Okay, so we're in X, 19.
But before we get there, let's jump back to 18 and get some background.
So in
1818.
Paul. Ends up in. Senior. Gets his hair cut, keeping a vow.
Then they hop over.
To Ephesus. And all leaves. Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus.
Goes into the synagogue. Briefly. They wanted the Jews in the synagogue.
Verse 20 wanted him to stay longer. He didn't consent. Took his leaves saying I will return to you again if God wills.
And God did will because in chapter 19 he goes back to Ephesus, spends 3 months.
In the synagogue. And a number of Jews come to faith in Christ and then some of the other Jews, they don't like that and eventually Paul moves from the synagogue.
To the school of Tyrannus. Alright, so from Ephesus verse 22. He leaves, lands at Caesarea.
Goes up to Antioch. This would be Syrian Antioch. Hello. And that's the end of his second missionary journey.
Beginning in verse 23 is the beginning of his third missionary journey. So from Antioch He walks through basically the the entire east west length.
Of what is now Turkey.
After spending some time in Antioch, he left past successively through the glacian region. And for Gia.
Strengthening all the disciples. So Paul's heading east to west through Turkey and while that's going on.
We encounter Apollo's. Now, Apollo is not from Ephesus.
He comes to Ephesus. He's an Alexandrian. Don't know if he came from Alexandria to Ephesus or if he was in the area but eventually he comes to Ephesus.
And Apollo's Eloquent man, mighty in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord.
And he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus.
Being acquainted only with the baptism of John. So his knowledge of Jesus was correct. But it wasn't complete.
And so Aquila and Priscilla. Take him aside. Explain to him the way of God more accurately.
And then he wants to go across to a Ka. Acha is where Athens and Corinth were.
And the brethren in Ephesus encouraged him to do that. And he powerfully refuted the Jews in public demonstrating by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
So. Chapter 19, while Apollo is in Corinth. All eventually makes it all the way.
To the West. And ends up in Ephesus.
And it says he encountered some disciples there.
These are not Christian disciples. I think Luke is probably using that term. Very loosely. There's certainly disciples of John.
They're almost disciples of Jesus. And like I said, I think Luke is using this term kind of loosely.
He's not splitting hairs here. You know, they, they're the disciples of John, they're not quite.
Disciples of Christ yet? And Paul. When you look at this. There was something wrong.
Paul, in talking to these guys. Since something is off here.
Some, something's amiss. So he asked them. In verse 2. Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
Now, you know, how many of us would would go up to somebody? Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
I mean, we would automatically Assume they did. Because Paul says, in Romans, 8, if you don't have the Spirit of God, you don't belong to him.
So every believer has the Holy Spirit. But here he's encountered these guys in Something was wrong.
Something just It just didn't add up. So we asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
And their response. Verse 2. We have an even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. Now.
If you go back to Luke Luke chapter 3.
John did talk about the Holy Spirit.
So in Luke 3.
Verse 3, John came into all the district around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance.
For the forgiveness of sins. So it was a baptism that anticipated. The coming of the Messiah.
And, and as he goes on, he, he explains. I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord.
Verse 7, the crowds. Who were going out to be baptized by him. You breed of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bear fruits in keeping with repentance.
And then they began questioning him. What should we do? Verse 11, the man who has 2 tunics.
Share with him who has none. Tax collectors began to question him. Verse 14 soldiers began to question him.
Verse 15 the people were in a state of expectation and all were wondering in their hearts about John. As to whether he was the Christ.
Now, the gospel of John. When the Jews Sent. Some people to ask John who are you, first words out of his mouth.
I am not the Christ. Let's clear that up right away. I'm not your Messiah.
Are you Elijah? Nope, not Elijah. Are you the prophet?
Nope, not the prophet. Who are you? I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness.
But he says in the next verse, verse 16, As for me, I baptized with water, but one is coming who is mightier than I.
And I am not fit to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
So John does. Mention the Holy Spirit. The question is Were these guys around when he did? So you can look at their statement in one of 2 ways.
We weren't there when John talked about the Holy Spirit. We didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit.
Or you could look at it in the sense. We didn't know that the Holy Spirit had been given yet.
We didn't know. About Pentecost and the giving of the Holy Spirit and what not.
You know, either one of them fits. I tend to, I tend to think of it. More in the sense they weren't there they were at probably there at the very beginning.
Of John's ministry. At the outset, probably when he first started baptizing. They were there, they got baptized, they liked John, they became his followers, and then they left.
You know, they, they, they had to go back home. And all they knew was John talked about some guy who was coming.
Who's the Messiah? That's all they knew. They didn't even know as much as Apollo s knew.
So they just knew. There's someone. Who's coming? Who's the Messiah?
That's it. They didn't know there was a Holy Spirit. They certainly didn't know that the Holy Spirit was given.
And so. Paul says, okay, you haven't, you don't have the Holy Spirit, you don't even know who the Holy Spirit is.
Well, in the what were you baptized?
We were baptized into John's baptism. So these guys.
I don't want to call it. A cult or you know maybe a sect? You know, these are, this is the sect of John the Baptist or the sect of the forerunner.
You know, their followers of John the Baptist. Which kind of explains what's going to happen in a little bit.
John baptized the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in him who was coming after him.
That is in Jesus.
This is probably the first, well I would say this is the first time they've heard about Jesus.
So, John's baptism was. It was preparatory. It was anticipatory. John told John baptized you telling you to look for the one that's coming after him.
You went, you know, you had to go home. You didn't even realize that the one he talked about.
He came! And went already. And John did a good job. He prepared their hearts.
He prepared their minds and as soon as Paul mentions Jesus, They believed. But They didn't receive the Holy Spirit.
What other group believed and didn't receive the Holy Spirit?
Only happens twice an axe.
The Samaritans. Okay, so the Samaritans believed but didn't receive the Holy Spirit until what?
Until Peter and John the apostles laid their hands on them.
These guys also don't receive the Holy Spirit until Paul lays. His hands on them. And I think the reason for both of those.
Was a protective thing on the part of God.
It prevented a Samaritan sect. From for me. And this I would say also prevented a John the Baptist sect.
From forming. So. There was the very real possibility. That the Samaritans Believed had they received the Holy Spirit.
This animosity that had been going on for over 7 centuries. Between the Jews and the Samaritans would have continued in the church.
And so to prevent that from happening. God withholds the Holy Spirit from the Samaritans until the apostles identify with them lay their hands on them, make it clear there's one body of Christ.
Not a Jewish body. Not a Samaritan body. And probably the same thing is going on here.
These guys were followers of the forerunner. And so to prevent this. Sect from forming.
And you see that going on, you see this.
Clickishness going on in First Corinthians. I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollo's.
I'm of Cephas. I'm of Christ. So to prevent that kind of thing from going on, and remember, Paul writes first Corinthians from Ephesus.
So he's really well acquainted with that. To prevent that from going on. He withholds the Holy Spirit until Paul Lays his hands on them.
You're part of the body of Christ. You're not a separate. You know, yes, you followed the forerunner, but now you're Christ's.
That, that's my guess. And why this happened. So they had gotten baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Paul laid his hands on them. They receive the Holy Spirit. And They began speaking with tongues and prophesied.
Now, that didn't happen all the time. So keep in mind. That the book of Acts is an intermediate book.
There's a lot of strange things going on in the book of Acts that are not the norm.
So the withholding of the Holy Spirit from the Samaritans, from the disciples of John, sometimes Miraculous gifts being given, other times not.
You know, when the Philippian jailer believed. There were no tongues. There was no prophesying.
Other times there was. So. We, we, we don't get our theology. Regarding the church from Acts.
You know, it's, it's an intermediate thing. So, then he basically ends this thing and there are about 12 of them.
Okay. It's like, yeah, there were 153 fish. There's 12.
Yeah, I just want to be thorough. So then he entered the synagogue. And this goes back.
2. Chapter 18 again. So back in 1819.
He, when Paul was first in Ephesus. On his second missionary journey, he went into the synagogue.
He reasoned with the Jews. They wanted him to stay longer. He says, no, I can't.
But if the Lord wills, I'll come back. And the Lord willed and now pulls back.
So he goes back into the synagogue. And continued. Speaking L boldly for 3 months.
Reasoning and persuading them. About the kingdom of God. So. Go back to the beginning of Act 17.
This is Paul up north in Macedonia. Andphipolis appalonia Thessalonica
He, as was his custom. For 3 Sabbaths, he reasoned with them from the scriptures and and this is the Old Testament.
Explaining and giving evidence that the Christ, the Messiah, had to suffer in rice from the dead.
So he took him into the Old Testament. And he showed them, okay, you're Messiah.
From the Old Testament? Had to suffer in rights from the dead. You know, he took him to Psalm 22.
He took him to Isaiah 53. Probably passages in Zechariah.
And, you know, here's your suffering Messiah. He had to suffer, he rose from the dead.
And then he said. This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is that Messiah.
So now in.
Ephesus, he's doing the same thing. So for 3 months. He's taking these Jews through the Old Testament and and in in Thessalonica he was only there 3 Sabbaths Here he's got 3 months.
So he can, you know, do a fairly in-depth course. Okay, we're going to start in Genesis and I'm gonna take you step by step.
Through your Old Testament and show you everything there is to know. About the Messiah. He had to suffer, he had to die, he had to rise from the dead.
And for 3 months he did that. Persuading them about the kingdom of God? But after 3 months.
Some of these guys
They had had enough. And. Some of them were becoming hardened. And disobedient.
And they were speaking evil of the way.
And, you know, the, the way is. Luke uses that. Terminology a number of times and acts.
In fact, Paul was very much acquainted with it back in X 9. You know, he wanted to go and hunt down.
Those who followed the way And so he gets letters from the. The priest to go to Damascus hunt down.
The members of the way. And now. Kind of comes full circle. You know, Paul, you You know all about this.
You know, you kind of started that ball rolling, didn't you? So they're speaking evil of the way.
So he decides, all right. We're going to leave the synagogue. And he took away the disciples.
These would be the Jewish disciples. From the synagogue. Began reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.
Interesting name. The school of the Tyrant.
Every day for 2 years. So while he's working. You know, after after he's done working because in in chapter 20 when he comes back to Ephesus and meets with the Ephesian elders, he said, you know, my own hands.
Supported me. So during the 2 years he was there, 2 years, 3 months. He was there, he worked.
And then maybe before work or maybe after work or maybe during lunchtime. He would go to the school of Tyrannus.
And reason with whoever wanted to. Chat with him. Jews and Gentiles.
So that all who lived in Asia. Heard the Word of the Lord both Jews and Greeks. Now, some of those Asiarks.
Are going to make their way back to Jerusalem. And later on an axe those are the guys who are gonna initiate the persecution.
We saw him in the temple. With What was the guy's name? Trophamis or?
Some Gentile. These are the guys. The some of these Asiarks. So.
That's what's going on. Teaching wise. And then verse 11, God was performing.
Extraordinary miracles.
I don't know, I find that kind of redundant.
Aren't miracles already extraordinary? These were even more so.
Hankkerchiefs, aprons. Were carried from his body to the sick. And the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.
Okay, that's Pretty extraordinary. Not the first time it's happened. Peter kind of did the same thing back in Acts chapter 5.
Except it was a shadow. 5 15 all the more or 14, all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number.
To such an extent that even they even carried the sick out into the streets. Laid them on cots and pallets so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them.
His shadow. Or the woman with the issue of blood. All I need to do is touch the ham.
So, same kind of thing.
Now. It's interesting that Luke brings in the exorcist right after verse 11. So.
Paul was able to cast out evil spirits. And
It's key to note, I think they never came back.
They actually left and they were gone. So, you know, when Paul is, is casting out demons, it's in the name of Jesus.
And, and these demons left and they left for good.
Here you've got some Jewish exorcists.
And they went from place to place so they were itinerant exorcists. And if you had enough money, they could exercise you.
Did it actually work?
Were they were they actually able to? Remove demons?
Perhaps. I would certainly say not permanently. And. Keep in mind, demons like the devil our Masters of Deception.
So what better way to deceive? The exorcists. Or to deceive the people into believing in the exorcist than to.
Fake leaving. But not really leaving. Or leave for a bit and then come back. And I think that's probably what was going on.
And you see the same sort of thing. In with the false teachers in Matthew 7. Lord Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out many demons?
And perform miracles? And Jesus says, I never knew you. So those guys in Matthew 7. Pronounced the name of Jesus.
The demons either figned leaving. Making people think, oh, these guys really have what it takes.
Or left and then came back. With Paul. They left and never came back. With Jesus, they left and never came back.
So you've got these exorcists. And they hear Paul, oh hey, yeah, he's using this Jesus guide.
Let's try that. They attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of Jesus saying, I adjure you by Paul, by Jesus whom Paul preaches.
Okay, well that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. 7 sons of one skiva, a Jewish chief priest.
We're doing this. Some Bibles say a Jewish high priest. Skiva was not a high priest.
If Josephus is correct He lists all of the high priests. Up to the destruction of the temple.
Skiva wasn't one of them. So the the word can also be translated chief priest.
And in fact, in multiple places in Acts. You see they're talking to the high priest and the chief priests.
Present. So you've got the high priest He's the guy who goes into the Holy of Holies.
But then you've got the chief priests. Who probably would be the older normal priests. And so maybe in charge of a division.
So, you know, keep in mind when David divvied up the priesthood. I think it was 34 divisions.
And even then, there were probably thousands in each division. And over each division would be a set of chief priests.
So, Skiva was probably over. Some division. And so the evil spirit in this guy.
I would, I would translate this. I know Jesus. And I'm acquainted with Paul.
But who are you?
Who do you think you are? I know all about Jesus. He certainly has the authority to. Cast us out and we can't come back.
And I'm very well acquainted with Paul because Jesus has given him that authority. But who do you think you guys are?
And so the man in whom was the spirit. Leaped on them. Subdued all of them overpowered them.
So that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. These guys, he. This guy bludgeoned them.
They, they barely escaped with their lives. And that. Became known to all Jews and Greeks who lived in Ephesus.
So the the word. Got out even though Ephesus was a fairly big place. The word got out.
The sun's a skiva just got taken down by a demon-possessed man. Yeah.
And fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. So. These.
These guys, even though they, got taken down. The name of the Lord was magnified.
And as a result of this Many. Also of those who had believed kept coming. Confessing and disclosing their practices.
So. Here are believers. Who still had possession of things they shouldn't have had.
You know, they had magic books and talismans and probably idols. And seeing what had just happened at the name of Jesus with the sons of Skiva, these guys decided Yeah, we probably should take our faith a little bit more seriously.
And so they began. Confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practice magic.
And Ephesus was a major center of the occult. So this this was nothing new for Ephesus.
They brought their books. It began burning them in the sight of everyone. So here these believers You know, they're taking their faith more seriously.
And they begin bringing their books. And piling them up. You know, in the center of the square confessing.
Their practices. That they should have. Abandoned. Now they are.
And. They were burning them, they counted up the price and found it 50,000 pieces of silver.
And basically. You know if the pieces of silver was the the drachma That's the equivalent of a Drachma's the equivalent of a day's wage.
So, 50,000 days wages. Is going up in flames. And rightly so. And so Luke.
Ends this. So the Word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. And, and this is something he's already repeated a couple times.
So back in in Act 6.
And verse 7. You've got. The Word of God kept on spreading. And the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem.
So there's they're still stuck in Jerusalem. They, they haven't quite. Gotten the X 1 8 thing yet You know, start in Jerusalem, but move out.
Find the last part of the verse interesting a great many of the priests. We're becoming obedient to the faith.
So here, which makes sense. Because the the major primary location where these guys were preaching was the temple.
And. The priests are in the temple and they hear these guys from morning to night. Preaching the gospel.
They're the ones offering the sacrifices. And I would guess. You know, given what the writer of Hebrew says.
The the gospel preachers are saying see look at what those priests are doing Christ offered one sacrifice for all sins for all time.
What they're doing isn't doing anything anymore. And the priests are hearing this and and thinking.
Yeah, that kind of makes sense. And the priests were believing. And Acts chapter 12.
Verse 24.
And this is after the whole incident with Herod Agrippa the first.
The angel struck him and because he didn't give glory to God and he was eaten with worms and died and you know, when a herod dies such a gruesome death, word gets out.
The Word of the Lord continued to grow and be and be multiplied.
And now, same thing here. In Acts 19. The Word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.
So after these things were finished. So 2 years, 3 months, maybe a little bit more.
Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem.
Why does he want to go back to Jerusalem?
I know, you know, the whole feast and all that, but there, there's another reason.
While all this was going on here, something else was going on in Macedonia and Ikea.
What was happening there that would have him go back to Jerusalem. The collection. Yeah, they were they were taking up a collection.
And Paul mentions this collection in first Corinthians. When he writes from Ephesus.
And there's a lot that Luke doesn't tell us. But you, you get from Paul's other letters.
So from Ephesus Paul wrote. First Corinthians. Which in reality is his second letter.
Paul writes for Corinthian letters. We don't have the first. And the third one.
So our first Corinthians is actually his second letter. Our second Corinthians is actually his fourth letter.
Okay. Not exactly sure when he wrote the first one. But from Ephesus he wrote First Corinthians and he mentions this collection.
Macedonia's been taking up a collection. You, Achaeans, you need to do the same thing.
From Ficus. Paul goes up to Macedonia. Now, during this time, He sent Titus across.
You know, well, let me back up. During this time, There was some issues going on. And Paul probably made a trip.
That Luke doesn't mention. He hints at this in Second Corinthians. Made a trip from Ephesus to Corinth.
To fix some issues.
And. Writes another letter. And it was, it was a harsh letter. And so.
He sends Titus there. And he's hoping to meet Titus and Troas.
So he heads north to Trois and Titus doesn't show up. And instead of waiting!
He heads across to Macedonia. Okay, how's, how's Tide is supposed to know that?
Titus is expecting you in Troas. He gets to trust, you're not there.
I'm hoping Paul left a note Oh, by the way, Titus here all wanted you to, oh, he's in Macedonia.
Okay, thanks. So, Paul heads over to Macedonia from Macedonia, he writes.
Second Corinthians, which is actually his fourth letter. And he writes this letter. To the Corinthians and essentially tells them.
I really hope you have this. Gift ready because I've told the Macedonians all about you and how you've been ready since last year and Probably shouldn't have done that.
So I'm sending this letter ahead just to make sure that it's true and I don't get embarrassed.
So then he makes his way down to Corinth. And from Corinth, he writes to the Romans and says, you know, I really want to get to you guys and then on my way from there go to go to Spain but I got to go to Jerusalem I've got this gift And I need to take that.
So that's kind of what's going on here. So I want to go to Jerusalem.
He purposed in the spirit to go to Jerusalem. So this is 1921.
After he had passed through Macedonian Achaea. And passing through Macedonian AKA, that's when he's going to pick up this gift.
And take it to. Jerusalem and after that I need to go to Rome. And, and that's basically what he writes to the Romans and from Rome I want to go to Spain.
So having sent into Macedonia. 2 of those who ministered to him. Timothy and Arrestis.
He himself stayed in Asia. For a while. So Timothy and Erastus, they go into Macedonia, Paul's going to meet him there.
Hall sticks around. Probably should have left. But that's when we encounter Demetrius.
And we will pick up Demetrius next time.
Any questions?
When you were saying that, we're talking about the.
Why?
Hey, I don't know why they wouldn't.
Yeah, but I don't know why they would use the term Pentecost since that was a specific day.
Yeah.
We started with.
When I thought last week they said, Okay.
What if I said I didn't want to?
Yeah. There there are a number of things that Paul does that you have to wonder why. You know, the whole, given that it involved a haircut, it would have been a Nazareth vow.
Why? Why, why would you take a Nazareth file? You see the same thing.
In
21. Where
Paul encounters James in Jerusalem. And James says in verse 20, The Paul, you see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed And they are all zealous for the law.
And Paul should have put his foot down right there and said you need to read my Galatians letter
Or you need to read Romans. Yeah, they've been told about you that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Which was a lie?
Telling them not to circumcise their children or to walk according to the customs. That's a lie.
Paul never said that. You know, so he, there's a lot of things you gotta wonder about.
And then he says, Do this that we tell you. We have 4 men who are under a vow.
Take them, purify yourselves along with them. Hey, their expenses so that they may shave their head.
So this is another Nazareth vow. And all will know that there's nothing to all the things which they've been told about you.
But that you yourself also walk orderly keeping the lot.
Now. Yeah, there's the passage in. In a Second Corinthians. You know, to the Jews I became as a Jew, to those under the law.
Okay. But you almost gotta draw a line. I mean, you can only take that so far. Without contradicting what you've already written to other churches.
And I gotta wonder. Why did he do these things? Especially the one here in in X 21 why Why did he?
Pay their expenses so that they could offer a sacrifice.
I mean that that seems Kind of contrary to the things he's written to other churches.
I don't know. I, I almost think
He probably did it out of exasperation, you know, like, whatever. I'm just, I'm tired of fighting this.
And I don't know. Hi. Can answer your question, sorry.