Tag Archives: Ephesus

Stuck On Jesus

Bible Study, , , ,

STUCK ON JESUS

“From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the leaders of the congregation. When they arrived, he said, ‘You know that from day one of my arrival in Asia I was with you totally– laying my life on the line, serving the Master no matter what, putting up with no end of scheming by Jews who wanted to do me in. I didn’t skimp or trim in any way. Every truth and encouragement that could have made a difference to you, you got. I taught you out in public and I taught you in your homes, urging Jews and Greeks alike to a radical life-change before God and an equally radical trust in our Master Jesus.'” Acts 20:17-21 (The Message).

What a testimony! Saul, the Pharisee, who had poured his heart and soul into getting rid of Christians because he thought they were wrong, became Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, because he had experienced an encounter with the One he was vehemently persecuting.

Paul was not stuck on himself! He was passing the baton on to those entrusted with the church he had founded. What kind of leaders were needed to steer the believers in Ephesus through troubled waters during a time when they were the target of serious misunderstanding and opposition by Jewish radicals and Roman rulers who thought they were God? To declare that Jesus, not Caesar, was Lord, was treasonable and punishable by death. One after the other, the caesars zealously protected their “divine” status by persecuting those who insisted on worshipping this Jesus, not them, as Lord.

The church needed leaders with the same measure of loyalty to Jesus as Paul had, who would shepherd the believers with the same integrity and passion that they saw in him. They needed men who were followers of Jesus, not leaders who were intent on binding people to themselves and building little kingdoms around them. They needed shepherds who would show them the way as well as teach them the Word of God.

Paul could write to congregations he had founded and taught: ‘Follow me as I follow Christ.’ That was a bold and dangerous statement unless it was absolutely true. How many pastors and teachers can say that today? Yet is this not the role of the true shepherd of God’s flock? Jesus has entrusted His sheep to men and women with the confidence in them that they will fulfil their commission as those who are accountable to Him.

It is a shameful thing that many so-called “shepherds” use their position to lord it over their congregations and to milk them in the name of “faith”, or “sowing seed”, or even unashamedly declaring, ‘God will save a soul for every dollar you give,’ and then build bigger houses and drive better cars because God is “blessing” them. What has happened to the Paul-like generosity that spends itself for the sake of others?

For Paul there was a guiding principle that he followed, remembering that there was more to life than a few short years on this earth. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10 (NIV). Like his Master Jesus, Paul always took the long look. To live only in the now, forgetting that this life is an apprenticeship for the life to come, is the height of folly.

He could look in his Master’s face with confidence, knowing that he had not wasted or prostituted the gifts and calling he was given on his own pleasure and comfort. He gave himself fully to his task because he knew there was an eternal reward for a job well done.

Take That, Diana!

Bible Study, ,

TAKE THAT, DIANA!

“Paul then went straight to the meeting place. He had the run of the place for three months, doing his best to make the things of the kingdom of God real and convincing to them. But then resistance began to form as some of them began spreading evil rumours through the congregation about the Christian way of life. So Paul left, taking the disciples with him, and set up shop in the school of Tyrannus, holding class there daily. He did this for two years, giving everyone in the province of Asia, Jews as well as Greeks, ample opportunity to hear the Message of the Master,” Acts 19:8-10 (The Message).

Like Athens, Ephesus was a hotbed of idolatry, especially the worship of Diana (Roman) or Artemis (Greek), a powerful goddess whose image supposedly fell from the sky. It was in the atmosphere of her power and influence that Paul carried on his ministry there for at least two years.

He ministered in the Jewish synagogue for at least three months before the poisonous rumours spread by his opponents began to undermine his ministry. Rather than remain and face increasing opposition, he moved his venue to a nearby “school”, probably a meeting place where men gathered during their “leisure” time, between 11am and 4pm, to discuss the philosophies of the day. This would have given him time to carry out his tent-making during “working hours” as well as preach and teach in the middle of the day,

Paul took advantage of this practice to share the message of Jesus with the people who gathered there every day with such power that the whole of the province of Asia came under his influence. As we will see later, this had dire consequences for him and his associates as the life-transforming power of Jesus began to take effect, undermining the worship of Diana.

“God did powerful things through Paul, things quite out of the ordinary. The word got around and people started taking pieces of clothing — handkerchiefs, scarves and the like — that had touched Paul’s skin, and then touching the sick with them. The touch did it — they were healed and whole.” Acts 19:11-12 (The Message).

This is a phenomenon that appears more than once in Scripture. God did many miracles when He rescued His people from Egypt. He supernaturally destroyed the whole of Egypt, including their military might, to show Pharaoh and the Egyptian people that their gods were powerless against the God of Israel. Likewise God did miracles through the prophets Elijah and Elisha during the time of the reign of Ahab and Jezebel in Israel when Baal-worship predominated.

Paul’s ministry in Ephesus coincided with the powerful influence of Diana and it would seem that God was confirming the truth of His Word by the signs and miracles that He did through Paul. He was as much revealing His power over Diana as He was healing the afflicted in Ephesus.

The effect on the Ephesian people was electrifying, (as we shall read in the next section of Acts), and produced a counter-attack from the enemy conducted by those who were more concerned about losing business than they were about Diana’s “divine majesty” being threatened!

What does this tell us about God and His ministry through Paul? God is always about revealing His glory. Where Satan’s intention was to oppose and rival God through the zeal and energy of misguided people, He exposed his deception through acts of power that proved without doubt the He alone is God.

God does heal out of compassion for His people but He also intervenes miraculously in times of idolatry and unbelief to put Himself on display so that there can never be any doubt about who is Lord.

God Inside You

Bible Study, ,

GOD INSIDE YOU

“Now it happened that while Apollos was away in Corinth, Paul made his way through the mountains, came to Ephesus and happened on some disciples there. The first thing he said was, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Did you take God into your mind only, or did you also embrace Him with your heart? Did He get inside you?'” Acts 19:1-2 (The Message).

First of all, it’s possible that these disciples were not part of the mainstream church in Ephesus. Paul had spent time there and would no doubt have thoroughly taught the believers the practicalities of their faith, including the person and work of the Holy Spirit. These people might have been the fruit of Apollos’ ministry or an isolated group who had been influenced by other believers in Ephesus but had not yet heard the whole story.

When Paul encountered them, the first question he asked was very significant. If they were unaware of the Holy Spirit’s existence and work in them, they would have lacked an awareness of God’s presence, which was basic to their experience of being “in Christ” and “Christ in them”. As recent converts from paganism, the idea of “God inside them” would have been completely foreign.

Paul did not want them to have the wrong idea that they had simply changed religions. This was not about mental assent to a new belief system. This was about something as radical as relocation into a new dimension of living in which Jesus ruled in the core of their beings through His personal representative, the Holy Spirit.

It was vital that they understood that they were “under new management”, and that they acknowledged and became increasingly aware of His presence in them so that they would recognise and respond to His voice. What was the point of a new religion? That would simply be exchanging one lie for another. To believe that Jesus is who He said He is meant a change of master, a transformation of character and disposition, and a new destiny and destination.

Why is it, then, that the Holy Spirit has become such a contentious and divisive issue in the church? Is this another one of Satan’s ploys to divide the church, and to cloud the truth with such irrelevancies that the most important thing is forgotten? Without the Holy Spirit’s inward, intimate work in us, we can only give mental assent to Jesus, and He becomes just another religious figure among many.

The Holy Spirit, according to Jesus, is the key to knowing Him. “‘…I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth'” John 14:16 (NIV).

“‘All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.'” John 14:25-26 (NIV).

“‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you.'” John 16:12-14 (NIV).

Could Jesus have said it more plainly? Is the church not full of immature believers because Christian leaders have failed to do what Paul did — introduce them to the Holy Spirit? Instead of quarrelling about the “doctrine” of the Holy Spirit, how much better it would be for us to get to know Him personally and, by so doing, get to know Jesus!

The Holy Spirit is not some “thing” that we can divide up and choose what we like about Him and ignore or reject what we don’t like. He is God, the third Person of the Trinity who indwells us in the fullness of His person. When we acknowledge Him, it is His divine right to choose what He does with us, and He will always do good because He is God.

A Strategic Encounter

Bible Study, Christian life, , ,

A STRATEGIC ENCOUNTER

“After spending a considerable time with the Antioch Christians, Paul set off again for Galatia and Phrygia, retracing his old tracks, one town after another, putting fresh heart into the disciples.

“A man named Apollos came to Ephesus. He was a Jew, born in Alexandria, Egypt, and a terrific speaker, eloquent and powerful in his preaching of the Scriptures. He was well-educated in the way of the Master and fiery in his enthusiasm. Apollos was accurate in everything he taught about Jesus up to a point, but only went as far as the baptism of John. He preached with power in the meeting place. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and told him the rest of the story.” Acts 18:23-26 (The Message).

How clever of God to set Priscilla and Aquila up for their encounter with Apollos in Ephesus! They had accompanied Paul on his return journey from Corinth to Antioch but remained in Ephesus while he continued on his journey home. No explanation was given, but God knew that there was to be a meeting with Apollos in Ephesus.

What a treasure Apollos turned out to be! How he came to be a believer from Alexandria is not recorded either. No doubt believers moved about in the empire, taking the message of Messiah wherever they went. Apollos was well trained in the Old Testament Scriptures and a native of Alexandria, a port city in Egypt where he would have grown up in a cosmopolitan culture, meeting people from all over the empire as they brought their goods to trade.

An introduction to the Messiah put a match to the Word, and Apollos was alight with the truth and comfortable in the company of Jew and Gentile alike. His passion and enthusiasm to spread the message took him to Ephesus where he “accidentally” ran into Priscilla and Aquila. They had been in Paul’s company long enough to have an accurate understanding of the gospel. Who better to take him under their wing and bring him up to speed with the things of the Lord?

Apollos was humble enough to be taught by these two “lay” people, sharpening his knowledge and skill as a preacher which he used to great effect in the synagogue in Ephesus, The fact that he was also, like Paul, a Jew who had recognised that Jesus was their Messiah, must have enhanced Paul’s credibility among the Ephesian Jews.

Why was it so important that Apollos be corrected regarding the baptism of John? After all, baptism is baptism, isn’t it? Does it matter into whose name it is done?

Yes, it matters a whole lot because baptism was an initiation into an office or movement, identifying the baptismal candidate with the leader of the movement and what he stood for and practised. John’s ministry was a preparation and introduction to Jesus as Messiah. His baptism was an initiation into and identification with him in what he was preaching. It was a baptism of repentance, preparing his hearers to receive the kingdom of God which Jesus had come to usher in.

The baptism of Jesus was an initiation into and identification with Him and His completed work of atonement for sin and reconciliation with the Father. To be baptised into Jesus meant being identified with the three-in-one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in what they had done to restore God’s rule in the people’s hearts.

Once Apollos had got that right, he became a fully-equipped and powerful ally of the apostles and the church, using his gift to bring encouragement to the church and enlightenment to his fellow Jews who, in the main, had rejected the gospel and become enemies of God.