Acts

INTRODUCTION

Ephesus was one of the places where the apostle Paul invested a goodly amount of time. On this occasion, he was there for two years, and you should recall that he had visited earlier in Acts. It was a port city in western Asia Minor, and the temple to Diana there (Artemis) was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was a notable city. We know it as Christians from the riches found in the book of Ephesians, and from the exhortation to return to their first love that is found in Revelation 2.

THE TEXT

“And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism . . . ” (Acts 19:1–22).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul came to Ephesus, where Apollos had been, and found disciples of some sort there (v. 1). He asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit, and they replied that they hadn’t even heard of Him (v. 2). So he asked what their baptism was, and they replied that it was John’s baptism (v. 3). These are pretty clearly disciples made by Apollos before Priscilla and Aquila helped him out. Paul informed them that John’s baptism was pointing to Christ (v. 4), and so they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus (v. 5). Paul laid hands on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied (v. 6). There were around twelve of them (v. 7). Paul went to the synagogue, and spoke, disputed, and persuaded for about three months (v. 8). Some of them got hard-hearted, and began to speak evil, so Paul moved his operations to the hall of Tyrannus (v. 9), teaching there daily. He did this for two years, such that everyone in the province of Asia Minor, Jews and Greeks both, heard the word of the Lord Jesus (v. 10). Power to do miracles was with him (v. 11), such that even articles of his clothing could heal diseases and cast out demons (v. 12). Itinerant Jewish exorcists began to use the name of Jesus, the one preached by Paul (v. 13). One example was the band of Sceva’s seven sons—Sceva being a Jew and self-styled chief priest (v. 14). The demon replied that he knew Jesus, and Paul, but “who are you guys?” (v. 15). He jumped on them and thrashed them, such that they ran away naked and hurt (v. 16). Word about that got around all of Ephesus, to Jews and Greeks both, and they all feared. The name of the Lord Jesus was magnified (v. 17). Those who believed began to confess their deeds (v. 18). This included their occult books, which they all agreed to burn together—and which one calculation into modern terms puts at about $6M in value. So the Word of God grew and prevailed (v. 20). After this, Paul decided to go west to Macedonia and Achaia, then to Jerusalem, and on to Rome (v. 21). So he send Timothy and Erastus to Macedonia as his advance team (v. 22), but then he remained there in Asia for a bit.

DISCIPLES OF APOLLOS

We learned earlier that when Apollos came to Ephesus, he taught the Word accurately, but only up to John’s baptism (Acts 18:25). Pricilla and Aquila brought him up to the speed, but he had apparently made some disciples that Priscilla and Aquila didn’t get to. They were distinguished from others in some way (perhaps by clothing?) such that Paul asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit. They were disciples of some sort, but something must have seemed off. So they received Christian baptism, and when Paul laid hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit. Since they spoke in tongues and prophesied, this showed that God was declaring their solidarity with Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:44-45), as well as their unity with the saints at Pentecost (Acts 2:4).

TRYING TO GET A PIECE OF THE ACTION

There was a lot of excitement in Ephesus over this. Healings and exorcisms began to occur on the strength of handkerchiefs and aprons that Paul had used. The power of God was present, and so certain Jewish exorcists tried to get a piece of the action. You recall that Simon Magus tried to buy his way in (Acts 8: 18-19), but these folks just assumed they could just barge in. They started conjuring in the name of this “Jesus that Paul preaches.” That’s a bit of reflected glory, but apparently less potent than one of those handkerchiefs. They got beat up for their pains, and this caused all of Ephesus to fear. The name of Jesus grew in authority.

THE HALL OF TYRANNUS

So the response there in Ephesus was robust. After three months of weekly meetings in the synagogue, Paul side-stepped the hardened opposition by moving to a rented hall, where he taught daily for two years. The upshot of this was that all of Asia Minor was affected.

This gives us a glimpse into how a consistent, steady, drumbeat of a godly ministry has a gathering and cumulative effect.

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF GRACE

Now in the next verses we are going to see a full-scale riot caused by the economic impact of Paul’s gospel preaching. Turning to Christ threatened the sale of idols. In this section, we see the warm-up act for this reaction. The people who were turning to Christ from their superstitions took up a collection of their occult materials, and made a bonfire with them. The worth was 50K pieces of silver, likely a drachma. One drachma was on average a daily wage for skilled worker, which means that the amount was enough to catch the attention of the Ephesians. The Christians were making a difference. Sin has economic ramifications, as does forgiveness and righteousness.

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INTRODUCTION

As we continue through Acts, we come to a passage that is filled with a number of interesting details—details which spread out in different directions. And although various subjects are addressed here, we will come to see that all of it represents the grace of God to us.

THE TEXT

“And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow. And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not; But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will . . .” (Acts 18:18–28).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul remained in Corinth for a bit, and then left for Syria with Priscilla and Aquila (v. 18). Cenchrea was the eastern port for Corinth, and Paul concluded a Nazarite vow there (v. 18; Num. 6:1-21). He came to Ephesus on the way, and left Priscilla and Aquila there. While there, Paul reasoned with the Jews in the synagogue (v. 19). They wanted him to stay longer, but he declined (v. 20). Paul was eager to make it back to Jerusalem by the upcoming feast, but promised to return if he could. So he left Ephesus (v. 21). He landed at Caesarea, went up to Jerusalem to greet the church, and then went to (Syrian) Antioch (v. 22). After some time there, he went through Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening the believers there (v. 23). And then Luke cuts back to Ephesus. An Alexandrian Jew named Apollos showed up there—he was both eloquent and great in the Scriptures (v. 24). He knew the way of the Lord, he was fervent in spirit, and he taught accurately . . . but only up through John’s baptism (v. 25). He taught boldly in the synagogue in Ephesus (which had been open-minded with Paul, remember). Priscilla and Aquila heard him there, took him aside, and brought him up to speed (v. 26). When he decided to go to Achaia, the brothers wrote him a letter of recommendation (v. 27). When he arrived in Achaia, he was a big help to those who had believed through grace (v. 27). The nature of the help was that he vigorously refuted the Jews, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ (v. 28).

PAUL’S ORDERLY WALK

When Paul arrives in Jerusalem later on in Acts, the leaders there acknowledge that Paul himself was an observant Jew—“and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law” (Acts 21:24). We can see that here. He concluded a Nazarite vow that had been ongoing in Corinth (Acts 18:18; Num. 6:13). This included a sin offering, a burnt offering, and a peace offering (Num. 6:16-17). The hair that was cut off was part of the peace offering (Num. 6:18). Perhaps the hair was brought to Jerusalem because that was where the sacrifices would be made. And he apparently had taken another Nazarite vow later on because he purified himself with four men who had also done so, and he paid their expenses (Acts 21: 20-24). The most interesting thing about this would be the fact of the blood sacrifices—but the period between the Lord’s resurrection and 70 A.D. was a transitional time. “In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13, NKJV).

PRISCILLA HELPS OUT

We can also see in this passage that Priscilla was a true co-laborer in the gospel. Apollos showed up with a good message to preach, but he was only part way there. Priscilla and Aquila heard him speak in the synagogue, and his message was really good, but he needed further information. The text says that they took Apollos aside, and they explained things to him more fully (ektithemi, to expound). This verb expound is in the third person plural. This means that Priscilla was talking also.

We know from Scripture that women are not to teach or have authority in the church (1 Tim. 2:12). The reason our formal leadership is all male is because the Word requires this of us. But the Scriptures clearly do not prohibit what Priscilla and Aquila do here. The Bible says nothing about women keeping silence in the parking lot, or over lunch if they hosted Apollos that afternoon.

THE VALUE OF DEBATE

Many people make the mistake of thinking that a public debate is useless if the person being debated is not persuaded. But this is a very great mistake. Notice what it says here. Apollos vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, and this was not an encouragement to them. But rather it was an encouragement to the believers there, who were able to see the position they held ably articulated and defended.

If an apologist has a debate with an atheist on a college campus, the atheist will likely remain unpersuaded. But there are any number of believing college students who are greatly edified as they see the false doctrines that come at them in the classroom being so clearly taken down.

BELIEVED THROUGH GRACE

All of this is the grace of God. And notice that it does not say here that the believers had believed in grace. It says rather that through grace they had believed. Our faith is the gift of God, lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:8-10). God gives repentance to Israel (Acts 5:31). The Jews in Jerusalem rejoiced that God had given the Gentiles repentance to life (Acts 11:18). In Pisidian Antioch, who believed? The Gentiles who were appointed to eternal life did so (Acts 13:48). Why did Lydia believe? Because the Lord opened her heart (Acts 16:14).

There is true glory here, and all of it goes to God our Savior. He is the one who gives us everything. Go back to the beginning, and He was there first. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). At the beginning when you offered up that first faltering prayer—”God, be merciful to me, a sinner”—even that prayer was placed in your mouth as a gift from the Holy Spirit of God. All grace, all the time.

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INTRODUCTION

The next city that Paul came to was Corinth, which came to be the home of one of the more important churches in the New Testament. Corinth is about 48 miles southwest of Athens, and is situated on the Isthmus of Corinth, a narrow strip of land that connected Attica (northern Achaia) from the Peloponnese (southern Achaia). Corinth was an important trading center, with access to the sea in both eastern and western directions.

THE TEXT

“After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them . . . ” (Acts 18:1–17).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul left Athens and arrived in Corinth (v. 1). He there met Aquila and his wife Priscilla (v. 2). Aquila was a Jew from Pontus, which runs along the southern shore of the Black Sea. This couple was in Corinth because Claudius had recently banished all Jews from Rome (v. 2). They were tentmakers, as Paul was, and so he took up residence with them (v. 3). He took every sabbath as an opportunity to reason with both Jews and Greeks at the synagogue (v. 4). Silas and Timothy finally arrived, and Paul became more importunate, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ (v. 5). They reacted in opposition to the point of blasphemy, and so Paul shook the dust from his clothing saying that they had condemned themselves. He then turned to the Gentiles (v. 6). He moved house, moving in with Justus, a worshiper of God, and who lived right next door to the synagogue (v. 7). But after Paul wrote off the Jews, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed. And he and his house were baptized, and a large number of Corinthians believed (v. 8). The Lord encouraged Paul in a night vision, encouraging him to speak out because He had many people in this city. Paul would not be hurt (vv. 9-10). And so Paul taught there for a year and a half (v. 11). Gallio was the proconsul of Achaia, and this enables us to date the planting of the Corinthian church at 51/52 A.D. During Gallio’s tenure, the Jews made a concerted attack on Paul, dragging him before the judgment seat—recently discovered in the old city (v. 12). Their accusation was that Paul was persuading men to worship God in ways contrary to (Roman) law (v. 13). Paul was about to defend himself when Gallio, who saw through the schemers, and threw the case out of court (vv. 14-15). The bailiff, or someone like him, escorted all of them forcibly to the curb (v. 16). There are clearly some elements to this drama that we don’t have because then it says that certain Greeks beat up Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, but Gallio didn’t care (v. 17).

GALLIO’S INCONSISTENCY

We begin with some sympathy for Gallio. He was the brother of Seneca the philosopher, and we understand why a Roman of his stature would not want to be dragged into arcane Jewish theological disputes. So far so good. But not only had Paul led Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue to the Lord a year and a half before, but now had apparently done it again. This Sosthenes was apparently the next chief ruler of the synagogue, and he was also converted (see 1 Cor. 1:1).

Gallio had begged off settling a theological dispute, but to have the Greeks assaulting an innocent man in front of the judgment seat was his business, and it was the kind of business that he had said he would attend to. As we consider this, our sympathy for Gallio begins to fade. The magistrate is a deacon of God, assigned the task of punishing the wrongdoer and rewarding the righteous (Rom. 13:4).

TUMULTUOUS GRACE

There is no way to introduce efficacious grace into a sinful world without causing turmoil. And the more abundant the grace, the more violent the reactions.

Remember that Paul was encouraged here in that night vision. The Lord told him that He had many people in this city (vv. 9-10). The genuine believers there were most dear to Paul (1 Cor. 4:14-15; 2 Cor. 6:11-13). There had been no riot in Athens, and why? Because that was a place where the elect just trickled in. Here, as in other places, the elect of God began to pour in. And what happened then?

Well, the Jews attacked them. And then the Greeks attacked. Then Gallio refused to help. And then, as we see from the two letters to the Corinthians that we have, not to mention a letter to them that we have from Clement, Paul’s good friend (Phil. 4:3), the church there was afflicted by internal dissensions and disruptions. Satan knows how to attack from without and from within.

And every true reformation according to grace is going to be attacked both ways. The one reaction we should not display is that of being surprised.

Christ, the friend of sinners, has never been the friend of sin.

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INTRODUCTION

So Paul was in Athens, waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. While he was waiting, he found himself greatly vexed and provoked over the rampant idolatry there. Athens was disease-ridden, and their sickness was images. This passage tells us what happened next.

THE TEXT

“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection . . . So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.” (Acts 17:16–34).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

While Paul was waiting in Athens, he got worked up over all the idols (v. 16). And so he disputed with Jews, and with God-fearers, and with people in the marketplace (v. 17). He encountered representatives of the two main philosophical schools—Epicurean (pleasure the highest good) and Stoic (duty is). Some called him a “seedpicker” (spermologos), like a sparrow eating fries in the McDonald’s parking lot. Others thought he was preaching two gods, Jesus and Anastasis—the word for resurrection (v. 18). So they brought him to Mars Hill, and invited him to set forth his doctrine because they were curious (vv. 19-20). Luke then gets in a delightful jab about their pursuit of truth being little more than an intellectual hobby to kill time with (v. 21). So Paul stood up and began with the observation that the Athenians were really religious (v. 22). He had noticed walking around that there was even an altar to an unknown god (v. 23). This is the God that Paul was preaching (v. 23). This is the Creator God, who is not contained by any human temples (v. 24). Nor is He dependent upon man’s service, as though He were needy, because He is the source of all life and breath (v. 25). This Creator fashioned all men, who are descended from one blood, and assigned them their places of habitation (v. 26). He did this so that in our groping we might find Him, even though He was not really far off (v. 27). The “live and move” line is likely from the Cretica of Epimenides, a hymn to Zeus. The “offspring” line is from the Stoic poet Aratus, in another hymn to Zeus called Phaenomena. As God’s offspring, we must reject idols and images (v. 29). God winked at this foolishness before, but now He commands repentance (v. 30). He has fixed a day of judgment and reckoning, and has proven who that judge is going to be through His resurrection from the dead (v. 31). When Paul made the resurrection clear, some mocked, while others were still interested (v. 32), and so Paul left (v. 33). A handful believed and came along—Dionysus the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and some others (v. 34).

PAGAN POETS AND PROPHETS

Around 600 B.C. (the age of Jeremiah and Ezekiel), Athens was afflicted with a great plague, and they could do nothing to resolve it. The Pythonness at Delphi told them to send for Epimenides of Crete and to do whatever he said. Remember that the girl in the previous chapter had the spirit of a python. Epimenides came and as a result of his instructions, the Athenians built an altar to “the unknown God,” and sacrificed to Him. The plague then stopped. Centuries later Paul came through and saw the altar, and preached the Creator of all things to them.

In Titus 1:12, Paul quotes Epimenides, and says that he was a prophet (not a false prophet). We don’t have any complete works of Epimenides, but one reasonable reconstruction runs like this:

“They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one, The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies! But thou art not dead: thou livest and abidest forever, For in thee we live and move and have our being.”

The fact that this was in a hymn to Zeus should not disturb us. There were very different narratives about Zeus that were current. There was the historic Zeus, the one that the impudent Cretans had built a tomb for. There was the Zeus of folklore, the skirt-chaser and over-sized fraternity boy. But then there was the Zeus of the philosophers, the Theos who created everything. Paul, a man who hated idols, was willing to work with this.

GENTILES WELCOME

In the Old Testament, Gentiles were not the equivalent of unbelievers. Many were unregenerate unbelievers, but then again, so were many Jews. The Jews were a covenanted nation of priests.

We have Naaman the Syrian (Luke 4:27), and after his conversion (2 Kings 5:17) he was even given permission to push his master’s wheelchair into the house of Rimmon (2 Kings 5:18). We have the king of Nineveh and all his people (Jonah 3:6ff). We have Jethro, the priest of Midian (Ex. 3:1). We have Melchizedek, a Canaanite priest and type of Christ to whom Abraham paid tithes (Gen. 14:18; Heb. 7:1-2). David stored the Ark of the Covenant at the house of a Gentile, Obed-edom (2 Sam. 6:10)—and he was a Gittite, which meant he probably graduated from the same high school that Goliath did. Later on, this Obed-edom was made a porter at the Tabernacle of David (1 Chron. 15:18). And when Solomon built the Temple, in his prayer of dedication he assumed that various Gentiles would pray toward this Temple, and would be received (1 Kings 8:41-43). And then when Jesus made a whip and cleared out the money-changers and the sellers of sacrificial animals, He was clearing out the Court of the Gentiles in order to make room for them to worship. “And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Mark 11:17).

THE DISTANCE IS ETHICAL

Paul says twice that there was a Gentile worship of the true God that was characterized by ignorance. Note: “whom therefore ye ignorantly worship” (v. 23) and “the times of this ignorance God winked at” (v. 30). God was kind to the nations, giving them their assigned habitations so that they might grope after Him, and even find Him (v. 27). But most of them veered into the rank idolatry that their best philosophers and poets rejected (v. 29).

The God that we cannot see or find is not ontologically distant from us. We live and move and have our being in Him, a fact obvious to astute pagans. We live in a God-environment. The problem is moral and ethical. The problem is not that God is way up in Heaven, or far across the sea. The problem is that we are “seeking after Him,” but with no intention of finding Him. This is how Acts 17 is reconciled with Romans 1-3. If we are to be found, Christ must fetch us.

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