Thoughts on Acts 19 - The Ephesian church

• "And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism." And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized int he name of the LORD Jesus." -Acts 19: 3-5 Paul challenged the Ephesians with this question because they had never heard of the Holy Spirit. By that leads to the question "Upon what were they saved by?" They answered that they were saved by the baptism of repentance, while enough BEFORE Jesus Christ came, it was no longer enough because Jesus' baptism was one of salvation and redemption. The point being made is that just repenting of your sins is NOT ENOUGH TO SAVE YOU. You have to have full salvation (repentance, belief AND a filling of the Holy Spirit) to save you from GOD's wrath.
• In verses 8-10, it speaks upon the power of the Holy Spirit upon the 12 men who were with Paul. They began to faithfully speak boldly and with wisdom for about 3 years. One thing that stood out to me? They went to Asia! Another thing is that they only moved on WHEN people continued in unbelief and there was no more work to be done. When the unbelievers died and reached the judgement, I wonder what excuse they would present to GOD...
• "But the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?" -Acts 19:15 So it goes that people saw the success of Paul through the Holy Spirit but some people didn't understand that it was the work of the Holy Spirit and NOT just the use of the name Jesus Christ. YES, the name of Jesus Christ has great power but it's through the Holy Spirit that miracles are done in his name. What happened to these guys? Essentially, the demon they were trying to drive out turned on them and destroyed them instead. The lesson here is that even the evil spirits KNOW Jesus, ACKNOWLEDGE his sheep but will not just stand down upon the mentioning of the name of Jesus without any backing by GOD.
• After the work done by the Holy Spirit in Ephesus, many believed and "came, confessing and divulging their practices." As there were many practitioners of the magic and the dark arts in Ephesus, they came forth and "brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver." This is in stark contrast to the rich young ruler who couldn't give his money away to attain salvation but, in my opinion, even MORE. These magicians used the dark arts for gains of this world that probably amounted to more than what the rich young ruler could do with his money. Also in contrast is the reason for the riot at Ephesus.
• "So the word of the LORD continued to increase and prevail mightily." -Acts 19: 20 It's by GOD's working that we are saved and not but our own power. The thing is that it doesn't say that the WORK of the LORD continued but the WORD of the LORD. The point being made is the power of the Bible. It alone has power to save. Miracles don't HAVE to be performed, GOD's existence doesn't NEED to be proven by a learnt scholar/scientist and no background knowledge is NEEDED for the Bible to be presented and for one to be saved. Thus is the power of the Word.
• To summarize the riot at Ephesus, the silversmiths realize that they're going to lose business because Paul and his disciples are converting people from buying their idols of Artemis. Just three main points here, 1) The silversmiths believed upon where they set their money, 2) GOD delivers and 3) Be careful in encounters with people of other religions. 1) This is fairly self explanatory but also a warning. I have no doubt that the silversmiths KNEW the truth but rejected it solely because it would mean they would go broke and have no money to support their family. If your treasures are in heaven, why would things of the earth matter that much? I understand that they might have to have provided for their families but the GOD I believe in provides. 2) When the townspeople rounded up several disciples, GOD used the towns clerk and gave him a very logical reasoning as to why they should not act rashly towards the disciples. The Bible doesn't mention the status of the man's soul but I have no doubt that he might've been born for that very reason! 3) In the towns clerk's reasoning, he states that "these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess." because although Paul said that Artemis was not a goddess, he still treated them with RESPECT and also was not irreverent towards their beliefs. Yes, there is only ONE true god but that does not mean we are disrespectful towards people whose beliefs are different.

*Written by the grace of GOD through two lunches of timmies. Though lunch is important, man does not live by bread alone and certainly not timmies. Jesus is the bread of life - he said that all that eats of him will never be hungry again.