Acts 19

1 – 7

While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul was visiting some places on the way to Ephesus. There he found some followers. Paul asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They said, “We have never even heard of a Holy Spirit!”

So he asked, “What kind of baptism did you have?” They said, “It was the baptism that John taught.” Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of changed hearts and lives. He told people to believe in the One who would come after him. That One is Jesus.”

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Paul laid his hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came upon them. They began speaking different languages and prophesying. There were about 12 men in this group.

These twelve men are called followers. Remember that there were people who thought of themselves as followers but turned away from Jesus.

Many of His followers turned away and were not walking with Him anymore. John 6:66

Paul was asking these men what it is that they believed. They were taught by Apollos that they should turn away from evil and show this by being baptized. These men did not know the Gospel of Christ dying to pay the penalty for sin and rising from the dead to give new life.

Some say that these men were believers and that Paul helped them to receive the Holy Spirit so that they could speak in tongues. Those who teach this say that we need to have a “second blessing” to be a complete Christian.

This would mean that you could be called a believer without the Holy Spirit which is impossible.

Those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all. Romans 8:9

8 – 10

Paul went into the synagogue and spoke out boldly for three months. He talked with the Jews and taught them to accept the things he said about the kingdom of God. But some of the Jews became stubborn and refused to believe. These Jews said evil things about the Way of Jesus. All the people heard these things.

So Paul left them and took the followers with him. He went to a place where a man named Tyrannus had a school. There Paul talked with people every day for two years. Because of his work, every Jew and Greek in Asia heard the Word of the Lord.

We plant seeds and water them. Some of the seeds die because of the problems of this world and some die because they dry up when they are tested. All we can do is bring the message and pray for the ones we are talking to and wait for God to do the rest.

11 – 12

God used Paul to do some very special miracles. Some people took handkerchiefs and clothes that Paul had used and put them on the sick. When they did this, the sick were healed and evil spirits left them.

Paul would not have taught people to believe in something that looked like magic. Paul did not send these things to people but people who were living in darkness were healed as they put their trust in the Words of Jesus that Paul was teaching.

Jesus did something like this when He made clay to heal a blind man. You can see that the clay did not heal but the faith of the man who trusted in Jesus’ Words is what healed him.

Then he spit on the ground, made mud, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing! John 9:6–7

13 – 16

But some Jews also were traveling around and making evil spirits go out of people. The seven sons of Sceva were doing this. Sceva was a leading Jewish priest. These Jews tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus to force the evil spirits out. They would say, “By the same Jesus that Paul talks about, I order you to come out!”

But one time an evil spirit said to these Jews, “I know Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” Then the man, who had the evil spirit in him, jumped on these Jews. He was much stronger than all of them. He beat them and tore their clothes off, so they ran away from the house.

The Jews did try to cast out demons in their own power (Luke 11:19). Remember that demons are liars and will pretend that they have left only to return later (Matthew 12:44).

Do not play games with demons! If you are not walking closely with the Lord in His Word you can open yourself up to attacks from demons! If you are walking with the Lord you have nothing to fear. James 4:7

17 – 20

All the people in Ephesus, Jews and Greeks, learned about this. They were filled with fear. And the people gave great honor to the Lord Jesus. Many of the believers began to confess openly and tell all the evil things they had done.

Some of them had used magic. These believers brought their magic books and burned them before everyone. Those books were worth about 50,000 silver coins.
So in a powerful way the Word of the Lord kept spreading and growing.

This shows that the people were taking back the places in their lives that they had allowed to be under the control of the devil. Ephesians 4:27

When someone is under the attack of demons and they say that they have put away everything of Satan but are still under attack -you can be sure that there is still something the demons are holding onto.

Only by fasting and specific prayer can the problem be solved. It may be that they did not remember something that they did which opened the door to demons. Ask God to show them what this was. There may be something in their house which has a demon spirit attached to it. Get rid of it and burn it. There will be a new freedom in their spirit after these things are taken care of.

21. After these things, Paul made plans to go to Jerusalem. He planned to go through the countries of Macedonia and Southern Greece, and then on to Jerusalem. He said, “After I have been to Jerusalem, I must also visit Rome.”

It may be around this time that Paul got word that there was trouble in Corinth and he was asking the Lord what to do about it. 1 Corinthians 1:11

22. Paul sent Timothy and Erastus, two of his helpers, ahead to Macedonia. He himself stayed in Asia for a while.

In 1929, a pavement stone was discovered in Corinth was says: “Erastus in return for his [political office] laid this pavement at his own expense.” 2 Tim 4:20

23 – 24

But during that time, there was some serious trouble in Ephesus about the Way of Jesus. There was a man named Demetrius, who worked with silver. He made little silver models that looked like the temple of the goddess Artemis. The men who did this work made much money.

In 1869 this temple was found buried underground.

25 – 27

Demetrius had a meeting with these men and some others who did the same kind of work. He told them, “Men, you know that we make a lot of money from our business. But look at what this man Paul is doing! He has convinced and turned away many people in Ephesus and in almost all of Asia!

He says the gods that men make are not real. There is a danger that our business will lose its good name. But there is also another danger: People will begin to think that the temple of the great goddess Artemis is not important! Her greatness will be destroyed. And Artemis is the goddess that everyone in Asia and the whole world worships.”

These men did not care about their false god but about losing money. This whole problem was caused because the demons did not want a strong church to be started in Ephesus.

28. When the men heard this, they became very angry. They shouted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

The false god of today is the idea that you can be free while serving demons. The demons tell people that they can do anything they want to and think of it as being free. This makes it look like serving God is a hard thing.

For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light. Matthew 11:30

29 – 34

The whole city became confused. The people grabbed Gaius and Aristarchus. These two men were from Macedonia and were traveling with Paul. Then all the people ran to the theater.

Paul wanted to go in and talk to the crowd, but the followers did not let him. Also, some leaders of Asia were friends of Paul. They sent him a message, begging him not to go into the theater. Some people were shouting one thing, and some were shouting another.

The meeting was completely confused. Most of the people did not know why they had come together. The Jews put a man named Alexander in front of the people. Some of them had told him what to do. Alexander waved his hand because he wanted to explain things to the people. But when they saw that Alexander was a Jew, they all began shouting the same thing. They continued shouting for two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

Demons bring confusion. The people did not even know what they were shouting about. The only thing they could see was that a Jew was trying to speak to them and they knew that Jews do not worship idols so this Jew must be against them.

Remember that God allows people to stay confused if they choose to be. Do not try to understand why they say the things they say. You cannot talk sense with people like this. All you can do is pray against the demons that are doing these things.
Since they thought it foolish to know God, He abandoned them to their foolish thinking. Romans 1:28

Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will hate the wisdom of your words. Proverbs 23:9

35 – 41

Then the city clerk made the crowd be quiet. He said, “Men of Ephesus, everyone knows that Ephesus is the city that keeps the temple of the great goddess Artemis. All people know that we also keep her holy stone that fell from heaven. No one can say that this is not true.

So you should be quiet. You must stop and think before you do anything. You brought these men here, but they have not said anything evil against our goddess. They have not stolen anything from her temple.

We have courts of law, and there are judges. Do Demetrius and the men who work with him have a charge against anyone? They should go to the courts! That is where they can argue with each other! Is there something else you want to talk about? It can be decided at the regular town meeting of the people.

I say this because some people might see this trouble today and say that we are rioting. We could not explain this because there is no real reason for this meeting.” After the city clerk said these things, he told the people to go home.

This city leader was a wise man. He knew that it is not a good idea to throw more wood on the fire. Christians forget this and many times throw more wood on a fire and get burned.

The children of darkness are wiser in dealing with the world around them than the children of the light. Luke 16:8

Where there is no wood the fire goes out. Proverbs 26:20

A soft answer turns away anger. Proverbs 15:1

The north wind sends away rain: so an unhappy face sends away a tongue full of gossip. Proverbs 25:23