these sorcerers believed in Christ they would influence many in the city to believe in Christ. As people became free of the evil spirits in their lives and people saw how they were free and safe many would believe. Later the apostle John will have a message for the church at Ephesus Revelation 2:1-7 in verses 4-6 Christ warns them Yet I have this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. Christ speaks to seven churches and praises and warns them for their works and practices and tells them to repent of some evils they have allowed to enter their churches. 21 Paul soon after will decide to return to Jerusalem and tells how he desires to go to Rome. Could he already know that this is the order his visit to Rome will take place with his arrest and a series of hearings and trials that will conclude with his journey to Rome.

     22 Paul sends Timothy and Erastus to Macedonia he may have known that it would soon be dangerous for them in Ephesus while he did choose to remain there. 23 Trouble begins a great disturbance against the church and Paul  Christians will be harassed and persecuted. 24 Demetrius a man who made silver shrines of Artemis which would be sold and taken home as part of a altar for false worship while home with your family. 25 He brought all the craftsmen in the city that made such objects of false worship and declared we must do something to protect our business. False worship fueled by greed will cause these men to seek Paul  and have him thrown out of the city or killed. 26 Demetrius states that Paul has led astray many who have worshipped at our temple and bought our silver statues, Paul says that man made gods are not gods, as he had told the Aeropagus in Athens Acts 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made with hands.  27 We will loose our trade and the temple of the goddess Artemis will become discredited we will loose our business and our false religion which also gives us great control of the city and all the people who live there and worship Artemis. the false goddess Artemis will loose her divine majestry how could this happen a goddess discredited by a man how is it these gods cannot overpower Paul without the help of these men.

     28 The crowd will shout Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.   Just as in 1 Kings 18: 28,29 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was there custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. Paul did not have a challenge like Elijah on Mount Carmel with the four hundred and fifty false prophets but we see the same results as Demetrius leads this crowd in a worship chant to there false god who does not respond. Before the return of Christ false worship will cover the earth Revelation 13: 12 He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and all its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.

     29 The whole city was in a uproar and Pauls companion Gaius was  seized and brought to a theater where they met. 30 Paul wanted tp go speak there but his disciples would not allow him to go there. 31 City officials friends of Paul asked him not to go also they feared a citywide riot would begin that could cause death and damage to the city. 32 The crowd at the theater were confused and did not understand why they were there many had merely followed the crowd to see what all the excitement was about. 33 Alexander was brought forward and given instructions he would seperate the Jews as not followers of Paul or believers in Christ and may have used this chance to agitate the crowd against the Christians further. Alexander will not be allowed to speak. 34 When the crowd recognized that Alexander was a Jew they would not listen to him. For two hours they shouted Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Once again no response. We have seen in Ephesus three examples of worship in verse 13 a false use of Gods power by Sceva in Verse 17 there are people who repent fear God confess and believe in Jesus Christ and here we see false worship.

     35 The city clerk speaks and tells of the great temple and there goddess Artemis is known all over the world and how her image fell from heaven. Revelation 13:15 He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. We see twice they refer to a image of Artemis and a new image of the beast.  Isaiah 9:12,13 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations.You who said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will be enthroned on the mount of assembly,on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.

     The Ephesians speak of the image that fell from heaven and Isaiah speaks of Lucifer being thrown down to earth from heaven they call this the image of Artemis and Revelation refers to the image of the beast. Could Lucifers fall from heaven to earth become legond then myth and told later as part of the image of Artemis falling from heaven. 36 The city clerk goes on to state that the facts of Artemis at Ephesus are well known and undeniable we should not take any action that will cause us problems and put us in danger. 37 These men have not robbed the temple or blasphemed our goddess, they should be safely released. The city clerk may have already recieved some instructions from the officals who were friends of Paul who asked him not to go to the theater. 38 Any further action by Denetrius and his fellow craftsmen should be taken to the courts and charges brought before the proconsul who has legal power to solve their problems. 39 If there are any other charges they must be brought to a legal assembly.

     40 The clerk advises them that this group could be charged with rioting which is a serious charge which could result in them being punished. There is no reason for the actions you have taken today this assembly is not legal and the men you have held here have done nothing that is against any law.   In chapter 18 at the court of Gallio just before Paul was to speak Gallio declared that he would not hear this case. Now once again  this problem which could have put Paul and all Christians in danger was resolved with no harm to anyone.

CHRIST LOVES YOU. AMEN. COME LORD JESUS