The Acts of the Apostles
Chapter 19
Vs. 1 Apollos was in Corinth now. Paul traveled on to Ephesus. He found the believers there. He asked them, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you have believed?”
They answered that they had not heart about that. They said they had be baptized in water like John the Baptist did, that was all they knew. John had told the people to repent of their sin. That soon a man was coming who would be God’s chosen person—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Paul told them that John’s baptism in water was to show people that they had made a decision leave their sin and obey God. John was trying to prepare the people to believe in the man Jesus who was soon to come. Then they would become believers in Christ and follow Christ’s teachings.
When people heard Paul explain about John’s baptism and about Jesus they wanted to be baptized again in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(It seems that they were baptized in water because they had confessed their sin to God the Father and wanted to be baptized. They did not know much about Jesus.)
After that Paul put his hands on them and prayed for them and they received the Holy Spirit began to speak in “tongues” or another language and to prophesy. Just like the disciples and other people who met in the upper room in Jerusalem.
There were about 12 men in that group of believers.
Vs. 8 For the next 3 months Paul went to the Jewish church and talked with the Jewish people there. He told them about Jesus.
Some of them did not like what Paul said and would not receive it. They called it “The Way” and did not want to believe it.
Paul left the Jewish church some of the Jewish believers went with him and Paul spoke in a public building everyday telling about Jesus. He did this for the next 2 years. Many people from all around those parts of Asia came to hear him speak.
God gave Paul the power to do many miracles. Even a handkerchief (hanky) that Paul had touched people would take it and put it on a sick person and that person would be healed. Even evil spirits came out of people.
Vs. 13 There were 7 men and a Jewish priest men who were “exorcists” . An “exorcits” is a person who tries to make evil spirits go out of people or places.
These men were going from town to town trying to make evil spirits to go out of people. They would say: “ I command you by Jesus, who Paul preaches, for you to come out.” These men said these words like an “incantation”.
An incantation is a set of words, or a sentence that people who use magic say. Example: A witch doctor or a witch moving their hands over a person and saying certain “magic” words over them to make something happen.
Witch doctors and witches are calling to spirits in the under world or evil world–
evil spirits to come and do what they are asking.
Some religions also say “incantations” for some things.
The Bible does not say if these men were able to make any evil spirits leave people.
It does not seem like these men were working with God’s power in them. It seems they were trying to cast out evil spirits like a witch doctor saying “magic” words.
But the Bible tells of one man when they tried to cast out the evil spirit. When they said those words, “I command you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches, for you to come out.“ —- the evil spirit in the man spoke through the man and said, “Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, but who are you?”
Then the evil spirit in the man make him extra strong and he jumped on the men—8 of them and he ripped off their clothes and hurt them. The men ran from the house —clothes torn off and badly hurt.
Evil spirits are powerful. Jesus is more powerful. If we have Jesus/Holy Spirit in our life we do not need to be afraid of them. But it is wise to understand and have respect for the power of an evil spirit. They are not to be taken lightly. You need God’s power not just your own if you are going to face them.
These 8 men seemed to be going in their own strength. and they had little understanding of the power of evil spirits.
The story makes us wonder if they saw Paul doing miracles and they thought it was a great show and they wanted to do the same.
But they found out that it was not a “game” or a “show”. Paul truly had God’s power with him. God was working through Paul.
It seems these men just decided to go out on their own and do miracles in their own power and words. That does not work. They found out what they were dealing with when they met that man.
Vs. 17 People heard what happened. The news spread all over. People had the fear of evil spirits.
Many of them that had books of “incantations” brought them to Paul. He made a big fire and burned them. There were so many books it was a big fire. The books were worth about 50,000 pieces of silver.
Most of the people in the world except the Jews worshipped idols. Every country had their own idols. They were all different. But the idea that there was only one God and his son, Jesus was a new idea to them. And that He was the only true God, was a new idea to them.
And that if you believed in Him and worshipped Him you could not worship any other god. They worshipped many idols/gods.
So all these people who had these books of magic and calling on “spirits” to help them began to understand that those “spirits” were not the same as the God Paul was talking about.
The God Paul was talking about was more powerful than those “spirits”. This was new for them. It was powerful! When they saw what the evil spirit in the man did to those 8 men, they wanted what Paul preached. They were interested in believing in Jesus and hearing more.
Vs. 20 So the message Paul was preaching went from town to town. Everyone was talking about it. Many became believers.
Vs. 21 After all of this, Paul felt that the Holy Spirit was telling him to go to Macedonia and Achaia. He wanted to go there before he went to Jerusalem, then he wanted to go to Rome.
Paul send the 2 men who were helping him, Timothy and Erastus to go on ahead. He would come soon.
Vs. 23 But then some trouble happened in Ephesus. Demetrius was a sliver smith. He made little statues of the goddess Diana. Also, called Artemis He had many people who worked for him.
Demetrius got up in public and made a speech. He said that Paul was preaching saying that idols made with hands are not gods at all.
He said that so many people were believing in this new “Way” that they were not buying any more statues. And they were not going to the temple of Diana. He was afraid that people would no longer have respect for the Great Temple.
This was happening not just in their town but in every town all over the country of Ephesus.
He said it was bad for his business and people would loose respect for the temple of the Great Goddess of Diana.
The people got all upset and angry. They took 2 of the men who worked with Paul and took them into the public amphitheater. (Outdoor theater)
Paul wanted to go in also. Other believers told him not to go in. They were afraid Paul would be killed.
The people in the amphitheater were getting louder shouting and angry. They shouted for 2 hours “Great is the (Artemis) Diana of the Ephesians!”
Vs. 35 Finally the mayor of the city came and was able to get them quiet. He talked to them. And he said: We all know that Diana is the greatest. We all know how her image fell from heaven down to us. Do not be upset if other people say other things.
These men these “believers” in the “Way” they have not taken anything from our temple. They have not said anything against our Diana.
He said that if Demetrius had a problem about it he should take it to the courts.
He said, “I am afraid that the Roman governor will hear about all this noise and upset and if he comes to me I will not know what to say to him. Stop this and go on home.
(Think about this: some people said the story about Jesus come from God, born of a virgin, died, rose alive again, floated up back to heaven is a story too hard to believe.
Yet for hundreds, and hundreds of years people believed in their idols.. They believed stories about their idols that were just as hard to believe. The image of Diana fell down from heaven? When they knew that a man had shaped it of gold.
The many stories of the Roman gods and idols and the Greek gods and idols are just as “magical”.
People are willing to believe that miracles happen so they are willing to believe in these stories. Evil spirits have power to make some kinds of things to happen so we can see why they believe in their idols.
The spirit world something that we have little understanding about. The Bible teaches that there is God’s Spirit and his angels who are good——- and Satan who fell from heaven and the angels that went with him who are evil.
Nowdays people in the U,S. are believing in aliens from outer space. They believe in certain “magical” powers. Some of them are starting to follow the old religions of India and Africa. Some of say they do not believe in any god. They believe in the power of their own mind.
The story of Jesus is a “miracle” story. But it is not any harder to believe in than in some of those other idol stories.
We all choose what we believe in.
In this chapter with Paul and these people of Ephesus—–they saw which spirit had the most power—-it was not the idol—-it was not the evil spirit—-it was Jesus’
power.
Over and over again we see how Jesus’ power was more powerful than any other. He had power over other spirits. He had power over the wind, rain, and sea. He had power to make food multiply. He had power over the body to make it well. He had power to speak a word and men fell down to the ground.
We all choose what we will believe. I choose to believe in Jesus.)