Acts (Session 12) Chapters 19-20

well okay we're in the work in the uh continuation of paul's missionary journey his third missionary journey but the la in the last session there was a little anecdote put at the end of the chapter 18. that really was a setup for chapter 19. so let's go back and pick it up about verse 24. and a certain jew named apollos born in alexandria an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures came to ephesus so he's quite a guy there's many many scholars that are really interested in trying learning more about him and a very effective now this incident that's been recorded here is obviously a prelude to the first seven verses of chapter 19. this man was instructed in the way of the lord and being fervent in the spirit he spake and taught diligently the things of the lord knowing only the baptism of john in other words what he knew he dealt with very positively very eloquently but unfortunately he only understood up to that point he had no concept of the death and resurrection of jesus christ so he was he would say he's a believer but not there yet so and he was the word fervent there really means boiling hot and in the way of the lord now john the baptist taught three great truths forgiveness of sins on the basis of repentance in fact only on the basis of repentance expressing that all through baptism that was his mark of his ministry and he pointed to one who was coming to complete their salvation and what's missing though from john the baptist presentation if you were a disciple of just john the baptist that's as far as you went what was missing in your program was the cross because of course that hadn't happened yet during john's bap during his ministry in fact he was executed before the cross and uh therefore the resurrection was not part of his perspective and certainly the holy spirit's baptism had not occurred yet so three things he had but three things he was short and they point to the shortages that apollos was suffering from so anyway apostles began to speak boldly in the synagogue whom when aquila and priscilla had heard they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of god more perfectly or to say it more politely more completely the word perfect there is used in the sense of completeness and uh he certainly was incomplete and so it's very providential that priscilla aquila was left in ephesus to encounter him so he they were the right people at the right place at the right time and that's usually the that's the handiwork of the holy spirit and uh it's also impressive this guy apollos is very impressive for several these reasons he's obviously very bright obviously very eloquent but he had an attribute that is probably more important than any of those he had humility he was open to correction and that's a challenge for all of us to always be open always be listening the teachable will always be humble humility is always warded and so he received that and he became a mighty evangelist and he went on to ikea that is the area of greece and corinth and so forth and when he was disposed to pass into ikea the brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive him who when he was come help them much which had believed through grace for he mightily convinced the jews and that publicly showing by the scriptures that jesus is the christ of the messiah okay okay of course the capital of that whole province was corinth itself and uh so so after spending up meanwhile we'll pick it up now a chapter 19 and paul is in antioch he then goes ahead and he revisits all the churches throughout galatia and phrygia in that order he always goes back and visits them to encourage them and so forth and paul then in ephesus he makes ephesus his base of operations for three years and that will cover the first seven verses of the the chapter and uh the disciples of apollos will receive the holy spirit the church is founded in the following two verses so let's pick it up now in chapter 19 verse 1. it came to pass that while apollos was at corinth paul having passed through the upper coasts came to ephesus and finding certain disciples and you know it's interesting that this is all derives from apollos who was uh indebted to a very plain couple aquila and priscilla from their earlier meeting now he's now we're in the province of asia of course which included the western part of asia minor and the romans took this country about 130 bc and finally the name was extended finally the name uh of asia was extended to the whole continent and it was of course the jewel of the roman empire along with africa so thus it was what's called a senatorial province it was full of great cities that are very prominent in the bible ephesus smyrna pergamum thyatira sardis philadelphia laodicea the seven churches of revelation two and three are here but also colossal hieropolis apomia to go further and the hellenism had full sway there so now ephesus was the capital of this area and the chief city it was richer and larger than corinth so ephesus is a very important place and it was located at the entrance of the valley of the meander to the east here was the power of rome and the splendor of greek culture and the full tide of oriental superstition and magic the temple of artemis was one of the seven wonders of the world we'll be talking quite a bit about artemis or diana they get confused because one is greek and one is rome and they have they both use the same word names in reverse but we'll get that that here while in ephesus somehow that paul at this time wrote the epistle to the galatians after his recent visit there some that he did it before his visit to jerusalem but whichever second verse then he said unto them have he received the holy ghost since he believed and they said unto him we have not so much her as heard whether there be any holy ghost you see these disciples of apollos were suffering from the same deficiencies that apollo had although apollo's situation had been corrected when he was in corinth now he's uh these guys are in ephesus suffering from the same deficiency in effect okay the holy spirit did you receive and believing is the question and that's the paul deals with that in romans 8 by the way and he said unto them unto what then were ye baptized and they said unto john's baptism in other words their understanding didn't go any further than john the baptist then said paul john verily baptized with the baptism of repentance saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him that is on christ jesus and so see from from in terms of john's baptism christ and salvation was rather expected than having actually come and that's what makes all the difference and so see the old testament actually ends in luke 16 16. the old testament ends with john the baptist john the baptist is regarded as the last of the old testament prophets and so he's that's we're talking new testament now we're talking post resurrection now and and the whole issue is the holy spirit we're going to explore five verbs of the holy spirit and there are four of them that are used in the singular sense an event that occurs once and only once born of the spirit into the family in john 3 of course that happens once in a lifetime if you're born you're born you don't need to be born again a second time if you're born you're born is the idea and you're baptized of the spirit into the body once and for all second corinthians 12 deals with that you're indwelt by this spirit living in us and that's permanent in fact without repentance that's the thing that amazed paul and he hammers that away in several places especially in ephesians but it comes of course also in romans 8. and you're sealed not only are you indwelt by the holy spirit but you're sealed by the spirit unto redemption in ephesians one and three and four and on it goes so those four verbs are used in a once and for all since but there's another verb that is repeat a repeated experience in your walk and that is the filling of the spirit and that's what ephesians 5 talks about and that's essential to understand there's a lot of confusion about this the use of the holy spirit and i encourage you to do your own study pay very close attention to both the prepositions and the verbs here are the verbs four of them are a once and for all event the last one i mentioned is something that you seek again and again and again if you're going to be an overcomer and there's much to say about that the prepositions he is whether he's whether he's in you and dwelling in you upon you and so forth and so now are we a contradiction is the question or do we have union without communion is the question do we have profession without experience big difference between professing and actually having experienced it do we have life without health another way to ask it do we have movement without actual progress do we have battles but without victory do we have service without success do we have trials without triumph each one of these imply or raise the question of have you been filled with the spirit you may be saved but are you filled with the spirit and are you on the right side of easter but on the wrong side of pentecost are you on the right side of pardon but on the wrong side of power are you justified but not yet sanctified that's it there's a big debate in the christian body about the use of these terms when my wife and i published the kingdom of power and the glory was amazing how divisive that was in some areas and the the fact that sanctification is a work in progress justification is once and for all jesus did on the cross all my sins were paid for then what am i sanctified that's never finished continually growing and all of us need to continually raise the bar on our walk and if you want an in-depth study of the gift of the spirit we suggest you can get our briefing package on the spiritual gifts or simply go to our commentary in the book of corinthians both first corinthians 12 13 and 14 deal with this issue let's move on to verse 5 when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the lord jesus and when paul had laid his hands upon them the holy ghost came upon them and they spake with tongues and prophesied and all the men were about 12 and he went into the synagogue and he spake boldly for a space of three months disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of god that was fine for a while but then verse nine when the divers were hardened and believed not but spake evil of that way before the multitude he departed from them and separated the disciples disputing daily in the school of terrenius the sky terrenius in other words in the synagogue he did fine for a while until the judaizers ganged up on him got hardened and fought with him and so forth so he uh departed from them went next door to for and got some space a place that's called the school of torinus tyranus and notice they speak evil of the way they didn't have denominational names um they they called they spoke of it as the way and uh it was a a subset in their minds at least of judaism it was that that particular way of dealing with things but who is the way jesus is the way as a person i am the way the truth and life jesus claimed so that was a term you'll find used several times in the scripture and we tend to use the term today christians are believers but they they call it the way and uh these guys speak evil of the way and that's going to be um they're in ephesus and you'll you'll discover that paul before he leaves ephesus is going to really preach to them to the to the elders there and it's clear when you look at jesus's letter to ephesus in revelation 2 that they apparently heeded that instruction and they they watched out they were on the guard for false teachers and so forth no jesus said i am the way that's where we get that phrase and now the school of terraness was used as by paul as an outreach throughout the province uh for uh two years and uh verse 10 and this continued by the space of two years so that all they which dwelt in asia heard the word of the lord jesus both jews and greeks that's quite a sentence that the word all those that dwelt in asia heard the word they really turned the world upside down now we also understand that he had he may have had an unrecorded visit to corinth since the one next recorded is twice called his third visit if you're tracking his repeated visits to corinth and during the close of this long stay this two-year stay here he wrote first corinthians and he also many scholars believe that's also when he wrote galatians and it was perhaps the most productive period of paul's life in the minds of some others would argue that his imprisonment in rome which led to the prison of crystals was even more productive but the school of terrain is and we want to understand this guy the term actually means our tyrant but it was a common term uh in that area and there is an inscription on the columbarium of the uh empress libya as that uh it was a physician in the court that's maybe where they picked this up and another scholar suggests the possibility that a relative of this physician was lecturing on medicine in ephesus and so was a friend of of luke luke being a doctor this may have been a friend of luke and that may be why luke was able to arrange this this school the space that paul may have been given the space or he may have been able to rent it for a modest fee because he's there for several years so it would be helpful to paul to have a place to preach and it's next door to the synagogue they weren't welcome in the jewish community so he's down the street here probably a public building or a lecture hall and uh hired by paul our loan to him and possibly through luke and uh we find references to those kinds of halls now the codex uh bizet uh adds from the fifth hour to the tenth as the time allotted for paul to work in this hall and that would be be before midday until the close of the afternoon sort of what we think of as a siesta time in in hot cultures in hot climate cultures and so they they'll they take a break in the from the noon to early afternoon and that would be a time that many people are off work or they take a siesta or whatever that was the time that paul was apparently preaching and for a leisurely meal maybe a nap some sports or visiting paul at the school of terrorists and they would reopen again they typically at 9 30 that night that's cool if you've visited spain or some of these cultural countries you're familiar with that that cycle of the day now it's interesting just as at corinth paul's greatest success was after his withdrawal to a separate place of meeting and uh he had faithful helpers epaphros is referred to chippes and philemon are all names that come up frequently and erastus gaius aristarchus titus trophamus and tychicus they all establish churches eastward colossa and laodicea hieropolis and others and also probably spur smyrna thyatira program in philadelphia and sardis which of course emerge in jesus's letters that constitute revelation chapter 2 and 3. now paul paid his expenses by working he had a vocation making tents and we find and we'll find that more in the next chapter but he probably stayed with priscilla and aquila because they had that common trade uh common interest between them but it also says that he pastored from house to house i'm always interested everything in the book of acts seems to happen in hot in in homes and that's why i call it the home the once and the once and future church that's where it all started and that's where it's migrating today today you can really sense the health of a nation by the degree that people are meeting in small groups during the week to study the word of god verse 11 and god wrought special miracles by the hands of paul so that from his body were brought into under the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them and the word by the way the word miracle here is dunamis which is from which we get the word dynamite these are real miracles going on here but with handkerchiefs or aprons this is this is a very strange stuff now when he says handkerchiefs those are typically the sweat bands from somebody that's working hard that's what they're really dealing with here aprons were the leather work apron so both of these items were byproducts of a of a vocational effort and uh they were sought after because they were paul's and uh but we even see uh even in the mosaic period even moses had symbols his staff for example aaron's rod and so forth and god will use these occasionally for miracles see god often does condescend to meet us in our own ignorance and weaknesses where he can reach us it does doesn't imply that these things were magical it's just that god chose to use them there there's a big difference there and it's a far far uh cry from those that on radio or television that offer you know often give you give them give you if you give a special offering they'll send you an a handkerchief or something don't don't there's they have nothing to do with what's going on here but there are biblical uses there are biblical examples of uses of symbols of various kinds elijah had a notion that some of the power of elijah resided in his mantle you may recall and there is some even sought help from peter's shadow we read in acts 5 back there and so on but let's move on then certain of the vagabond jews exorcists took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the lord jesus saying we adjure you by jesus whom paul preacheth and there were seven sons of one siva a jew and uh chief of the pre and chief of the priests which did so it's kind of a strange thing here now these are exorcists these are occultists but they're uh endorsing or echoing paul's ministry that sounds like a positive no they just take they're taking trying to take advantage here's what's going on notice here i want you to notice the article there by the way uh um the lord jesus as if to identify the magic word to demons with the addition of whom paul preaches they thought success turned on the correct use of a magical formula they were trying to adapt and adopt a magical formula is what they're really after and there were seven sons of siva a jew chief of the priest which did took advantage of this now the evil spirit answered and said this is a demon-possessed guy right the demon the evil spirit answers and says jesus i know and paul i know but who are ye and the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded this one demon-possessed guy the demon you know his reaction to these occultists you know jesus we know and paul you know but who are he and they this one guy overcomes seven the seven sons of siva and uh now some people incidentally you if you dig into this with the uh with the expositors you'll discover that some say the greek implies only two and that's that's uh uh not quite correct is that in in the language here the uh the term that's used there implies all seven the word like we where we say both it means two but there the greek structure implies a plurality uh of all of them and uh uh but it takes it takes some depth of understanding of the greek to get into that uh even in old english the word both uh means more than two that's it so you have to be careful with a this is a place where some expertise and exegetic exegetical uh work is useful but in any case that's obvious that these sons of siva got the worst of it and i i always think that's kind of a that would make a great movie scene you know but and they overcame them and uh so one man became overcame all seven of these guys jesus i know now the term there in the greek means a deep instinctive innate knowledge okay paul i'm acquainted with so you notice the personality of satan's forces they are personages that are sentient knowledgeable and very resourceful the that's what there's a number of number of events in the gospels and also here that one of the things we need to understand that these creatures are real these aren't euphemisms for some psychiatric problem or some obsession no they're being possessed these are sentient uh knowledgeable uh and very resourceful beings so now this is the fourth satanic encounter here we had simon magus you may remember we had illimos bar jesus the son of and we had the philippian pythonists and so this is the fourth encounter that we've encountered here okay verse 17 and this was 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 and many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds so the ministry is blooming here this is a very major center in the in the primary roman province and the word is getting out people are getting saved and on it goes now many of them also which used curious arts meaning occult practices brought their books together and burned them before all men and they counted the price of them and found it 50 000 pieces of silver so mightily grew the word of god and prevailed and these books we're not into burning books in our culture but the real lesson here is some of these things are dangerous and these are these are weapons of satan's warfare and see human beings are not easily invaded they he can't bother you unless you give him permission but you can inadvertently give him permission by what things you indulge in and that can be ouija boards that can be seances horoscopes these are all things that can be used by the dark side and we need to understand that these things are not harmless entertainments these are not things that are not without their risks because they are what some people would call an entry that's a way ace a demon can get a toehold if you if you've read the book or saw the movie the exorcist william blatty the author i remember when walter martin was going to attack so set out to attack him thinking that that that was uh he hadn't done his homework and discovered that blatty had done his homework he actually wrote that novel based on some several case studies the case studies happened to be a young boy in new jersey in the movie they made a was a girl but the point is that blatty had done his homework and from from that point of view it was accurate walter didn't like the way they ended the movie because they have satan win in effect but he had to yield because he realized bloody had done his homework but the point i'm getting reason i make reference to that what started all those bizarre goings on and they are based on a real case study is that it all started with this gal fooling around with a ouija board and that was an entry that that's what started the whole the whole episode so and this goes for uh role-playing games and so forth and i haven't kept up with the gaming industry but i wouldn't be a bit surprised that some of the the popular video games may be in that same category could be dangerous from an occultic point of view and so these are all potentially weapons of satan's warfare and so on we go now demetrius is going to confirm the tremendous influence of paul ministries in in ephesus in asia when we get to verse 26 coming down but they really turned the place upside down forty years after this planning in his famous letter to a trajan from bithynia will say of christianity as follows for the contagion of this superstition was not only spread through the cities but also through the villages and country places so it was in these years these that in ephesus that paul was greatly disturbed over the troubles in the corinthian church and he apparently wrote a letter to them on that is now lost to us that's the reference in first corinthians 5 we went through that uh before last time and after these things were ended paul purposed in the spirit when he passed through macedonia and ikea to go to jerusalem saying after i have been there i must also see rome that was an aspiration of paul he probably had no realization that he was about to get to go to rome on the gov at government expense so he sent into macedonia two of them that ministered unto him timotheus and erestus but he himself stayed in asia for a season and uh so he planned ahead and uh it's interesting that he is makes big plans but he also is very conscious of the needs of the believers in judea he makes a big thing of bringing them offerings but the corinthian problems it's hard to really summarize all of this in just a brief summary here but i'll do my best there were three visits we now know and four letters and we need to understand these three visits four letters and uh the first visit of course is when the church was founded in corinth there's a reference in first corinthians 5 of the previous letter so there was a letter written that apparently has been lost chloe and so forth visit paul letter and bring him a letter from corinth and there's apparently big problems there so that leads to what we know as first corinthians paul wrote that to deal with those problems in the church that he had founded there then there's the painful visit because he goes there and uh it's a very very painful visit and he makes reference to that in in the second corinthians 12 and 13. and on the result of that visit he then writes what they call the severe letter and that's referenced in second corinthians chapter two paul after writing this severe letter after that painful visit is very concerned as to how it went over he wrote the letter but you know sometimes you may write a letter with a good heart but he had a fear that might have might not have been except received properly so he's anxious to connect with titus and there's some difficulties in getting to titus when he finally catches up with titus and troas he gets the report that it was well received okay so he then writes a response to that that we have as second corinthians and some people feel that second corinthians is actually a composite of several letters by the way but that's a speculation and that of course since uh that's received well that results in a third visit so there's three visits four letters and uh it's confusing because there's two of those letters the pre what's called the previous letter and the severe letter we don't have possessions of and uh so that's a there are some scholars that think there's portions of the severe letter that have been added into second corinthians but that's a that's a manuscript thing for experts but in any case uh there was a visit after the second corinthian visit so there's three visits four letters it's easy to get confused and so let's recap here paul what plans to go to macedonia he sends timothy narasis ahead and they may also visit corinth and paul is worried about immorality in the church but uh so he's he's on his he's he's uh he writes first corinthians to the corinthians and uh then he visits and has the pla he hurries the corinth because uh because the situation had gotten worse and uh so he he left his working emphasis paid that hurried visit and uh it's extremely painful for everyone so he has to be severe and that's implied in several passages in second corinthians okay and so this uh the severe letter paul determined to write another letter after that obviously very severe in tone cost him much to write it and had it not been successful it could have been a final rupture between paul and the church that he had founded and this letter seems been lost but some people think it's second corinthians and parts of it in chapters 10 through 13 there's it's possible so that's the severe letter so he's anxious to connect with titus he's up in troas to connect with titus to find out how it went and uh at about the same time there was no small stir about that way in other words the way of of of uh paul for a certain man named demetrius a silversmith which made silver shrines for diana brought no small gain onto the craftsman it's a union it's a craft what they call a guild and so there he's really he's interrupting their form of of income so anyway demetrius he called he called them together the workmen of like occupation said sirs ye know that by this craft we have our wealth and so it's what we would call a trade union or a guild in those days so this this is celebrating diana of the ephesians now it's a pity that the revised version renders artemis here diana as uh the ephesian artemis is quite distinct from the greek artemis the sister of apollo the diana of the romans see both greek and romans use the term artemis and diana but they're inverted if you will and so anyway the temple built in the 6th century bc was burnt by harastratus in october 13th of 356th the very night that alexander the great was born it was restored and was considered one of the seven wonders of the world the temple here and the great festival in may would offer demetrius a golden opportunity for the sale of the shrines they so they sold these little shrines with sewer diana's in them and uh that was their main wealth their main industry so we can demetrius continues moreover you see and hear that not alone at ephesus but almost throughout all asia this paul hath persuaded and turned away much people saying that they be no gods which are made with hands so here we're hearing from his enemies again a testimony that of what an effective job paul is doing the demetrius continues so that not only this our craft is endangered to be set at naught but also that the temple of the great goddess diana should be despised and her magnificence should be destroyed whom all asia and the world worshipeth and you know it's interesting how religious zeal is often a just a hypocritical pretext self-interest is the real cause now this this place we're going to get into the agora is about 300 square feet a vestibule with about 400 more on top of that and the gymnasium is about 450 by 370. it's a huge about 15 acres of ground here we're dealing with and when they heard these things they were full of wrath and cried out saying great is diana of the ephesians and the whole city was filled with confusion and having caught gaius and aristarchus men of macedonia paul's companions and travel they rushed with one accord into the theater now there's a picture of the theater at ephesus by the way the arcadian way shown here is a marble street constructed in the reign of emperor arcadius in about the fourth century street runs from the middle harbor gate to the greco-roman theater which was built during the hellenistic period gives you a feeling for the this is the actual actual picture of the place and the theater is about 660 feet in diameter two football fields they're 40 feet greater than the major axis of the coliseum some say it's a there's different estimates some say about 56 000 people could be there some say about half that there's a scholastic debate about that in any case it's one of the seven wonders of the world built about 550 bc out of pure white marble originally on the night of the birth of alexander the great and then it was rebuilt even more splendidly obviously and so when paul would have entered in unto the people the disciples suffered him not and certain of the chief of asia which were his friends said on him desiring that he would not adventure himself into the theater was good advice in other words he was ready to do that but the the regulars there knew this they were out of control and it was a big mistake for paul to do that but he alludes he alludes them then and the fellow travels were mentioned several other places too by the way that traveled with him and so uh we'll move on here asiarx uh those are the political rulers of the province of asia uh and they were responsible to the romans they were concerned and set word it was they're the ones that were concerned not just for paul but they were afraid that uprising would get them in trouble with the roman authorities and that was part of the motivation see the romans would not tolerate civil disorder so they were in danger of losing their status as a free city which is presently unencumbered by direct roman rule that's a privilege they enjoyed they didn't want to lose so the price of doing that was to make sure they kept order themselves and so that's part of dynamics going on here now what all happened ephesus isn't really known but paul makes some interesting remarks he says i have fought with the beasts of ephesus in his letters what does that mean we're not sure some think that maybe they had lions or something and or maybe just using that metaphorically we don't know this scholastic debate about that timothy will be had become the bishop of the church at ephesus by the way but we'll move on to verse 32 some therefore cried one thing and some another for the assembly was confused and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together and they drew alexander out of the multitude the jews putting him forward and alexander beckoned with the hand and would have made his defense unto the people now is this the same alexander's the coppersmith that's also referred as letters to timothy that's debate about that we don't know anyway moving on but when they knew that he was a jew all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out great is diana of the ephesians you just see how a mob picks up a chant that drives them they're emotional they're irrational they themselves don't know why they're there but they're the enthusiasm is contagious and when the town clerk had appeased the people he said ye men of ephesus what man is there that knoweth not how the city of the ephesians is a worshiper of the great goddess diana and of the image that fell down from jupiter that was the legend the tradition that they held to and uh that artemis or diana whichever one you want to use was fashioned from a meteorite as the theory and jupiter was of course their supreme god in their in their pantheon seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly for ye have brought hither these men which are neither robbers of churches nor yet blasphemies of your goddess see they haven't done anything everybody's getting excited wherefore if demetrius and the craftsman which are with him have a matter against any man the law is open and there are deputies let them implead one another but if ye inquire anything concerning other matters it shall be determined in a lawful assembly so here we have some you know rational uh logic starting to rain here and uh this clerk's speech is uh he says the the upwards undignified unjustifiable but unnecessary is this point and he makes his point important for we are we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse and when he had thus spoken he dismissed the assembly very effective now why is luke putting all this in here what's the point this is one of the reasons i lean in the direction of those that believe that luke is writing to the roman authorities doc they're addressed to theophilus but their purpose is to precede paul and his appeal to rome because when you appeal to caesar there are legal requirements and some scholars believe that luke 1 volume 1 and volume 2 are the necessary legal documents uh and as a prerequisite to paul's appeal to caesar and so that's the point that's being emphasized here is the uproars were not because of paul it was the jewish leadership and in this case of course it quieted down and after the uproar was ceased paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them and departed for to go to macedonia and uh now this is a uh inappropriate chapter division because this this verse the first verse of chapter 20 really should be part of 19. the exhortation is sufficiency is not of ourselves now paul is the center of the riot in in ephesus obviously and his message threatens the sale of the statues of the ephesian goddess as we've seen now in anxiety over the the possible effect of his drastic severe letter corinth he's and he's impatient over titus's delay he was supposed to connect with titus by now he travels north to macedonia and uh and he finally encounters titus in philippi and uh he he gets the good news that the thing with the letter was well received so now luke's brevity requires culling details from the epistles we we put many of these pieces together by going carefully through the letters that paul wrote and try to piece these things together there are many visits that are not recorded by paul to albania and yugoslavia for example and he had dispatched titus to corinth but now anxious to meet him in troas and anxious to find out how did that sphere letter go his concern for being overdue causes paul to leave for macedonia he lands of course at philippi at length titus arrives with better tidings that paul had dared to expect it was much better than he thought and that it's a huge relief for paul and that's when he writes the second letter to the to the corinthians and dispatching titus with that letter and so that puts a whole different color on on the second letter of corinth obviously and so so he writes a fourth letter really but we call it second corinthians which he recounts his former anxiety and expresses his joy over the reform in corinth and he obviously visited corinth shortly thereafter so it brings you up to date there and so the second verse of chapter 20 when he had gone over those parts he had given them much exhortation he came into greece and there abode three months and when the jews laid wait for him he was about to sail into syria he purposed to return through macedonia and uh so he uh he plans to travel to jerusalem by sea but a plot by his enemies forced him to return through macedonia and so he writes romans about this time but then he goes by land back to philippi there accompanied him to asia sopader of berea and of the thessalonians aristarchus and segundus and gaius of derby and timotheus of asia and of end of asia tachycas and trophenas so he rounds up his friends as he goes here these going before tarried for us at troas and we sailed away from philippi after the days of unleavened bread and came unto them in troas in five days where we abode seven days and so they now are there back in croaz upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight now this by the way is one of the first one of the places which speaks of the first day of the week some people make a big thing of this some scholars argue on the basis of this in one other verse that they they always met on the first day of the week on sunday well they were jewish so sunny might be really saturday night but let's not get into that one there are other cases though the other quote is in first corinthians 16 where he asked them to collect the money on the first day of the week so they wouldn't gather when they meet so there's a debate about that among many as to whether it all gets around do you do you worship does a christian work worship on shabbat or on sunday you can take your pick because anything's uh encouraged but this is one of the verses that comes up in those discussions and uh okay there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together now lights there are candles they're they're they're consuming oxygen and he's preaching for six hours okay and uh so that uh that's what they that's what they define preaching is preaching is speaking somebody else's sleep right and they're sat in a window a certain young man named uticus being fallen into a deep sleep and as paul was long preaching he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead this is what some people call utica says fall from grace right in any case the greek plainly indicates that he was taken up lifeless there's a debate among scholars did he was he really dead or was he not and people have different views on that but paul went down and fell on him embracing him said trouble not yourself for his life is in him so some say that he really wasn't dead others say the greek implies that that paul raised him from the dead and that paul's approach of falling on the young man is the same thing that elijah the dead of the sun woman of saraptha did in first kings 17 and elisha did with the dead son of the shinomite in second kings four so those are patterns that are being followed here jesus did the same thing in matthew in mark 5 and luke 8. when he therefore was come up again and had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while even till the break of day so he departed that's paul we're talking about and they brought the young man alive and were not a little comforted there again the greek implies he really had been dead and he's backed alive but some scholars he was raised from the dead not just unconscious but there's a scholastic debate in the background if you want to get into it and we went before him to ship and sailed down to asos they're intending to take in paul for so he had he appointed minding himself to go on foot that's 35 miles by sea we're talking about but it's 20 by land and paul apparently had a desire for privacy prayer and solitude so that was his choice he'd rather walk and let them sail and it was feasible and we and when he met with us at essos we took him in and came to mittelin and we sailed thence and came to the next day over against kaios and the next day we arrived at samos and tarried at tragelium and the next day we came to mellitus now mellitus is not ephesus he actually is deliberately missing ephesus he chose a ship apparently that deliberately did not stop at ephesus he goes to mellitus and then sends for the elders to come meet him there this will be clear when i show you a map here for paul determined to sail by ephesus because he would not spend the time in asia for he hasted if it were possible for him to be at jerusalem the day of pentecost so he's anxious to get to jerusalem so if he goes to ephesus he gets tangled up with crowds and so forth by having the elders come and meet him he gives his famous farewell address to them very key place in acts 20 that we'll get to here in a minute but uh so the overland trip was it was due to the plot discovery obviously and so uh okay so he's this shows you on the map went to essos and then they sail around that is not actually the ephesus from melitus he sent to ephedus a message that is and called the elders of the church to come meet him at mellitus and belitas is about 15 miles south of ephesus and he stayed there for three or four days here's it gives you a feeling of the geography here the uh he deliberately he's coming from the north he doesn't stop at ephesus he goes a little further to mellitus and has the leaders the the elders come from ephesus tumulitis uh and it could be free it could be all kinds of speculation why he did that there are problems with both harbors to some extent but i think it was just to avoid the crowd if you will he wanted to be have some private time just with the elders and so we now we're going to encounter the farewell address to the ephesian elders very important it's great advice very relevant to them it's also very relevant to us and that gets all underscored because jesus later in his letter to the ephesians makes reference to this in effect and it's probably the most poignant of all paul's addresses here so verse 8 acts 20 verse 18 and when they were come to him he said unto them ye know from the first day that i came into asia after what manner i have been with you at all seasons serving the lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying and weight of the jews and so see the condition of the apostles remember his conditions were always under great danger with all the rest going on he was always exposed vulnerable he continues and how i kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but have showed you and have taught you publicly friend from house to house and i like this house to house i think we should really be paying attention to that that's the way they operated testifying both to the jews and also to the greeks repentance toward god and faith toward our lord jesus christ and now behold i go bound in the spirit unto jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befall me there paul's own spirit and save that the holy ghost witnessed in every city saying that the bonds and afflictions abide me but none of these things moved me neither count i my life dear unto myself so that i might finish my course with joy and the ministry which i have received to the lord jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of god and now behold i know that ye all among whom i have gone preaching the kingdom of god shall see my face no more wherefore i take you to record this day that i am pure from the blood of all men for i have not shown to declare unto you all the counsel of god take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the holy ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of god which he hath purchased with his own blood wow verse 27 is a very key verse for i have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of god that's a very key phrase by the way some people make the claim that paul never declared that jesus was god that's a mistake because it's all through the scripture and here he does that say that very thing but the other thing the all the counsel of god the whole council of god is your best assurance against heresies of any kind all of us study the word we want to be very cautious and not indulge in one verse theology you want to understand the whole council one reason that eschatology is so difficult for many is because it really requires the whole council to be ordered tie it all together if your view about a certain thing doesn't fit the whole council then it requires re-examination and so that's really a call to to a strategic grasp of the whole council of god and according to all the council of god very important paul says for i know this that after mighty parting shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock also of your own selves shall mentorize speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them boy could we talk spend an hour on this verse after mighty parting shall grievous wolves enter in and they certainly did did the elders take heed yes they did because jesus is going to give them a a grade of a on that aspect there's other things they didn't do and he'll deal with that but they apparently really were zealous for for uh dealing with the false teachers it's in fact he says also of your own selves shall men arise in other words some of your enemies will rise from among your own speaking perverse things why to draw away disciples after them i want to ask for a show of hands of how many can think of examples in our own life in our own uh community in our own uh on our own horizon of false teachers and sometimes springing from within a congregation calling division causing divisions and separations grievous wolves perverse men there are two classes of enemies external and internal and both are in view here there'll be grievous wolves from the outside but there's also enemies from the inside and the church is always hurt the most from the inside it may not be many years before epaphras will come to rome from colossa with news of a new peril there that was the epistle of colossians in writing to timothy paul will warn him against some who have already made a shipwreck of their faith in first timothy 1. john will present jesus as describing these very false apostles in ephesus in his letter in revelation chapter 2. now there's no fewer than six false teachers from ephesus by the way we have uh harmonius in first timothy one alexander in first timothy one we have jealous in second timothy one we have hermogenes in the second timothy one fellainis in uh second timothy two diatrophis diatrophies in uh third john and and we have in reference to the doctrine of the nicolaitans in revelation chapter two in fact several times in revelation and where is there where is the light stand of everest remember jesus told ephesus that if you don't deal with the things you've got to fix i'm going to remove your lamp stand where is the lampstand of ephesus today it's been removed interestingly enough now the epistle to colossians which was written about the same time to uh to its neighbor it was the neighbor of ephesus it evidences the propagation of gnostic errors in pro-consular asia one thing that was starting to surface that comes up is the gnosticism the whole study of gnosticism is another study we won't derail this study to get into that but just be aware of that as a something they had to deal with verse 31 therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years i ceased not to warrant every one night and day with tears boy that's your picture paul for three years i cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears here's a teacher that cares and now brethren i commend to you god and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified very key verse by the way the sanctification is linked to your inheritance inheritances are things that are due you if you're sanctified but there are also things you can forfeit if you're not diligent and not faithful and so he he i commend to you god and to be wor and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified to give you an inheritance so we're not speaking here about the initial state stages of salvation but the subsequent stages of upbuilding even the consummation of the final inheritance and here it's ascribed to the ability of god to bestow it as in romans 16 ephesians 3 and jude and so forth okay okay four ways to admonish with tears speaking the truth in love to use the word itself to be selfless in your ministry it is better to give than to receive these are the four things that he emphasizes and uh athenaeus a greek poet says just the obvious the give the giver is foolish but the receiver is fortunate no no let's go on here verse 33 i have coveted no man silver or gold or apparel yea ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me so he's earning his own way that's what he's making reference to his tet making and he wasn't there for the money so to speak he earned his own living i have showed you all things how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the lord jesus how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive now what's interesting about that you cannot find that in the scripture many people don't realize that you will not find that phrase paul is quoting a phrase of lord jesus that we don't have anywhere else and when he had thus spoken he kneeled down and prayed with them all it's more blessed is the the to give than to receive we hear we that is used so often when people make a call for offerings and i believe jesus said that but it's quite interesting to notice that we we're indebted to paul for that that's not a found among the recorded sayings and they all wept sore and fell on paul's neck and kissed him sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more and they accompanied him unto the ship now by the way they did see his face one more first timothy hints that he did end up going back there once more time one more time and according to jesus letter to ephesus they apparently heeded paul's admonition regarding false teachers that was the good news every one of the the the seven letters seven churches have good news and bad news there's two that have no good news there's two they have no bad news but that's basically the structure ephesus had the good news was they did deal with the false teachers that's the good news they listened they followed paul's admonition the bad news was they lost their first love they had so they were so busy on the business of the king they didn't have time for the king and they they they were weak on their devotional side that's probably all of us are probably guilty of that that really established priority and prioritized time for devotion now john by the way spent his last three final years in as a bishop of ephesus and he also there was a custodian for mary you remember jesus gives the responsibility for mary to john and he follows through with that and they both finish their days in ephesus in fact john even writes her a personal letter that most people don't recognize we know it is second john and uh you can check into that okay for the next session we want you to study three chapters chapters 21 22 and 23 they're short and we can we can uh i think accomplish that in in the next session and so let's stand for a closing word of prayer

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Length: 59min 57sec (3597 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020