Acts 19-22

The Voice

19 ^{1, 7} While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul’s overland journey brought him back to Ephesus. He encountered a group of about a dozen disciples there.^[a]

⁵ As soon as they heard this, they were baptized, this time in the name of our Lord Jesus. ⁶ When Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them in the same way the original disciples experienced at Pentecost: they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

⁸ For three months, Paul continued his standard practice: he went week by week to the synagogue, speaking with great confidence, arguing with great persuasiveness, proclaiming the kingdom of God. ^9-10 Once again, some members of the synagogue refused to believe and insulted the Way^[d] publicly before the whole synagogue community. Paul withdrew and took those with him who had become disciples. For the next two years, he used the public lecture hall of Tyrannus, presenting the Word of the Lord every day, debating with all who would come. As a result, everyone in the region, whether Jews or Greeks, heard the message. ¹¹ Meanwhile, God did amazing miracles through Paul. ¹² People would take a handkerchief or article of clothing that had touched Paul’s skin and bring it to their sick friends or relatives, and the patients would be cured of their diseases or released from the evil spirits that oppressed them.

^13-14 Some itinerant Jewish exorcists noticed Paul’s success in this regard, so they tried to use the name of Jesus, the King, in an exorcism they were performing.

Imagine this: There are seven of them, all sons of a Jewish chief priest named Sceva, gathered around a demonized man in a house.

¹⁶ Then the man leaps up, attacks them all, rips off their clothing, and beats them so badly that they run out of the house stark naked and covered in bruises.

¹⁷ Word of this strange event spread throughout Ephesus among both Jews and Greeks. Everyone was shocked and realized that the name of Jesus was indeed powerful and praiseworthy. ¹⁸ As a result, a number of people involved in various occult practices came to faith. They confessed their secret practices and rituals. ¹⁹ Some of them had considerable libraries about their magic arts; they piled up their books and burned them publicly. Someone estimated the value of the books to be 50,000 silver coins. ²⁰ Again, word spread, and the message of the Lord overcame resistance and spread powerfully.

²¹ Eventually Paul felt he should move on again. The Holy Spirit confirmed that he should first travel through Macedonia and Achaia and then return to Jerusalem.

²² So he sent Timothy and Erastus, two of his helpers, ahead to Macedonia while he stayed a while longer in Asia. ²³ It was during this time that a major incident occurred involving the Way.

²⁴ An idol maker named Demetrius had a profitable business, for himself and for others, making silver shrines for Artemis (also known as Diana by the Romans), one of the deities worshiped in Ephesus.

²⁵ Picture this: Demetrius calls a meeting of all the artisans who are similarly employed in idol making. Everyone in the idol industry comes together.

²⁸ The crowd goes wild with rage. They start chanting.

²⁹ Soon the whole city is filled with confusion, and a mob forms. They find Paul’s Macedonian travel companions, Gaius and Aristarchus, and drag them to the theater. ³⁰ Paul wants to go confront the crowd and protect his friends, but the disciples hold him back. ³¹ Even some provincial officials of Asia who are friendly to Paul send him an urgent message, warning him to stay away from the theater.

³² Enraged voices are shouting on top of each other, some saying one thing, some saying something else. The crowd is completely out of control. Most of the people don’t even know what caused the commotion in the first place. ³³ Some of the Jewish people push a man named Alexander to the front of the crowd, hoping he can calm the disturbance. He raises his hands to silence the crowd and gets a few sentences out; ³⁴ but then the crowd realizes he’s a Jew, and once again they start chanting.

For two solid hours they keep the chant going.

³⁵ Finally the town clerk manages to calm the crowd.

⁴¹ So he succeeds in dispersing the crowd.

20 As soon as the uproar ended, Paul gathered the disciples together, encouraged them once more, said farewell, and left on foot. He decided to pass through Macedonia, ² encouraging believers wherever he found them, and came to Greece. ³ He spent three months there, and then he planned to set sail once again for Syria. But he learned that a group of Jewish opponents was plotting to kill him, so he decided to travel through Macedonia.

^4-5 There was a large group of us traveling with him at this time, and we decided it was best, in light of the plot, to split up and then reunite in the city of Troas. This group included Paul, a Berean named Sopater (son of Pyrrhus), two Thessalonians named Aristarchus and Secundus, a Derbean named Gaius, two Asians named Tychicus and Trophimus, and Timothy. ⁶ Some of us waited until the Days of Unleavened Bread were over; then we went to Philippi where we boarded a ship for Troas. The other group left immediately on foot, passing through Macedonia. When my group landed in Troas five days later, Paul’s group had already arrived. We stayed in Troas another week.

^7-8 The Sunday night before our Monday departure, we gathered to celebrate the breaking of bread.

Imagine you are celebrating with them:

We are in an upstairs room, with the gentle light and shadows cast by several lamps. Paul is carrying on an extended dialogue with the believers, taking advantage of every moment since we plan to leave at first light. The conversation stretches on until midnight. ⁹ A young fellow named Eutychus, seeking some fresh air, moves to an open window. Paul keeps on talking. Eutychus perches in the open window itself. Paul keeps talking. Eutychus drifts off to sleep. Paul continues talking until Eutychus, now overcome by deep sleep, drops out of the window and falls three stories to the ground, where he is found dead. ¹⁰ Paul joins us downstairs, bends over, and takes Eutychus in his arms.

¹¹ Then Paul goes back upstairs, celebrates the breaking of bread, and—just as you might guess—keeps on conversing until first light. Then he leaves. ¹² (I should add that Eutychus had been taken home long before, his friends more than a little relieved that the boy was alive!)

¹³ Again Paul wanted us to split up. He wanted to go by land by himself while we went by ship to Assos. ¹⁴ There he came on board with us, and we sailed on to Mitylene. ¹⁵ From there we sailed near Chios, passing by it the next day, docking briefly at Samos the day after that, then arriving at Miletus the following day. ¹⁶ This route kept us safely out of Ephesus and didn’t require Paul to spend any time at all in Asia, since he wanted to arrive in Jerusalem quickly—before Pentecost, he hoped.

¹⁷ In Miletus he sent word to the church in Ephesus, asking the elders to come down to meet with him. ¹⁸ When they arrived, he talked with them.

³⁶ Once again, imagine this scene:

As Paul finishes speaking, he kneels down; and we all join him, kneeling. He prays, and we all join him, praying. ³⁷ There’s the sound of weeping, and then more weeping, and then more still. One by one, we embrace Paul and kiss him, ³⁸ our sadness multiplied because of his words about this being our last good-bye. We walk with him to the ship, and he sets sail.

21 Cos was our next stop, and the next day, Rhodes, and the next, Patara. ² We found another ship in Patara that would take us south and east toward Phoenicia. ³ We saw Cyprus to our left and sailed on to Syria, landing at Tyre where the ship had cargo to unload. ⁴ We found the disciples there and stayed with them for seven days. The Spirit moved them to tell Paul not to go on to Jerusalem; ⁵ but the day came for our departure, and the whole community of disciples, including wives and children, escorted us outside the city. We knelt down together on the beach, prayed together, said farewell, and then parted company— ⁶ the disciples returning to their homes, we sailing on. ⁷ From Tyre we docked at Ptolemais where we met with the believers and spent a day with them. ⁸ Then we moved on to Caesarea. In Caesarea we stayed with Philip the evangelist, one of the seven.^{[e] 9} His four virgin daughters lived with him, each having the gift of prophecy. ¹⁰ While we were with them, another gifted prophet named Agabus came north from Judea. ¹¹ He took Paul’s belt and used it to bind his own feet and hands.

¹² Now we all joined in imploring Paul—we, his companions, and Philip and his daughters, everyone present—begging him not to go one step closer to the city.

¹⁴ We realized our persuasion was fruitless, so we stopped pleading with him and simply said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

¹⁵ So we knew what we were getting into as we prepared to ascend the foothills toward Jerusalem. ¹⁶ Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and led us to the home of Mnason, a Cypriot and one of the first disciples, with whom we stayed. ¹⁷ We continued on to Jerusalem and were welcomed warmly by the brothers there. ¹⁸ The next day, we went together to visit James, and all the elders were there with him. ¹⁹ Paul greeted them and then reported account after account of what God had done through him among the outsiders. ²⁰ When they heard his story, they praised God.

²⁶ Paul complied with their request. The very next day, he publicly joined the four men, completed the initial purification rites, entered the temple with them, and began the seven-day ritual purification process, after which a sacrifice would be made for each of them.

²⁷ The seven days of purification were almost completed when some Jews from Asia recognized Paul in the temple. They grabbed him.

²⁹ In this accusation, they were confused—they had seen Paul elsewhere in the city with Trophimus the Ephesian, and they assumed that one of his current companions was Trophimus. ³⁰ It was too late to clarify, though, because word spread and soon a huge crowd rushed to the temple. They held Paul and dragged him from the temple and shut the doors behind them. ³¹ They beat Paul, and it was clear they intended to kill him. By this time, word of the uproar reached the commandant of the Roman guard assigned to Jerusalem.

³² He led a group of soldiers and officers to the scene. When the mob looked up and saw the soldiers running toward them, they stopped beating Paul. ³³ The commandant took him into custody and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He conducted a preliminary interrogation—asking Paul’s name, what he had done. ³⁴ Members of the crowd were shouting over each other, and the tribune couldn’t hear a thing, so he ordered Paul to be taken back to the barracks. ³⁵ When they came to the steps leading down from the temple, the crowd was seething with such violence toward Paul that the soldiers had to pick him up and carry him. ³⁶ Then the crowd followed.

³⁷ They were just leaving the temple area when Paul asked the commandant,

⁴⁰ The commandant agreed, and Paul stood there on the steps, motioning for the people to be silent. The crowd settled down, and Paul spoke in their native tongue, Aramaic.

² When they heard him speaking Aramaic, a hush came over the crowd.

²² They were listening quietly up until he mentioned the outsiders.

²³ Chaos broke out again. People were shouting, slamming their coats down on the ground, and throwing fistfuls of dust up in the air. ²⁴ The commandant ordered the soldiers to bring Paul to the barracks and flog him until he confessed to whatever he had done to stir up this outrage.

²⁵ Back at the barracks, as they tied him up with leather thongs, Paul spoke to a nearby officer.

²⁶ The officer went and spoke to the commandant.

²⁹ Hearing this, those who were about to start the flogging pulled back, and the commandant was concerned because he had arrested and bound a citizen without cause. ³⁰ He still needed to conduct an investigation to uncover the Jews’ accusations against Paul. So the next day, he removed the ties on Paul and called a meeting with the chief priests and council of elders. He brought Paul in and had him stand before the group.