Over the next while we will be reading through the Book of Ephesians. Occasionally we’ll take a week’s break with another topic, but Ephesians has so many great truths/ideas for us to ponder. Today, we’re going to start with the background to the Ephesian church that is told to us in Acts.
The Apostle Paul is on his way home from his second missionary journey when he makes a brief stop in Ephesus. He leaves his partners, Priscilla and Aquilla in that city to help start a church (Acts 18: 18 – 28). Paul returns to Ephesus on his third missionary journey and we’ll read what happened in that new church and city.
Acts 19: 1 – 20 NLT
While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. 2 “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them.
“No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 “Then what baptism did you experience?” he asked.
And they replied, “The baptism of John.”
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.”
5 As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues (languages) and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
Paul is back in Ephesus, and he finds twelve men who said they were believers. However, on questioning them about their faith he discovered that they were followers of John the Baptist. They had accepted John’s call to repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, but that was all they knew. You may wonder why when Paul laid his hands on them, they experienced a dramatic coming of the Holy Spirit like the disciples at Pentecost. Remember there is no New Testament. All they have is the Old Testament and the teaching of people, like Paul, who arrive in their city. How do they know these people are telling the truth? Unlike us who have the complete Bible, they can’t read and study to figure out what is true or not. So, in that early church there are gifts and miracles from God to show that what the apostles are saying is true.
We meet people today who have a fuzzy notion of what Christianity is all about. They may think going to church on special occasions makes them Christians. They may think that doing good deeds and helping the poor make them Christians. They may think they do their best and that there is some kind of God, so that is all that is required. When we meet those people, we can ask questions like Paul did. Questions done in a caring way can spark them to think and look for answers.
8 Then Paul went to the synagogue and preached boldly for the next three months, arguing persuasively about the Kingdom of God. 9 But some became stubborn, rejecting his message and publicly speaking against the Way. So Paul left the synagogue and took the believers with him. Then he held daily discussions at the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for the next two years, so that people throughout the province of Asia—both Jews and Greeks—heard the word of the Lord.
11 God gave Paul the power to perform unusual miracles. 12 When handkerchiefs or aprons that had merely touched his skin were placed on sick people, they were healed of their diseases, and evil spirits were expelled.
Again, we see miracles to confirm the teaching of The Way. Can we obtain items like handkerchiefs or aprons touched by some special person to heal us today? I suspect not. Here is what James says about healing. “Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. 16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” (James 5: 14 – 16) This is not some ‘magical’ process with a guarantee. If so, people would be lined up all around the world to be healed. But God does listen to our prayers and healing does occur in God’s will. My husband and I experienced that when he recovered from cancer after his doctors told him he had two weeks to live. We can pray and God can heal when it is in His will.
13 A group of Jews was traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation, saying, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. 15 But one time when they tried it, the evil spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” 16 Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered.
17 The story of what happened spread quickly all through Ephesus, to Jews and Greeks alike. A solemn fear descended on the city, and the name of the Lord Jesus was greatly honored. 18 Many who became believers confessed their sinful practices. 19 A number of them who had been practicing sorcery brought their incantation books and burned them at a public bonfire. The value of the books was 50,000 pieces of silver (several million dollars). 20 So the message about the Lord spread widely and had a powerful effect.
HYPERLINK “https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts 19&version=NLT”
The high priest’s sons were wandering around casting out spirits? How did they get so far away from Old Testament practices? They lived in an age dominated by what we call mythology. Do you remember the myths you studied in high school English classes? Greek mythology blended with Roman mythology as the Romans conquered the Greek empire. For example, that’s why the Greek god of love, Eros, was renamed Cupid under the Romans. So in Paul’s world, we have a culture dominated by worship of many gods, and that worship included things we, as Christians, would consider Satanic. It looks like even some Jews bought into that culture as we can see from the priest’s sons behaviour. God put a stop to that evil when Paul came and preached the gospel.
Today in Canada, we have a multicultural society. There are various religious beliefs as well as a large percentage of the population that basically ignores any religious practices. They might believe there is some kind of god, but it doesn’t affect them personally in any way. Some churches have even decided the Bible is a good book, but outdated is some areas. LSA believes the Bible is God’s Word, and you will see this statement near the top of our website. “We are a Bible based church and strive to communicate the truth of the Bible in everything we do.” As the area of Windsor/Essex County continues to grow, especially close to our church location, pray that God will help us as we welcome new people in a caring, loving way. We want that last verse is today’s reading to descibe our church.
“The message about the Lord spread widely and had a powerful effect.”
Our song for today is Jesus by Chris Tomlin.