Week 24, Acts 19 Hook Main Point: God can use any type of person to overcome any type of obstacle that stands against His mission. Activity: Thomas Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park, acquired a record number of 1,093 patents in his lifetime. He was the driving force behind inventions such as the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb and one of the earliest motion picture cameras. 1 However, not every invention was a success. While the inventor suffered setbacks, he chose to continue to push forward. Below are several examples of Edison products that failed: 1. The Talking Doll Edison designed this product to quickly turn a profit that could support his lab work. However, the dolls were not well received. The toy contained a small phonograph that produced the doll s voice; the doll was fragile, broke easily, and the voice was described as just ghastly. The product lasted on the market less than one month before Edison pulled it from the shelves. 2. The Edison Home Service Club Before there was Netflix, there was the Edison Home Service Club. This service sent consumers 20 records in the mail to be played on the Edison phonograph. Customers had two days to decide which records they wanted to purchase before mailing the others back. 1 http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/thomas-edison
3. The Electric Pen This invention was meant to assist administrators who needed to make multiple copies of handwritten documents. The pen was powered by a small motor that moved the needle of the pen up and down. Instead of releasing ink, the device punched small holes through the paper s surface. That wax paper would then be used as a stencil of the document. Ink would be rolled over the wax onto a blank sheet of paper, essentially printing the document. 4. The Home Projecting Kinetoscope Following the success of his motion picture camera, Edison released a home motion projector that featured short films. Although the machines worked well, they were too expensive and stocked with unappealing films. About 2,500 machines were shipped to dealers and only 500 were sold. 2 What are some products that have been produced in your lifetime that you would label as failures? Describe a failure in your life that became an obstacle to your long-term success. How did you overcome it? Describe some obstacles that exist in America today that challenge the furthering of the Gospel. How have you seen God begin to move past these obstacles? Transition: Today s lesson will examine God s resourcefulness to use some unexpected characters to overcome obstacles to the Gospel. 2 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/7-epic-fails-brought-to-you-by-the-genius-mind-of-thomasedison-180947786/
Week 24, Acts 19 Book Main Point: God can use any type of person to overcome any type of obstacle that stands against His mission. Text Summary: Acts 19 This chapter begins Paul s third missionary journey, recording the details of the apostle s work in Ephesus. Luke focuses on God s incredible power to overcome various obstacles false religions, Christians more interested in certain leaders than Christ Himself, stubborn unbelief, slander, demonic oppression, and even a city-sized mob attack. No matter what Paul and his team face in Ephesus, no matter what we face today, this chapter shows us God can overcome it all to move the Gospel forward. Read: Acts 19:1-20 [Read] Sub-Point: God can overcome any obstacle that tries to hinder the Gospel s advancement. Verse 1 As we saw in the last chapter, Aquila and Priscilla have been heading up the church in Ephesus while Paul has been away. Now, Luke shifts the focus back to Paul. The apostle is finally in Ephesus and begins his ministry, starting with his desire to equip the current believers there. Verses 2 5 At first blush, the men Paul finds seem to be disciples, but it becomes obvious their loyalty is more to John the Baptist than to Christ. Scholars tell us that this group likely considered John the Baptist as the peak of divine revelation, perhaps even the Messiah Himself. 3 Paul s question and confusion shows us his belief that faith in Christ and being indwelt by the Holy Spirit go together. Seeing where the problem lies, the apostle now starts to distinguish between John s message and Christ s work. John s baptism, he tells them, was a baptism of repentance, something that pointed beyond itself to One coming after, namely, Christ! In focusing on Jesus now, the true peak of divine revelation, this group is now formally baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, not John. This group is not getting re-baptized, but upon their profession of faith, are getting baptized once and for all under the proper name and work of Jesus Christ. 4 3 Longenecker, EBC, 1004. 4 Longenecker, EBC, 1005.
Q: Have you ever encountered someone who religiously follows a certain spokesman for Christ, but not Christ himself? How can Paul s example teach us how to respond to this type of person? Q: How do you think John the Baptist would have responded to these folks at Ephesus? Verses 6 7 Upon hearing the Gospel, professing faith, and being baptized, these men are immediately filled with the Holy Spirit, which presents in the form of tongues and prophecies God s way of authenticating true belief. Tongues and prophecies show up a few different times in Acts as a mini-pentecost of sorts, the Holy Spirit s way of validating His advancement of the Gospel in new stages, first to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem, then to the Samaritans through Philip, then to the Gentiles by Peter, and here to the dispersed Jews through Paul. 5 In this section, we see that God can overcome the false religion of Christ-less Christianity by restoring the focus on Jesus when it s on the wrong person. Q: Do you think any forms of Christ-less Christianity still exists today? Explain. Verses 8 10 In these verses, Paul reasons in the synagogues for Christ. As usual, some in the assembly are stubborn and continue in their unbelief. More than simply choosing not to believe the Christian message, they start slandering it in front of others, overtly working against Paul. In response, Paul simply moves on, choosing to start preaching in the hall of Tyrannus a local philosopher nicknamed by his students for his tyrannical demeanor. 6 This particular place of preaching was obviously blessed by God s hand, given that Paul was able to preach there for two full years. We see that Paul used this blessing of God wisely and productively. Paul taught six days a week for about five hours a day (according to ancient sources), so he ended up providing 3,120 hours of lecture, discussion, persuasion and reasoning in the hall of Tyrannus over the course of two years in Ephesus! 7 By God s grace, Paul s work bore remarkable fruit. Everyone in Asia hears the Gospel and many churches are planted throughout the area (cf. Colossians 1:7, 2:1; 4:16; Revelation 2 3). 8 Here we see that God can overcome the obstacle of stubborn unbelief as we continue to make His name known everywhere we go. Q: How have you seen God overcome stubborn unbelief in your own life? How have you seen God overcome the slander His people sometimes endure? 5 Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word Commentary Series (Acts), 250. 6 Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word Commentary Series (Acts), 254 255, and Longenecker, EBC, 1006 1007. 7 Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word Commentary Series (Acts), 255. 8 Longenecker, EBC, 1007.
Verses 11 12 God accompanies the advancement of His Gospel with remarkable miracles, validating that the message of Christ carried by Paul is true. We must not think Paul is sitting back in luxury or taking a break at this point, letting God take care of people without human cooperation. On the contrary, the Greek word for handkerchiefs in verse 12 carries a Latin root meaning sweat, and the aprons mentioned are those Paul wore in his gritty work of tent making and handling leather. 9 Luke is making sure we know that God is the one authenticating and directing everything, but Paul is breaking a serious sweat in his ministry as he cooperates with the Lord! True Gospel ministry requires us to expend ourselves for the sake of others. Q: Do you think let go and let God is a good philosophy of ministry? Why or why not? Verses 13 14 The miraculous works being done in the name of Jesus understandably gets the attention of the Sons of Sceva, the local Jewish exorcists. Exorcism, at the time, was a common trade. Pagan exorcists could only invoke the name of their own gods, who were considered to have limited jurisdiction in certain places and things. But Jewish exorcists claimed the ability to summon the secret name and pronunciation of Israel s God, Yahweh, who held power over all of heaven and earth, making these exorcists practice more lucrative and in-demand than others. Verses 15 16 They try to call oppressive spirits out of their clients, using the name of Jesus. If this guy, Paul, could do these miraculous things in the name of Jesus, why couldn t they? Much to their dismay, the oppressive spirit puts them in their place, showing all the onlookers just how unimportant and unable they are to access God s power! The demonic spirit surely knows Jesus name, and even Paul s Jesus faithful servant who has been causing the demonic realm all sorts of trouble but they certainly don t know or respect the sons of Sceva! In a most ironic twist, the oppressive spirits now jump on the false exorcists themselves, causing them to run naked and wounded down the streets! Verses 17 20 It s not long before everyone in the city knows what happened, and it is clear who is in control and who is not. Knowing God is not one to be mocked or profited from, many unbelievers come to fear the Lord and hold high the name of Christ, the One who can even overcome demons! In fact, they showed how much they feared the Lord by coming forward to confess their occult habits, repenting of them by burning all their materials used to practice the magic arts. Here we learn that God can overcome even demonic powers. Q: How can you tell if someone is attempting to use God s power for personal profit? How can you respond to this? Luke finishes up by saying that the Gospel continued to advance forward mightily, regardless of the obstacles. We can take great courage from this section that God is clearly able to move His mission 9 Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word Commentary Series (Acts), 256.
forward in the world, no matter the obstacle. Whether we face stubborn opposition, unbelief, Christ-less Christians or even demonic forces, God is more powerful and promises to overcome. Read: Acts 19:21-24 [Read] Sub-Point: God uses both believers and non-believers to move His mission forward. Verses 21 22 In these verses, Paul makes a major decision to conclude his ministry in the east and move westward to Rome. This choice marks a major transition in the book of Acts, where Luke s narrative continually drives toward Rome. 10 Verses 23 27 Before Paul heads west, however, he faces a final obstacle to the Gospel in Ephesus a riot instigated by a band of angry craftsman. The initial ringleader of the riot is a silversmith named Demetrius, who fashioned silver shrines to the goddess Artemis, the deity of choice in Ephesus. The temple of Artemis was the hub of economic life in this city, and the goddess was known most for her alleged ability to protect and preserve the fruitfulness of all living things. Demetrius understandably mixed economics with religion. Worship of the goddess required all sorts of goods like shrines, replicas, festival supplies and offerings. The silversmith sees a major problem with Paul s message, especially that a god could not be made with human hands. His speech highlights the economic ramifications of the Gospel. Local artisans could say goodbye to their big business if Paul s God becomes the new trend in Ephesian spirituality! To cover himself, though, Demetrius slides in some pious words about Artemis to finish his speech, ensuring his motives are seen as religious. Q: In what ways does our culture today mix religion with economics? What types of businesses would be in jeopardy if Christianity spread like wildfire in America? Verses 28 33 His speech electrifies the anger of his fellow craftsmen, who also base their livelihood on fabricating goods for idol worship. Together, they cry out in solidarity for Artemis, and drag out various companions of Paul, likely wanting to tear them limb from limb. This causes such a commotion that the whole city ends up in confusion and chaos. The scene makes sense. The town is celebrating the Artemis festival a month of debauchery chock-full of athletic contests, drinking, partying, prostitution, and more. Given the city s total drunkenness, it is no wonder the crowd seems to be confused about why they are even rioting (v 32). 11 10 Polhill, NAC (Acts), 406 407. 11 This paragraph and the previous two paragraphs are informed by Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word Commentary Series (Acts), 263 267.
Q: In what ways does American culture cry out in solidarity for its idols? In what ways does our culture riot against each other in chaos and confusion? Verses 34 37 After hours of shouting, the mob finally quiets enough for the town clerk to talk some sense into them. The town clerk held much influence. He was the chief administrative officer of the city, presiding over both the council of city magistrates and the public assembly, and operating as a liaison between the city and the Roman provincial administration. His biggest concern is likely the impression this riot would make on Roman officials. If Rome catches wind of how out of hand this was getting, Ephesus can kiss their self-governing privileges goodbye. So he speaks and gets things in order at once. The clerk speaks logically and eloquently, helping the crowd see that, from the pagan point of view, there is no real threat to Artemis, the goddess everyone knows came to them from the sky itself (he is likely referring to a meteorite). Then he moves to the legal side of things, pointing to the fact that the Christians have done nothing illegal to the goddess or her temple. They have not blasphemed her, robbed the temple, or committed any type of vandalism against places of worship. As odd as Paul and his companions are, they are guilty of no official crime. Here we see that, though Paul and his team are not afraid to attack the idolatrous lifestyle of the Ephesians, it is not their primary approach. Simply preaching the Gospel is their primary strategy, and God Himself led new believers to repent from their idol worship (vv. 18 20). Q: Explain the balanced approach of the apostles in ministry. In what situations do they choose to purposefully offend others? In what situations do they avoid doing this? Why? Verses 38 41 Finally, the clerk offers Demetrius and his fellow artisans two courses they could take if they desired further legal action. Then he simply dismisses the crowd, and the riot is over. Most striking is that the town clerk is a local pagan official, yet God moves him to fulfill His will for Paul and the Gospel s advancement. In His great providence, God can overcome the attack of an entire city using even a non-believer, should He choose! How great is our God, who uses both believers and non-believers to move His mission forward.
Week 24, Acts 19 Took Main Point: God can use any type of person to overcome any type of obstacle that stands against His mission. Current Event: Bethany Hamilton began competitive surfing at the age of 8, and by age 9, she had secured her first sponsorship. At 13, Hamilton had a promising career and several competition successes under her belt. However, On October 31, 2003, the 13-year-old was attacked by a shark while surfing. She lost her left arm nearly up to the shoulder. Only one month after her devastating incident, Hamilton was surfing again. Two years later, she won the Explorer Women s division at the 2005 NSSA National Championships and began competing in the pro circuit in 2007. Hamilton has used her platform and celebrity to point back to her faith. In her biography, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family and Fighting to Get Back on the Board, Hamilton writes: I don't really want people looking to me for inspiration. I just want to be a sign along the way that points toward Heaven. 12 Have you heard of Bethany Hamilton? How did God overcome obstacles in her life? What obstacles has God overcome in your life? What kind of testimony did this produce in you? Lesson Conclusion: In this chapter, God has shown us just how much He can overcome for the sake of His Gospel and His people. No matter what we face be it a false religion, slander, stubborn unbelief, demonic forces, or even an entire city turned against us we can trust that God is able to overcome any obstacle to see His mission move forward. Challenges: Focus on Christ As we saw in the case of the followers of John the Baptist, sometimes we can spend more time following certain representatives for Christ, as opposed to Christ Himself. Sometimes we can make another person the peak of our Christian experience instead of Jesus. Take time to re-focus on Christ if your focus has been on someone else in this season, and re-enthrone Him as the center of your life. Break a sweat Though God was doing remarkable miracles, Paul was still applying a great deal of effort in ministry, working in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. While the Gospel is certainly against earning salvation, it s not against effort when it comes to ministry. Think about the primary way you minister to others. Are you hoping God will just show up and do something, 12 https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/298611.bethany_hamilton
while you sit back? Or are you faithfully investing in ministry to others, breaking a sweat on your handkerchief, as Paul was? In what ways do you need to minister more diligently, or put on an apron and get to work like Paul? Trust in God s power Sometimes we forget God is an overcomer. We face all sorts of obstacles in our daily lives and ministries, as Paul did in Ephesus. Sometimes in the midst of the obstacles, we assume God can t move or doesn t want to. Recall the various things God overcame in this chapter to move His mission forward and also to see His Church thrive in Ephesus. Pull out some key verses that remind you of this, and use them this week to help you trust in God s power to overcome obstacles.