Acts of the Apostles (42)
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 that city 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 for them to return to their first love while retaining their orthodoxy 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 just 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 had 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 “Jesus” 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 also Paul, but “who are you guys?” (v. 15). He jumped on them and thrashed them, such that they ran away both 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 previous 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, on to Jerusalem, and then 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 previously 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 clearly 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. They then spoke in tongues and prophesied, which 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, which was longer than usual, Paul side-stepped the hardened opposition of some 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 would include the church at Colossae, as well as the towns mentioned at the beginning of Revelation—Laodicea, Thyatira, Philadelphia, and so on.
This gives us a glimpse into how a consistent, steady, drumbeat of a godly ministry has a gathering and cumulative effect. You labor in obscurity for years, but then all of a sudden everything is different.
The Economic Impact of Grace
Now in the next verses we are going to see a full-scale riot there in Ephesus caused by the economic impact of Paul’s gospel preaching. Turning to Christ threatened the sale of idols. In this part of the chapter, 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 of it was 50K pieces of silver, each piece 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 big difference. Sin has economic ramifications, as does forgiveness and righteousness.