Title: "Four Adventures in Ephesus"
Scripture: Acts 19:1-41
Good morning, church. We find ourselves joining Paul as he starts out his 3rd missionary journey. Today we get to dive deep into the heart of Ephesus—a city pulsing with life, bustling trade, and a vibrant mix of cultural influences. Ephesus, with its majestic temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis, was not just any city; it was a hub of economic vitality, spiritual mysticism, and religious fervor. The temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was more than 4 times larger than the Pantheon in Athens!
It is here in Ephesus that the Apostle Paul delivers the message of Christ with such transformative power that the very spiritual and economic foundations of Ephesus are shaken. Today, we explore the this section of Acts 19, where God’s Word and His miracles emerge as forces of transformation that confronts entrenched beliefs and challenges the status quo for the people of Ephesus.
So, as we journey through this chapter, and see 4 different adventures of Paul, let us open our hearts to the wonders of God’s transformative power, ever mindful of the the proclaimed Word and the miracle of souls being saved every day.
Let’s dive into the first part of our text.
Acts 19:1-7
Acts 19:1–7
NLT
1 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 and prophesied.
7 There were about twelve men in all.
These verses can be confusing at first glance, let me explain what is happening here. Upon arriving at Ephesus, Paul runs into 12 guys who believed in the one true God, the God of Abraham. They were also aware of the teachings of John the Baptist and knew that they had to confess and repent of their sins. But they didn’t know who Jesus was. They didn’t know what Jesus had done. And they had not placed their faith in the finished work of the cross or awesomeness of the empty tomb. They had not committed their life to follow Jesus and been obedient to the Word’s of Jesus and been baptized in the Name of Jesus.
Because of this incomplete Gospel, this half salvation, They were not really saved! The evidence is that they had not received the Holy Spirit.
This brings me to my first point this morning.
1. We Must Realize the Entirety of Redemption
A lot of people believe in God. This text is evidence that this belief will not save you. A lot of people attend church. Not going to save you. A lot of people are trusting in a baptism to save them. Again, right here in this text it shows that a dip in the water and saying you are sorry for this and that, you guessed it, Not going to save you.
SALVATION ITSELF
Today Jesus Christ is being dispatched as the Figurehead of a Religion, a mere example. He is that, but he is infinitely more; He is salvation itself, He is the Gospel of God. --Oswald Chambers
The entirety of the Gospel message, the entirety of Redemption must be embraced to be saved. You must call on the the name of the Lord.
Romans 10:13
NLT
13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Those who call on the name of the Lord are those who recognize Him as Savior. Whether it is a first-time calling upon Jesus’ name for forgiveness of sins or a continuous calling as the relationship progresses and grows, giving Him lordship over our lives in surrender to His will, calling on the name of the Lord is vital to spiritual life. Ultimately, calling on the name of the Lord is a sign of humility and dependence on God our Creator and Redeemer.
The disciples in Ephesus only knew the baptism of John. Paul introduces them to the baptism in the name of Jesus.
We need to understand and seek the fullness of God's salvation, not just a mere acknowledgment.
Don't settle for a partial understanding; fully embrace the depth and breadth of God's redemptive work in Christ, continuously calling on Jesus’ name.
Now, let’s look at the next adventure in Acts 19
Acts 19:8-12
Acts 19:8–12
NLT
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.
There is a ton going on here. First, Paul follows his tradition of going the the synagogue and presenting the Gospel to the Jews first. Luke says that Paul preached and presented God’s Word Boldly three months. It was at that point that those who were going to believe, believed, and those who were not decided to chase Paul out!
So Paul took the believer’s and went next door and continued to teach God’s Word, to teach sound Doctrine for more than 2 years!
His boldness to preach and teach were accompanied with physical signs and miracles. Again, remember, the early church did not have the completed Word of God yet, Paul and Luke and others were still writing it. So God used signs and miracles to add authority to what the apostles were teaching.
But this is what I want us to see about Paul and the other men and women in the Early Church. They Radiated God’s Revelation.
2. We Must Radiate God's Revelation
What do I mean by ‘revelation.’
Revelation means to show us something we did not know or see before. ... revelation refers to the way in which God reveals himself . … You are responsible for listening to God's word in order to see how God is revealing himself to you.
As we sit in our church chairs in worship service, or in our seats in Sunday School or Wed. Bible Study, hopefully we are learning more and more about God. If you are saved, then the Holy Spirit is illuminating, revealing, scripture to you as your read and study it. That means we are receiving God’s Revelation. Learning more about who He is, what He wants us to do, how He wants us to live, etc.
But that isn’t enough. We need to be like Paul here and learn to radiate what we learn about God to others.
Who have you talked to about God this week? If it is no one, you are failing at the great commission! We cannot afford to fail our Lord. We must radiate, share, personify the truths of God’s Word as they are made evident to us.
Dedicate yourself to deepening your knowledge of God's Word, Engage with it, and be open to the ways He might use you in lives of others. Actively engage with God's Word, allowing it to illuminate your path. Expect the Miraculous! Allow the Holy Spirit to do His job in your life.
Hebrews 2:3–4
NLT
3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak?
4 And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose.
Ok, lets look at adventure # 3
Acts 19:13-20
Acts 19:13–20
NLT
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 several million dollars.
20 So the message about the Lord spread widely and had a powerful effect.
There is one thing that you can always count on in this World. If God is doing something great, it will not take long for our adversary to find people to try to imitate it and counterfeit it.
That is what we see here. These Seven Sons of Sceva.
Boy doesn’t that sound like an old western movie title? These seven sons, they are the bad guys in our drama.
This guy Sceva was a Jewish High Priest whose seven sons formed some kind of weird Exorcism Gang. They were going around trying to imitate what God had been doing through Peter and Paul, like some kind of Roman Catholic guy in the Exorcist. They were attempting to cast out demons using the name of Jesus and the Name of Paul. But they didn’t know Jesus!
The demon said, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?”
So, obviously it didn’t work! Didn’t work then and still doesn’t work now. If you do not know Jesus as your personal savior, His power, His name, does you no good. You hear people all the time using the name of Jesus, of God, but there is no power in it. Because they haven’t trusted in Him for their salvation. If you know Him, if you trust Him, if you are adopted into His family, as Paul was, then there is power in the name of Jesus.
The Demon took full possession of the man and overpowered all seven of these men and literally beat the tarnation out of them! It says they ran off naked!
Now this story, as you could imagine, took off like wildfire. And this is before social media! Everyone was talking about it. How These men had no power, but Jesus and his servant Paul were to be respected. Even the Spirits respect them.
Many people came to Christ as a result. Many were rescued from the Occult. It says that as they came to Christ, they burned all of their occult books and paraphernalia and made a clean break in order to Follow Jesus. This was a huge step. That number in your scripture isn’t wrong, that shows 2 things, how expensive these books were, and how many of them there were.
Church, listen. We need to be careful today. We need to learn to Recognize and Reject Counterfeit Spirituality.
3. We Must Reject Counterfeit Spirituality
We need to be able to discern between genuine spiritual experiences and counterfeits, allowing God's Word to be your guiding standard.
Romans 12:2
ESV
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
When we come across false teachers, those who preach another Gospel, those who preach another Holy Spirit, Those who teach another baptism… We need to Reject it, outright, don’t let it into our church. We must stand on the truth of God’s inspired Word.
But this is true in our own lives at home and away from church too. We need to be vigilant. Recognize, expose, and rid our lives of spiritual counterfeits and false comforts.
The result of God’s people living removed from Counterfeit religion could be what ignites the flames of revival in our town, just as Ephesus did. The Word of the Lord Spread and it had a powerful effect! It is the same Word, it can have the same effect, if God’s people will repent and turn away from counterfeit religion.
Ok, now our final adventure. Here we see the church getting into some trouble!
Acts 19:23-41
Acts 19:23–41
NLT
23 About that time, serious trouble developed in Ephesus concerning the Way.
24 It began with Demetrius, a silversmith who had a large business manufacturing silver shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis. He kept many craftsmen busy.
25 He called them together, along with others employed in similar trades, and addressed them as follows: “Gentlemen, you know that our wealth comes from this business.
26 But as you have seen and heard, this man Paul has persuaded many people that handmade gods aren’t really gods at all. And he’s done this not only here in Ephesus but throughout the entire province!
27 Of course, I’m not just talking about the loss of public respect for our business. I’m also concerned that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will lose its influence and that Artemis—this magnificent goddess worshiped throughout the province of Asia and all around the world—will be robbed of her great prestige!”
28 At this their anger boiled, and they began shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
29 Soon the whole city was filled with confusion. Everyone rushed to the amphitheater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, who were Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia.
30 Paul wanted to go in, too, but the believers wouldn’t let him.
31 Some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, also sent a message to him, begging him not to risk his life by entering the amphitheater.
32 Inside, the people were all shouting, some one thing and some another. Everything was in confusion. In fact, most of them didn’t even know why they were there.
33 The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander forward and told him to explain the situation. He motioned for silence and tried to speak.
34 But when the crowd realized he was a Jew, they started shouting again and kept it up for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35 At last the mayor was able to quiet them down enough to speak. “Citizens of Ephesus,” he said. “Everyone knows that Ephesus is the official guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, whose image fell down to us from heaven.
36 Since this is an undeniable fact, you should stay calm and not do anything rash.
37 You have brought these men here, but they have stolen nothing from the temple and have not spoken against our goddess.
38 “If Demetrius and the craftsmen have a case against them, the courts are in session and the officials can hear the case at once. Let them make formal charges.
39 And if there are complaints about other matters, they can be settled in a legal assembly.
40 I am afraid we are in danger of being charged with rioting by the Roman government, since there is no cause for all this commotion. And if Rome demands an explanation, we won’t know what to say.”
41 Then he dismissed them, and they dispersed.
Really this is a common thread in the book of Acts. No matter where God sends His messengers, Satan will raise up a group to oppose them.
Paul and the other believers living authentic christian lives start hitting the economy of Ephesus where it hurts, specifically the silver smiths.
As more and more people turned away from false gods and idols, the silversmiths could see a problem developing. They were worried that their livelihood, would be directly threatened. The demand for silver idols and new silver additions to the temple were plummeting.
The end result was they decided to create a riot and place the blame on the Jews and the followers of ‘The Way.’
Let me wonder out loud here for a minute. Folks, if we lived our lives sold out for Jesus, what negative parts of our culture would suffer economically?
Let me ask it another way? “Do you think our community notices that we are followers of Jesus?” Do we live differently? Im not talking legalistically here, but to be truly removed from sin, enough so that the sin industries in our culture would notice?
What would it look like if we didn’t spend our money on the entertainment industry that glorifies ungodliness? What would it look like if we didn’t engage in the massive amounts of debt that our culture says we have to have in order to be happy, pursuing the worship of materialism?
If we truly live in a way that honors God, glorifies God, a life of obedience like these early Ephesians, God will do big things. But When God does big things we should expect opposition. The Christians of Ephesus did and they got it in spades. But they rallied against it.
4. We Must Rally Against Spiritual Opposition
We must be prepared to face opposition and stand firm in our faith.
The Ephesian Christians stuck together. They protected one another. They protected Paul. They rallied around one another and around God’s Word, refusing to comprimise their beliefs and obedience to God.
How can we know when to and where to take such a stand? We need to know God’s Word. We need to be in God’s Word, reading it, studying it, and applying it.
2 Timothy 3:16–17
ESV
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Obedience in Scripture is the answer to learning how to live with the Power of Holy Spirit in your life.
So as we look at these four amazing adventures of Paul on this 3 missionary journey, starting in Ephesus, let’s remind ourselves:
We Must Realize the Entirety of Redemption
Are you saved? Are you sure? Would you like to be saved today? Would you like to trust in the Complete and Entire Gospel of Jesus Christ today to save your soul eternal separation from God?
We Must Radiate God's Revelation
Are you living God’s Commands out loud where all can see? Are you making an impact?
We Must Reject Counterfeit Spirituality
Are you rejecting the the ungodly things of this world and embracing only what is pure and holy as you grow closer to God and His people?
We Must Rally Against Spiritual Opposition
Are you ready for opposition? Are you willing to rally around your other brothers and sisters as they face opposition in their lives?
Are you ready call on the Powerful name of Jesus, saying, “Take my Life, Lead Me Lord, Make My Life Useful to Thee!”
Let’s Pray
