Acts Of The Apostles # 28 - 39

These new converts, that had been raised up worshipping the goddess Diana with all the magic formulas and superstitions, had truly been converted. They revealed this by the fact that they turned from all this false worship and burned the items that had anything to do with it, in a public place making a public profession of their faith in the Lord Jesus. It is good to see new converts make such a public stand for the Lord when they first get saved. Generally when new converts make a weak stand when first saved, they follow through with the same weakness. And when they make a strong stand they remain strong.

Illus: It is somewhat like a man running a race. His performance at the start of the race is critical. Every runner knows that, and they do all they can to try to get the jump on their competition. When new converts start off like the Christians in Ephesus did, they certainly have the edge on their opposition, Satan.

God sent a tremendous revival to the people of Ephesus, and verse 20, states, “So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.” It is great to see the Word of God growing and prevailing.

Illus: Recently on a Christian radio station, a Christian lawyer was stating that he felt Christians were making a mistake in our effort to witness to lost people because we use scripture in our argument instead of logic. He said, for example, that some Christians attack homosexuality with the scriptures, but in his opinion we would be much wiser to state that homosexuals should not engage in such activity because of the spread of AIDS.

Anytime I hear a fellow playing the Scriptures down like this, preacher or lawyer, it sends a red flag up to watch out for such a fellow. One of the needs of this hour is for the Word of God to mightily grow. Why? Notice what happened when the Word of God grew in Ephesus; the scripture says, “...the word of God... prevailed.” Shortly after this happened, Satan began to fight.

I. THE CLIMAX (VERSES 21-23)

A. PLANS ARRANGED

Verses 21-22 “After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season.” Notice in verse 21, Paul purposed in the spirit...” to go to Macedonia, Achaia, Jerusalem and then to Rome. He planned to revisit the churches in these areas.

Illus: Wilmington says this about Paul. "The personal motivational drive and dynamic of this man is almost incomprehensible to the modem reader. Having already extended himself throughout Asia Minor and the peninsula of Greece, he now reveals his plan to move westward into Italy, and ultimately to Spain, which was the western extremity of the Roman Empire of that day. The extensive nature of his travels has rarely been repeated by missionaries, even in this modem era.”

This was his intention. In fact, in verse 22, we read that he sent Timothy and Erastus before him. Paul's life was somewhat like ours, in that we also make plans and sometimes we cannot carry out those plans as we would like to carry them out.

Illus: Jonathan Edwards had many great resolutions that he lived his life by. One of them was, “I resolve never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.”

It seems to be a common trait among great men and women of God to live their lives in this fashion. They lived as if each day was the last. Paul had made plans to visit all these cities, but the reason he made these plans was because he wanted to advance the work of the Lord. We today so selfishly make our plans, and when those plans are interrupted we become upset with whoever or whatever interrupted them. Why do we get upset? Because they are selfish plans that do not include God. We do not read anywhere in the Scriptures that Paul was highly upset because he had made these plans, and now they were interrupted. They were made with God's will in mind, and so if God wanted to interrupt them, that was fine with him.

B. PLANS ALTERED

Verse 23, “And the same time there arose no small stir about that way.”

Notice the words “... no small stir.…” Paul's preaching had stirred up a beehive.

Illus: Have you ever stirred up a beehive? You can walk past a beehive all day long, and as long as you stay at a distance and leave the bees alone, they will leave you alone. But if you decide to invade their territory, watch out! Recently a preacher had some wasps build a nest on the cornice of his church. He got some wasp spray and sprayed that nest. On the can it said that you could spray from a distance of 20 feet, and it would kill the wasps on contact. He shook the can and sprayed, and the stream that came from the can only reached about 8 feet. He adjusted his distance, took aim, and pressed the button again. To his surprise, and dismay, the directions were not only wrong about the distance, they were wrong about the killing on contact too. Hundreds of angry wasps came out, and the only reason those wasps died, was because they had to fly so fast to try to catch that preacher.