Acts 18-19

The Voice

18 From Athens, Paul traveled to Corinth alone. ² He found a Jewish man there named Aquila, originally from Pontus. Aquila and his wife Priscilla had recently come to Corinth from Italy because Claudius had banished all Jews from Rome. Paul visited them in their home ³ and discovered they shared the same trade of tent making. He then became their long-term guest and joined them in their tentmaking business. ⁴ Each Sabbath he would engage both Jews and Greeks in debate in the synagogue in an attempt to persuade them of his message. ⁵ Eventually Silas and Timothy left Macedonia and joined him in Corinth. They found him fully occupied by proclaiming the message, testifying to the Jewish people that Jesus was God’s Anointed, the Liberating King. ⁶ Eventually, though, some of them stopped listening and began insulting him. He shook the dust off his garments in protest.

⁷ He walked out of the synagogue and went next door to the home of an outsider, Titius Justus, who worshiped God. ⁸ Paul formed a gathering of believers there that included Crispus (the synagogue leader) and his whole household and many other Corinthians who heard Paul, believed, and were ceremonially washed through baptism. ⁹ One night Paul had a vision in which he heard the Lord’s voice.

¹¹ After such turmoil in previous cities, these words encouraged Paul to extend his stay in Corinth, teaching the message of God among them for a year and six months.

¹² During this time, some Jews organized an attack on Paul and made formal charges against him to Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia.

Paul was about to speak, but Gallio spoke first.

¹⁶ So he threw out their case and drove them away from his bench. ¹⁷ They were furious and seized Sosthenes, the synagogue official; then they beat him in front of the tribunal. Gallio just ignored them.

¹⁸ At the end of 18 months, Paul said good-bye to the believers in Corinth. He wanted to travel to the east and south to Syria by ship; so, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila, he went to the nearby port city of Cenchrea, where he fulfilled a vow he had made by cutting his hair. ¹⁹ The three of them sailed east to Ephesus where Paul would leave Priscilla and Aquila. Paul again went to the synagogue where he dialogued with the Jews. ²⁰ They were receptive and invited him to stay longer. But he politely declined.

He caught a ship bound south and east for Caesarea by the sea. There he went up for a brief visit with the believers in the church at Jerusalem; then he headed north to Antioch. ²³ He spent considerable time there and then left again, visiting city after city throughout Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening the disciples in each place.

²⁴ Meanwhile, back in Ephesus, a Jew named Apollos made contact with the community of believers. He had been raised in Alexandria.

Apollos was eloquent and well educated in the Hebrew Scriptures. ²⁵ He was partially instructed in the way of the Lord, and he added to his native eloquence a burning enthusiasm to teach about Jesus. He taught accurately what he knew; but he had only understood part of the good news, specifically the ritual cleansing through baptism^[a] preached by John, the forerunner of Jesus. ²⁶ So, when Priscilla and Aquila heard him speak boldly in the synagogue, they discerned both his gift and his lack of full understanding. They took him aside and in private explained the way of God to him more accurately and fully. ²⁷ He wanted to head west into Achaia, where Paul had recently been, to preach there. The believers encouraged him to do so and sent a letter instructing the Greek disciples to welcome him. Upon his arrival, he was of great help to all in Achaia who had, by the grace of God, become believers. ²⁸ This gifted speaker publicly demonstrated, based on the Hebrew Scriptures, that the promised Anointed One is Jesus. Then, when the Jews there raised counterarguments, he refuted them with great power.

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.^[b]

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^[e] 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.