Acts 19

Acts 19:1-7

The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 18:1-28 - 19:1-7 Acts 18:1-22 This paragraph chronicles the events of the last part of the second missionary journey of Paul. “After these things he departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.” If Athens was a centre of clouded light, Corinth was a centre of corrupt life. If Athens was full of idolatry, Corinth was full of sensuality. The apostle’s work in Corinth being completed, he left without any ostensible reason. It seems to have been the one place he left in quietness and peace on this journey. He left with his face set toward Jerusalem and Antioch. Making a brief halt in Ephesus, he went on, leaving Priscilla and Aquila there. Then he travelled away by sea to Csesarea, and so on to Jerusalem, where his reception was so cold, that Luke dismissed the story in a few words, “He went up and saluted the church, and went down to Antioch.”

The principal interest of the paragraph is centred in Corinth. The other matters, from Paul’s departure from Corinth to his arrival in Antioch, are incidental; the places visited will appear again, and in fuller detail later on.

Corinth was at this time the political capital of Southern Greece, and the residence of the Roman Proconsul. Thus while a Greek city, it was under Roman rule. There was a strange mixture of men in Corinth. It had become a great commercial centre, and Dean Farrar describes the commodities that were found in its markets:

“Arabian balsam, Egyptian papyrus, Phoenician dates, Libyian ivory, Babylonian carpets, Cilician goats’-hair, Lycaonian wool, Phrygian slaves.”

There was a strange mixture of wealth and of poverty there; and the life of the wealthy was a life of voluptuous luxury, and of frivolous disquisitions. One must read with great carefulness the Corinthian letters in order to see Corinth as Paul saw it, not merely to see the church, not merely to see the apostolic method of dealing with the church, but to see Corinth itself. Everything which he denounced within the church was a reflection of the corruption of the city. In his first letter, he first corrected their attempt to form societies around emphases of Christian truth. That was a reflection of what was going on in Corinth. Men were splitting hairs, even in the realm of their own philosophies, and forming schools around different emphases or views.

So when he passed to the graver matters, so far as moral conduct was concerned, we again see the picture of Corinth; the rich living in voluptuous luxury, given over to every manner of evil. It has been said that Corinth at this time “was the Vanity Fair of the Roman Empire, at once the London and the Paris of the first century after Christ.”

The masses of the people were infected by this influence. They were debauched and degraded. There were shows of all kinds, and a vulgar and ostentatious display of wealth, mingled with the most corrupt and indecent practices. All these things were affecting the people who were not wealthy, the corruption had permeated even to the slaves.

It was a city of abounding immorality. It was proverbial for its debauchery. Men of the time, when desiring to describe utter corruption, said, “They live as they do at Corinth.” In the great dramatic entertainments, Corinthians were almost always introduced as drunk. The most terrible phase of the corruption was that the religion of Corinth had become the centre and the hotbed of its pollution. In that one splendid and yet awful temple of Aphrodite, there were a thousand sacred to shame. It is significant that it was from this city that Paul wrote his Roman letter; and when one reads his description of Gentile corruption in that Roman letter, one has almost certainly a mirror of what he found in Corinth.

“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man. . . . God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonoured among themselves. . . . God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature. . . . God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness: full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful.”

With that dark background in mind we pass to the attitude of the Lord Himself toward this city: “I have much people in this city.” That was the word of the Lord spoken in the inner sanctuary of the spirit-life of His servant concerning 1 a corrupt city. That is the flaming word of the paragraph. All the other things are incidental, gathered about it, revealing the marvellousness of that word: “I have much people in this city.” He knew, and communicated to His servant, this secret concerning Corinth. He knew the heartache and the agony of many in Corinth. He knew that the restlessness of Corinth was the outcome of the longing of many, inarticulate, not understood, for exactly that which he had to minister and to give. He knew that throughout the city, notwithstanding its obscenity and its corruption, there was a spirit of enquiry, a spirit of eagerness, a spirit of wistfulness.

He knew that it was but to have His great evangel proclaimed there for very many to hear and to respond. Paul entered Corinth alone, and at once became keenly, acutely conscious of the corruption of the city. He came into Corinth, without a saint of God; and yet at last, after a period of patient work and preparation, this was the word of the King, “I have much people in this city.”

So the Lord speaks of every great city long before the people to whom He refers are manifest to others. Do not put this out of its historic relation. This word was not said when the church had been formed. This was not said of those whom we call saints in Corinth. It was said at the point when this man seemed to be at the end of his work, and was filled with fear, and with trembling of soul, even though there had been a measure of success. As a matter of fact, Paul’s fear is not chronicled, but it is revealed in the word of Christ.

The Lord knew the lurking fear in the heart of His servant, a fear born of his overwhelming sense of the corruption of the city, of the almost impossibility of doing anything there that was worth the doing. Yet to him He said, “I have much people in this city.” I think from that moment as this man passed through the streets, or talked in the house of Titus Justus, or looked at the curious crowd who came to him, he was forevermore looking, hoping that he might see beneath the exterior that repelled him, because it was so unlike his Lord, those whom his Lord numbered among His own. “I have much people in this city.” What an inspiration for the Christian worker in a great city given over to corruption.

Then mark the revelation of His power in a corrupt city in His protection of His servant, “No man shall set on thee to harm thee.” Then remember also the method by which he was protected, through the instrumentality of Gallic. Gallio is one of the much abused men in the New Testament. “Gallio cared for none of these things “has been quoted to prove that he was indifferent to Paul. That is not what the sentence means. Read the story of Gallio, the brother of Seneca, as it has been written in profane history; and the description of him is that of one of the sweetest, gentlest, and most lovable of men. Gallio had recently been appointed to Achaia, and when the change was made, the Jews thought that they had their opportunity to get rid of Paul. Gallio stood throughout that movement in defence of Paul.

When Gallio declined to listen to the case, because they were disputing about words, he was speaking within the proper limits of his jurisdiction. He cared nothing for the wildness of the attack upon Paul; or that the Greeks, glad that the Jews had been defeated in their desire to interfere with Paul, seized the ruler of the synagogue, Sosthenes. Do not imagine that there was neglect on the part of Gallio, that he ought to have interfered, and did not. This is a picture of the proconsul declining to do injustice, and handing the matter of the dispute over to those who had raised it. By that overruling of Gallio, Paul was protected from the onslaught of the mob. Ere that onslaught the Lord had said, “Be not afraid . . . for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee.” So we see the Lord Christ overruling the forces that would hinder the proclamation of His Word, and holding them in check, as He preserved His servant.

This is in the first chapter of Church history, but it is not the last chapter, nor is this the last story of its kind. We know very little of it in this land, because we do not preach in the midst of peril as did these men. Talk to the men in the great centres of heathen darkness to-day, and they will tell you how wonderfully they have often been protected. Not always! Paul was not always protected; for he had been stoned and left for dead. But within the compass of His purpose, within the economy of His power, where necessary, the Lord holds in check the forces against His servants, and sets them free for the proclamation of His Word. Such is the power of our Lord, even in a corrupt city.

His power acted in the deliverance of all those who seeking for truth, life, and purity, obeyed the Gospel; and in the ultimate doom of those who disobeyed that Gospel. “I have much people in this city.” That word must not be misinterpreted, as though the heart of the Lord were only set upon those who ultimately yielded to Him, and formed the Christian community in Corinth. His heart was set upon every man, woman, little child, and slave in Corinth, no matter how corrupt. But only to those who, in obedience to the word when they heard it, turned to Him, was He able to communicate the power of a new life, to regenerate and to remake.

When Paul began his work in Corinth, he joined Aquila and Priscilla, and laboured at tent making. When we read his letters we shall discover his reason. At Thessalonica he had done the same thing, and at Ephesus; and for a brief period it was absolutely necessary in a city wholly given to commercial enterprise, that he should demonstrate the fact that the preaching of the Gospel was not commercial. So he contented himself for a period with preaching only on the Sabbath day in the synagogue to Jews, and also to Greeks, while he wrought with his own hands during the week.

Then Timothy and Silas arrived, and they brought help from Philippi. The proof of that is to be found in his own reference in his letter. Immediately that help came, ministered to by another church, he abandoned the toil with his hands, and gave himself under the constraint of the Word, to constant preaching in Corinth. When the Jews set themselves in battle array against him, for such is the force of the word, he resolutely turned from them, and preached to the Greeks, and many believed and were baptized.

Then came an hour of haunting fear. Luke does not record it, save through the word of the Lord. “Be not afraid,” said Jesus, and through that word of Christ we know that the apostle was filled with fear. Perhaps the very success of his ministry, the fact that many hearing, believed and were baptized, filled him with fear. He knew the seductions of the city, the corruption of the city, the consequent peril of those who so eagerly were listening, who apparently so readily were believing, who with such eager haste were being baptized. We enter into sympathy with him. He had preached to the Jew, and the Jew had refused; and with stern words he had said, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles”; and eagerly the Gentiles had heard, believed, and were baptized; and so he became filled with fear.

Then it was that the Lord said to him, “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee: for I have much people in this city.” Do not be afraid of those who hearing, are eagerly believing, and being baptized. Do not doubt the sincerity of those who are coming to you. I have much people here. The thing you have seen, I have known ere you saw it. Your coming here has also been within My Divine arrangement. Trust these new converts.

When presently Paul rebuked them with sternness for their derelictions in spiritual life, there was nevertheless in his heart a great love for them, a great confidence and belief in them. He wrote to them as the saints of God, in spite of all their failure, in spite of the fact that they had yielded to the seductions of corrupt Corinth. When the Lord said to him, “I have much people in this city,” there came a new courage into his heart, which enabled him to face success.

Yet surely there was also in his heart a haunting fear of the hostility that he knew was working. He had seen the movement which presently broke out, and appealed to the bema, or judgment seat of Gallic. It is often in the moment of success that the heart becomes cowardly. It was immediately after Elijah’s victory on Carmel that he ran away from Jezebel. It is often in the hour of success, that the fear of opposition and hostility is born. This man, beaten, bruised, and stoned, bearing in his very body the brands of Jesus, knew what was going on in Corinth, against him, and he was filled with fear.

The Lord came to him with no rebuke, with no harsh word, but with words of ineffable comfort, “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace.” He was almost inclined to give up preaching. “Hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee.” The haunting fear in the presence of success, merged into cowardice in the presence of hostility. Perhaps one other element contributed to the fear in his heart, that of the overwhelming sense of the vastness of the work. How often to-day one pauses in the midst of work, and feels as by comparison with the thing to be done, that the thing being done is nothing. The Lord still says, Be not afraid, speak, hold not thy peace, I am with thee, and I have much people in this city. Do not measure My victory by the things seen. Do not measure My victory by the statistics taken and read.

I have much people, says the King, in this, and in all cities, never yet seen, never yet known. Abide in My strength; I am with thee, speak, be not afraid.

From that moment the heart of the man was filled with a new courage. He dwelt there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them; and when the Gallio incident occurred, he still continued. I am with thee, said his Lord to him. Mark the effect upon the Word. Was he afraid of the success? “I am with thee,” and in a moment he knew that if it was His work, however much he might fear its instability, this Lord was able to preserve the work that he saw begun. Was he afraid of the hostility? If his Lord was with him, the fear was at once banished. Was he afraid of the overwhelming sense of the vastness of the work? If his Lord was with him, he would be content to do the piece of work that he had to do, and to leave the issues with Him.

A wonderful page is this, but the words out of it that abide, that will sing their song in life and service for many a day, are these, “I have much people in this city.” Said He in the days of His public ministry, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring.” This man in Corinth was finding some of them. Still in the days of His public ministry it was written of Him “that He might also gather together into one the children of God that are scattered abroad.” Paul was finding some of them in Corinth. The most hopeful things in humanity to-day are its restlessness, its intensity, its disgust. These are open doors for the Christian preacher. Corinthian habits, Corinthian words, and all the restlessness of the city, it matters not how it is manifested, create the open door for the evangel of Jesus Christ. What is the Gospel for the corrupt city?

The Cross and the Resurrection, and none other. Are we at His disposal, as this man was at His disposal in Corinth? If so, He is at our side, and we need not fear the success or the hostility or the vastness of the work; but be content to do that piece of work which God has given to us, in the consciousness of our fellowship with Him, and His fellowship with us. As we look and serve, let us look for saints, remembering that He is saying to us in the midst of all that tends to dishearten, “I have much people in this city.” Let us look for them, find them, and lead them to Him.

Acts 18:24-28 - Acts 19:1-7 We now commence that portion of the book of the Acts of the Apostles which tells the story of Paul’s work in Ephesus. In the New Testament narrative, Ephesus is the outstanding and representative church, to which two letters are addressed. Even if Paul’s letter was a circular letter intended for other churches in the district, it is quite certain that among them it was intended also for the church at Ephesus. There is also the letter of the Lord to Ephesus, the first of the seven in the book of the Revelation.

In writing to Ephesus Paul reached the summit of his system of teaching. It was to this church he was able to write of those profound matters concerning the ultimate vocation of the Church of God. In writing to the Romans he laid the foundation truths concerning salvation, broadly and forever. In writing to the Corinthians he corrected a condition of affairs which issued in failure to fulfill its function in a heathen city, on the part of the Church. But in writing to Ephesus he soared far above all these matters of minor and local importance, and wrote of the sublimest truths concerning the Church, dealing first with its predestination to character and the service of God; then with its edification in the processes of time, in order that it may fulfill its true vocation; and finally with its vocation. Then he revealed how such doctrine should affect the lives of men and women, members of that Church, in all human inter-relationships. When we turn to the letter of our Lord to the church at Ephesus, we find a church fair and beautiful in very many respects, and yet we have revealed, that first peril that ever threatens the Church of God: the loss of first love.

This story of Paul’s coming to Ephesus must be of special interest, because of the place that Ephesus thus occupies in the New Testament revelation of the Church. Here also we are considering the last part of the work of Paul in liberty. Not that he was never free again after his imprisonment in Rome, for personally I have no doubt that he was set at liberty, and that he visited these churches again. It may be that he visited Spain, and perchance came to Britain. But so far as this record is concerned, we here see the last work of Paul at liberty. Presently we shall see him a prisoner.

Ephesus was a city, notorious for idolatry; in some senses, the very centre of the great idolatries. There was the temple of Artemis or Diana; and there religion and commercial life had entered into a remarkable alliance, for the great merchantmen made the temple of Artemis their banking house; so that anything of purity or virtue that there might have been in the Greek ideals of worship was corrupted, because receiving the patronage of the merchantmen. Moreover it was a city at that moment given over largely to demonism, to sorcery, to witchcraft, to magic. Here the apostolic work was accompanied by special signs.

In this paragraph we have two accounts merging into one, put together because of their intimate connection; the story of Apollos and his ministry, and the story of the coming of Paul to Ephesus. It will be seen by glancing at the nineteenth and twenty-first verses (Acts 18:19-21) in this chapter that Paul had already been in Ephesus.

“They came to Ephesus, and he left Priscilla and Aquila there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. And when they asked him to abide a longer time, he consented not; but taking his leave of them, and saying, I will return again unto you, if God will, he set sail from Ephesus.”

That was about a year before this coming to the city, for Luke has given us no detailed account of the apostolic labours, but only such incidents as serve to teach spiritual lessons for all time.

During that year something had happened in Ephesus, which is chronicled in the closing part of the eighteenth chapter: the coming of Apollos. Let us look at this story, observing two things: the man himself, and the ministry that he exercised.

Apollos was a Jew, an Alexandrian, a learned man, mighty in the Scriptures. We have dwelt upon the fact that the apprehension of Saul of Tarsus was a wonderful evidence of the presidency of the Lord Himself over the affairs of His Church, and of the guidance of the Spirit. The work among the Gentiles had to be done in cities where two great influences obtained in matters of religion, the influence of the Jewish synagogue, and the influence of Greek culture. When Saul of Tarsus was apprehended, it was the apprehension of a man who was, to quote his own words, “A Hebrew of Hebrews”; but he was also Saul of Tarsus. He was at once Hebrew and Hellenist. The two great ideals combining in him, made him the power he was through these Greek cities.

In this man Apollos the same two great ideals merged. He was a Jew, but also an Alexandrian. Alexandria was the centre of Greek learning and culture at this time; where the Jews were all under the influence of Philo; where the influence of the Greek method of culture of that day invaded the Hebrew method of the study of their own Scriptures and writings. This man Apollos then was one in whom, in some senses perhaps even more remarkably than in Paul, the two ideals merged. He was learned, eloquent. He was an orator, and yet an orator through whose speech there was manifest the fact of his culture and his refinement.

The last word of the description, “mighty in the Scriptures,” does not merely mean that he knew them; nor had ability to deal with them and to present them; but that he had the ability to master them, to understand them. That word of description is that of a special and specific gift that this man possessed by nature. We cannot say this was a spiritual gift in the Church sense of the word, for as yet he had not come into union with that Church, for he had not received the Spirit by enduement. Here was a man gifted naturally. The Spirit always bestows His special gift upon a man already gifted by nature to receive it. That may be a dogmatic statement which some would like to challenge.

The instance quoted against it very often is that of Dwight Lyman Moody. Yet his experience proves its accuracy. If he had never been a Christian man, he would have been a mighty orator, and a leader of men. If a man has no gift of speech by nature, do not imagine God wants that man for a preacher, because He does not. He may have equally important work for him to do, but a preacher is born, not made. This man Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures, and was gifted by nature with a gift which every man does not possess.

It was a distinct ability, a natural power to know the Scriptures, and to see their inter-relationships. He was familiar with all their parts and their bearings. He had a familiarity with the Scriptures which enabled him to impart to others that which he knew. This man, therefore, by birth and training, was singularly fitted for work in these Greek cities.

His ministry in Ephesus was not distinctly Christian. Mark his equipment. “This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord,” which does not mean, in the way of the Lord Jesus Christ in all the fullness of that description. “Being fervent in spirit, he spake and taught carefully the things concerning Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John.” Mark the distinction carefully. In the third chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, we have the account of the ministry of John.

“In those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent ye; for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet saying,

“ The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord.” Apollos had been instructed “in the way of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.” Apollos was a disciple of John, and “the way of the Lord” referred to here is that referred to in Matthew, and is a direct quotation from the prophecy of Isaiah, in its fortieth chapter, and second verse. To understand this we must get back into the atmosphere of that great prophecy. The fortieth chapter opens, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people.” It is the beginning of the great ministry of peace, resulting from judgment. The thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, the last of the first prophetic portion, ended with the promise of ultimate peace. This is all Hebrew. Apollos was a Jew.

This chapter in Isaiah ended with a picture of an ultimate peace; first desolation, and beyond it, restoration. That was the vision of the prophet, as he spoke, while Sennacherib’s armies were melting away. The great declaration was that Jehovah would prepare a way for His people back into peace. Omitting the historic portion (36-39) we come to that fortieth chapter; and the message is that the people of God are to prepare a way for Jehovah. Mark the link between the two. John came, as Isaiah had foretold, the ascetic, the hard, the stern, the pure, the righteous, and he proclaimed “the Way of the Lord,” which was to be prepared for by repentance.

Apollos had been instructed in “the way of the Lord,” in that sense, had been instructed in the Messianic prophecy, and purpose. He was a disciple of John, and in obedience to John had been baptized unto repentance, and to expectation of the coming of Messiah; but he did not know the meaning of the Cross. He was not acquainted with the fact of resurrection. He was not familiar with the truth of the outpoured Spirit. His view was Hebrew on the highest and purest and best level, as interpreted by John. He was fervent in spirit, fiery-spirited, having inherited from John, or under the influence of other teachers perhaps, that fiery note.

This man therefore who came to Ephesus between Paul’s first and second visits, Apollos, a man, a disciple of John, taught them “the things concerning Jesus,” so far as John had revealed them. His method in Ephesus was that “He spake and taught carefully the things concerning Jesus,” and “began to speak boldly in the synagogue.”

But there were two people in .Ephesus who knew much more about Jesus than he did: a woman and a man. The order of the names is significant, “Priscilla and Aquila.” These two had been left in Ephesus by Paul, and had been there a year. They knew Christ experimentally, because they were of the Christ by the work of the Spirit. They heard Apollos, and they took him, and instructed him more carefully; and that ended his ministry in Ephesus. One of the most beautiful touches about Apollos is the revelation of the fact that he was willing to let two members of the congregation who listened to him, and who knew more than he did, teach him. They took him, this persuasive, eloquent, sincere, burning soul; and opened to him the truth, with the result that he passed on from Ephesus to Corinth.

Very little is recorded concerning his ministry there. He was commended by these people in Ephesus, for his natural ability, for his zeal, and for that simplicity of character which had been revealed in his willingness to learn. We simply read about him in Corinth, that “he helped them much which had believed through grace.” Whether the words “through grace” refer to “believed,” or to “helped them much,” cannot finally be determined. I prefer to believe that they belong to the “helped them much.” We find also from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that they had made him the head of a sect, some saying, “We are of Apollos.” That does not reflect upon him at all, because they did the same about Paul. But there is one little illuminative word in the Corinthian letter. Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered.” That is the brief story of a ministry which lasted for some considerable period in all likelihood.

In the second letter to the Corinthians it is evident that Apollos had left Corinth on account of these difficulties, and declined to go back again. We see him, however, going from Ephesus, instructed by Priscilla and Aquila, with the larger view, the more perfect understanding, the fuller enduement of spiritual power; and Luke says, “He helped them much,” and Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered.”

Now it was to Ephesus that Paul came, after the departure of Apollos. This nineteenth chapter, and the first seven verses, one of the most familiar paragraphs in the whole book, is a most constantly misinterpreted passage. It needs careful consideration. Let us notice first Paul’s investigation and his instruction; and then observe the things that immediately followed.

Paul found a little group of about twelve men, and he asked them this question, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?” The word “since,” “Have ye received the Holy Spirit since ye believed” creates an entire misrepresentation of the question he asked. That is something to be stated emphatically, because it is on the presence of that word, that the misinterpretation of this passage has been based. The tense of the verbs “receive” and “believe” is the same, so that it may be rendered, “Received ye the Holy Spirit when ye believed?” Not, Have ye received since; as though there were a belief at some time, and a subsequent reception of the Spirit; which in the terminology of our own day is described as a “second blessing.” Paul asked no such question.

Now mark their answer. “Nay,” they said, “we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was given.” I think perhaps no better word can be substituted for the word “given.” As a matter of fact there is no word in the text. It is introduced for the purpose of interpretation. They said, “We did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was.” As to what word should follow the “was,” it is not easy to say. Probably none. They might have meant that they did not know of the existence of the Spirit. But that is not likely for they were disciples of John, possibly as the result of the preaching of Apollos.

What then had they heard? What was the ministry of John? John had said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” The baptism of John had included a declaration of its own limitation, and the affirmation of a fuller baptism to come, not through his ministry, but through the ministry of Another. John had distinctly foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit; and these men therefore were not likely to have meant, We have never heard anything about the Holy Spirit; but rather: We know that the Spirit was promised by the great prophet John, but we do not know whether He is yet given, whether He has yet come.

The apostle then asked them, “Into what then were ye baptized?” and they replied: “Into John’s baptism.” That is why they had not heard whether the Holy Spirit was given. They had only proceeded as far as John had been able to take them; to the place where Apollos was, when he came to Ephesus.

The reason for Paul’s question to them is not declared. It may, however, be surmised upon the basis of the general observation of the story. When he met those men he may have felt there was something lacking; that they were sincere, honest, but there was something lacking, something of fire, something of emotion. He then gave them instruction, and revealed to them the fact that the baptism of John was preparatory, and that the teaching of John vindicated the necessity for going beyond him to Jesus. He then began to tell them all that they did not know of the Christ; of the resurrection and Pentecostal effusion; of the fact that through Pentecost men .were brought into living union with Jesus. When they heard that, “they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Then Paul laid his hands upon them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Then all that Paul had missed, was immediately manifest. They “spake with tongues,” they began to prophesy. Their enkindled emotion expressed itself in ecstatic utterances of praise, for tongues were bestowed, not for edification, but always for adoration. If the tongues witnessed to enkindled emotion, the prophesying witnessed to enlightened intelligence; and they became martyrs, witnesses; for in that moment they became Christian. This was not a second blessing, but the first blessing, as the baptism and reception of the Holy Spirit always is.

I believe there are multitudes of people in Church membership who are not Christian in the New Testament sense of the word, who have come to John’s baptism, and have come no further. That is what Paul found when he came to Ephesus. They were honest men, obedient, sincere, who had followed the light as far as it had come to them; but there was fuller light, and a brighter and larger life; and to that Paul introduced them.

What are the values of this study? As I look at this page I learn that men can only lift other men to the level on which they live; can only lift other men to the level to which they themselves have come. Apollos, a Jew, an Alexandrian, learned, mighty in the Scriptures, fervent in spirit, careful in his teaching, bold in his utterance, could only take the people as far as he had come himself, not one yard beyond it, not one foot above it. His disciples will know only the baptism of John. Paul came, and not because he was a better man than Apollos, but because he had fuller knowledge, a fuller experience, he lifted these same twelve men to the higher level, until the cold and beautiful accuracy of their honest morality was suffused wjth the passion and fire of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Apollos could not bring them there until he himself had reached that position.

When Apollos came to the fuller light and experience, he could pass to Corinth, and do for Paul in Corinth what Paul did for him in Ephesus. Paul can do his planting in Corinth, and be very successful; and Apollos waters. When Paul comes to Ephesus he will find the planting of Apollos, and will water it.

If we are preachers and teachers we can only help men to the level to which we have come. The declaration is full of solemnity. The Holy Spirit always needs the human instrument. That is what the book of the Acts of the Apostles emphasizes. There are many ways of telling the story of this book. God the Holy Spirit cannot do without men and women. He must have them to do His work. That is the whole genius of missionary endeavour. God the Holy Spirit can only bring the message of the crucified and risen and glorified Christ to any part of the world through men and women who know the power of these things.

But mark the law. The fit instrument is always found. The operation of the Spirit is limited by the instrument. Is it any wonder when Paul came to write his letters to Christians, that the great burden was not that they should believe, nor that they should love, nor that they should hope. He thanked God for faith and hope and love, but he prayed that they might have full knowledge (epignosis). We have no right to send men out, and think they can do the full work of the ministry, either apostolic, or prophetic, or evangelistic, or the work of pastor and teacher; without full knowledge. I do not mean academic knowledge only, Apollos had that, and failed. I mean spiritual knowledge and discernment. This can only come by the illumination of the Spirit of God, and by patient training.

Lastly mark the diversities. How did these twelve men enter into the larger life? They heard the teaching, they obeyed, they were baptized into the name of Jesus. Then Paul laid on his hands, and they received the Holy Spirit. In the tenth chapter we find Peter was talking to Cornelius, and he received the Spirit immediately, and was baptized, not before, but after receiving the Spirit. The Spirit bloweth where He listeth.

We must not take any illustration in this book, and make it an abiding rule, for if so, there will be as many schools as there are stories in the Acts of the Apostles. We cannot base a doctrine of the Spirit’s methods upon any one story. Upon the whole of them we can base the doctrine of the Spirit’s method, and that may be stated thus. Not according to human ideas, or human laws formulated by any story; but in many ways, through the laying on of hands, and without such laying on; in answer to water baptism, before water baptism; so comes the Spirit. The important matter is that we have this Spirit, without Whose presence and illumination we cannot preach this Christ, or teach Him. May it be ours to press to the highest height, and the fullest knowledge, that we may lift all those whom we teach on to this highest level.

Acts 19:8-41

The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 19:8-41 Acts 19:8-20 During all the varied and long-continued ministry of Paul, he remained longer at Ephesus than at any other centre. This particular paragraph gives the account of that sojourn; and refers to two periods; first, a period of three months, during which he reasoned in the synagogue; and secondly, one of two years, during which he reasoned in the school of Tyrannus.

In our study of the earlier part of this chapter, we saw the beginnings of the work in Ephesus. The paragraph following this (Acts 19:21-41) gives an account of the uproar in Ephesus, which eventuated in the apostle’s departure. Consequently in this brief paragraph Acts 19:8-20) we have the only detailed account of that work.

Luke has given us a group of incidents, all related to each other, and enabling us to understand the work of those two years, especially if we illuminate this page of incident by apostolic words found in his address to the elders at Miletus, and by some references in his own letter at a later period. The incidents, while few, are significant; and the final statement of the paragraph gives us the key to its interpretation, “So mightily grew the word of the Lord, and prevailed.” All the paragraph is needed for the interpretation of that “So.” We have the account of Paul’s entering the synagogue; of the “hardened and disobedient “among those who listened to him there; of his turning from them to the school of Tyrannus; of his continuation there for two years, reasoning and teaching; of the sounding forth of the Word through all Proconsular Asia; of those special and marvellous manifestations of miraculous power, the mastery over evil spirits; and of the attempt at imitation on the part of certain Jewish exorcists, with the central special illustration of the defeat of these men, in the case of the sons of Sceva. When the group of incidents has been noted, the paragraph significantly closes with these words, “So.” That is, by these actions, by this means, in this way, “So mightily grew the Word of the Lord, and prevailed.” It is evident that Luke did not desire to give a detailed account of that two years’ ministry, but that he took from the period certain outstanding incidents, to bring the reader into a recognition of the difficulties confronted, and of the triumphs of the Word of God in Ephesus.

Let us first of all consider briefly the city in the background, Ephesus; then look more particularly at the apostle in the foreground, Paul in Ephesus; and finally and principally, notice the remarkable spiritual conflict which this page reveals as having taken place in Ephesus.

Writing to the Corinthian Christians from this city, Paul said that he proposed to tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost; and he gave his reasons for this tarrying: “for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.” At Corinth Paul had stayed for a long period. He did not stay long in Athens. There were no adversaries in Athens, there was not virility enough left in Athens to oppose; and consequently there was very little opportunity for the preaching of the evangel. But in Ephesus he said, “A great door and effectual is opened unto me.” The difficulties of the situation created the greatness of the opportunity in the mind of this man. The difficulties were in themselves aids to the apostolic preaching. The adversaries were compelled to contribute to the victory.

Glance then at Ephesus, at the city itself. Dr. Farrar thus described it:

“It lay one mile from the Icarian Sea, in the fair Asian meadow where myriads of swans and other water-fowl disported themselves amid the windings of Cayster. Its buildings were clustered under the protecting shadows of Coressus and Prion, and in the delightful neighbourhood of the Ortygian Groves. Its haven, which had once been among the most sheltered and commodious in the Mediterranean, had been partly silted up by a mistake in engineering, but was still thronged with vessels, from every part of the civilized world. It lay at the meeting-point of great roads, which led northwards to Sardis and Troas, southwards to Magnesia and Antioch, and thus commanded easy access to the great river-valleys of the Hermus and Meander, and the whole interior continent. Its seas and rivers were rich with fish; its air was salubrious; its position unrivalled; its population multifarious and immense. Its markets, glittering with the produce of the world’s art, were the Vanity Fair of Asia. They furnished to the exile of Patmos the local colouring of those pages of the Apocalypse in which he speaks of the merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of the most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men'”

There can be no more graphic and inclusive description of Ephesus than that.

In that great city the central religious fact was the temple devoted to the worship of Artemis. This temple was the banking-house of the merchants, and so there was the most intimate relationship between the commercial prosperity of Ephesus, and the religion centred in this great temple. That temple of Artemis had been made a sanctuary into which people of all kinds were allowed to come. Farrar in his Life of Paul, said that, “The vicinity . . . reeked with the congregated pollutions of Asia,” and we may have some slight understanding of what that meant by remembering that for a furlong radius the temple gave sanctuary to all the most evil things. The worship itself was unutterably vile. The atmosphere of the city was electric with sorcery and incantations, with exorcists, with all kinds of magical imposters. Jewish exorcists were there, trafficking upon the credulity of the people, superadding to all the incantations and sorceries of their own religions, declarations of ability to cast out evil spirits by the citation of words out of the Hebrew ritual.

Into this city of Ephesus, wealthy, profoundly religious, with a religion that was in itself worse than an utter absence of it, the apostle came. There were many adversaries; adversaries among his own brethren in the synagogue, as he revealed in his subsequent appeal to the elders at Miletus; adversaries, not so much among the ruling classes, as among those whose trades were interfered with; adversaries principally in that worship which had so remarkable a manifestation in the evil courses and habits of the eunuch-priests and virgin-priestesses. It was to the Church at Ephesus Paul wrote: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” It was in Ephesus that this man became supremely conscious of that world of spiritual antagonism which his writings so clearly revealed, and which we need to recognize even to-day. It was in Ephesus that the forces of the underworld of evil were massed, patently manifest. Here, far more than at Athens, Corinth, or Philippi, or any other of the places which he had visited, he came-if we may use so material a figure for spiritual things-face to face with naked opposition in the spirit world.

Now let us look at the man himself in that city, in the midst of its wealth, its luxury, surrounded by all those religious influences which were of the most evil kind, supremely and sensitively conscious of the antagonism of spiritual adversaries. He was occupied in making tents. That fact does not appear in this paragraph, but when the elders of Ephesus came to meet him at Miletus, he said, “I coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel. Ye yourselves know that these hands ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.” This great apostle of Christ, this missionary of the Cross, in this city made tents to support himself, and those who were with him, thus fulfilling this ministry. Mark well the significance of this. In a city where financial gain was the inspiration of all the service of religion, this man declined to take either the silver, the gold, or the apparel of any, even of Christian people, but ministered to his own necessities, making tents, supporting himself by his own labour.

Notice in the next place, that he was in Ephesus as the great Christian apologist; for three months reasoning and persuading in the synagogue; and when those of his brethren in the synagogue began definitely to oppose his teaching, deliberately turning from them, and separating the disciples from that Jewish community, taking them out with him, going to the school of Tyrannus, and there reasoning. We must keep these two things in close connection, to get the picture of the man. Tent-making and supporting himself day by day; the great Christian apologist in the school of Tyrannus, in the midst of all the evil influences of the city, preached the Kingdom of God, telling the story of Jesus, for he had no other message for these dead or dying Grecian cities, than Jesus and the resurrection. But this was not the whole of his occupation. In the twentieth chapter, where his address to the elders of the Church is recorded, he said, “I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly, and from house to house. … By the space of three years I ceased not to admonish every one night and day with tears” (verses 20 and 31). He was not only the tent-maker, not only the logical and brilliant Christian apologist, but the pastor of the flock teaching with tears, admonishing; watching, with jealous and zealous love, the growth of those who bore the name of Christ.

This teaching in the school of Tyrannus “continued for the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia “that is Proconsular Asia-“heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” That is one of those verses that may be read and passed over; but it is a window, through which we see Proconsular Asia, those seven churches referred to in the book of Revelation, to which the final epistles of the risen and glorified Lord were sent, which were scattered through that region. Paul then at Ephesus was making tents, conducting a great course of apologetics for Christianity, fulfilling the function of the pastor, watching over the flock, admonishing with tears, and teaching from house to house; but he was also directing a great missionary enterprise to that whole region round about Ephesus. In all probability it was here in Ephesus that Philemon was brought to Christ, and sent to Colosse for the formation of that Church. Probably also it was at Ephesus that mighty fellow-worker with Paul in prayer, Epaphras, who watched over another Church, was first brought to Christ. The mighty apostle himself perchance sometimes journeyed from Ephesus, and was in perils from robbers there.

Once again in the second Corinthian letter, in chapter eleven, there are certain words, written almost certainly immediately after his departure from Ephesus. The first had been written while he was in Ephesus. Arguing concerning the rights of his apostleship, and the dignity of his ministry, and producing the evidences thereof, he described the circumstances through which he passed:

“In labours more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in labour and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches.”

Look at this worker in Ephesus, making tents to supply his own needs, a great Christian apologist, the pastor of the flock, admonishing with tears; the evangelist, going out to the regions beyond; enabled to do in Proconsular Asia what he had been forbidden to do on that second missionary journey; planting churches, sending out the great message; and all along entering into the fellowship of the suffering of his Lord, so that he could write such a passage immediately after leaving Ephesus as that in the second Corinthian letter.

Think of this man. Think of the forces in Ephesus against him, against his Gospel, against his Lord. Think of that great heart of his, bearing the burden of these churches that he had planted in the earlier missionary journeyings. Think of the poverty, the hunger, the anxiety, the stress, and the perils. How did he finish that paragraph in the Corinthian letter? “If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness.”

“So mightily grew the Word of the Lord, and prevailed.” First the difficulties of the city creating the opportunity; secondly, one man absolutely at the disposal of his Master, so consecrated to Him that of determination he would be independent of the suspicion that his business was the business of financial gain, and laboured through the long dark hours of night that he might be free during the day to argue and reason concerning this Kingdom of God; and to see his people, and admonish them with tears; and all the time the care of the churches on his heart; news reaching him of those untrue and needing rebuke; letters to be written out of great passionate longings; one man in the city. “So mightily grew the Word of the Lord, and prevailed.”

We now turn to that which is the supreme matter of interest, the spiritual conflict in Ephesus. And first let us observe the opposing forces. On one hand there was the presence and prevalence of the occult in Ephesus, of magic, and of sorcery. We are inclined, in the presence of magic and sorcery to-day-for we have not outgrown these things-to smile, and to speak of them as mere chicanery. The New Testament never treats them in that way. In the presence of this magic in Ephesus, and in other places, of these dark arts, the New Testament never speaks of them as trickery, as though they were the work of clever rogues.

The New Testament says that these things are Satanic, and always attributes them to the agency and activity of spiritual personalities, who are possessed and mastered by evil. This is a matter we need very carefully to face and consider in our own days. To take the New Testament outlook, all this is not merely the trickery of rogues, but the actual activity of demons. Through the black arts, and clever manipulations, actual messages are spoken to men, and actual results produced, that cannot be denied. The man who denies the actuality of things done in the name of magic and spiritism, has never examined them carefully. These were the forces in Ephesus, the degraded and demoralized principalities and powers, the rulers of darkness.

On the other hand, in Ephesus with the coming of Paul there came the opportunity for the activity of the Spirit of God, and for the proclamation of the victorious name of the Son of God. This one man, and those associated with him, became the instruments or in their corporate capacity as a church, the instrument through which the Spirit of God could act, as against the spirits of evil; the instrument through which the great Name, the victorious Name of the Christ might win its victories over the demoralizing and degrading and damnable forces of the underworld that were so terribly blighting Ephesus itself.

In this connection notice very carefully what this passage declares. In verse eleven we read: “God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul.” Here is a distinction not to be lightly passed over. Luke did not say that Paul wrought miracles in Ephesus, but that God wrought them by the hands of Paul. In the first sermon preached in the power of the outpoured Spirit, which sermon was the result of the illumination and explanation of Christ through the Spirit to the preacher, Peter spoke of the miracles, and said quite distinctly, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you.” This man did not work miracles, nor even our Lord Himself, in the loneliness of His human nature; they were both instruments through whom God was able to perform things that were wonders to men, who could not understand the higher laws by which they were made possible. A miracle is not a violation of law, but an activity of law in the realm of laws higher than we know, and, therefore, full of surprise to men, but of no surprise to God. God is not imprisoned within those few laws that man has been able to discover. God is bound by the laws of His own universe, but we do not know them all; and consequently, when we see an activity within the realm of the ultimate and final laws, we call it a miracle, and so it is, a thing of wonder and surprise, but not a violation of law, not a setting aside of law.

Take the instances given here. It is affirmed that men took from the person of this man Paul, handkerchiefs and aprons, and carrying them to sick people, they were healed by touching them. That is a miracle to us; but if God so chose through this man Paul, to work the healing wonder, I deny that it was incredible. There is a humanness in all this, and it is very interesting. They took the handkerchiefs and the aprons. “Handkerchief " is a most misleading word. To be quite literal in our translation, they took the sweat-cloths and aprons, the two things that Paul made use of as he worked.

Paul did not work the miracle. God wrought the miracle; and if God shall honour the faith of superstitious people within the realm of a magic they understand, who am I that I should question God? God wrought special miracles, like the very magic with which these people were acquainted; and by the working revealed the fact that the magic itself was of spiritual activity; and therefore there needed to be no acceptance of a philosophy because its propounders wrought wonders. Evil men have often wrought wonders. The devil can work miracles to our poor blind eyes; and demons have astonished men by the wonders they have wrought. The miracle is not a demonstration that the spirit producing it is good.

It is a demonstration of spiritual activity, of an activity in a realm beyond and outside that of which we are conscious.

So in this city full of magic, full of humours and systems and incantations and exorcisms, God wrought special miracles; and people, taking even the garments Paul wore in his work, their sick were cured, and evil spirits were cast out. God condescended to work not on a higher plane, but on a lower plane; for every miracle wrought in the material is a miracle wrought on a lower plane than the miracles wrought in the spiritual. The greater triumphs were not the healing of these people, but the spiritual wonders wrought in those who were made children of God, and brought to high morality of life. Yet for the capture of these people, and their convincing, it was shown them that the wonders that they associated with an evil form of religion, could be wrought, and were wrought, in the Name, the holy Name, which this man taught and preached.

These victories created a crisis. There were exorcists who now attempted to work with Paul’s method. They had used other charms and incantations, but now they began to say, “I adjure you by Jesus Whom Paul preacheth.” The result was immediate. Victories cannot thus be won by people who are so far apart from the One Who wins the victory. When these men said, “I adjure thee by Jesus Whom Paul preacheth,” in a moment the answer came from the evil spirit, “Jesus I recognize, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” These men found that they could not traffic with the name of Jesus. That which impressed the city, and filled it with fear, was not the wonders wrought by Paul, but the fact that when some one else tried to work with his tools or implements, or Name, they were defeated.

Thus through the victories won over these forces of evil by the Spirit through His servant, the Name was magnified, and the Church was purified. That sacrificial fire, that burning of the books of magic was not the burning of books belonging to the Ephesians still remaining in idolatry. They were books belonging to people in the Church. They came, confessing that they still practised the black arts, and still had traffic with these unholy things, and so the fire was lit.

“So mightily grew the Word of the Lord, and prevailed.” That was the impression made upon Luke as he heard or knew the story of these years at Ephesus, and committed it to those brief pictures. The word “mightily” means with resistless and overpowering strength. All kinds of facts and forces were pressed into the service of the Word, and made tributary to the carrying on of the work; the synagogue of the Jews, or the school of a Greek teacher; special miracles wrought; imitation mastered; the anger of demons. All these things were made tributary to the victory of the Word, and led up to the final statement; all must be included within it; “So mightily grew the Word of the Lord.”

If we have Paul’s vision, Paul’s conception, we shall not say, There are many adversaries, therefore we must abandon the work; but rather we must stay until Pentecost, and prosecute His great enterprises, “Buying up the opportunity, because the days are evil.” That is the spirit of this story. The days were evil days. Evil days created the opportunity for God-sent men.

If we would see the Word of God grow mightily and prevail in our own city, we need to ponder this story carefully, and find out the secrets here revealed; to yield ourselves to this Spirit of God; to serve this same Lord with equal lowliness of mind, and sincerity, and sacrificial earnestness, as did this man Paul. Then the Word of God to-day as ever, will grow mightily, and prevail.

Acts 19:21-41 The chief interest of this passage centres in the uproar in Ephesus. The first brief paragraph contained in verses 21 and 22 (Acts 19:21-22) is really preparatory to all that remains of the book.

In these verses (Acts 19:21-22) we have a declaration of the apostle’s purpose. The victories in Ephesus did not satisfy the heart of the apostle. From the midst of abundant and victorious labour, he looked on over the whitened fields of harvest, until his gaze rested in strong desire upon the central city of earthly power, and he said, “I must also see Rome.” That was not the “must” of the tourist. It was the “must” of the missionary. This man knew perfectly well that Rome was the strategic centre of the world, that from Rome great highways ran out over all the known earth, along which legions travelled, and merchantmen wended their way. He felt that if that centre could but be captured, these highways would be highways for the Lord, for the messengers of the Gospel of His peace. Therefore he said, “I must also see Rome.”

Notwithstanding this purpose there was delay. He did not immediately set out to Jerusalem. He sent into Macedonia “two of them that ministered unto him, Timothy and Erastus, and he himself stayed in Asia for a while.” The first letter to the Corinthians was written almost certainly during this time of tarrying in Ephesus, and in it we find an explanation of the reason of the delay. When he came to the close of that letter, he said, “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I gave order to the churches of Galatia, so also do ye”; and in the fifth verse of the last chapter we have his reference to this same purpose which Luke chronicles: “I will come unto you, when I shall have passed through Macedonia; for I do pass through Macedonia.” He “purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia . . . to go to Jerusalem.” In the eighth verse of the last Corinthian chapter we find his determination to tarry recorded. His purpose was to go through Macedonia, but he said, “I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost”; and the reason is declared, “for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.” He did not, however, tarry in Ephesus till Pentecost, even though his purpose was to do so, for in the twentieth chapter and the sixteenth verse of the book of the Acts, Luke says Paul had determined to sail past Ephesus; he had already left Ephesus for he was hastening to be in Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost. As a matter of fact, the uproar in Ephesus hastened the departure of the apostle. He did not, however, refer to that uproar when he said, “There are many adversaries.” As a matter of fact the uproar in Ephesus ended the opposition.

This uproar was occasioned by the fact that it was the month of May. It was the time of the great gatherings throughout Proconsular Asia, of those who worshipped Diana, or Artemis. The city was filled with her worshippers, and the uproar was occasioned by the presence of these people there. Demetrius gathered the craftsmen together, and told them what this man Paul was doing. This caused the disturbance, but the end was peace, patronage, and protection for the Christians. Then Paul left. While there were adversaries, the door was open, and he remained. Thus he did not remain until Pentecost in Ephesus; and the reason of his going was the uproar which we are now to consider.

The month of May these people called the Artemisian, because it was the month devoted to these great religious assemblies in honour of Artemis; and the gatherings were described as the Ephesia. The picture is full of life and colour. Vast crowds were gathered together for worship. The theatre into which they crowded, taking with them the two travelling companions of Paul, was capable of seating twenty or thirty thousand people. These facts help us to understand the commotion of the city. Our interest, however, is supremely centred in the revelation which this picture gives us of the progress of the Word of God. Three matters impress us as we read the story: first, the method of the victories of the Word of God; secondly, the nature of the opposition stirred up against the Word of God, of which Demetrius was the central figure; and finally, and principally, the real peril to the Word of God and the Christian Church, which was that of the action of the town clerk.

First then, as to the method of the victories. The fact of these victories was testified by Demetrius, who gathering together the craftsmen, said to them:

“Sirs, ye know that by this business we have our wealth. And ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands: and not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana be made of no account, and that she should even be deposed from her magnificence, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.”

Thus Demetrius confessed that the apostolic preaching was successful; that wonderful victories were being won in Ephesus itself, and through that whole region of Proconsular Asia, which Paul had so longed to evangelize, and had been prevented, when driven to Troas. Now let us notice the methods of these victories. How did the Word of the Lord grow mightily and prevail? First, by the presence in Ephesus of one man, wholly and absolutely at the disposal of his Lord and Master. In Ephesus he bore testimony, he preached, he taught. He was thus at the disposal of his Lord and Master as an instrument for the working of remarkable signs.

He did not attempt to work miracles in Ephesus. Christian apostles never did; but they were at the disposal of God, when He desired to work through them some sign. He was in fellowship with his Lord also in travail, sharing with Him the very afflictions that make the Kingdom come. As he told the elders at Miletus subsequently, he was with them night and day in tears, and in much affliction, for the Word of his God.

The Word of God grew mightily, moreover, because God wrought special signs suited to special needs. Do not let us imagine that these signs are needed to-day. If they are not present, it is because they are not needed. God never works signs in order to make His apostles notorious or popular; but only where peculiar circumstances demand such signs.

And again, the Word of God grew and prevailed through a purified Church. The Church brought its secret books, and burned them, and then the Word grew and prevailed.

Observe then the nature of that growth. The victories won were the victories of a positive, acting as a negative. When the town clerk presently dealt with the matter, he said, and it was merely the statement of a common truth,-these men are no “robbers of temples, nor blasphemers of our goddess.” These men had not broken into the temples and robbed them of wealth. These men had held no meetings for the denunciation of the worship of Diana. How then came the victories? Why did Demetrius call together his craftsmen? Because the sale of the silver shrines of Diana was falling off. How was that to be accounted for?

The springs of character affected the streams of conduct. Not by denouncing shrines, but by so changing men and women that they did not need shrines to Diana, thus the victory was won. Men and women in Ephesus, who were themselves shrines of Deity, did not need the shrines to Diana. Men and women in Ephesus, who knew fellowship with God by the Holy Spirit, certainly would not spend their money upon these silver shrines. They had no time to abuse the silver shrines; no time to make a public protest. A great phrase of Dr.

Chalmers describes their condition, “the expulsive power of a new affection.” This is the one way of victory, if the Church is to win real victories. They are won by the new, devitalizing the old; by the rising of a new life within men and women, which triumphs over all other desires.

In America there grows a wonderful tree called the scrub-oak. Travelling through the country in the springtime, we see this scrub-oak, covered still with the leaves of last year. Every other tree is stripped by the tempest of the autumn and winter. But gradually, in the springtime, the leaves drop off the scrub-oak, by the rising of the new life. That which the tempest from without never accomplishes, the rising life within does accomplish. The rustling of the leaves seems to laugh at the storm, but when the new life rises, then quietly and surely they drop off. That was the victory in Ephesus. There was no demonstration against idolatry, but realization of fellowship with God.

All the forces of the old were devitalized by the rising forces of the new.

Mark the rapidity of the growth. The business of Ephesus was affected; the religion of Ephesus was in danger; and the whole of Proconsular Asia was influenced. To repeat the words of the town clerk, these men were neither “robbers of temples, nor blasphemers of our goddess,” and yet the traffic in shrines suffered, and the splendour and magnificence of the worship of Artemis was threatened. Thus by the fact of the new life of individual men, the old and hoary forces of evil were threatened. In the second place notice the nature of the opposition. Here, one of the most patent things is the philosophy running through the speech of Demetrius.

The primary inspiration of the opposition of Demetrius was that vested interests were suffering. No attack had been made upon the craft, but the receipts were less. That is the whole story. There was a secondary reason, which must be given for the sake of decency and appearance, that religion was being threatened. Demetrius in that private meeting of the craftsmen, said to them:

“Sirs, ye know that by this business we have our wealth. And ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands: and not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana be made of no account.”

What an unconscious revelation was this speech of the inspiration of this opposition. We are reminded of that story in the Gospels, of how Jesus landed upon the shore of the country of the Gadarenes. There He met two men possessed with demons, and He flung the demons out, and made the men free. The men who saw it, went up into the city, “and they told everything, and . . .”! Can “everything, and” be told? They told everything, and what had happened to the men.

But surely the “everything” should be the healing of the men, and not what happened to the pigs? To these men, the “everything” was that the swine were destroyed. The “and” did not much matter; two men were healed! That was the case at Ephesus; “everything,” “our trade " was in danger; and the “and” was that our religion also is threatened.

If that was the inspiration of this opposition, notice its expression. First there was a conference, a meeting of the craftsmen; secondly, there was confusion, “some cried one thing, and some another.” Surely there is a touch of satire in Luke’s account, “The more part knew not wherefore they were come together.”

Alexander-I wonder if he was the coppersmith-wanted to be heard, in order to declare that they had no part in this propaganda, but he could not be heard, and the whole gathering ended in clamour, as for two hours the mob howled, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” That kind of opposition is absolutely futile. A spiritual force can never thus be destroyed. That confusion in the great theatre was by the overruling of God, so that some said one thing, and some another; and the great majority did not know why they had come together; and the only unanimity was the unanimity of noise. One lie, multiplied by ten thousand voices, never becomes a truth. The Church of God in Ephesus had no reason to tremble on account of that wild confusion. That kind of opposition never halts the march of the Church of God for half an hour. Its peril begins when the town clerk makes it cease.

The town clerk as a politician was wholly and absolutely admirable. I have no quarrel with him. I like to listen to his speech, to his sarcastic rebuke of this shouting crowd. In effect he said, What you say is quite true, Diana is great, and therefore there is no need to shout! When men get together and shout aloud the same thing, we may be perfectly sure that there is some doubt about the matter.

I wonder how much this man understood the force of what he said: “These men are neither robbers of temples, nor blasphemers of our goddess.” I do not know whether he saw further than that; but the deduction from it was that not these men, but the spiritual forces were going to win, and all the shouting could not prevent it, He showed to the mob the true method of dealing with the difficulty by reminding them of the two courses open to them. If it be a trade dispute, take it to the courts; if it be a town matter, a municipal matter, take it to the ecclesia, that assembly of free men, which have to deal with all such matters. He reminded them also that they were in danger. Though Ephesus was free, it might lose its freedom unless they could give a satisfactory account of this riot. He was a wholly admirable town clerk.

But look at him again, look at his influence, look at the thing he did, which he did not intend to do, for I do not believe there was any subtlety in this man. He agreed with, and confirmed, the superstition of the people. He took Christianity under his patronage, not because he admired Christianity, but in the interest of civic quiet. Speaking from the standpoint of Ephesus, I think he was quite justified. Speaking also from the standpoint of the town clerk, and of the recorder, of the one responsible for the affairs of the city, I think he was quite justified. He knew nothing about Paul or Christianity; but he knew something about Ephesus, and the fact that it was in peril; and the only thing to do was to save these men from the howling mob, and drive them back into quietness and satisfaction with their own religion. Quiet in Ephesus was everything to him, but in the moment in which these Christian men passed under the protection of the town clerk, they were in more danger than when Demetrius’ mob was howling about them.

The last glimpse of this Ephesian Church in the Bible is in Revelation: “I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love”; and the loss of first love almost invariably in the history of the Church, follows upon protection and patronage of the Church, from without. What of Ephesus to-day?

Again to quote Farrar:

“Its candlestick has been for centuries removed out of his place; the squalid Mohammedan village which is nearest to its site does not count one Christian in its insignificant population; its temple is a mass of shapeless ruins; its harbour is a reedy pool; the bittern booms amid its pestilent and stagnant marshes; and malaria and oblivion reign supreme over the place where the wealth of ancient civilization gathered around the scenes of its grossest superstitions and its most degraded sins.”

This is an appalling picture penned by one who had looked upon the scene; the picture of a perished city, and a perished Church; of a city that could not be saved by the Church because the Church’s love for its Lord had passed under the cooling process of the city’s protection, and patronage. The English Church was far safer in the days of Marian persecution than in the days of Elizabethan patronage. Independency was not nearly so much in peril when the Fleet Prison existed as it is now with the Memorial Hall standing on the site thereof. Methodism was not nearly so much in danger when it was the scorn of Sidney Smith and that ilk, as it is when its presidents are received at Court. The Salvation Army was not in half as much danger when an Eastbourne mob pelted its missionaries with stones, as when her General is smiled upon by a king. I do not say these things are wrong.

I do not criticize King or Court for receiving; but I do say that the Church of God is in her gravest peril when a town clerk protects her. Let us be very careful that we do not waste our energy, and miss the meaning of our high calling, by any rejoicing in the patronage of the world. It is by the friction of persecution that the fine gold of character is made to flash and gleam with glory. The Church persecuted has always been the Church pure, and therefore the Church powerful. The Church patronized has always been the Church in peril, and very often the Church paralyzed. I am not afraid of Demetrius.

Let him have his meeting of craftsmen, and let them in their unutterable folly shout a lie twenty-five thousand strong. The truth goes quietly on. But when the town clerk begins to take care of us, then God deliver us from the peril.