Acts 21:1-16

¹ And when we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. ² And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. ³ When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload its cargo. ⁴ And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. ⁵ When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed ⁶ and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home. ⁷ When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day. ⁸ On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. ⁹ He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied. ¹⁰ While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. ¹¹ And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” ¹² When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. ¹³ Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” ¹⁴ And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.” ¹⁵ After these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we should lodge. 

There seems to be two general approaches to the idea of death among non-believers: fear or defiance. Many people, perhaps most, have a deep and unsettling fear of death. John Stott provides two examples.

Death inspires terror in many people. Woody Allen’s angst in relation to death is well known. He sees it as a total annihilation of being and finds it “absolutely stupefying in its terror.” “It’s not that I’m afraid to die,” he quips,” I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

            Another similar example is given by Ronald Dworkin QC, the American legal philosopher, who has held chairs in London, Oxford and New York universities. He has written: “Death’s central horror is oblivion – the terrifying absolute dying of the light…Death has dominion because it is not only the start of nothing, but the end of everything.”[1]

The other response is defiance, a kind of angry shaking of one’s fist against death. We may think, for instance, of Dylan Thomas’ famous 1951 poem, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.”

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I actually love that poem, but it certainly is a challenge to the inevitability of death. Thomas calls upon his father and, ostensibly, all of us to rage against death!

More sinister is a poem that served as the last words of one of America’s most infamous criminals. On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK. The explosion killed 168 people and wounded over 600 others. On June 11, 2001, McVeigh was executed by lethal injection at a penitentiary in Indiana. His last words were a poem that he had copied on paper by hand and handed to the jailor. It was a poem written by William Ernest Henley in 1875 entitled “Invictus.” Here it is:

Out of the night that covers me,

      Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

      I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

      Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul.

As a Christian, I find those words chilling. They certainly would not have been quoted by Paul. Paul saw himself as anything but the captain of his own soul. He had come to terms with that issue back on the Damascus road. Christ held the papers to his soul and Christ was his captain.

In fact, Paul’s whole attitude to death was dramatically different from the examples I quoted above. As he continues his journey toward Jerusalem, he demonstrates this in a most memorable way.

Paul receives numerous warnings about going to Jerusalem.

The occasion for Paul’s demonstration of his own peace concerning death was the frequent warnings he received about going to Jerusalem from his friends.

¹ And when we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. ² And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. ³ When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload its cargo. ⁴ And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

It is noteworthy that Luke says Paul’s friends were warning him “through the Spirit.” It raises an interesting question about who was hearing the Spirit speak most accurately, Paul or his friends. Regardless, the warnings persisted apparently everywhere he turned.

⁵ When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed ⁶ and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home. ⁷ When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day. ⁸ On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. ⁹ He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied.

We are privileged at this point to get a glimpse into the home life of Philip, one of the original deacons. You will remember that Philip has an amazing impact on Samaria during the dispersion of the Jewish believers after the martyrdom of Stephen. His story is told in Acts 8.

⁴ Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. ⁵ Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. ⁶ And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. ⁷ For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. ⁸ So there was much joy in that city.

Philip also famously led the Ethiopian Eunuch to Christ and did many other great things in the name of Christ. And now we see that he had a family that was likewise involved in transformative ministry for the Kingdom of God. “He had four unmarried daughters,” Luke tells us, “who prophesied.” This is a tantalizing insight and it raises questions for us today. What did this ministry of prophesy look like? How did it work? It is hard to say for sure, but they were not the first female prophets mentioned in the Bible. Furthermore, they appear to be a fulfillment of Peter’s quotation of the prophet Joel in his Pentecost sermon in Acts 2.

¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. ¹⁵ For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. ¹⁶ But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: ¹⁷ “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams

“Your daughters shall prophesy,” Joel had said, and here we see the daughters of Philip doing precisely that! Let me simply say this: whatever your view on women in the ministry, it seems perfectly clear that they were not intended to be mere wallflowers in the Church. While the pastoral office would appear to be restricted to men, any theology that would tell a woman that she can literally never speak would violate what we see here as well as numerous other examples in the New Testament.

Paul was no doubt thrilled to be able to spend some time with this great man of God and his fascinating family. He then receives another warning, this time from a male prophet.

¹⁰ While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. ¹¹ And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” ¹² When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem.

Agabus appeals to the Holy Spirit, as did all who warned Paul. But Paul saw himself as being faithful to the Spirit’s leadership by going to Jerusalem. So, again, who was hearing the Spirit rightly? What is likely happening here is that Paul’s friends are being told by the Spirit that Paul will face persecution and suffering if he moves forward toward Jerusalem and they, on that basis, plead with him not to go. But the Spirit’s revelation of future suffering does not mean that the Spirit Himself was calling upon Paul not to go. That was simply the natural reactions of friends to what the Spirit was revealing.

Clinton Arnold put it nicely when he said this:

There is probably no contradiction here. It appears that the Spirit is telling prophets in a variety of places that Paul will face suffering and imprisonment in Jerusalem. The prophets conclude, out of their natural human concern, that Paul should not go to Jerusalem in order to avoid the persecution. Paul, however, is thoroughly convinced that the Spirit is leading him to go. He is willing to suffer anything for the sake of Christ.[2]

So Paul is warned, repeatedly, not to go to Jerusalem. However, he has set his face toward the great city and will not be distracted from his task.

Paul, freed from the fear of physical death, was free to be courageous with his life.

In response to the pleadings of his friends, Paul reveals just how freed he had become from the fear of death.

¹³ Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” ¹⁴ And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.” ¹⁵ After these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we should lodge.

How moving! Paul was ready for whatever lay ahead of him, even suffering and death. Again, he had come to peace with these things and, in his mind, his friends needed to do the same. According to Jaroslav Pelikan, Paul “manifested…a fierce sense of determination, which was sometimes difficult to distinguish from just plain stubbornness.” He went on to say that “one almost expects a ‘sigh’…in the sentence, ‘And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, ‘The will of the Lord be done.’”[3] It is easy to imagine such a sigh. No doubt his friends were somewhat exasperated, but no doubt they also had the deepest respect for Paul’s dogged determination and steely resolve to do what he felt the Lord was calling him to do.

It is amazing to observe just how free Paul was from the fears that so enslave many of us. Paul, freed from the fear of physical death, was free to be courageous with his life. He was liberated by setting aside the fear-based clinging to life that had no doubt early enslaved him. Christ had broken the shackles of fear by giving him a new life…and that had come at the expense of the old life he previously new. Paul put this perhaps nowhere more beautifully than in Galatians 2:20.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

He did not fear crucifixion simply because he had already been crucified on Calvary with Christ! His old life ended at the foot of the cross and he now walked in resurrection power! Christ, to put it simply, was his life.

How beautiful would it be to live with this perspective and to walk in this reality?! How wonderful would it be to be free of the fear of death?!

Other Christians have gotten close to this blessed freedom. On May 25, 1994, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was asked by a reporter if he was afraid of death.

David Remnick had asked him if he feared dying. His face lit up with pleasure. “Absolutely not! It will just be a peaceful transition. As a Christian, I believe there is a life after death, and so I understand that this is not the end of life. The soul has a continuation, the soul lives on. Death is only a stage, some would even say a liberation. In any case, I have no fear of death.”[4]

“I have no fear of death!” There it is! That is it!

In 160 A.D., the church father Justin Martyr wrote his own testimony, noting therein that, like the jailor in Acts 16, it was the bold and unflagging witness and joy of the Christians in the midst of persecution that drew him to the faith:

When I was delighting in the doctrines of Plato, I heard Christians being slandered. Yet, I saw that they were fearless in death and unafraid of all other things that are considered fearful. And I realized that it was impossible that they could be living in wickedness and pleasure. For what sensual or intemperate person…could welcome death, which would deprive him of his enjoyments? Such a person would prefer to continue always in the present life.[5]

It was the fearlessness of suffering Christians that so impacted Justin Martyr. Consider this the evangelistic tool of fearlessness. It made an impact then and would make a similar impact now if we could really trust Christ enough to be free of fear.

I ask you: are you free from the fear of death? When others watch you and listen to you discuss the inevitability of dying, what do they hear in your voice? Fear? Trepidation? Uncertainty? Dread?

Ah, may they hear a joyful confidence in our voices that we know death has no power over us…for we have died already and will rejoice to go home to our King!

[1] John Stott, The Radical Disciple (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010), p.128.

[2] Clinton E. Arnold, “Acts.” Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. Vol.2. Clinton E. Arnold, gen. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), p.428-429.

[3] Jaroslav Pelikan, Acts. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2005), p.230.

[4] D.M. Thomas. Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998), p.509.

[5] A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, ed. David W. Bercot (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998), p.174-175.

Acts 20:17-38

¹⁷ Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. ¹⁸ And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, ¹⁹ serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; ²⁰ how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, ²¹ testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. ²² And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, ²³ except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. ²⁴ But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. ²⁵ And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. ²⁶ Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, ²⁷ for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. ²⁸ Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. ²⁹ I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; ³⁰ and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. ³¹ Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. ³² And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. ³³ I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. ³⁴ You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. ³⁵ In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” ³⁶ And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. ³⁷ And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, ³⁸ being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

Gene Dilliland was a missionary to Africa in the 1960’s. He tells an interesting story about how the African believers with whom he worked told him and his family goodbye as they prepared to go home on furlough.

After an extremely difficult term as superintendent of the Nigeria mission, I recall when I and my wife, Lois, and our five children were leaving Nigeria for a one-year furlough in 1963. This African church has always had to deal with the painful problem of tribalism. Over six major language groups make up the total membership. Each ethnic group struggled to keep its own people in leadership positions and to gain attention for its own particular causes. I, along with three other church leaders, had recently negotiated that the headquarters of the church be moved from its traditional site to a more promising place, a location more central to the whole church. This meant that the people in the historic location had lost the prestige that comes with residing at the official center of power. The church leaders came to the airfield to celebrate our farewell. They had actually arranged a service that included speeches, songs, and prayers. Africans are very careful about saying good-bye so that their guests will carry a special kind of memory as they depart. The purpose of the farewell was to review our progress and to attempt to quiet down the controversy that had ensued with the moving of the headquarters. The farewell was meant to show honor and to ensure that, during our absence, we would not forget events or promised intentions.

            However, the African leaders were not aware of the stress this farewell would have on the pilot’s schedule or on the other passengers who were en route. Even though little patience was being shown for the farewell, the African leaders were not moved. They eloquently summed up what they had to say, presented my wife and me with new African clothes, sang an African hymn, and closed with prayer. The meaning of the entire event was meant to say, “Missionaries, you have been with us and have led us. Now, as you leave, promise that you will not forget the work we have already done together and that you will keep your commitment to finishing what we have started.”[1]

It is fascinating to see such an intense intentionality about a goodbye. When one reads this account, it is almost as if the African Christians were doggedly and almost stubbornly saying, “You simply cannot leave until we do get this goodbye right. We do not care what the pilots think or what the other passengers think. This is serious business and we need to communicate some very important things. The plane can wait! Let us say farewell rightly!”

Please understand: I am not criticizing the African believers. On the contrary, we could learn from their example. A goodbye, especially in the context of shared life and ministry and witness, should be anything but casual. The Church, when it is the Church, forms bonds that are not lightly set aside. This is family. This is what it means to be the body of Christ! So I think there is something profoundly moving in the way that the Nigerian believers said goodbye to their missionary friend.

Paul understood this. He understood that you have to get your goodbye’s right. This is important business, serious business, and crucial truths need to be expressed. So, like Gene Dilliland and the Nigerian church, in our text today we find Paul and the Ephesian church saying goodbye. But in this case it is the departing missionary who convenes the farewell and it is him who speaks. There are things Paul must say, and what he says are truths we truly need to heed today!

Paul called for the Church to embrace total commitment to Christ by being wary of wolves and by planting its life deep in the gospel of Christ.

Paul had been with the Ephesians for three years. In our text, he has set his face toward Jerusalem. He was not sure what would happen to him there. He suspected that trouble lay ahead. So as he made his way toward Jerusalem he stopped at the port city of Miletus, about fifty miles from Ephesus. There, he sent word back to the Ephesian church leaders. He asked if they might come to Miletus so that he could speak to them there. What happened there was one of the most moving and tender displays of fraternal affection ever witnessed.

Paul had two points to his talk, and we are going to approach them in reverse order. The first had to do with how he acted and behaved with the Ephesian church for those three years and the second was a charge to the church leaders there to be careful and diligent. We will begin with the second point first, Paul’s charge to the Ephesian elders.

²⁸ Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Let us deal first of all with the question of who is in this audience Paul is addressing. In verse 28 and, earlier, in verse 17, Paul gives two titles to the men to whom he is speaking.

¹⁷ Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders (presbyteroi) of the church to come to him.

²⁸ Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers (episkopoi), to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

In verse 17 he refers to them as “elders” (presbyteroi) and in verse 28 he refers to them as “overseers” (episkopoi). The first word is where we get out denominational name “Presbyterian” and the second word is where we get the denominational name “Episcopalian.” Episkopoi is often translated “bishop.” But in Paul’s usage these Greek words do not refer to denominations but rather to offices, and, what is most interesting and, I would say, obvious, is that Paul applies the word “elder” and the word “overseer” the same office. R.C. Sproul notes that “the difficulty of discerning the biblical structure of church government occurs because in the same context Paul calls those assembled here ‘elders’ and ‘bishops,’ indicating that, at least at that stage in church history, the titles ‘elder’ and ‘bishop’ were used interchangeably.”[2] Indeed they were. The early churches had two offices: elders (which we call pastors) and deacons. It was not until the late 1^st/early 2^nd century that Ignatius of Antioch drew a distinction between “elders” and “bishops” that the Church was said to have three offices: bishops, elders, and deacons. Clearly, though, for Paul, the elders and the overseers were the same office.

Furthermore, let us stop and take note of the fact that Paul here makes a powerful statement concerning the deity of Christ. If you read verse 28 carefully, you will notice that Paul attributes the shedding of saving blood with God: “the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” This is a powerful statement about the fact that Christ is God with us, God in human flesh, God reconciling the world unto Himself.

It is a beautiful truth. Even so, it is a jarring choice of words, and an unusual way of putting it. Early theologians of Eastern Orthodox Christianity called such attributions of the human nature of Christ to His divine nature communicatio idiomatum (“interchange of the properties”) “by which properties or actions belonging to one nature of Christ may be attributed to, or predicated of, the other nature, because of the unity of the single person of the God-man,” to use Jaroslav Pelikan’s definition. In the Tome of 449, Leo the Great wrote, “It does not belong to the same nature to weep out for deep-felt pity for a dead friend, and to call him back to life again at the word of command [John 11:35-44], because only the human nature could do the first and only the divine nature could do the second and yet the actions are both attributed to the single person of the incarnate Logos.”[3] We can see this dynamic at work in Paul’s words about God’s blood.

Paul then moves on to a warning.

²⁹ I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; ³⁰ and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. ³¹ Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. ³² And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Perhaps some might think that this is a bit of a downer in a farewell. In our culture we try to say sweet things as we depart. But Paul was not part of our shallow culture and for that we may be thankful. He knew that the survival of the Church was life or death. Specifically, he had invested his own life into it and, above that, the Lord Jesus had laid down His life for it. So he wanted them to be aware and to be forewarned: wolves are coming! That is, false teachers and those who will seek to dismantle the Church of the living God. And from where will they arise? “From among your own selves,” Paul says. How sobering! How terrifying!

Lest we are tempted to think that Paul was being unduly pessimistic, consider the frequent warnings in the New Testament concerning the coming of false teachers and corrupters of the faith.

In Matthew 10:16, Jesus had said to the disciples, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

In 2 Peter 2, Peter wrote:

¹ But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ² And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. ³ And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

Paul repeatedly warned Timothy, who interestingly pastored in Ephesus, about this danger.

³ As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, ⁴ nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. ⁵ The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. ⁶ Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, ⁷ desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. (1 Timothy 1:3-7)

¹ Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, ² through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, ³ who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. (1 Timothy 4:1-3)

³ If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, ⁴ he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, ⁵ and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. (1 Timothy 6:3-5)

And in Jude 3-5, Jude wrote that he wanted to talk to the believers about more positive things, but felt compelled to warn them about false teachers.

³ Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. ⁴ For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

We see, then, that time and time again the Church had to be warned about those who will seek to derail it. This is a very timely word for us today! R.C. Sproul writes, “The church lives out the drama of Little Red Riding Hood every day.”[4] Yes, it does. One need only peruse the shelves of Christian bookstores or listen to some radio and TV preachers to see that this is so. Please do not misunderstand me: there are wonderful, sound Christian books being published and sermons being preached on radio and TV, but have you not noticed that some teachers and preachers that have massive followings do not even appear to be preaching the gospel of Christ? It is most alarming!

Every year my wife and I attend the Southern Baptist Convention and every year the same thing happens: somebody goes to a microphone on the floor and makes a motion that LifeWay bookstores – the SBC retail chain no less – carry only Christian materials! I always feel kind of bad for the President of LifeWay because, in general, I think they do a good job and I know that he is a biblically grounded person. And, at times, I have felt exasperated with this repeated effort to pass a resolution that our own bookstores carry only Christian materials.

But then I stop and think: maybe that is a good thing. Maybe our stores and our churches and our pulpits need somebody to say over and over and over again: “Let us make sure that this is Christian! Let us make sure that this is the gospel!”

I am not talking about taking an uncharitable posture of innate suspicion toward our brothers and sisters. I am talking about being careful. Remember, wolves are roaming about, and not all who claim the name of Christ have the interests of His Kingdom in their hearts!

Paul determined that Jesus was more important than his own survival and this freed him to live for Christ with reckless abandon.

Paul cautioned the Church to be careful and to be watchful. Paul also poured out his own heart speaking about what he did among the Ephesians and where his priorities were.

¹⁷ Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. ¹⁸ And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, ¹⁹ serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; ²⁰ how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, ²¹ testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. ²² And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, ²³ except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. ²⁴ But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. ²⁵ And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. ²⁶ Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, ²⁷ for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

³³ I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. ³⁴ You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. ³⁵ In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

What a beautiful and even heartbreaking scene. Paul told the Ephesian elders that he did not think he would see them again. He foresaw persecution and hard times ahead. Even so, he must press on.

In verse 19, Paul told them that he had lived among them “serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials…” A.T. Robertson translates “with all humility” (meta pases tapeinophrosunes) as “with all lowliness of mind” and passes on Lightfoot’s comment that while “heathen writers use this word for a grovelling, abject state of mind…Paul follows Christ in using it for humility, humble-mindedness that should mark every Christian and in particular the preacher.”[5]

He is indeed following Christ’s example of humility, for in Philippians 2 Paul would write these words:

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Paul, like Christ, had determined to empty himself for the Church, to become nothing, to be willing to die for the body of Christ. This truth reaches its most powerful expression in verse 24.

²⁴ But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

“I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself…” This is not self-loathing. This is not a death wish. This is not a bent toward suicide. No, he accounted his own life as nothing because he had caught a glimpse of something more beautiful and more enduring and more powerful than even his own existence: Jesus! He had seen Christ Jesus and that had changed everything! Now the life of Christ was what Paul wanted! Now the cross was wanted he wanted to carry! Now the empty tomb was his greatest treasure! Now the gospel was his wealth! Now bearing witness to this Jesus was his greatest passion!

John Chrysostom made a curious and fascinating comment about this verse. In speaking of these words, Chrysostom said, “Do you see that these are not the words of one lamenting but of one who is in control…? He did not say, ‘We grieve, but it is necessary to bear it,’ but “I do not account…”[6] I never would have put it that way, but it is so very true! Paul is not having a nervous breakdown. He is in possession of his faculties…by giving Christ possession of his faculties! Paradoxically, Paul had broken free by becoming a slave to Christ and Paul had finally discovered life by losing it for Christ! How I wish we could see that our desperate grasping for life leads only to our inevitable losing of it! But when we let go, when we give it all to Jesus, when we lay down and die for Christ, then we live!

F.F. Bruce, commenting on this verse, wrote, “Self-preservation was not a motive which he esteemed highly.”[7] I do not think Bruce was trying to be funny, but I chuckled when I read that! It is such a glorious understatement: “Self-preservation was not a motive which he esteemed highly.” Paul lived as a champion of the gospel. There is no doubt that his life and efforts in the cause of Christ made a huge impact on the Ephesians. We can see this in their response to his words.

³⁶ And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. ³⁷ And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, ³⁸ being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

It is hard to let go of a friend who has loved Jesus like this! It is so rare that we do not want such a hero to say goodbye.

Dear friends, may we live with such devotion to Christ that the Church of the living God grieves when we have to say goodbye.

[1] Dean S. Gillilan, “For Missionaries and Leaders: Paul’s Farewell to the Ephesian Elders.” Mission in Acts: Ancient Narratives in Contemporary Context, eds., Robert L. Gallagher and Paul Hertig (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004), p.258.

[2] Sproul, R.C. Acts (St. Andrews Expositional Commentary) (Location 5401). Crossway Books. Kindle Edition.

[3] Jaroslav Pelikan, Acts. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2005), p.222.

[4] Sproul, Location 5461.

[5] A.T. Robertson, Acts. Word Pictures in the New Testament. Vol.III (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1930), p.163-348.

[6] Francis Martin, ed. Acts. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament, vol.V. Thomas C. Oden, gen. ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), p.251.

[7] Bruce, F.F. (1988-06-30). The Book of Acts (New International Commentary on the New Testament) (p. 390). Eerdmans Publishing Co – A. Kindle Edition.

Acts 20:1-16

¹ After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. ² When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. ³ There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. ⁴ Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. ⁵ These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas, ⁶ but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days. ⁷ On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. ⁸ There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. ⁹ And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. ¹⁰ But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” ¹¹ And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. ¹² And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted. ¹³ But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. ¹⁴ And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene. ¹⁵ And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios; the next day we touched at Samos; and the day after that we went to Miletus. ¹⁶ For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

I like Will Willimon. I may be an unlikely fan of his. I am more conservative than Willimon, though I would not call him a radical leftist or anything like that. He is a Methodist churchman, a former Methodist bishop in Alabama who is now associated with Duke University. He says some things I disagree with and some things I agree with. His book with Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens, had and continues to have a great influence on me, however, because I think it is radically New Testament and counterculture in its view of the church. I think Willimon frequently gets the idea of “church” right.

For instance, in his commentary on Acts he notes that the early church did two things: (1) it moved on mission engaging the world and (2) it gathered for worship around the preached word and the Lord’s Supper. Willimon noted that there was a balance in these two things, and that there needed to be a balance for a church to be a healthy church. Then, in looking at the American Church today, he asked an interesting question. Let me let him share his thoughts.

            The church of Acts is not always pushing out, on the move, opening its doors, appealing to unbelievers. The church also gathers for worship and fellowship. Without the sustenance received at its Sunday gatherings, the church might lose itself in mere busyness, might forget who it is and whose it is, might lose heart amidst the myriad of demands and assaults upon it by the surrounding world. The things which happen when the church “gathered together to break bread” (v.7) simply do not happen for the church anywhere else. While we are busy praising God and exploring the ways of God in our worship, something happens to us – the ministry of encouragement.

            A church with no prophetic thrust, which does not challenge the status quo, has little need for the weekly rhythm of worship. So relaxed and at home in the world, this church needs no encouragement. Or does the problem arise from the other side of the equation? A church without vision, without power flowing from its gathering around the Lord’s Table, has little energy or insight and thus no basis for a prophetic challenge to present arrangements in the world.[1]

I think that is very well said. To summarize, Willimon asks:

1. Do our churches today fail to worship deeply because our lack of ministry and mission efforts during the weeks results in us not needing any rest and spiritual recuperation together?

or

2. Do our lack of ministry and mission efforts during the week result from the shallowness of our worship?

That insight hit me hard and really has me thinking about my own life and the life of our church. Regardless, what cannot be denied is that the Church needs both elements in its life: life-giving mission and life-renewing worship. Acts 20 begins with a depiction of both, but we will be paying special attention to its worship. This is because it is one of the few actual looks at what we would call today a “worship service.” Thus, it deserves our attention! Let us consider four truths that our passage reveals about the worship life of the early Church.

1. The early Church met on Sundays.

First, our passage describes for us when the early Church met.

^7a On the first day of the week…

They met on Sunday, the first day of the week. This was a departure from the Sabbath worship they knew before they came to know Christ. John Polhill has highlighted an interesting question about what exactly the wording of our particular text and this particular church gathering means.

There is some question whether this was Saturday night or Sunday night. If Luke’s reckoning was the normal Jewish method, it would have been Saturday nkght, since the days were reckoned as beginning at sunset and running until the following sunset. If Luke was following Roman reckoning, and this seems to have been the case, days were reckoned from midnight to midnight, as is our own procedure. It thus would have been Sunday night, and Paul’s projected departure was Monday morning.[2]

It is likely that the Church met on Sunday night in our text. Regardless of when on Sunday, Sunday was the day they gathered. One of the things that should be fairly obvious to us that we perhaps forget is that, at this time, the Church was not in a culture that took Sundays off! This was likely just another workday for these Christians. But, for them, of course, it was so much more. Sunday was the Lord’s Day! That is, it was resurrection day!

It is interesting to realize that, for us, Easter is the biggest day on the Christian calendar. And rightfully so. But the truth of the matter is that every Sunday is Easter. At least that is how the early Church saw it. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was such a momentous event that it shaped the very patterns of the early Church’s worship.

On Easter we cry out, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” But this should be our cry every Sunday! Indeed, it should be our cry every day!

Furthermore, there are other important statements being made by the Church’s Sunday assembling. Let me share with you some fascinating insights from David VanDrunen:

Jesus rose “after the Sabbath” (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1), on the “first day of the week” (Luke 24:1; John 20:1)—Sunday. The timing is truly amazing. The day that Jesus lay dead in the tomb turned out to be the last Sabbath of the Old Testament era (for after his resurrection the old covenant was no more). Remember that the Old Testament Year of Jubilee had occurred on the fiftieth year—that is, the year immediately after the “perfect” number of Sabbath years (7 × 7 = 49). And thus Jesus rose from the dead on the day immediately after the number of Old Testament seventh-day Sabbaths had reached their complete and perfect number! His resurrection was the true Year of Jubilee.

This is why it is a terrible thing for Christians to continue to observe a seventh day Sabbath. No longer do we work first and then rest. What we do instead is rest first, and only then take up our work. Sunday—the first day of the week, the day of resurrection—became the day on which Christ met with his disciples (John 20:19, 26) and on which the church gathered for its worship (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1–2). As the seventh-day Sabbath of the Old Testament testified that the task assigned to the first Adam remained uncompleted, so the first-day Sabbath of the New Testament testifies that the last Adam has fulfilled it. By resting first and then working, the Christian doctrine of salvation is portrayed in live action. God first justifies us by uniting us to his resurrected Son in heaven apart from any work of our own, and then he calls us to work obediently in this world, not to earn our rest but to express our gratitude that the rest has already been earned by the work of another. We are still image-bearers of God, thus we are still Sabbath-keepers by nature. But we no longer bear the image after the pattern of the first Adam but after the pattern of Christ, the last Adam.[3]

How utterly enthralling! Sunday, then, is the resurrection-empowered launch pad off of which we leap into the week that stretches before it! It is pregnant with meaning. It is a victorious beginning of the week, not a restful conclusion. It is a shout for joy over the six days that follow it!

The early Church walked in this kind of Easter power and expectation. We should reclaim a sense of the majesty of these things!

1. The early Church put an emphasis on the Lord’s Supper.

The early Church met on Sundays, and, Luke tells us, they “gathered together to break bread.” Later in the text, in verse 11, he refers to them having “broken bread and eaten.”

^7b …when we were gathered together to break bread…

¹¹ And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten…

Commentators discuss whether or not this is a reference to the Lord’s Supper. Most seem to think it is. I myself think it is as well. Regardless, table fellowship was in the very DNA of the early Church’s worship. Consider Luke’s earlier description of the life of the Church from Acts 2.

⁴² And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³ And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. ⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common. ⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶ And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Did you see it there? Right there in the midst of this amazing passage about powerful community being formed in the life of the Church we find the words “devoted themselves…to the breaking of bread…” The Lord’s Supper was no small thing to the early Church!

In truth, it would seem that the early Church (1) likely had the Lord’s Supper every time they gathered and (2) likely had the Lord’s Supper in the context of a larger community meal. If you read 1 Corinthians 11 closely, for example, you will perhaps see both meals in Paul’s instructions about the Supper and the right way to conduct it.

¹⁷ But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. ¹⁸ For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, ¹⁹ for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. ²⁰ When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. ²¹ For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. ²² What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. ²³ For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

I very much like how Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola described the significance of the Lord’s Supper.

Jesus’ body is laid out twice in the Bible: once on a table, and once in a tomb. The body on the supper table is eaten not with family but with friends. But these friends become Jesus’ new family, and they would soon become His new body.[4]

Yes, the body is laid out twice, the first as a historical, saving event and the second as a repeated symbol that draws our hearts back to that event. That is why we dare not neglect the powerful act of remembrance that the Lord’s Supper offers us!

III. The early Church put an emphasis on apostolic teaching.

Furthermore, they gathered to hear apostolic truth. This can be seen in the rather humorous repetition on Luke’s part of the lengthiness of Paul’s speech!

^7c …Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

^9b … as Paul talked still longer…

¹¹ And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed.

In a moment we will see one of the shocking results of Paul’s long sermon, but let us not miss the most obvious truth: the Church submitted herself to and gathered around apostolic teaching. This, too, can be seen in the verses from Acts 2 referenced earlier.

⁴² And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

This devotion to the apostles’ teaching continues today in the body of Christ whenever we open the Word of God and read, preach, and receive the witness of scripture. Specifically, when we read one of Paul’s letters we are joining with this early Church community in the very act of devotion they were engaged in in our text. For two thousand years the Church has sat with the apostles who passed on the truths of Christ and listened. Furthermore, when we read the gospels together we sit at the feet of Christ Himself, hearing and submitting ourselves to His teaching.

Let us also observe the practical point that the early Church did not “watch the clock,” to use our terminology. Yes, the length of the service was too much for one member, as we will see, but they clearly accepted as permissible and even a blessing the idea of sitting beneath the apostle’s teaching all night long. This fervency of spirit can still be found in persecuted churches that see corporate worship as a privilege they dare not take for granted or in impoverished parts of the world where the church truly is life and survival for its members. The bored churches of the West have likely had it so easy for so long that we have grown lax in our intensity of worship and of listening to the Word preached and sung and prayed.

The early Church is a challenge to our complacency and, indeed, to our laziness in worship. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.

1. The early Church was marked by miraculous works of power.

And they were a community marked by miraculous works of power. This is evident in the shocking/humorous/powerful episode of Eutychus. As we have seen, Paul did speak at great length. In fact, he spoke at such great length that a member of the church named Eutychus fell asleep. But he did not just fall asleep. Listen:

⁸ There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. ⁹ And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. ¹⁰ But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” ¹¹ And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. ¹² And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.

It is hard not to chuckle at this, though that is only because we know how the story ended. In the moment it would have been horrifying for all involved! Poor Eutychus fell asleep during Paul’s sermon and fell three stories to his death! Some have proposed that he was not truly dead, but the language would suggest that he was.

So he fell asleep…then he literally fell…and he died! The church rushed down to ground level and circled around poor Eutychus. Paul went as well. And then Paul lifted him up, alive!

Imagine being asked after that service, “How was church today?” What a story you would have to tell! We have perhaps all joked about some sermon “boring us to death.” Well, Paul’s literally did that Eutychus! But what began as a tragedy ended in a dramatic display of divine power.

May I remind all of us that the early Christian community was one of divine power and miraculous movements of God. We are rightly and justifiably cautious and even skeptical of much that passes for miraculous in the Church today, especially when these alleged miracles happen just before the offering plates are passed. Furthermore, incidences like this are descriptive, not prescriptive. They simply describe what happened and do not prescribe what must happen in every service. God moves when He will and we dare not seek to manipulate Him to act.

Even so, God moved…and God has not changed!

I was recently asked if I believed that miracles had primarily ceased with the apostolic age. I absolutely do not think that is the case! In fact, I think miracles happen all the time and we simply do not have eyes to see them or hearts to receive them. While I do think that the whole miracle industry of modern American big-time religion is profoundly suspect, there can be no doubt that God still moves and works in dramatic and surprising ways!

We should not seek miracles. We should seek God. But the God we seek and worship is a miracle-working God! Are we open to seeing mighty displays of His power? I very much hope so!

The early Church met on Sunday, put a high value on the Lord’s Supper, treasured apostolic teaching, and saw God move in amazing ways.

That is the Church!

May we be the Church!

[1] William H. Willimon, Acts. Interpretation. (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1988), p.153-154.

[2] John B. Polhill, Acts. The New American Commentary. Vol.26. David Dockery, gen. ed. (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1992), p.418.

[3] VanDrunen, David (2010-10-15). Living in God’s Two Kingdoms (p. 139). Good News Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[4] Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, Jesus Manifesto (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010), p.153-154.

Acts 19:21-41

²¹ Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” ²² And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. ²³ About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. ²⁴ For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. ²⁵ These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. ²⁶ And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. ²⁷ And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.” ²⁸ When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” ²⁹ So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s companions in travel. ³⁰ But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. ³¹ And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. ³² Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. ³³ Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. ³⁴ But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” ³⁵ And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky? ³⁶ Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. ³⁷ For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. ³⁸ If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. ³⁹ But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. ⁴⁰ For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” ⁴¹ And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.

A friend of mine in this church asked me last week which period of time I would want to live in if I could choose any period of time in which to live. I replied that I thought maybe the period of the early Church because it would have been so amazing to see the events of the book of Acts unfold. He then asked me if I thought I would have been a preacher had I lived back then…so I determined inwardly that I no longer liked this member!

I jest!

In all seriousness, that is a pretty tough question to answer, and a painful one. It is painful because it made me ask myself that question: “Would I have been a preacher back then?” If the question is, “Do you hope you would have been a preacher back then,” then the answer is “Yes!” I certainly hope I would have. But, “Would you have been a preacher back then,” is different. Would I have been the type of person – and am I now the type of person – who would be willing to suffer and die and stand in the furnace of the first century and preach the gospel of Christ?

Ouch! That will humble you to ask yourself that question!

The fact of the matter is that the first century Church faced unbelievable trials and persecutions. The type of people who walked with Jesus in that time were, by definition, sold out to Christ and His gospel. They had to be. We cannot really say if we would have been preachers at that time because we cannot imagine what that would have cost. I very much hope we would have been. I very much hope that all of us are walking with Jesus in such a way that you could pick us up, drop us in the first century, and we would not miss a beat. But is that so? Do we possess the courage and grit and determination it would have required to stand in the crucible of the first century and preach Christ?

The gospel at that time was often met with outrage and violence, unlike in our day when it seems to be met with indifference (in western Europe and the United States anyway). Consider what it meant to follow Jesus at that time. Consider, for example, what happened in Ephesus when Paul stayed and preached and planted churches and followed Jesus there. Want to know what happened? The place rioted!

Acts 19:21-41 tells of a riot that broke out in Ephesus as a result of the Church’s and, specifically, Paul’s efforts at spreading the gospel throughout the world. Let us consider this passage and what it tells us about the nature of the Church and devotion to Christ.

The Church has the power to transform whole communities, cities, and regions.

The most glaring truth of this passage is that the Church has the power to transform whole communities, cities, and regions! Let us work through the text, making comments as we go, so we can understand what is happening in this fascinating scene.

²¹ Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” ²² And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. ²³ About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. ²⁴ For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.

These details about Demetrius are most helpful for they enable us to understand the economic, religious, and social dynamics of Ephesus at this time. First of all, he was a silversmith. Interestingly, A.T. Robertson says that there “is on an inscription at Ephesus near the close of the century a Demetrius called neopoios Artemidos a temple warden of Artemis (Diana).”[1] Second, he provided silver to craftsman. Third, he and the craftsmen shaped the silver into objects of devotion for the goddess Artemis. F.F. Bruce has provided some most helpful information about Ephesian Artemis.

The cult of Ephesian Artemis was of earlier date than the Greek settlement at Ephesus; the name Artemis is non-Greek. Artemis was traditionally venerated as the protector of wild creatures. This association with wild creatures survives, in an altered form, in her worship on the Greek mainland as the “queen and huntress, chaste and fair” of Ben Jonson’s poem; Ephesian Artemis, on the other hand, seems to have acquired some of the features of the great mother-goddess venerated from time immemorial in Asia Minor. Her temple, replacing an earlier one which was destroyed by fire in 356 B.C, was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It covered an area four times as large as that of the Parthenon in Athens; it was supported by 127 pillars, each of them sixty feet high, and was adorned by Praxiteles and other great sculptors of antiquity. It stood about a mile and a half northeast of the city which Paul knew. All knowledge of its whereabouts had been forgotten for centuries, when its foundations were discovered on the last day of 1869. The great altar, west of the main building, was discovered in 1965.

The worship of Diana dominated first century Ephesus. Ephesian Artemis (as distinct from the Greek Artemis, the sister of Apollo), was the goddess of fertility and she was highly revered. One inscription found at Ephesus refers to her as he megiste theos, “the greatest god.”[2] What was happening, then, was an entire guild of merchants were profiting off of this great devotion to Diana. Archaeologists have found “silver reproductions of her image and terra-cotta [clay] models of her temple.”[3]

Now that we know the lay of the land, we can begin to understand the source of the trouble in Ephesus.

²⁵ These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. ²⁶ And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. ²⁷ And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”

Ah! So there is the rub! The expansion of Christianity into what was then called Asia was disrupting the commercial aspect of pagan worship. It was not the first time that Christianity came into conflict with market forces, nor would it be the last. As more and more people came to know Christ there was less and less demand for the silver trinkets of Diana worship. Thus, the sellers of these goods were incensed. Their foundational objection was likely economic, but the mob quickly dressed it up in spiritual language. They whipped themselves into a frenzy, the crowd grew, and they seized two Christians, dragging them into the theater of Ephesus. Watch:

²⁸ When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” ²⁹ So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s companions in travel. ³⁰ But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. ³¹ And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.

Notice the sheer bravery of Paul. He wants to rush into a theater full of people, many of whom want to kill him, but he is restrained by his friends. In the Texas Rangers Museum of Waco, Texas you will see the motto, “One Riot, One Ranger.” That comes from an apocryphal story about a Texas Ranger who arrived at a town in which a riot had broken out. When the city fathers met the Ranger and asked, “They only sent one Ranger?” he responded, “There’s only one riot, isn’t there?” I cannot help but think of that when I observe Paul’s desire to plunge into this dangerous scene. Where his friends saw almost certain death, Paul undoubtedly saw an opportunity to preach the gospel!

³² Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. ³³ Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. ³⁴ But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

This is a most interesting development. First, notice the nature of the rioting crowd: there is confusion about why they are there and what they are upset about. Some have no idea at all! Finally, a Jewish man named Alexander steps forward to speak. Almost certainly what is happening here is Alexander is attempting to speak as a representative of the Jewish community of Ephesus so that this community might distance themselves from the early Church. Again, we must remember that outsiders likely saw the early Christians as simply a strange branch of Judaism. Thus, the Jews had a motive in distancing themselves so that they could shield themselves from the anger of the crowd. Regardless, Alexander was never given the chance to speak for the crowd refused to let him do so. Instead, they began a chant of, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” that lasts, Luke tells us, “about two hours.”

This chanting is significant for some early pagans would enter into elongated corporate chanting in an effort to reach a state of spiritual frenzy. Undoubtedly that happened here. Imagine this large, raucous crowd chanting this over and over again until they slipped into a kind of corporate hypnosis! Finally, the crowd was dispersed by a most unlikely source.

³⁵ And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky? ³⁶ Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. ³⁷ For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. ³⁸ If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. ³⁹ But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. ⁴⁰ For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” ⁴¹ And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.

Once again, God chooses to work through a non-Christian government official to shield His Church from harm. Our God is the God who uses most unlikely means to His own ends, and He does so here.

This is frankly a fascinating episode in the life of the early Church, and one that is undergirded by a simple but profound truth: the Church has the power to transform whole communities, cities, and regions. We simply must reclaim this fact in our day of Christian retreat!

We have been given the Holy Spirit. The Lord God is with us and for us. Christ Jesus has risen from the dead! We are the stewards and heralds of the most revolutionary message every voiced or heard in human history! We do indeed possess the power to change whole communities, cities, and regions.

I wonder if we still believe this? Do we still believe that the crime rate of North Little Rock could actually be lowered because we are here? Do we still believe that the divorce rate could go down because we are here? Do we still believe that we could win so much of our community to Jesus Christ that it would literally change the landscape of where we live?

The early Church understood what they had and they went forth into the darkness committed to be light everywhere! They had a vision for the expansion of the Kingdom of God all over the earth and, as a result, God moved and worked through their tireless efforts!

Church: we could change the world!

A single Christian sold out to Jesus has the power to transform whole communities, cities, and regions.

But there is something even more obvious in our passage. It is related to the first point, but is more pointed and poignant: a single Christian sold out to Jesus has the power to transform whole communities, cities, and regions.

Did you hear Demetrius’ complaint?

²⁶ And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. ²⁷ And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”

It was the Church, yes, but it was specifically Paul, the champion of the gospel of Christ! Paul’s preaching was so powerful and his efforts so relentless and his courage so undaunted that the entire foundation of pagan goddess worship in first century Ephesus was being eroded! Unbelievable!

Specifically, Paul was “saying that gods made with hands are not gods.” Indeed he was saying this for a Christian can so no other. We must proclaim that the God of heaven and earth cannot be contained in either a glorious temple or a silver trinket. He simply cannot be contained by anything we can make! In saying that “gods made with hands are not gods,” Paul was expressing what Jaroslav Pelikan vividly described as “the unanimous disgust and consistent horror of Jewish and Christian monotheism at the sight of idolatry and polytheism.”[4]

A.T. Robertson makes the interesting point that “there had long been a Jewish colony in Ephesus, but their protest against idolatry was as nothing compared with Paul’s preaching.”[5] He raises a great question: if Jews and Christians alike both abhorred idolatry, then why had a long-established Jewish population in Ephesus been so inept at combating it? Clearly the answer is that they held their convictions within the walls of their own synagogues and did not challenge the predominant culture on the point. They were not missionaries. But Paul, driven by the reality of the resurrected Christ – a reality rejected by the Jewish community – could not help but challenge the spiritual darkness of the region. So that is what he did.

Paul was a mighty weapon in the hands of God! Ernst Haenchen has written that “in the final analysis the only thing heathenism can do against Paul is to shout itself hoarse.”[6] Indeed! Indeed!

Church: one person can make a difference.

Just one.

Consider John Geddie.

John Geddie was a Canadian missionary to the New Hebrides Islands in the mid-1800s. When he arrived, he came face to face with a tribe of cannibals, considered to be one of the most dangerous groups of people in the world at that time. Violence, thievery, and murder were very common among this barbaric tribe. In 1849, early in his work, he wrote these words in his journal: “In the darkness, degradation, pollution, and misery that surrounds me, I look forward in faith to the time when some of these poor islanders will unite in the triumph song of ransomed souls.”…

Geddie died just before Christmas 1872. Inscribed on his gravestone was this testimony, “In memory of John Geddie. When he landed in 1848 there were no Christians here. When he left in 1872 there were no heathen here.” One man made an eternal difference simply because he believed it could happen.[7]

Oh my! “When he landed in 1848 there were no Christians here. When he left in 1872 there were no heathen here.”

One person, Church! One!

Consider William Wilberforce. Wilberforce was a devout Christian who was determined to end the slave trade in England. He said:

So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the [slave] trade’s wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.

So Wilberforce determined that he would make a difference whether or not anybody else would.

…Wilberforce was initially optimistic, even naively so. He expressed “no doubt” about his chances of quick success. As early as 1789, he and Clarkson managed to have 12 resolutions against the slave trade introduced—only to be outmaneuvered on fine legal points. The pathway to abolition was blocked by vested interests, parliamentary filibustering, entrenched bigotry, international politics, slave unrest, personal sickness, and political fear. Other bills introduced by Wilberforce were defeated in 1791, 1792, 1793, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1804, and 1805…

…Wilberforce—dubbed “the prime minister of a cabinet of philanthropists”—was at one time active in support of 69 philanthropic causes. He gave away one-quarter of his annual income to the poor. He fought on behalf of chimney sweeps, single mothers, Sunday schools, orphans, and juvenile delinquents. He helped found parachurch groups like the Society for Bettering the Cause of the Poor, the Church Missionary Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Antislavery Society….

…His antislavery efforts finally bore fruit in 1807: Parliament abolished the slave trade in the British Empire. He then worked to ensure the slave trade laws were enforced and, finally, that slavery in the British Empire was abolished. Wilberforce’s health prevented him from leading the last charge, though he heard three days before he died that the final passage of the emancipation bill was ensured in committee.[8]

Just one person, Church! Just one person determined to give all for Jesus Christ!

Consider Lottie Moon.

Moon began her career as a missionary in China in 1873…She became an expert in the language and cultural graces of China. She adopted a Chinese form of dress and came to love the people and culture. In 1885, a group of men walked 300 miles to beg her to come “teach truth” to them. Moon heeded their call, making a four-day mule journey to settle in the city of Pingdu. She was thought to be the first woman of any foreign mission group in China to live alone among the Chinese people, beyond the reach of U.S. government protection. She was also one of the first women to establish a church in China. She did everything but baptize the new converts in Shaling (Saling) Village, just outside of Pingdu. She usually taught women only. Yet she was glad when men listened outside the paper-covered windows, or at the edge of the threshing floor where women learned while they worked. One of her male converts was the famed Pastor Li Shou-ting. He became a highly regarded evangelist and was credited with baptizing over 10,000 people.

In almost 40 years of service, she welcomed the first Southern Baptist missionary doctor, nurse, hospital, women’s college, social work institutions, and high-level theological seminary. A terrible number of missionaries fell into depression, insanity, or disputes. Many died from common diseases and dangers of the times. By her charm, wit, and wisdom, she became a tower of stability and a help to new missionaries…

During her life, Moon wrote hundreds of letters to Baptist periodicals, churches, and women…Her letters were a major force in the formation of the Woman’s Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention (WMU) in May 1888. As their first project, the WMU adopted Lottie Moon’s idea that they take an offering at Christmastime each year…When news of her self-sacrificial death reached America, it gave new urgency to the WMU’s annual Christmas offering. In 1918, the WMU renamed the foreign mission offering in honor of the one who first proposed it. Now known as the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, this offering provides 50 percent of the funding for over 5,500 Southern Baptist missionaries today. Baptist churches gave $150.4 million to the annual Lottie Moon offering in 2007. No other annual offering can match this record in longevity and amount…

…In Pingdu region, Christians from about 30 surrounding villages formed local congregations. They united under the umbrella of one city church, which claims a congregation of more than 4,000. A new building seating 1,500 was dedicated in May 2006.[9]

Paul.

John Geddie.

William Wilberforce.

Lottie Moon.

You?

You?

Yes, you.

[1] A.T. Robertson, Acts. Word Pictures in the New Testament. Vol.III (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1930), p.322.

[2] Bruce, F.F. (1988-06-30). The Book of Acts (New International Commentary on the New Testament) (p. 373-364). Eerdmans Publishing Co – A. Kindle Edition.

[3] Fernando, Ajith (2010-12-21). Acts (The NIV Application Commentary) (p. 470). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

[4] Jaroslav Pelikan, Acts. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2005), p.212.

[5] A.T. Robertson, p.325.

[6] Quoted in Stott, John (2014-04-02). The Message of Acts (The Bible Speaks Today Series) (Kindle Location 5676). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

[7] https://thebaptistvoice.com/categories/ministry-leadership/making-difference

[8] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/activists/wilberforce.html

[9] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/bytopic/missionsworldchristianity/thelittlewomanwiththebiglegacy.html

Acts 19:1-20

¹ And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. ² And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³ And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” ⁴ And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” ⁵ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. ⁷ There were about twelve men in all. ⁸ And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. ¹¹ And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. ¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸ Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹ And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

In 1986, a Christian novel was published that gripped the imagination and attention of large swathes of the evangelical world. It was written by Frank Peretti and was entitled This Present Darkness. I would go on to sell 2.5 million copies and become a genuine publishing sensation.

The general spiritual theme of the novel was spiritual warfare. It told a story on two levels: the ground level of the happenings of the lives of the characters in the story and the upper level of the spiritual dynamics going on around and behind these happenings. Peretti’s point was that we should appreciate the existence of an unseen spirit world and we should recognize that the forces of light (in the book, angels) and the forces of darkness (demons) are constantly vying for the soul of mankind.

I remember the stir that this novel caused. A lot of people swore it represented solid biblical truth. Other Christians criticized it on various grounds, not the least of which was the idea of territorial demons that controlled certain geographical areas. As with lots of Christian bestsellers, some folks seemed to idolize it and others seem to demonize it (for lack of a better word).

My purpose in mentioning this title is not to argue for or against the merits of the book. My purpose is simply to say that, whatever its strengths or weaknesses – and I suppose it had a measure of both – the book seemed to strike a chord by reminding people that there are indeed powerful spiritual happenings going on all around us. I will not vouch for Peretti’s particular take, but I will say that it is a truth we all feel and it is jarring to be reminded of it in unsettling ways.

There is a world around us that we do not see. We should, I would caution, restrict our ideas about this world to what scripture plainly says about it, but what scripture does plainly say is that this world exists! The first twenty verses of Acts 19 are very interesting because they highlight this reality in a powerful and memorable way. In fact, the first ten verses speak of the Holy Spirit of God and the next ten verses speak of demonic forces. We will allow this natural division within the text to frame our approach to it.

The Holy Spirit comes upon believers as they truly embrace gospel.

Paul is now beginning his third missionary journey. He came to Ephesus where Apollos had previously preached. While there, he meets an interesting group of disciples and has a most fascinating conversation with them about spiritual matters.

¹ And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. ² And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³ And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” ⁴ And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” ⁵ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. ⁷ There were about twelve men in all. ⁸ And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Paul encountered a group of disciples and something prompted him to ask if they had received the Holy Spirit. Surprisingly, they responded that they had never heard of the Holy Spirit being familiar with only John’s baptism. Thus, their view of the gospel was limited and stunted. This has led Will Willimon to suggest that these disciples who had never heard of the Holy Spirit were “Apollos’ converts.”[1] Why would he suggest this? Do you recall what we learned about Apollos in Acts 18?

²⁴ Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. ²⁵ He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. ²⁶ He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. ²⁷ And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, ²⁸ for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

It is quite possible, then, that these disciples Paul encountered received their incomplete understanding of the gospel from Apollos in his earlier preaching ministry before he received correction from Priscilla and Aquila. Regardless, an incomplete understanding of the gospel they did in fact have. Paul remedied this by informing them that John the Baptist was in fact pointing to One greater than himself: “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” As a result, they believed and, when they believed, the Holy Spirit fell upon them with spectacular displays of his presence.

This reveals to us that the Holy Spirit comes upon believers as they truly embrace gospel. To be sure we need not have an absolutely perfect understanding of the gospel. Nobody does. We are all growing day by day in our understanding of the gospel. But we must indeed embrace the gospel!

Perhaps we may question why it is that the Lord God withheld His Spirit from these sincere disciples who simply were unaware of the whole story. It is no doubt because God does not wish to bless and thereby leave us in error. John the Baptist was a great man. Jesus Himself said so. But to content ourselves with John the Baptist and not move on to Jesus is to keep reading the introduction of the story over and over without ever actually moving on to the actual story! To stay with John at the Jordan instead of walking with Jesus to Calvary and the empty tomb is to build a hut in the foyer of the grand cathedral of God’s glory without ever moving into the marvelous, dizzying, overwhelming beauty of the sanctuary itself!

To receive the Holy Spirit we need to embrace Christ! It is fascinating to see how Paul more fully fleshed this out in his beautiful introduction to the letter he would go on to write to these believers. This is the letter we know as Ephesians. Observe the flow of thought from the Father to the Son to the Spirit:

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, ⁸ which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight ⁹ making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ ¹⁰ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. ¹¹ In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ¹² so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. ¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

We are, Paul says, “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” when we “hear the word of truth, the gospel of [our] salvation, and believe in Him.” Belief in Christ and the reception of the Holy Spirit go hand in hand. And the Spirit “is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

Here is the bright light of the spiritual reality surrounding us: the Father and the Son send the Spirit to take up residence within all who will embrace Christ. I would ask you what Paul asked these brothers: “Do you have the Holy Spirit?” If you have trusted in Christ and embraced the gospel, you do have Him! If you do not have Him, you need to come to Christ and be saved!

Evil spirits attack the lost as they attempt to manipulate the demons in the name of the Jesus they reject.

But there is indeed a darkness as well, and one that we must ever be aware of. Immediately following this beautiful and joyful description of the coming of the Spirit of God upon the Ephesian disciples we find the other side of the story: demonic attack upon those who sought to use the name of Jesus for their own purposes.

¹¹ And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

I am personally skeptical of the notion of territorial spirits, spirits or demons who control certain geographical regions, but there can be no doubt that Ephesus in particular was a region that, at this time, was steeped in the idea of magic and spiritual powers. For instance, Clinton Arnold offers the following fascinating insight into the culture of the region:

            Ephesus was renown as being something of a center for magical practices in the Mediterranean world. The practice of magic was everywhere – it was part of the fabric of common “folk belief” – but Ephesus acquired a significant reputation for it.

            This reputation was perpetuated, in part, by the so-called “Ephesian Letters” (Ephesia Grammata). These were actually six names – askion, kataskion, lix, tetrax, damnemeneus, and aisia – thought to be laden with protective power for warding off evil demons. One ancient writer says that the “magi” instructed people possessed by evil spirits to repeat to themselves the magic words in order to drive the demons out. There was a story that circulated about an Ephesian wrestler who traveled to Olympia to compete in the games. This wrestler wore the “Ephesian Letters” on an ankle bracelet while he competed and was winning every match. Finally an opponent from Miletus discovered the bracelet and protested, whereupon the item was removed by the officials. The Ephesian wrestler then fell to three successive defeats by his Milesian opponent.

So magic and spirits and unseen forces were “in the air” of Ephesus. Perhaps this can be seen in the actions of some who were seeking healing through contact with physical objects that belonged to Paul. Luke tells us that some people were picking up Paul’s discarded handkerchiefs and were being healed. Craig Keener writes that “Paul’s ‘handkerchiefs and aprons’ (NIV) are rags tied around his head to catch sweat and his work aprons tied around his waist; they could have been taken without his knowledge. Magicians often healed by such means…”[2]

What are we to make of this? It is hard to say for sure exactly what is happening here, but this much is true: those who were being healed were being healed by the Spirit of God in the name of Jesus, not because of any inherent properties in Paul’s handkerchief. Why did God choose for such healing to be mediated through these objects? Who can say? Whatever the reason, we must not impart ideas of “magic” into this scene. That would violate the whole spirit of this passage and, indeed, of the New Testament as a whole.

Seeing these impressive events, some sought to use the name of Jesus as a kind of verbal talisman for their own ministries of exorcism.

¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.

The sons of Sceva were trying to invoke the name of Jesus in their own exorcism efforts though they did not personally believe in Jesus! Interestingly, this seems to have become something of a practice for non-Christian exorcists. For instance, Clinton Arnold quotes the words of “an Egyptian magical papyrus that dates to the late Roman period” and mentions Jesus among the many names it mentions.

A tested charm of Pibechis [a legendary magician from Egypt] for those possessed by daimons: Take oil of unripe olives with the herb mastigia and the fruit pulp of the lotus, and boil them with colorless marjoram while saying, “IOEL OS SARTHIOMI EMORI THEOCHIPSOITH SITHEMEOCH SOTHE IOE MIMIPSOTHIOOPH PHERSOTHI AEEIOYO IOE EO CHARI PHTHA” [Ptah is the Egyptian creator god], come out from (the name of the victim). The phylactery: On a time lamelle write “IAEO ABRAOTH IOCH PHTHA MESENPSIN IAO PHEOCH IAEO CHARSOK,” and hang it on the patient. It is terrifying to every daimon, a thing he fears. After placing the patient opposite to you, conjure. This is the conjuration: “I conjur you by the god of the Hebrews, Jesus, IABA IAE ABRAOTH AIA THOTH ELE ELO AEO EOY ILLBAECH ABARMAS IABARAOU ABELBEL LONA ABRA MAROIA BRAKION, who appears in fire, who is in the midst of the land, snow, and fog. TANNETIS; let your angel, the implacable, descend and let him assign the daimon flying around this form, which god formed in his holy paradise, because I pray to the holy god, calling up AMMON IPSENTANCHO.[3]

There it is. Amidst all these garbled words we find, “This is the conjuration: ‘I conjur you by the god of the Hebrews, Jesus…” This was the kind of thing that the sons of Sceva were attempting, though surely in a different form than this. The result?

¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸ Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹ And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

Oh my! What an absolutely chilling scene! The evil spirit addressed the sons of Sceva! “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”

This offers us some amazing insights into spiritual realities we cannot see. It shows us, for instance, that the devil knows who Jesus is. In James 2:19, James wrote, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” So yes, the devil and his demons know who Jesus is.

Furthermore, they know who belongs to the family of God. “Paul I recognize,” the spirit says. In Job 1 Satan reveals that he knows who Job is. In Luke 22:31, Jesus said to Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat…” This reveals that Satan knew who Peter was and wanted to attack him.

Be aware: the devil knows who belongs to the family of God! He can only attack us with God’s permission, but attack us he does. To come to Christ is to draw the attention of the evil one, but to come to Christ is also to receive the protection of Christ who loves us, prays for us, and is with us!

The evil spirit’s comment and actions also reveal that a mere mechanistic and manipulative usage of the name “Jesus” carries with it no particular spiritual protection. This is dramatically and scarily demonstrated in the spirit’s attack upon the men who flee naked and battered from his presence.

Let us be sure of this: the name of Jesus is not to be handled like a verbal talisman. Saying “Jesus” if you are not walking with Jesus affords you no particular spiritual protection. Wearing a cross on a necklace if you have not embraced the cross of Christ in faith and repentance means nothing in terms of your soul. Physical crosses only have inherent protective powers in vampire movies, and that is pure nonsense. Wearing a Jesus t-shirt while you get in your car covered with Jesus bumper stickers and turn on your Jesus music means nothing if you have not truly accepted Jesus!

Church, it is the living presence of Christ within you that protects you spiritually! It is the living Christ – not the mere word “Jesus” or the mere shape of the cross – that gives us life!

Come to Christ and you will receive the Holy Spirit! Come to Christ and He will be with you to protect you and grant forgiveness and life and salvation and peace and hope!

[1] William H. Willimon, Acts. Interpretation. (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1988), p.146.

[2] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. (Downers Grove, IL: 1993), p.378.

[3] Clinton E. Arnold, “Acts.” Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. Vol.2. Clinton E. Arnold, gen. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), p.411,409-410.

Acts 18:18-28

¹⁸ After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. ¹⁹ And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. ²⁰ When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. ²¹ But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus. ²² When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. ²³ After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. ²⁴ Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. ²⁵ He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. ²⁶ He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. ²⁷ And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, ²⁸ for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

Let us begin our consideration of this amazing passage of scripture by looking at a fairly dense but profound statement from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s 1927 doctoral dissertation, Sanctorum Communio. This is admittedly pretty heavy stuff and will require some slow and careful consideration, but I think Bonhoeffer is hitting on something here that is key to our understanding of what happened in the life of the early church and what should happen in the life of the church today.

Thus the essence of community is not ‘commonality’ – although formally every community has this. Rather, reciprocal will constitutes community. Communities that are really founded only on formal agreement, on commonality (lecture halls, etc.), are not communities of will, but should be considered under the sociological category of the mass, or public…’Unity’ of will thus signifies an identity of content in what is intended and willed. Here a further distinction must be made. ‘Unity’ must exist absolutely in the willing of the community, that is, as formal unity in the sense of ‘agreement’ above. At first it will also exist as absolute unity in regard to content, namely the purpose that is apart from the pure will to community. But in the historical development of every community, differences of opinion arise about the realization of the aim. These often lead to substantive differences in the conception of the purpose itself, so that the unity of content can only be described as relative. Thus even the formally absolute unity of the empirical community of the church…is only relative unity as regards content…

Wills can will ‘together’, ‘beside’, and ‘against’ one another. Only the first leads to empirical social formation. The second is sociologically irrelevant…The third, when developed in completely pure form, does create real social vitality, but remains unable to create social form.[i]

I share this with us because I think the distinction between “commonality” and “reciprocal will” to be a significant and helpful one. As Bonhoeffer says, true community cannot be built on mere commonality. If you look around, you will see numerous commonalities that we all share, and they are essentially external though not exclusively so. For instance, we are all inside this building and we are all observing together what is happening on the platform. Furthermore, most of us in this room live in this area and most of us in this room are Americans. We could list others, but these are commonalities. They are not insignificant, but they do not, in and of themselves, build community.

Bonhoeffer argued that community is constituted of “reciprocal will,” that is of a people who have come to will together a common thing. I believe he is right to say this. Our church, for instance, will not become a true family until we are united by the Spirit in the common cause of wishing to see God’s glory magnified through the expansion of the Kingdom of God by means of the bold proclamation of the gospel and the conversion of the lost. When we will together a core belief, in other words, something deep and community-shaping happens: we become a church.

I would urge us to consider this truth this morning: community cannot be built on mere commonality. Merely showing up and observing or consuming religious goods offered by a paid staff does not a church make! But being on mission together and willing together to see Christ made much of in the world…that will build community!

Willing together does something else as well: it allows us to appreciate the unique points on our shared pilgrimage that each of us occupy and it frees us to help each other grow as followers of Jesus. We are not all at the same place in our journeys. Some of you, for instance, need to learn how to say “no.” You are doing everything and you are racing toward burnout! Some of you, on the other hand, need to learn how to say “yes.” You have been inactive for too long and now need to go deeper in your commitment and in joint ministry with this church. Some of you are hurting and need healing. Some of you are bored and need a fresh vision for what God is doing in the world. Some of you are skeptical. Some of you are thrilled! Some of you are nervous. Some of you are content. On and on it goes.

Willing together for the cause of Christ in the world allows us to take each other where we are and help each other move forward. Nowhere is the power of such reciprocal willing more evident than in the account of the early church in Acts. What I love about our text today is that it shows what I am going to call three “groups” in the Church and how they helped each other by willing together for the same thing.

Paul: Recommitment, Regrouping, and Renewing

The first group is represented by Paul. In our text, Paul represents those in need of recommitment, regrouping, and renewal. As we pick up the story in Acts 18:18, we find Paul concluding the second missionary journey and preparing for the third. In this transition period, Paul does something quite interesting as evidence by a specific verbal clue that Luke leaves for us.

¹⁸ After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. ¹⁹ And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. ²⁰ When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. ²¹ But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus. ²² When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. ²³ After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

Paul ends his second missionary journey in Ephesus, bids adieu to Priscilla, Aquila, and the other believers and then turns toward Jerusalem. Before doing so, however, Luke tells us that, “At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.”

At first glance, Luke almost seems to slip this into the story as almost a throwaway comment, but clearly it is not. It is significant enough for Luke to mention and, in fact, it reveals something quite interesting about Paul’s walk as a Christian.

Why does Paul cut his hair at Cenchreae? To help us get at what is happening, we should consider the words of Numbers 6.

¹ The Lord said to Moses, ² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of dedication to the Lord as a Nazirite, ³ they must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or other fermented drink. They must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. ⁴ As long as they remain under their Nazirite vow, they must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins. ⁵ “‘During the entire period of their Nazirite vow, no razor may be used on their head. They must be holy until the period of their dedication to the Lord is over; they must let their hair grow long. ⁶ “‘Throughout the period of their dedication to the Lord, the Nazirite must not go near a dead body. ⁷ Even if their own father or mother or brother or sister dies, they must not make themselves ceremonially unclean on account of them, because the symbol of their dedication to God is on their head. ⁸ Throughout the period of their dedication, they are consecrated to the Lord. ⁹ “‘If someone dies suddenly in the Nazirite’s presence, thus defiling the hair that symbolizes their dedication, they must shave their head on the seventh day—the day of their cleansing. ¹⁰ Then on the eighth day they must bring two doves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ¹¹ The priest is to offer one as a sin offering[a] and the other as a burnt offering to make atonement for the Nazirite because they sinned by being in the presence of the dead body. That same day they are to consecrate their head again. ¹² They must rededicate themselves to the Lord for the same period of dedication and must bring a year-old male lamb as a guilt offering. The previous days do not count, because they became defiled during their period of dedication. ¹³ “‘Now this is the law of the Nazirite when the period of their dedication is over. They are to be brought to the entrance to the tent of meeting. ¹⁴ There they are to present their offerings to the Lord: a year-old male lamb without defect for a burnt offering, a year-old ewe lamb without defect for a sin offering, a ram without defect for a fellowship offering, ¹⁵ together with their grain offerings and drink offerings, and a basket of bread made with the finest flour and without yeast—thick loaves with olive oil mixed in, and thin loaves brushed with olive oil. ¹⁶ “‘The priest is to present all these before the Lord and make the sin offering and the burnt offering. ¹⁷ He is to present the basket of unleavened bread and is to sacrifice the ram as a fellowship offering to the Lord, together with its grain offering and drink offering. ¹⁸ “‘Then at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the Nazirite must shave off the hair that symbolizes their dedication. They are to take the hair and put it in the fire that is under the sacrifice of the fellowship offering. ¹⁹ “‘After the Nazirite has shaved off the hair that symbolizes their dedication, the priest is to place in their hands a boiled shoulder of the ram, and one thick loaf and one thin loaf from the basket, both made without yeast. ²⁰ The priest shall then wave these before the Lord as a wave offering; they are holy and belong to the priest, together with the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. After that, the Nazirite may drink wine. ²¹ “‘This is the law of the Nazirite who vows offerings to the Lord in accordance with their dedication, in addition to whatever else they can afford. They must fulfill the vows they have made, according to the law of the Nazirite.’”

Paul has almost certainly taken a Nazirite vow of the kind described in that passage as he concludes this second missionary journey.   Why would he do such a thing? William Barclay explains:

When a Jew specially wished to thank God for some blessing or some deliverance he took the Nazirite vow (Numbers 6:1-12). If that vow was carried out in full it meant that for thirty days he neither ate meat nor drank wine; and he allowed his hair to grow. At the end of the thirty days he made certain offerings in the Temple; his head was shorn and the hair was burned on the altar as an offering to God. No doubt Paul was thinking of all God’s goodness to him in Corinth and took this vow to show his gratitude.[ii]

There is a note of gratitude, then, in such an act, but notice also how Numbers reveals that those who take such a vow are doing it to express dedication to God or a spirit of rededication. Thus, this is a sign of recommitment, regrouping, and renewing. This is what Paul is apparently doing in our text.

So at Cenchreae Paul cuts his hair. John Polhill suggests that “the reference to his having cut his hair at this point presents some difficulty” because Jews taking a Nazarite vow typically cut their hair at the end of the vow and not at the beginning. When the hair was cut, it was to be offered on the altar at the Temple. So did Paul cut his hair at the beginning of the vow with plans to present it at the Temple when he arrived in Jerusalem? Polhill notes that the grammar suggests that he had already taken the vow, thus this cutting of the hair was the completion of it. The solution might be found in Josephus’ observation that some Jews cut their hair outside of Jerusalem and then carried it with them to offer with sacrifices at the Temple later when they arrived in the city.[iii]

So Paul likely took his vow 30 days before arriving in Cenchreae in anticipation of the conclusion of this second missionary journey. Then he saved his hair and went to Jerusalem. This is alluded to by Luke’s usage of the phrase “the church” in, “When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church…” “The church” refers to the Jerusalem church. Thus, between landing at Caesarea and going to Antioch, Paul went to Jerusalem to mother church. We can also reasonably assume that he went to the Temple to offer his cut hair in sacrifice in fulfillment of his Nazirite vow.

This, I would submit to you, is a beautiful picture. Paul is completing another journey. He has worked hard. He has been through a lot. He has reasoned in the synagogues and planted churches. He has faced opposition and persecution. He has seen the power of God in action. He has made new friends and he now also has new enemies. In short, he has labored hard in the fields of the Lord.

And now, as this journey ends, in the precious few moments of rest he has, he takes a vow of rededication, of recommitment, of renewal. He takes a vow that he concludes by cutting his hair. He offers it at the Temple and he visits the church at Jerusalem. In other words, he realizes that the only thing that can keep him going like this is to walk honestly and humbly and with complete devotion before God. And because Paul and the believers in Jerusalem are practicing reciprocal will, are willing together the same thing, they can be for each other what they need to be: Paul can be the source of inspiration for the Church that he was and the Church can encourage and strengthen Paul as they no doubt did.

W.A. Sessions, in his introduction to Flannery O’Connor’s prayer journal, referred to “her outlandish hope, at least in the twentieth century, for total commitment to God.”[iv] But I wonder how “outlandish” such a hope really is and what the fact that she had this hope in “the twentieth century” has to do with anything? From a human perspective, total commitment to God is indeed outlandish, but it should not appear such to the people of God in the world today. Total commitment should comprise our daily lives together as the Church. It will not do so, however, without periodic and, indeed, daily rededications of ourselves to God.

Maybe you are in this group. Maybe it is time for you to come before the Lord and remember what it is that we are doing together as a body of believers. Maybe it is time for your to make your own vow of dedication and total commitment, no matter what that looks like.

Priscilla and Aquila: The Identification, Mentoring and Encouragement of Leadership

Paul was at a place where he needed to stop and rededicate his life to the Lord and the mission that God had given him. Priscilla and Aquila, however, were at another place. In Ephesus, this amazing couple met a powerful preacher named Apollos. And in their encounter with him they saw an opportunity to help him come to understand better that which they needed to all be willing together: the gospel of Christ and its spread throughout the world. Apollos comes to Ephesus and Priscilla and Aquila hear him preach. We will skip down to verse 26 and see their reaction to this.

²⁶ He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. ^27a And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him.

As we will see, Apollos was a great man who loved the Lord. However, his knowledge of the gospel was not complete. All he knew, Luke will tell us, was the baptism of John the Baptist. Presumably, then, he did not know all that he needed to know about the Christ to whom John the Baptist pointed. So he was preaching not a false gospel but an incomplete gospel.

Upon hearing him and, obviously, upon seeing his giftedness, Priscilla and Aquila “took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” This is telling. We notice, for instance, that they do not go off and talk about Apollos’ deficiencies behind his back. They do not have “roast preacher” for lunch. They do not smile and shake his hand only to dismantle him over the lunch table. On the contrary, because they see that they are all willing the same thing (to make Christ known in the world) and because they know the importance of that which they are willing together, they pull him aside and lovingly help him grow in understanding.

I do not know how well you know preachers, but I can promise you that this whole situation is most unusual. They love him enough to help him and he loves the Lord enough to submit himself humbly to their counsel. What was it, then, that allowed them to set aside their own egos and agendas and freed them to help each other in this way? It was the fact that they were in the same community of reciprocal will: they were all pulling for the same thing in the same direction. As a result, they were more concerned with their higher shared values than with their lower individual egos.

Have you ever experienced the joy of encouraging somebody to grow in the gifts that God had given him or her? It is an awesome thing! Priscilla and Aquila did this with Apollos. He obviously received their instruction well, for he grew in his knowledge and eventually moved on with letters of recommendation from the believers in Ephesus. Richard Longenecker suggests that the letter of recommendation from the believers in Ephesus to those in Achaia was probably written by Priscilla and Aquila.[v] We do not know this for sure, but it is quite possible and is a beautiful thought.

Perhaps you are in this group: you need to exercise the gifts of encouragement and mentoring. You need to help believers in their ministries, investing your own life into theirs. This requires time and effort, but it is one of the kindest things we can do for one another!

Apollos: Raw Enthusiasm Willing to Be Humbled Beneath Needed Instruction

And then there is Apollos. He will represent for us the group of those Christians who are filled with raw enthusiasm but need to grow in their knowledge of Christ. This group will need to exercise humility and receive the sound instruction they are given. This is precisely what Apollos did. Let us go back up and begin at verse 24.

²⁴ Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. ²⁵ He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. ²⁶ He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. ²⁷ And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, ²⁸ for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

What do we know about Apollos? He was from Alexandria. He was a good speaker. He was well versed in scripture. He was passionate about the things of God and wanted others to know the Lord. He had a limited knowledge of Jesus and knew more about John the Baptist’s message than about the gospel itself. It is hard to know how much he knew about Jesus, but it seems clear that he had not yet come to grasp the full beauty of the gospel. So he was teaching a baptism of repentance but he was not teaching the full story of the coming of Christ, Christ’s work on the cross, and the empty tomb. Thus, his message was not false or heretical, it was simply incomplete and needed to be filled in.

This was apparent to Priscilla and Aquila. So they approached Apollos, asked to speak with him, and helped him understand that Christ Jesus was the One to whom John the Baptist was pointing and the One to whom Apollos needed to point as well. After all, that is what John the Baptist would have wanted Apollos to do anyway, for John came to prepare the way for Christ.

This was undoubtedly one need in Apollos life: the need to understand the gospel more fully. John Polhill has further pointed out that Apollos was from Alexandria where the main method of interpreting scripture was allegorical. This was a way of reading the Bible that downplayed the plain meaning of the text and saw instead various spiritual lessons in all of the details and minutia of scripture. This approach to scripture often meant that the interpreter ended up reading his own views into the minutia of scripture instead of simply stating what scripture says. Obviously, such an approach has real limitations. Polhill writes that “it is tempting to see Apollos as being steeped in such methods, but this is not explicit in Luke’s description.”[vi]

It is tempting and it is also possible that this was part of the issue. Who knows? Regardless, Apollos was a man who had more enthusiasm than knowledge and who needed to grow more deeply in the things of Christ. And, beautifully, he did just that. He receives instruction and continues his preaching ministry this time armed with what Paul Harvey famously called “the rest of the story.”

Apollos would become a great leader in the Church. Paul will praise him for his great ministry. Later in history, Martin Luther will wonder aloud if Apollos might not have even been the author of the book of Hebrews.[vii] We will never know that on this side of heaven, but the fact that Luther would propose it shows the abiding power of Apollos’ ministry and character.

But note this: none of this would have happened if Apollos had not coupled his zeal and enthusiasm with deeper knowledge and growth in the content of the faith. And that would not have happened if Priscilla and Aquila had not encountered him in Ephesus and cared enough to invest in him. And that would not have happened if Paul would not have loved Priscilla and Aquila enough to share a joint ministry with them, carry them to Ephesus, and then know that they needed to stay there while he moved on.

And none of that would have happened if all of the characters in our story had not joined together in a mutual act of reciprocal will and solidarity and commitment to be the body of Christ around the gospel of Christ for the glory of God in Christ!

We have one body composed of many parts…but we should have one will and that should be focused Godward and led by the Spirit and bathed in the blood of the Lamb.

[i] Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Sanctorum Communio: A Theological Study of the Sociology of the Church. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol.1 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998), p.83-84,88.

[ii] William Barclay, Acts. The Daily Study Bible. (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1969), p.149.

[iii] John B. Polhill, Acts. The New American Commentary. Vol.26. David Dockery, gen. ed. (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1992), p.390.

[iv] Flannery O’Connor, A Prayer Journal. (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), p.xi.

[v] Richard Longenecker, “Acts.” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: New Testament. (Abridged Edition) Eds., Kenneth L. Barker and John R. Kohlenberger III (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), p.483.

[vi] Polhill, p.396,n.4.

[vii] Stott, John (2014-04-02). The Message of Acts (The Bible Speaks Today Series) (Kindle Locations 5497). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

Acts 18:1-17

¹ After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. ² And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, ³ and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. ⁴ And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. ⁵ When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. ⁶ And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” ⁷ And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. ⁸ Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. ⁹ And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, ¹⁰ for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” ¹¹ And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. ¹² But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, ¹³ saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.” ¹⁴ But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. ¹⁵ But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” ¹⁶ And he drove them from the tribunal. ¹⁷ And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.

Paul now moves from Athens to Corinth. The city of Corinth was the Las Vegas of the day. It was a place of libertinism though much of it came dressed in the guise of spirituality. There was a temple to Aphrodite there. She was the goddess of love and pleasure. The Romans knew Aphrodite by the name Venus. The reformer Johann Spangenberg pointed out that “there was a temple of the goddess Venus [in Corinth], in which more than a thousand women, fashioned in the image of Venus, lived in open sin. Satan led the Corinthians into such blindness that they considered rampant shame a service to God.” It should be pointed out that the phrase Spangenberg used – “a thousand women, fashioned in the image of Venus” – was a thinly veiled reference to sexually promiscuous women. The Latin adjectival form of Venus was venerius which is the root for the English word venereal.[1]

That should give you some insight into exactly what kind of place this city of Corinth was. But it is here that Paul goes next, and he goes with the same broken and burdened heart that he had in Athens.

Paul saw the act of witnessing as a responsibility for which he would be held accountable if he failed to do it.

Paul’s behavior at this point is completely predictable. He goes first to the synagogue. While there, he faces opposition and, in his response, he makes a most interesting comment. Let’s watch the story develop.

¹ After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. ² And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, ³ and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. ⁴ And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

Paul comes to Athens and makes the acquaintance of two followers of Christ, Aquila and Priscilla. John Polhill has pointed out something interesting in the way Paul and Luke refer to this couple and others.

Paul and Luke always mentioned them together, never separately. Paul referred to the wife as Prisca, which was her formal name. Luke’s “Priscilla” was a diminutive, less formal designation, the form that would be used among acquaintances. Luke often used the more “familiar” form of a name. Compare his “Silas” with Silvanus. “Aquila” is a Latin name and derives from the word for “eagle.”[2]

So Paul takes up with his new friends, Prisca and Aquila. They have two things I common. The most important is a shared devotion to Jesus. The second is skill tent making. So Paul and Aquila and Priscilla make tents and Paul continues his evangelistic ministry.

The church father Origen compared Paul’s tent making to Peter and Andrew and the sons of Zebedee’s fishing and said that “just as they were turned from fishermen into fishers of men, so [Paul] was moved from making earthly tents to building heavenly tents.” Origen went on to argue that Paul made “heavenly tents” (1) by teaching the path of salvation and “showing the way of the blessed dwellings in the heavens” and (2) by establishing churches.[3] While that is a kind of allegorical interpretation we normally do not use today, it seems fitting here. Paul was indeed making both earthly and heavenly tents.

But his efforts were not, of course, without resistance.

⁵ When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. ⁶ And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

The Jews “opposed and reviled him.” There must have been something particular intense about this opposition. Some have surmised that it was perhaps blasphemous against Jesus. Whatever they did and said, they managed to incense Paul. And it is here that Paul makes his jarring statement: “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

There are really three statements here:

• “Your blood be on your own heads!”
• “I am innocent.”
• “From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

The first, “Your blood be on your own heads,” clearly means that in rejecting the gospel and in refusing to heed Paul’s warning, they were inviting destruction upon themselves. They were bringing their own blood on their own heads. This, of course, was a devastating tragedy.

But if they brought their own blood on their own heads, that means that Paul was not guilty of their blood. Why? Because he had shown them the way of salvation, had warned them of the coming judgment, and had called them to accept Christ and be saved. It will be helpful at this point to hear the words of Ezekiel 33, for it is possible that Paul had just this very passage in mind when he said what he said. Regardless, he was communicating the same truth. Listen:

¹ The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, ³ and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, ⁴ then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. ⁵ He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. ⁶ But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand. ⁷ “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. ⁸ If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. ⁹ But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

The Lord could not be clearer. If a watchman blows the trumpet of warning and the people refuse to prepare themselves for the danger they have been warned about, they in effect invite their own destruction. Thus, their blood is on their own heads. If, however, the watchman fails to blow the horn of warning and destruction befalls the people, then truly their blood is on his hands for he failed to warn them.

Paul is the watchmen, as are all witnesses for Christ. If we fail to warn the world of coming judgment and fail to tell everybody how they can be saved, then their blood is on our hands. If, however, we do warn and do tell and those we warn and tell reject our warning, then their blood is on their own heads.

The 5^th century commentator, Ammonius, explained this in powerful terms when he wrote the following:

“Your blood be on your own heads.” These words are obscure, but I think they mean this: Whoever does not believe in Christ, who is life, seems to kill himself by passing from life to death and shedding, as it were, his own blood through is self-inflicted death. Therefore he means that when you kill yourselves through disbelief, you receive the punishment of murder, so I am innocent. Following this train of thought it may be also said that he who kills himself is punished by God as a murderer. Similarly if a person is the reason why someone kills himself, he will be guilty in the same way.[4]

Church, we must be watchmen and witnesses. It is our responsibility to warn of coming judgment and herald the way home. If we do not do so, who will? If the Church grows silent, how will the world here?

Paul saw the act of witnessing as a responsibility for which he would be held accountable if he failed to do it. We must see it in the same way.

Paul received much-needed encouragement from God which inspired him to persist and which resulted in many coming to know Christ.

Such opposition can take a toll, even on a stalwart champion like Paul. Having told the Jews that he would now turn to the Gentiles, he does so.

⁷ And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. ⁸ Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.

It is a bit humorous that he goes literally next door to the home of Titius Justus! That could not have endeared his opponents to him. And to make matters worse, Luke informs us that Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believes in Christ along with his whole household.

In the midst of such successes, Paul still faces discouragement. Thus, the Lord comes to him and comforts him.

⁹ And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, ¹⁰ for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” ¹¹ And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

There is something powerful about the transition from verses 9-10 to verse 11. The Lord encourages Paul. “Don’t give up! Don’t be afraid! I am with you! I will not abandon you!” The result? “He stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.”

Is it not amazing how God always seems to show up at our lowest points keeping us from despair? Even a Paul needed encouragement and assurance that everything was going to be ok. Even a hero like Paul could get discouraged. It is interesting to note that Paul will later have to encourage young Timothy, telling him not to be discouraged and not to quite, reminding Timothy that God was with him. But here the encourager is the encouraged.

So Paul stays. He stays 18 months. As a result, many come to know Christ. John Calvin commented on how amazing it was that God worked so powerfully through Paul in Corinth.

When Paul goes into it, what hope, I ask you, can he have in his mind? He is an unknown, little man, lacking eloquence or brilliance, making no show of wealthy or power. From the fact that this huge whirlpool did not swallow up his confidence and his eagerness for spreading the gospel, we gather that he was equipped with the extraordinary power of the Spirit of God, and at the same time that God operated through his agency in a heavenly, and in no human, fashion. Accordingly it is not for nothing that he boasts that the Corinthians are “the seal of his apostleship.”[5]

It is indeed a marvel “that this huge whirlpool did not swallow up his confidence and his eagerness for spreading the gospel.” By any human reckoning it certainly should have. But Paul had the King of Kings on his side, and that made all the difference in the world!

God was true to His promise to Paul and protected him from being pushed past his personal point of breaking.

What is more, God was true to His word, even when it appeared that persecution was coming upon Paul yet again.

¹² But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, ¹³ saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.”

Paul knew the promise of God, that God would protect him, but he must have thought at this point, “Well, here we go again!” Thus, he naturally prepares to plead his case. Before he can do so, however, something most interesting happens.

¹⁴ But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. ¹⁵ But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” ¹⁶ And he drove them from the tribunal.

Before Paul can plead his case, the proconsul Gallio essentially dismisses the entire situation as one in which he is simply not interested. He sees it as a squabble among the Jews and likely considers the Christian movement to be just a Jewish sect. Even so, he is doing much more that he realizes here, for he is essentially fulfilling the promise of God to protect Paul. He did not know he was doing this, of course, but God can turn the hearts of pagan rulers to his own purposes, and He often does so.

Clinton Arnold has pointed out that “at this point Christianity is judged to be a sect within Judaism and, therefore, a legal religion (religio licita) by a Roman governor with expertise as a jurist.”[6] In other words, not only does Gallio help fulfill God’s promise of protecting Paul, he actually grants a measure of protection to the Christians by saying that the state will not rule against this new movement.

Of course, Gallio is still a pagan, as is evidenced by his indifference to the Jews violent reaction to his decision. Knowing they cannot harm Paul, they strike out at one of his prominent converts.

¹⁷ And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.

Gallio’s indifference is a hidden blessing for Paul, but it is a two-edged sword. The other side of it means that Sosthenes is beaten. Why does God allow Sosthenes to be beaten? We do not know? Presumably it is because God knew that Sosthenes could handle it. We can be sure that God’s grace was as sufficient for Sosthenes in his moment of pain as it was Paul in his many persecutions before and after this episode.

Regardless, God was with His people and He was with his missionary, Paul. As a result, Corinth was revolutionized by the gospel. The 16^th century Swiss Reformed preacher Rudolf Gwalther wrote these moving words about Paul in Corinth:

But the thing that seems ridiculous in the judgment of the flesh does not lack a most prosperous success given by the Lord. For within a year and a half, by the preaching of the gospel, with the Spirit of Christ working there, Paul set a new face on this city and publicly reformed it: a thing which no lawmaker, no matter how great of an authority, could have been able to have persuaded them.[7]

We must not forget what God can do through a church wholly yielded to Him, a church that refuses to quit, a church that throws itself on the mercies and renewing grace of God in the midst of discouragement and frustration, and church that resolves to do whatever it must do to take the gospel to its city.

[1] Esther Chung-Kim and Todd R. Hains, eds. Acts. Reformation Commentary on Scripture. New Testament, vol.VI. Timothy George, gen. ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014), p.251-252.

[2] John B. Polhill, Acts. The New American Commentary. Vol.26. David Dockery, gen. ed. (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1992), p.382.

[3] Francis Martin, ed. Acts. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament, vol.V. Thomas C. Oden, gen. ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), p.97.

[4] Francis Martin, ed., p.97.

[5] Esther Chung-Kim and Todd R. Hains, eds., p.252.

[6] Clinton E. Arnold, “Acts.” Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. Vol.2. Clinton E. Arnold, gen. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), p.401.

[7] Esther Chung-Kim and Todd R. Hains, eds., p.253.

Acts 17:16-34

¹⁶ Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷ So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸ Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹ And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰ For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” ²¹ Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. ²² So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, ²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. ²⁶ And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, ²⁷ that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, ²⁸ for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ ²⁹ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. ³⁰ The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹ because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” ³² Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” ³³ So Paul went out from their midst. ³⁴ But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

It is amazing how we human beings have the capacity to get used to very serious, very sacred things.

I had a dear friend who was a game warden in Georgia. He passed away a few years ago and I miss him deeply. He was one of the godliest men I had ever known, and he was what I would call a pastor’s best friend, if that makes sense.

He told me once about a painful memory of his that still seemed to haunt him a bit. He told me about his years as a game warden and he became accustomed to seeing some terrible things. One instance, however, shocked him out of his own numbness, and it was an instance of his own callousness.

He shared with me that he and the other game wardens and law enforcement officers would work the boating accidents on the lake during the summers. This, tragically, would mean having to work scenes of fatal accidents and drownings. He told me that he personally oversaw the extraction of numerous bodies from the lakes of Georgia. And he told me that, amazingly, he actually became somewhat used to this macabre responsibility.

He shared with me how, on one occasion, there had been an accident on the lake resulting in a couple of people drowning. He said that they had been out in the lake most of the night trying to find and extract the bodies. They had located one of the bodies, pulled it from the lake, put it in a body bag, and placed the body in the back of a truck.

He shared with me that he and his men were tired, filthy, covered in mud and dirt, and were mentally and physically drained. Around lunch they were still working so he called one of his men over and told him to get everybody some hamburgers so they could take a break and eat. He then shared that, after the man returned with lunch, he leaned on the truck bed in the back of which was one of the bodies, unwrapped the hamburger there over the body and began to eat. He said that he was so accustomed to bodies and tragedy that he did not even stop to think that he was casually eating a hamburger while leaning over a body bag. And he may not have thought of it at all on this occasion, he said, had he not happened to look up to see the wife and children of the dead man staring at him in disbelief some distance away.

My friend was shocked out of his complacency by seeing himself through the eyes of the deceased man’s family and seeing just how utterly calloused and indifferent he must have appeared. He then realized that he had come to forget the seriousness of what he was doing and indeed the sacredness of it. He did not like the image of himself that he saw, and worked again to respect these powerful if tragic moments.

That story stays with me. I respected my friend’s candor in sharing it and I think it taught me a powerful lesson: we really can become so calloused that we treat extremely important matters with flippant indifference.

If you will receive it, I cannot help but feel that the Church needs just such a moment of awakening. We have been guilty of the same error as my friend. We have eaten burgers over corpses oblivious to the sacredness and urgency of the moment. And the eyes of Heaven are watching us. The eyes of Jesus Himself. We need desperately to see ourselves as He sees us and to realize that our petty distractions, our silly agendas, and our futile exercises in missing the point reveal a certain tragic detachment about us.

We have forgotten, Church, that life and death are at stake in what we are doing, that the souls of men and women hang in the balance. We simply can no longer operate as if these things are not the critically important, life-defining truths that they are.

I thank God, then, for the passion and resolve of men like our brother Paul, who saw the seriousness of the moment and whose heart burned with holy fire. Paul’s time in Athens bears ample illustration of this very point. Let us consider Paul in Athens.

Paul’s mission was driven by a broken heart that was moved to action.

We now join Paul in the great city of Athens, Greece, the intellectual center of the world at this time. He is there waiting for his partners Silas and Timothy to join him. And while waiting, he begins to look around. What he finds in that city disturbs him greatly.

¹⁶ Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷ So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸ Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹ And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰ For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” ²¹ Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

What is it that so upsets Paul? It was the idols in the city. R. Kent Hughes passes on the word of Pausanius, who was in Athens fifty years after the events of our text, to the effect that one was more likely to meet a god or goddess in Athens than a man. This was because there were about 10,000 people in Athens at this time and 30,000 statues of gods.[1] And this fact disturbs Paul deeply. The language Luke uses to say “his spirit was provoked” is intense language indeed and suggests that Paul was highly agitated.

He is so agitated that he decides not to use his “free time” waiting for Silas to Timothy distracting himself with the sites. Paul was a man on mission and he had no time to waste. The idols of the city spoke to him of spiritual darkness and he was a witness bearer to the light. So, Luke tells us, he began to preach the gospels to the Jews and Greeks alike. In fact, he was so passionate about it that he drew the attention of two philosophical schools: the Epicureans and the Stoics.

These two groups had numerous adherents and held to beliefs that were in no way consistent with Christian truth. Here is a brief summary of their beliefs:

Epicureans: there are gods but they do not interfere in the affairs of man (outsiders called the Epicureans “atheists” because they had so little to say about the gods) / the soul is tied to the body and does not exist without a body / there is no sin / the goal of life is to live in accord with nature which means pursuing pleasure / there is no afterlife / there is no resurrection / there is no Heaven or Hell

Stoics: they are pantheists (god is in everything) / there is no sin / life should be spent pursuing virtue and to live harmoniously with reason / “Individual human souls will ultimately be absorbed into the basic elements in periodic cosmic conflagrations.” / there is no Heaven or Hell[2]

I was fascinated when, a little over a week ago, a member of our church sent me the text of a presentation delivered last year by a young Cornell University professor named Michael Fontaine entitled “On Religious and Psychiatric Atheism: The Success of Epicurus, the Failure of Thomas Szasz.” Dr. Fontaine delivered the address to the 167th annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in New York City.[3]

I only mention this paper because, in it, Dr. Fontaine was arguing for a kind of measured return to modern day Epicureanism. I emailed him this week and pointed out that I would be preaching on this passage and mentioning the Epicureans. He responded and shared with me, among other things, that a man in Chicago has just started a society called the Society of Friends of Epicurus and then shared that this group is apparently growing quite quickly.

Epicureanism, then, would appear to be somewhat on the rise. And this makes sense, for the tenets of this philosophy would seem to fit with the beliefs of many Americans today. For instance, consider the famous motto of the Epicurean Diogenes who, writing around the year 200 A.D., wrote, “Nothing to fear in God; Nothing to feel in death; Good [pleasure] can be attained; Evil [pain] can be endured.”[4]

Well, Paul heard all of this and more, and he saw the idols, and he watched the people in their blind religious devotions…and his heart could not stand it! Paul’s mission was driven by a broken heart that was moved to action.

Friends, hear me: all great Christian advances in the world have arisen from broken hearts moved to action, from people who looked at the world, saw the spiritual darkness of people, and cared enough to cry out to God for their salvation. We may see this throughout the Bible’s record of the people of God.

For instance, in Genesis 18, Abraham pleads with God for mercy over Sodom.

²² So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. ²³ Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? ²⁵ Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” ²⁶ And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” ²⁷ Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. ²⁸ Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” ²⁹ Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” ³⁰ Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” ³¹ He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” ³² Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” ³³ And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

Abraham looked at Sodom, his heart broke, and he pleaded with God for their salvation! In Genesis 32, after the children of Israel make the idolatrous golden calf, Moses is broken-hearted and begs God for mercy, even being willing to be damned himself if need be so that God will show compassion.

³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” ³¹ So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. ³² But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”

In Romans 9, Paul makes one of the most impassioned pleas for the salvation of the Jews in all of scripture:

¹ I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— ² that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. ⁴ They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. ⁵ To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

And above all else is the Lord Jesus who, in Matthew 23, weeps over Jerusalem:

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁸ See, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

An honest question for an honest people: has your heart been broken and moved to action? When you look around you and see the spiritual lostness of people, do you care? Do you? Do we? Do I?

Paul did, as have all great men and women of God.

Paul’s mission was driven by a singular conviction that the gospel of Christ really was THE truth above all other rival religious or spiritual claims.

And behind this broken-heartedness lay a conviction: the gospel of Christ really is THE truth above all other rival religious or spiritual claims. The Athenians take him up to the Areopagus to hear what he has to say. Notice the conviction of his words. Notice the certainty of his words.

²² So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, ²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

Paul begins strategically, telling the Athenians that he had noticed an altar with the words “To the unknown god” on it. He then announced he would now tell them about this God of whom they were ignorant. This kind of talk may sound arrogant to our modern ears, ears accustomed to being told that nobody can really know THE truth. But Paul believed that Jesus was THE truth and that the Athenians needed desperately to know Him.

So he begins to tell them about this God. He informs them that God is not confined to a temple. He informs them that God is not a needy idol that needs people to bring Him things. On the contrary, he says that it is God who gives us everything. He is not a greedy, petty god caught in an idol in a temple. He is the life-giving God of all.

Jaroslav Pelikan pointed out that Paul mainly used what theologians refer to as “apophatic language” to describe God in this sermon. The idea behind apophatic language is that all positive assertions about God inevitably fail to capture the true essence of who God is. Thus, it is sometimes most effective to speak apophatically, or negatively, about what God is not. This way of speaking about God is especially common among Greek Orthodox theologians.[5] So when Paul says that God is not bound to a temple and is not served by human hands, this is what he is doing: he is getting at the truth of who God is by asserting what God is not.

Please note what is happening here: Paul, a follower of Jesus, is standing in the most religiously diverse city in the world, amidst 30,000 altars to even more alleged gods, amidst countless temples and altars and idols, and before an Athenian audience comprised of a hodgepodge of complete philosophical and theological schools of thoughts and consisting of people who made a sport of trading and arguing opinions. And it is in this context that Paul dares to raise his voice and say to them, “You people have been worshiping in ignorance. You do not know the truth of God. But I do. And I will now tell you about Him.”

Again, this kind of boldness only happens when the person speaking believes in his or her heart of hearts that Jesus Christ is THE truth.

I ask you: are you absolutely convinced that Jesus Christ is THE truth, the truth above all other claims? If you are not so convinced, you will not be a bold witness bearer.

Paul’s mission was driven by an urgency arising from the recognition that we are running out of time.

So Paul has a broken heart moved to action and Paul has fierce convictions, but there is something else. There is also a sense of astounding urgency. Why? Because Paul believed that the human race is running out of time and that, when time ran out, the judgment of God was waiting. Listen:

²⁶ And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, ²⁷ that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, ²⁸ for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ ²⁹ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. ³⁰ The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹ because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Amazing! Paul tells the audience that they have been walking in ignorance, and that God had been merciful, but that now it was time for the Athenians to repent and to believe in God, to trust in the One Who God had sent and Who had been raised from the dead. He then told them that there was a fixed day, a day of judgment that was waiting for all of us. Thus, the people needed to hear him and respond and repent and trust in the true God!

These final words from Paul elicited quite a reaction from the crowd.

³² Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” ³³ So Paul went out from their midst. ³⁴ But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Some laughed, some mocked, some jeered, some were merely curious, but a few believed! What a brilliant sermon! What courage! What bravery! What conviction!

Paul was a man who had not grown flippant about serious things, who had not grown accustomed to matters of life and death. He was a man who always kept before his eyes what mattered and why it mattered. His heart broke for the lostness of man and, as a result, he went to them and pleaded with them to believe in Jesus Christ.

Oh Church: we must love like this, go like this, speak like this, reach like this, grieve like this, and be bold like this! C.H. Spurgeon, the great preacher from yesteryear through whom God did such mighty things, said this:

If sinners be dammed, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there UNWARNED and UNPRAYED for.

That is it! That is it! May it be so!

[1] R. Kent Hughes, Acts. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1996), p.230.

[2] Clinton E. Arnold, “Acts.” Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. Vol.2. Clinton E. Arnold, gen. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), p.388-389.

[3] https://www.madinamerica.com/2014/08/religious-psychiatric-atheism-success-epicurus-failure-thomas-szasz/

[4] Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), p.514.

[5] Pelikan’s observations on apophatic language and Paul’s use of it is well worth considering. Jaroslav Pelikan, Acts. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2005), p.193-196.

Acts 17:1-15

¹ Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. ² And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³ explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” ⁴ And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. ⁵ But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. ⁶ And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, ⁷ and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” ⁸ And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. ⁹ And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. ¹⁰ The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹ Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. ¹² Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. ¹³ But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. ¹⁴ Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. ¹⁵ Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

Jim Elliot, writing in his journal on June 23, 1947, said the following:

Missionaries are very human folks, just doing what they are asked. Simply a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody.[i]

I like that. There is a gloriously understated feeling about it, yet something razor-sharp-accurate as well: “a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody.” How very true! It has always been so throughout the history of the Church. God takes a bunch of nobodies and lets them tell others about Somebody: Jesus. This was precisely what Paul and his amazing team did, and oh the adventures they had!

In the first fifteen verses of Acts 17 we continue this missionary team’s story as they go to Thessalonica and then to Berea. Their first stop is difficult and challenging. Their second stop is sweet. Even so, their approach was the same, and that is telling. They had a commission, a calling, and their calling was the same regardless of whether the waters were rough or smooth. This team had in fact by now developed certain missionary habits, and they are evidenced in our text. The habits of Paul’s missionary team were:

1. They went to the lost and did not expect the lost to come to them.
2. They were well grounded in the scripture.
3. They experienced both acceptance and rejection, but pressed on regardless.

Let us consider how these play out in the verses before us. We will do so by jumping about in our text and seeing these habits acted out.

They went to the lost and did not expect the lost to come to them.

Let us first observe that in both Thessalonica and Berea, these early missionaries went to the lost and did not expect the lost to come to them.

¹ Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. ^2a And Paul went in, as was his custom

¹⁰ The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.

These two phrases – “And Paul went in, as was his custom” and “when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue” – should be emblazoned on our hearts. They reveal the method and the mindset of Paul. They went to those who needed the name of Jesus, not vice versa.

It is always a joy and pleasure when those who do not know the Lord come to church. This is a good thing! We should indeed invite those who are not believers to come with us to God’s house. More than that, when the lost come they should hear the gospel. But let us not deceive ourselves: many who are lost never have and never will step foot in a local church. The question is will we go them?

In their book Missional Essentials, Brad Brisco and Lance Ford draw a distinction between the “attractional” church model and the “missional” church model. The attractional model attempts to attract people on the outside to come in. The missional model sees the church going to where people are to reach them. They argue persuasively that the New Testament vision of the Church is missional rather than attractional, and say:

…the attractional posture of most churches requires those outside the reach of the church to do the crosscultural work to find Jesus. In other words, we are asking those who are far away from God to become like missionaries and cross over the cultural barriers to come to us. But it is the church that comprises the missionary people of God. We are the ones who are sent![ii]

That is a brilliant and painful insight: we are essentially requiring the lost to be missionaries (i.e., expecting them to come to us) if we do not go to them. But the gospel challenge is not for the lost to seek the Lord; it is for the saved to go to the lost and tell them about Jesus.

In a practical sense, do you live this out? Would you say that your life is marked by a knowing, intentional effort to reach lost people where they are? If not, why not?

They were well grounded in the scriptures.

It is also noteworthy and convicting to see the extensive, careful, impactful usage of scripture that these early missionaries made.

² And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³ explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

¹⁰ The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹ Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

In Thessalonica, Paul “reasoned with them from the Scriptures.” That is no token engagement with God’s Word. This is a deep and meaningful grasp of the Word and utilization of it for the task of leading people to Christ. Furthermore, they do the same in Berea. When we are told that the Bereans “examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” we can be sure that Paul was there with them in the process. For one thing, they were certainly responding to biblical arguments from Paul. For another, this likely included an element of dialogue between the Bereans and Paul. John Stott has made some interesting observations about Paul, the Bereans, and the role that scripture played in their conversion.

What is impressive is that neither speaker nor hearers used Scripture in a superficial, unintelligent or proof-texting way. On the contrary, Paul ‘argued’ out of the Scriptures and the Bereans ‘examined’ them to see if his arguments were cogent. And we may be sure that Paul welcomed and encouraged this thoughtful response. He believed in doctrine (his message had theological content), but not in indoctrination (tyrannical instruction demanding uncritical acceptance). As Bengel wrote about verse 11, ‘a characteristic of the true religion is that it suffers itself to be examined into, and its claims to be so decided upon’. Thus Paul’s arguments and his hearers’ studies went hand in hand. I do not doubt that he also bathed both in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit of truth to open his mouth to explain, and his hearers’ minds to grasp, the good news of salvation in Christ.[iii]

Indeed, there truly was no “superficial, unintelligent or proof-texting” approach to scripture in Paul’s ministry. Everything we read in our text suggests careful, reasoned intentionality and even intensity. Ajith Fernando lists six words from our passage that “describe the evangelism of Paul and Silas” along with accompanying explanations of these words.

1. Paul “reasoned” (dialegomai) in the synagogues (v. 2).
2. How the reasoning that constituted apologetics was done is explained in verse 3 with two more key words: “explaining” (dianoigo) and “proving” (paratithemi). Dianoigo literally means to open, and the idea behind this word is well expressed in Luke 24: 32: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
3. Thus, to the exposition Paul added “proving” (paratithemi), which means he carefully answered questions posed to him, responded to their objections, and demonstrated the validity of his claims.
4. Paul “proclaimed” (katangello) a clear message about Jesus Christ to the Thessalonians (v. 3b).
5. The next two words, “persuaded” and “joined” (v. 4), describe the response to the message. The aim of apologetics is not simply discussion so that we can know what each other believes. Rather, it is to “persuade” (peitho).
6. Conversion is also implied in the word translated “joined” (proskleroo), which appears only here in the New Testament.[iv]

The Thessalonians were less open to the gospel than were the Bereans, but Paul’s approach remained the same. He opened the Word of God and spoke it. He was well grounded in it. He knew it well enough to lead people to Christ through it.

It begs the question: can you and I do the same? Are you well grounded enough in scripture that you could take a Bible, open it, and lead somebody to Christ? Can you? More than that, if you are challenged from scripture, do you know it well enough to reason in the scriptures with somebody who may have questions?

When all is said in done, history will record that one of the greatest tragedies of our church age was biblical illiteracy. At the exact same time that radical, aggressive atheism seems to be spreading around the world, Christians seem to be less and less engaged in the serious business of Bible study. This simply cannot stand. If nothing else, the clear example of these early missionaries should challenge and sufficiently rebuke us. They knew the Word and could reason from it!

They experienced both acceptance and rejection, but pressed on regardless.

There is also a refreshing degree of resiliency and resolve in these brothers. They experienced both acceptance and rejection, but they pressed on regardless. You can see these dynamics at work in both Thessalonica and Berea.

⁴ And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. ⁵ But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. ⁶ And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, ⁷ and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” ⁸ And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. ⁹ And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

¹¹ Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. ¹² Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. ¹³ But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. ¹⁴ Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. ¹⁵ Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

Notice that in both places some believed but many did not. And in both cases, they were eventually driven out by an angry mob. We would do well to take note of this: not all or even most of those to whom we reach out with the gospel will be receptive. To bear witness is to receive rejection. That is a given.

But what of those who receive the truth and are saved? Are they worth it? Paul and Silas and the others clearly thought so. We should remember that they were willing to take beatings and imprisonments and all manner of degrading reactions to their efforts so long as the few who would believe would do so.

Most of us are familiar with the book or the movie versions of “True Grit.” The title comes from Mattie telling Rooster Cogburn that has true grit, by which she means courage and resolve and endurance. It is probably the case that the Church today needs to gain a sense of such grit. We have, to put it mildly, become somewhat soft. We complain of any hint of persecution and, in truth, we rarely bare witness with such boldness that invites persecution.

Whether we realize it or not, we are fighting now for the future of the Church. We are fighting for the Church that our children and grandchildren will inherit. What we do know – how well we ground ourselves in the Bible and how courageously we bear witness – will be passed on to generations to come.

My prayer is that the example of this early missionary team will spur us on to boldness and to resolve. We are a people in desperate need of reclaiming our backbones. We are here because brave men and women before us did not quit, did not give up, and felt that it was a privilege to take the light into the darkness. We must go and do likewise.

[i] Daniel L. Akin, Five Who Changed the World (Wake Forest, NC: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008), 94.

[ii] Brad Brisco and Lance Ford. Missional Essentials. (Kansas City, MO: The House Studio, 2012), p.13.

[iii] Stott, John (2014-04-02). The Message of Acts (The Bible Speaks Today Series) (Kindle Locations 4971-4977). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

[iv] Fernando, Ajith (2010-12-21). Acts (The NIV Application Commentary) (p. 412-414). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Acts 16:25-40

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, ²⁶ and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. ²⁷ When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸ But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” ²⁹ And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. ³⁰ Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” ³¹ And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” ³² And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. ³³ And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. ³⁴ Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. ³⁵ But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” ³⁶ And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” ³⁷ But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” ³⁸ The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. ³⁹ So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. ⁴⁰ So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.

Let me introduce you to James Ireland, a great Baptist preacher from yesteryear. (William Grady has written a nice summary of Ireland’s life so we will use some portions of his summary for our consideration of the man.)

While on a recent Baptist history tour in the South, the Lord afforded me one of the more unusual speaking opportunities of my ministry. As the Holy Ghost bore witness, I preached the Word of God to over forty pastors and laymen assembled in a cow pasture! What sanctified our otherwise unorthodox sanctuary was a lone grave marker that read:

IN MEMORY OF JAMES IRELAND

1748 – 1806

MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL

The stone went on to inform that Ireland, an “ORGANIZER OF BAPTIST CHURCHES”, was “IMPRISONED AT CULPEPER, VA. FOR PREACHING THE GOSPEL.” In the fall of 1769, Pastor James Ireland was arrested at a preaching service during his own closing prayer by two officials who seized him by the collar before he could even open his eyes. When he appeared in court to answer their charge of “preaching without proper credentials,” the quorum of eleven magistrates declared that they would have no more of his “vile, pernicious, abhorrent [sic], detestable, diabolical doctrines” as they “were nauseous [sic] to the whole court.” The convicted pastor spent his first night of confinement in a cell full of drunks. In the morning, he was informed by the avaricious jailer, a certain Mr. Steward (who was also the local tavern keeper), that any visitors he might receive would have to pay a “fee” of four shillings and eight pence.

Apparently, it was going to be a long six months. Because of the immense crowds that were assembling to hear Ireland preach through the grates (the iron bars in his cell window), a number of plots were set in motion against him. A bomb was planted in his quarters, which “went off with a considerable noise,” but the preacher was miraculously spared, testifying, “I was singing a hymn at the time the explosion went off, and continued singing until I finished it.” On another occasion, his captors attempted to smother him by burning pods of Indian peppers filled with brimstone near the bottom of his cell door. Stating that the “whole jail would be filled with the killing smoke,” Ireland recounted that the threatening situation would “oblige me to go to cracks, and put my mouth to them to prevent suffocation.” A scheme between the jailer and a certain doctor to poison the preacher also met with failure. (However, three years later another attempt to poison Ireland at his home left one of his precious children dead.) Despite these many hardships, the man of God testified:

“My prison was a place in which I enjoyed much of the divine presence; a day seldom passed without some signal token and manifestation of the divine goodness towards me, which generally led me to subscribe my letters, to whom I wrote them, in these words, ‘From my Palace in Culpeper‘.”…

While some of his enemies were laid low, others were brought under deep conviction. After doing everything to disrupt Ireland’s services, from having horses ridden at a gallop over those in attendance, to the securing of vile persons who “made their water in his face” while he was preaching, the exasperated jailer succumbed to the kindness of his captive…[1]

It is a powerful and memorable story: a jailed preacher of the gospel who used his otherwise deplorable circumstances for Kingdom impact, to the inspiration of all who would later consider him. There is something otherworldly about the behavior of James Ireland in his Culpeper prison. It is certainly not the normal course of behavior for a wrongfully imprisoned man! What is most fascinating about it, though, is that Ireland’s shocking prison behavior is actually situated in a long line of similar examples, stretching all the way back to the early Church. Consider our text, Acts 16:25-40, and the story it tells of Paul and Silas’ imprisonment in Philippi. Let us do so not from the perspective of the imprisoned preachers, but rather from the perspective of their jailor, the Philippian jailor, who marveled at what he saw in the two men.

The Philippian jailor was stunned by and attracted to the otherworldly values of the imprisoned believers.

Immediately preceding our text, we saw that Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into a Philippian prison. This was because they cast a demon out of a little possessed slave girl who was making her owners quite a good bit of money as an oracle for the spirits. Thus, the exorcism that Paul conducted on this girl was costly to her owners who, as a result, went and stirred up opposition against the missionaries. So they were thrown into prison, which, I will remind you, was no easy thing back in that day. While there, something shocking happens.

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, ²⁶ and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. ²⁷ When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸ But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” ²⁹ And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. ³⁰ Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

What an amazing scene! Paul and Silas are worshipping God, an earthquake comes, their chains are loosed and the prison doors are flung open. The jailor, assuming that all the prisoners have fled, prepares to kill himself (for death would be the penalty for his losing a prison full of inmates anyway), but Paul informs him that they are, in fact, still there. Amazed, the jailor asks, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

In other words, in a very short period of time, the jailor moves from thoughts of suicide to thoughts of salvation. Why? Because of the otherworldly values that he saw demonstrated by Paul and Silas. There was something in their behavior that absolutely stunned and shocked him. It also attracted him to their lifestyle. He wanted to know what it was that they had. He wanted it for himself. Thus, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

What were these otherworldly values? If you look at our text, you will see two things in particular that stand out: (1) joyful worship in the midst of suffering and (2) a refusal to seize an opportunity for self-preservation.

First, the jailor was no doubt amazed at the joyful worship Paul and Silas were engaged in in the midst of suffering.

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them

I realize that the jailor is awakened by the earthquake, but there is no reason to think that he had not heard them worshipping before he went to bed or that he was not generally aware of it in waking moments throughout the night. He was no doubt already struck by the radical incongruity between their imprisonment and their general postures of praise. Apparently everybody in the prison was so struck for Luke tells us that “the prisoners were listening to them.”

Brothers and sisters, here is a fact: nothing will so capture the attention of those who are watching you as an attitude of worship when everything is going wrong for you. Make no mistake, how you handle misfortune will say more to those around you about your walk with Jesus than mere words every will. This jailor was no doubt amazed by the overall demeanor of these Christian prisoners, and it played no small part in opening his heart to the gospel.

So it was and so it ever will be. Jim Belcher has written of the behavior of the Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer when he was thrown into Tegel prison as a result of his part in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Belcher writes of how Bonhoeffer’s behavior impressed both the prisoners and the guards who watched him.

But he did not just sit around. As soon as the authorities returned his Bible, which they had confiscated on the first day, each day he rose early to pray, to sing the psalms and read Scripture. He meditated on a verse of the Bible for thirty minutes. He interceded for others, lifting up his friends and relatives, his former students, some who were in prison or in concentration camps. He prayed for the Jews, who were suffering so much. He prayed for his new friends, both prisoners and guards, at Tegel. His daily liturgy gave him strength. In spite of the isolation, the dark thoughts at night, the constant homesickness, and the fear of torture and execution, Bonhoeffer began to build a life in prison. For hours each day he studied, wrote letters and continued his scholarship.

            His strong, optimistic outlook began to win over many guards. Impressed by his strength through trial, his good cheer to all, the guards started to bring their own problems to him, looking for advice or wisdom from this famous prisoner. In return for his counsel, they, at great danger to themselves, smuggled out his letters to Bethge, which years later would bring him great fame. Prisoners also sought his counsel, knowing that he was someone they could talk to, a person who would understand them. Since he was one of the few people that truly cared for others, and not just for himself, fellow prisoners wanted to be close to him.

Christian History magazine has provided a few other interesting insights into Bonhoeffer’s prison behavior and its results.

During Allied bombing raids over Berlin, Bonhoeffer’s calm deeply impressed his fellow prisoners at Tegel Prison. Prisoners and even guards used all kinds of tricks to get near him and find the comfort of exchanging a few words with him.

The majority of Bonhoeffer’s classic Letters and Papers from Prison was smuggled out by guards who chose to assist Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer could have escaped from prison but chose not to for the sake of others. He had prepared to escape with one of the guards when he learned that his brother Klaus had been arrested. Fearing reprisals against his brother and his family if he escaped, Bonhoeffer stayed in prison.[2]

How the people of God respond to severe trials can either draw people to or repel people from the God we claim to worship. But this fact is no less true for the smaller trials as well. The truth of the matter is that most of us will likely never be in a situation to worship God from the inside of a prison cell. We will, however, be given multiple opportunities this year to worship God when things do not go our way at work, at school, at home, and even at church.

How do you respond to adversity? Are you known around the water cooler as the man or woman who is unflappable in the midst of trials, who continues to worship the Lord God even when things go wrong for you? Let us please consider the amazing missionary opportunity in the ways we respond to suffering.

Let us also consider how our refusal to seize opportunities for self-preservation can further our witness for Christ. This is precisely what Paul and Silas did.

²⁷ When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸ But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” ²⁹ And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. ³⁰ Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

They could have fled, but they did not! This seems to be the major factor in leading the jailor to call for salvation. Why? Because nothing is so counterintuitive as refusing to seize an opportunity for self-preservation.

Nobody has to teach human beings to assert their instinct for survival. We are born wanting to live, to survive, to avoid danger, to flee hardship. More than that, we are born wanting to assert our rights (as soon as we understand them). I repeat: self-preservation does not have to be taught! We understand this, especially as Americans. We are a people who are quick to assert our rights, especially if doing so can remove us from potential calamity.

But Paul and Silas do not do so. They do not flee the prison. They do not remove themselves from danger. Why? Because somehow and in some way the Lord God had convicted their hearts that staying was more beneficial to the Kingdom than fleeing. And so it turned out to be: the jailor is so amazed that they stayed that it opens his heart to wanting to know what kind of God it is that could make men like this.

Do you want to draw people to Christ? Then do not be the first in line for the safety train, for the advancement train, for the “saving your own hide” train. Learn to look at situations for their potential Kingdom impact instead of for what impact they may have for you personally. Ajith Fernando has given an interesting historical example of this very phenomenon.

Western powers crushed the Boxer uprising of 1900 in China, in which approximately 30,000 Chinese Christians died. The Chinese were forced by the Western powers into agreeing to pay high compensation for losses. Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission and several other Christians refused this compensation in accordance with the spirit of Christ.

Faced with an opportunity for personal profit, personal advancement, and, indeed, a measure of vengeance, the great missionary society China Inland Mission said “no” to the money. Why? Not because they did not need it or could not use it, but because they perceived that there was greater Kingdom impact to be had if they said “no.” So they said no. The result, according to Arthur Glasser, was as follows:

The Chinese were amazed. In Shanshi province a government proclamation was posted far and wide extolling Jesus Christ and his principles of forbearance and forgiveness…This official endorsement served to diminish the antiforeign spirit of the people and contributed not a little to the growth of the church in China in the years that followed.[3]

Because China Inland Mission took the surprising step of refusing an opportunity for self-preservation, a Chinese province, in amazement, officially posted a proclamation “extolling Jesus Christ and his principles of forbearance and forgiveness”!

Amazing! Absolutely amazing!

Church: we should be modeling otherworldly values, values that catch the fallen world off guard.

When you should complain, worship! When you have an opportunity to preserve or advance your own interests, consider the interests of the lost people around you! We should be shocking the world with the way we live!

The Philippian jailor moved from curiosity to belonging as a result of the example and witness of Paul and Silas.

As a result of Paul and Silas’ behavior, the jailor says, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” In other words, how do I get what you two have got? How do I become a part of this? In so asking, he was moving from curiosity about these men to belonging to the life to which they were bearing witness. Notice their response.

³¹ And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” ³² And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. ³³ And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. ³⁴ Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. ³⁵ But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” ³⁶ And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” ³⁷ But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” ³⁸ The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. ³⁹ So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. ⁴⁰ So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.

Paul and Silas tell him the way of salvation: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” How simple. How beautiful! They do go on to instruct him further: “And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.” But whatever else they said (likely explaining the need for repentance and the reality of the cross and resurrection), they gave them the core: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

James Montgomery Boice helpful observes concerning Paul and Silas’ response to the jailor:

Notice that Paul did not suggest counseling…He did not give a lecture on theology. He did not explore the significance of the jailer’s religious terms. He did not talk about the sacraments. He did not even talk about the church. Those things could be dealt with in time, but this was not the time. The man was asking about salvation, and the apostle replied directly: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.”[4]

They call on him to embrace Christ, and he and his household do so. They trust in Christ and are baptized and they too begin to worship and to praise God! They also immediately begin to live out their new life in Christ by feeding Paul and Silas and washing their wounds. How glorious! How wonderful this is! The Venerable Bede called this “a beautiful exchange,” noting that “for them [the jailor] washed the wounds from their blows, and through them he was relieved of the wounds of his own guilty acts.”[5]

Both were bathed: Paul and Silas had their wounds bathed and the jailor and his household had their hearts bathed in the blood of Christ!

Our text concludes with the officials calling for Paul and Silas to be released and with Paul insisting that these officials come themselves and release them since they had wrongfully persecuted a Roman citizen. F.F. Bruce explains:

By a series of Valerian and Porcian laws enacted between the beginning of the Roman Republic and the early second century B.C. Roman citizens were exempted from degrading forms of punishment and had certain valued rights established for them in relation to the law. These privileges had been more recently reaffirmed under the empire by a Julian law dealing with public disorder.

What this meant was that any Roman citizen needing to claim the protection of his legal status would simply proclaim ciuis Romanus sum, “I am a Roman citizen.”[6] This is what Paul does. Why? We can be sure it was not an effort to be petty or vengeful. Rather, he was almost certainly seeking to establish some degree of protection for the newly founded church in Philippi. He likely reasoned that his actions here would remind the authorities that the one who planted this church was a Roman citizen who they had wronged and probably concluded that having the authorities recognize their mistake would lead them to be more favorably disposed toward the Christians they would leave behind.

Regardless, Paul and Silas had an amazing impact on Philippi! They led Lydia to the Lord. They conducted an exorcism that led to the freeing and the salvation of a possessed slave girl. They bore amazing witness to Christ while imprisoned resulting in the salvation of the jailor and his family (at least). And they took steps to extend some protections to the church they were leaving behind as they moved on.

I ask you: what are you going to do this year? How are you going to respond to adversities and to trials? Will you worship God in the dark times? Will you worship him in such a way that people want to follow Him with you?

Let it be so! Let it be so!

[1] https://www.wilderness-cry.net/bible_study/articles/licensed.html

[2] Jim Belcher, “The Secret of Finkenwalde.” Bonhoeffer, Christ and Culture. Eds., Keith L. Johnson, Timothy Larsen (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013), p.196. https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/dietrich-bonhoeffer-did-you-know/

[3] Fernando, Ajith (2010-12-21). Acts (The NIV Application Commentary) (p. 404). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

[4] James Montgomery Boice, Acts. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), p.283.

[5] Francis Martin, ed. Acts. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament, vol.V. Thomas C. Oden, gen. ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), p.209.

[6] Bruce, F.F. (1988-06-30). The Book of Acts (New International Commentary on the New Testament) (p.319-320). Eerdmans Publishing Co – A. Kindle Edition.