Dwell in the Word: Acts 19:1-20
Think on these questions as you dwell in Acts 19:1-20:
1. In Ephesus, Paul encounters a group of believers who had received John's baptism but were unaware of the Holy Spirit. How does this incident highlight the transitional nature of John's baptism and its connection to the ministry of Jesus? How does Paul's re-baptism of these individuals into Jesus signify the new covenant reality?
2. The miracles performed through Paul, including the healing of individuals through handkerchiefs, serve to affirm the authority of his message. How do these miracles emphasize the divine approval of Paul's teaching and the validity of the gospel? What role do miracles play in validating the authenticity of the gospel message?
3. The passage emphasizes the widespread impact of the gospel, stating that "the Word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily." How does this statement underscore the unstoppable nature of God's Word and its ability to reach and transform diverse audiences, both Jews and Gentiles? In what ways can we participate in the ongoing spread of the gospel today?
Transcript:
So, we come across another interesting sequence of stories. But all pointing to the same basic idea that we've been seeing now for many chapters. So, Paul happens to end up in Ephesus, a primarily Gentile city, like many of the city names that we have seen here. But he does what he normally does. He goes to the Jewish synagogues.
He goes to people who are both Hebrews and people who are Gentiles. And we see here that he comes across some people who were believers. And so, he asked him, did you receive the Holy Spirit? And they're like, there’s a Holy Spirit. And so, he asked them, well, into what were you baptized? And so, these are people who have come to believe in Jesus, but they have not even been baptized.
They haven't even really been around much Christian teaching, obviously, or they would have been baptized by this point. And so, they baptized him them into Jesus. Now, what's going on here? Well, John’s baptism was about looking forward to Jesus. That's the point that is made here. It's a baptism of repentance It's a baptism to prepare people for the coming Christ Well, now that Jesus is here, baptism is now being baptized into Jesus.
And so, as a sign that these Gentile people are coming to legitimate faith, they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, and we're going to see that with some other things that are happening here in this text that we have been, that we were reading through. But the big idea here is, is that just as the Holy Spirit came upon the people.
In at Pentecost and they were able to speak in other languages. Now. This is happening among the Gentiles the transformation that is happening, the message that is going out is legitimate, and so is the conversion that is being caused by the Holy Spirit. That's the big message of what is happening here in the book of Acts.
And we see here that Paul is in Ephesus for a significant amount of time. We see here in verse 8. He entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly he was persistent. He wasn't running in and you know making an evangelistic plea and having a few people come forward and then leaving town He was sticking around.
He was continuing to Preach and reason with them we read and persuading them as it says here about the kingdom of God But as we have seen in the book of acts, there are those who are stubborn they continue in unbelief we see here that they speak evil of the way. That's what the book Christians were being called is the way.
And so, Paul does what he's done in other parts here, right? He withdraws. Uh, just previously in what we read a few days back, Paul said, fine, I'm, I'm going to the Gentiles. And we see kind of the same thing here. He, he moves back from just speaking to those in the synagogue and he goes out. And he has an opportunity to proclaim the gospel to more people and people are hearing And notice what it says in verse 10 both jews and Greeks The gospel is going to everyone and then we have this very interesting story with some details that we're Kind of I’m sure you've kind of found interesting as I did We see that there are miracles being done by the hands of Paul and there's not very many details here But, but what is the purpose, Ben, of miracles?
We see this, uh, not only in the Gospels, but now in the book of Acts. The purpose of the miracles is to show the authority of what is being taught. To show that Jesus is the Christ. That something is happening that God is approving of because only he could possibly do these things. And so, we see here that handkerchiefs of Paul's, uh, likely claws that he used in working, making tents.
Or something to that effect, not special hankies he pulled out and said, This is going to be a healing handkerchief. Um, just ordinary things that he used, and they would be taken away. And even these things were healing people. Again, what's the point? It isn't that somehow you and I can say a prover handkerchief and it will heal somebody.
The point is, Is that the message is going to the gentiles and Paul is the one who is delivering the message the message that he has Is legitimate and so we see that there's all these things happening with having um evil spirits Uh coming out not coming out people are trying to use the name of Jesus and there's a big story here and we won't get into too many of the details, but what we see is Uh second half of verse 17 and fear fell upon them all in the name of the lord In other words, God's name is being glorified not only among the Jews, but among the Gentiles.
They are knowing who Jesus is and the word is going out. And that's what we see in verse 20. So, the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. That's the story here. The gospel is going out, you know, remember Jesus said that that the gospel would be preached within a generation Go to Matthew 24 that the gospel would go out and it is it's going out to all people It's being spread And so we see here that this message Is important that God is causing it to increase through many things even handkerchiefs This is this is an amazing truth And you know, we know we know that the gospel went As far as what we would have being the modern day united kingdom within the first century before the year 70 We have evidence that the gospel went that far And that's the big news of what is being said here by Luke.
The gospel is expanding, it is going out, it is spreading, just as Jesus said it would. And the message is great, and the Holy Spirit is doing amazing things. But that, that hasn't changed, right? Now, we don't have handkerchiefs that are doing healing. We don't have some of the signs and, and wonders that were happening because it's, it's not the time of change anymore.
Remember in the Old Testament, during a time of change there were great signs and wonders. We're past that now we don't have those things happening among us Like they did then we have the word of the Lord, and we have the true sign and wonder the greatest one of all and that is God is still bringing people to faith in Christ The Word of the Lord has continued to increase.
The Word of the Lord has continued to prevail mightily up until our day. And so, we are called, as I've said so many times as we've been here in the Book of Acts, we are called to do what Paul is doing here. To proclaim the Word of the Lord and to trust that it is going to increase, that it is going to prevail mightily, that it is sufficient to bring people to salvation, just as it was in the past.
They were saved because they heard the Word and the Holy Spirit worked. That same proclamation of the gospel that Paul did is sufficient today. The same preaching of the Word, the same teaching of the Word is sufficient even today. So may we trust in the sufficiency of God's Word. May we have faith and trust that the Holy Spirit will be at work.
Because God is powerful and He is mighty. And His Word will continue to prevail.
