acts 18:23 - 18:28: apollos
23 And having spent some time there, he left and passed successively through the Galatian region
and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
24 Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures.
25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking
and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John;
26 and he began to speak out 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 wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to
welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace,
28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
third missionary journey:
paul leaves his home base of antioch (in syria) and heads north into turkey.
this marks the start of his third (and last) missionary journey.
MEANWHILE...priscilla and aquila are still hanging out in ephesus.
a smart, eloquent dude rolls into town and starts preaching of the coming messiah from the old testament (as john the baptist did).
they pull him aside and tell him, "dude, jesus already came and died and rose."
apollos understands what's going on, and wants to proclaim the message in grease, so they send him off with a letter of authenticity.
note on the letter bit:
the early church had a system of 'vouching', a bit like the mob.
you would know if someone was legit because someone you knew was legit vouched for them.
1. It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and
came to Ephesus, and found some disciples.
2. He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said to
him, "No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit."
3. And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John's baptism."
4. Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe
in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus."
5. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began
speaking with tongues and prophesying.
7. There were in all about twelve men.
8. And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning
and persuading them about the kingdom of God.
9. But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the
people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.
10. This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
paul rolls into ephesus; he was there for a short while at the end of his 2nd journey (18:19-21)
this visit will be longer - for about two years.
more disciples of john the baptist:
at some point during these years, he encounters some disciples who, like apollos, had responded to john
the baptists message.
(*note: most likely this is all they had heard - possibly they were nominal believers, but this seems unlikely).
paul proclaims christ to them, they respond and receive the holy spirit.
jew -> gentile switch
paul actually gets 3 months in the synagoge before the jews flip out.
he and the christian jews leave and begin meeting in the school of tyrannus.
nobody knows anything about who tyrannus was or if he was a school owner or teacher etc.
there are some texts that include a note that paul taught from 11am to 4pm every day; the picture
behind that is that he works in the morning and then teaches in the afternoon.
maybe...kind of fun to think about. imagine how busy/tired/packed his life was.
11. God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul,
12. so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases
left them and the evil spirits went out.
13. But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those
who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches."
14. Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.
15. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?"
16. And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them,
so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
17. This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all
and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified.
18. Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.
19. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the
sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
20. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.
21. Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the spirit to go to Jerusalem after he
had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome."
22. And having sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself
stayed in Asia for a while.
1. ephesus was a magical place
sort of an ancient hogwarts...
worship of artemeis (big deal later in the chapter), lots of magic (mentioned here).
2. god reveals himself supernaturally
this may or may not have been normal...
it seems possible that god reveals himself supernaturally here because of the supernatural
beliefs/influence present though.
3. either way...we see god performing huge miracles through paul.
sick are healed, demons are cast out.
4. some jewish exorcists in the area hear about the power and decide to try their luck casting out a demon with the
name of jesus.
sound familiar? remember back in acts 8 when simon asked for power from peter?
5. the demon says, "sceva? hmmm...never heard of you." and beats/humiliates them .
the demoniac attacks the sons of sceva and they have to flee naked and wounded.
6. net effect? news of this spread, folks got scared, and 'the name of the lord jesus was being magnified'.
note v18 - many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.
the church has a purge of pagan spiritualism and magic.
this story establishes that god is the source of power
magic involved compulsion...
this story illustrates that it is the voluntary work of god however.
v11: God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul,
also...the sons of sceva attempt to harnass the power themselves, and the demons response
emphasizes that it is the power of god exercised through his servants that they must obey...
not a formula or use of a name/word.
1. you are never alone.
1. no idea why luke mentions apollos in acts.
2. it does coincidentally serve as a reminder that god is working in other places even when we don't know about it.
see elijah...1 kings 19 (long passage but a good reminder)
1. Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
2. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and even more, if
I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time."
3. And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah,
and left his servant there.
4. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree;
and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am
not better than my fathers."
5. He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he
said to him, "Arise, eat."
6. Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water.
So he ate and drank and lay down again.
7. The angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, "Arise, eat, because the
journey is too great for you."
8. So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to
Horeb, the mountain of God.
9. Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He
said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
10. He said, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have
forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left;
and they seek my life, to take it away."
11. So He said, "Go forth and stand on the mountain before the LORD." And behold, the LORD was
passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before
the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
12. After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.
13. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.
And behold, a voice came to him and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
14. Then he said, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken
Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek
my life, to take it away."
15. The LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived,
you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram;
16. and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah
you shall anoint as prophet in your place.
17. "It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the
one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death.
18. "Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him."
the point: you are never alone
god is at work everywhere he wants to be.
he has people doing his will - more than just you.
that should be both a rebuke and an encouragement to the overly cynical.
1. better get used to acknowledging that demons exist and are real.
i know...unless your charismatic it's not cool to acknowledge that demons exist.
2. the church seems to have authority (delegated by god) over these
- the demons recognize jesus and paul...presumably in an aspect of authority.
- this isn't presented as something that is necessarily normal either.
this text definitely doesn't support the idea that we all would be known by demons.
but it does idicate that authority over demons was present in the early church.
this was true in a number of other passages too - the disciples seem to have cast demons out while christ
was still with them (matt 10, 17).
i think this is presented as 'normal' in the new testament.
maybe not that every believer will do this...
but that the church (which we are members of) will be able to do this when necessary.
3. what do do? fear and don't be afraid.
- it is our folly that we forget our supernatural foes.
eph 5, 1 pet 5, luke 22:31...
we should remember this soberly and resist him.
- we should not fear him though
our fear is reserved for god alone.
this passage reinforces both of these beliefs nicely for me.
is paul alone in spreading the gospel?
no.
are satanic forces aware of paul...and of christ?
no.
is god involved in the work of paul?
"and god was performing extraordinary miracles by the hand of paul"
yes.
- don't lose heart. things are never too bad.
the important things are already decided (read revelation lately?)
- god is working to bring his grace and glory to earth
see god in acts, back out and see god in the bible (progress of redemption), and realize that he's still at work.
we, like paul, get to participate.
don't be distracted, discoraged, or uninvolved.