Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever been part of something spontaneous that grew very rapidly and involved many people? Yesterday, in our journey with the apostle Paul, we were eyewitness to a remarkable event. A huge public bonfire was held in the great city of Ephesus, but this bonfire was not for roasting hotdogs or marshmallows. This was a radical event. It was not political, nor was it a riot, nor was it arson.
This bonfire was a public burning of sorcery and occult books and other demonic materials. Those throwing these materials into the fire were the owners of these materials who had used them to make a lot of money, as they engaged the dark kingdom of Satan and his demons in Ephesus!! They had experienced deliverance from the dark kingdom, as they trusted Jesus, and His power set them free! That report is given to us in Acts 19:18,19.
The next line Luke wrote is a powerful summary statement which I wish could be said of my city and yours: “In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.” Is the Name of Jesus Christ highly revered in your city? Is the “word of the Lord” respected and honored in your city? And what about the power of God? How is it seen, what is it accomplishing in your city? Ephesus was profoundly impacted by this remarkable bonfire event. The dark kingdom of Satan was dealt a massive blow of defeat. No, the darkness was not fully expelled out of Ephesus. No, crime did not cease, and all the bars didn’t close and yes there was still evil in that city when the fire finally was nothing more than just glowing embers, but there was a great spiritual victory that day in Ephesus! And there can be such a powerful work of God in your city and mine.
Do you know the key which unlocks the avalanche of God’s work? God promised it to King Solomon on the day of dedication of the great Temple in Jerusalem in 960bc. In response to King Solomon’s great prayer of dedication, God responded with a powerful promise including these words: “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14) So what do you see in this promise from God, my friends? What will unleash God’s mighty outpouring of His great work in any city?
The reason I have brought that promise of God to us today is this powerful statement made by Luke about the city of Ephesus just prior to the bonfire: “…the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls and burned them…” (Acts 19:17,18) Do you see it my friends? Christians in Ephesus stepped forward, out of the shadows of secrecy and hypocrisy and they confessed their sins. Some of them, Christians, brought out their secret books of sorcery and demonic activity and burned them! That is exactly what God had promised Solomon! When God’s people come clean. When they repent of their sin and confess their secrets, then God can cleanse and bring a mighty work of the Holy Spirit upon a person, a marriage, a family, a church, even a city! Now imagine the crowd that gathered that day in Ephesus watching people, many of whom had claimed to be Christians, bringing their occult secret stuff out of their homes and throwing it all on the burn pile! Now what would happen in your city and mine if we all were honest with God and with each other?
This is why Luke writes that the aftermath of this bonfire was a great spiritual movement which spread OUT from Ephesus: “In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.” (Acts 19:20) Can we begin to imagine how excited Paul was? Right about this same time evidently some visitors came to Ephesus from Corinth, looking to meet with Paul. I’m sure Paul recognized them as some of those he had led to trust in Jesus Christ and then taught them during the 18 months Paul had spent in Corinth. (Acts 18:11) There had been a great spiritual work of God in Corinth, something like what was happening in Ephesus. But the visitors did not have good news for Paul. Evidently, they told Paul some very troubling things about what was happening in the great city of Corinth. As he listened, I’m sure he reflected back on those wonderful 18 months that he’d been with them. (Acts 18:7-11). That time had been near the end of Paul’s second missionary journey, just before he had visited Ephesus for the first time, about 2 1/2 years before this great bonfire at Ephesus. Moved by the Holy Spirit, evidently Paul sat down to write a response, a letter of challenge and teaching, which he would send, with these visitors back to Corinth, in an attempt to deal forthrightly with the very troubling report he was hearing.
If you like to mark your Bibles, may I urge you to put a line between Acts 19:20 and 21. There seems to be when Paul began writing his first letter to his friends in Corinth, which we know as 1st Corinthians. I suspect that even though 16 chapters long, Paul was so energized by the powerful work of God happening in Ephesus, and so disturbed by the report from Corinth, that it did not take Paul long, as led by the Holy Spirit, to pour out this letter. I believe Timothy was likely again Paul’s scribe, writing carefully every word Paul spoke. Perhaps as Paul dictated and Timothy scribed, Ephesians, who were part of the great spiritual revival in Ephesus, came and sat in the house watching and listening as this remarkable letter to the Corinthians poured out onto the parchments. So let’s join them my friends, and with the smell of smoke from the Ephesus bonfire still stinging our nostrils, let’s listen and watch as Paul’s heart pours out what God is speaking to Him!
“Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God in Corinth...” Those are the opening words of Paul found in 1 Corinthians 1:1, I wonder what you hear? Of course, Paul reminds them who he, the author of this letter is and why he feels led to write them. Paul loves to declare that he is ‘an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God”. You’ll remember the title “apostle” means a person selected personally by Jesus Christ; instructed personally by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit; and commissioned out as a personal representative of Jesus, by the Lord Jesus Himself. All those things are true of Paul as Paul described his encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ on his road to Damascus. (Acts 9) Paul also made sure that He added this calling, training & commissioning to be an apostle of Jesus, was the will of God the Father for Paul! That’s hugely significant because younger Paul, Saul Paulus of Tarsus, had been convinced God’s will for his life was to be a great Jewish Pharisee, a teacher of the Torah. But all that changed when Paul met Jesus!
I’m sure you notice Paul here introduces us to a new friend, Mr. Sosthenes. Oh, but he’s not a new friend. In fact, Paul introduced us to him when he was in Corinth during those 18 months. Sosthenes had been the leader of the Jewish Synagogue in Corinth and had evidently been fascinated by Paul’s teachings but had joined with a group of his fellow Jews from that Synagogue and turned against Paul and brought him before Gallio, the Roman proconsul of the entire region of Achaia! That great story is recorded for us in Acts 18:9-17. Galileo had thrown out the accusations against Paul, and the crowd had turned on Sosthenes and beat him, right there in Galileo’s court! Now isn’t that interesting, for while Sosthenes is not mentioned again in Paul’s remaining time in Corinth, evidently Sosthenes trusted Jesus to be his Savior, became an active part of the Corinthian ‘ekklesia’ of Christians, and now has been one of the group who brought the report to Paul in Ephesus! I wonder if Sosthenes was there the night of the great Ephesus bonfire? Oh my, the long talks Paul and Sosthenes must have had, as Paul had so many questions for him and Sosthenes had such a wonderful story of how he had come to faith in Jesus.
I think let’s stop right there as Timothy watches Paul & Sosthenes talking together, and we’ll come right back here as Paul continues this letter tomorrow. For today, can you celebrate the story of how you came to Jesus and the great difference Jesus has made in your life? And here’s a song to help us celebrate Jesus the great difference maker!
Today’s Scripture is Acts 19:20.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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