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| Acts 19:1-10 Exodus 27 Memory Verses: Romans 5:1; 1 John 5:8 Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters, 19:1-5 John had quite an impact on his disciples. It is a wonder to me that with John proclaiming Jesus and preparing the way for Him that his disciples would not seek out Jesus to follow Him. In this case Paul found these men residing in Ephesus. They had already experienced the baptism of John, which was a baptism of repentance to prepare their hearts for the Lord. Now Paul was explaining to them that the baptism of Jesus was the completion of what they had already learned from John the Baptist. Why was it that they had never heard of the Holy Spirit? In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit, He is only referred to as God's Holy Spirit in three different verses, Isaiah 63:10-11 and Psalm 51:11. So the idea of the Holy Spirit being a person could have easily been missed by John's disciples. Another thought along this same line, Jesus being God the Son did not come into play until the New Testament as well. It is in the New Testament that we are educated as to the work of Jesus in the Old Testament. So if a person were to only have the Old Testament manuscripts to work from, the truth of the Trinity could be easily missed. 19:6-7 Paul laid hands on them and they started speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were twelve men gathered together. The speaking in tongues was a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, as implied in 19:2. I have heard for many years that the speaking in tongues was only for the New Testament, that it was for a specific purpose, in order for everyone present to hear the Gospel, as on Pentecost, in order to be saved. In this case, that doesn't apply because these disciples all spoke the same language, and only twelve of them were present. They were prophesying and speaking in tongues in their own gathering as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in their lives. There was no need for a foreign language to be spoken for the conversion of unbelievers. There are a lot of our Charismatic brothers who are cheering at my take on this verse. But don't get too hasty here. Acts is a very bad book for establishing a doctrine on tongues, every instance is a little different. Although I realize that these brothers did speak in tongues from the Holy Spirit, the question has been going through my mind, are all tongues from the Holy Spirit? And how would you discern if they were from the Holy Spirit or not? Paul points out that if no one knows what is being said, then the tongues is as a indistinct sound, meaning absolutely nothing, 1 Corinthians 14:7-11 One way to discern if they were really of God would be to have an interpreter present who spoke the language, or who is given a divine interpretation. Paul requires this of the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 14:5, 13; 13:27ff; 12:10; 12:30. The speaking in tongues went away after the early church until just recently. It could be for a few reasons, first, the Spirit could be outpouring more in these times, since it is very likely that we are in the end times. Or, it could be that since we are better read today, and have more resources available to us, that we have regained a lost part of the worship of God which was lost when the privileged taught the underprivileged. Last, and certainly not the least view, tongues today is strictly bologna. Depending on who you talk to, depends on the view. How would you discern if tongues were of God or not? Obviously, with Paul placing so much emphasis on the need for an interpreter, he must have been concerned that all tongues were not from God. Otherwise, why worry about it? If the devil did not have the ability to produce tongues in people, it would be harmless for anyone to speak in tongues at any time. Have you ever wondered at why Paul was concerned that an interpreter be present, outside of the visitors of the church thinking that you are crazy, 1 Corinthians 14:23. Remember where Paul is addressing here, the Corinthians, and the Greeks. Do you realize that tongues were not a phenomena that was only found in the Christian Church? According to my research, it is implied that tongues were also a part of Hellenistic (Greek) rituals which were worshiping demons! So obviously, if this is the case, Paul had a very good point be demanding an interpreter to be present. Apply that to today, there are a lot of churches today speaking in tongues, the question that comes to my mind, is how do I know where the tongues are from? If a person has his heart focused on Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit fills him, then yes, he could have the gift of tongues. But what if he is not? History has already proven that tongues were used in ancient rituals which did not glorify God, why couldn't this take place today? The Mormons have tongues, they call it ecstatic speech. Missionaries have encountered tongue like phenomena, (thanks Erik). Now, all that said, are all tongues from God? If I hear someone speak in tongues, I listen to hear the interpreter. Just thinking....sorry for the tangent. (I spoke with Erik on this, and will attach his statement to the bottom of this email.) 19:8-10 Paul once again went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews persuading them to understand who Jesus is. When they rejected him, he went to the Gentiles, preaching the word in Asia (Turkey) for another two years, for a total of about three years, Acts 20:31. Exodus 27 More on the temple furnishings. The altar is described with the requirements for its construction. It was to be strategically placed so that everyone could see that there were continual sin sacrifices made to the Lord. The only way to approach the Lord was through sacrifices, Jesus was the final sacrifice Hebrews 10:1-18 The lamp had to be kept burning at all times, indicative of the illumination by the Holy Spirit. I found the instructions regarding constructing the court of the Tabernacle exacting. God had a definite design for this, very explicit, because it served a very important function. Lord, as we study Your word today, enable us to read Your word and understand it. Enable us to stand firm on the Bible and understand what is taught in it as well as how it applies to each of our lives. In Him, Joe Turner. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Joe, The reality is that Satan does counterfeit tongues just like so many other things about God and His plan (i.e. evil trinity of Satan, Antichrist, and False Prophet, etc.). We have indication of that in 1 Corinthians 12:3-4 and 1 John 4:1-3 provide tests for the content of what is prophesized or taught or conveyed by means of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. There is a spiritual gift given for the purpose of determining whether the source of such a message is from the Lord or from a false spirit. That gift is "distinguishing of spirits" (1 Cor. 12:10). In the instructions for the use of spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:26-32) there is provision made for evaluation of the legitimacy of the message, in which the other prophets "pass judgment on the message (1 Cor. 14:29). It is handy to remember that tongues was considered an inferior gift when compared to prophecy because it could not function in ministry without another spiritual gift also being in operation (i.e. interpretation [1 Cor. 14: 5], revelation, knowledge, prophecy, or teaching [1 Cor. 14:6]). There are records of tongues-like phenomena encountered by missionaries. It has been reported that Mormons have their version of tongues, ecstatic speech. I do not think their version of tongues is from the Lord. IHG, Erik __________________________________________________________________________________________ Acts 19:11-22 Exodus 28 Memory Verses: Romans 5:1; 1 John 5:8 Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters, In today's study, we see some very interesting events take place. It is important for us to see and recognize the reasons behind the actions. Acts 19:11-12 I would like to find one of those handkerchiefs, wouldn't you? God worked a special way through Paul for a very good reason. Ephesus was the center of occultist activity in that day. He gave Paul special healing power, just as he did to Peter earlier. Today, I have heard about TV preachers who would pray over a handkerchief and send it out to people so that they could be healed. I frankly don't think that they are in the league with Paul. I believe that God used Paul in this way for a simple reason, demonism, Satanism and sin were the central focus of Ephesus. God used the handkerchiefs and aprons to demonstrate the power of the living God to those who were unbelievers. To back up this let's study further. Part of this was that the people were steeped in superstition, remember who Paul is ministering to here. In regard to this check out this note: "If one wonders how God could honour such superstitious faith, he should remember that there is no power in superstition or in magic, but in God. If God never honoured any faith save that entirely free from superstition, how about Christian people who are troubled over the number 13, over the moon, the rabbit’s foot? The poor woman with an issue of blood touched the hem of Christ’s garment and was healed ( Luke 8:44–46 ) as others sought to do ( Matt. 14:36 ). God condescends to meet us in our ignorance and weakness where he can reach us. Elisha had a notion that some of the power of Elijah resided in his mantle ( II Kings 2:13 ). Some even sought help from Peter’s shadow ( Acts 5:15 )." Robertson, A. (1997). Word Pictures in the New Testament. Vol.V c1932, Vol.VI c1933 by Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. (Ac 19:12). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems. God allows some interesting stuff to go on, for example, look at Robertson's reference to Elisha, and read the verse, he was clearly upset that he had watched Elijah ride off on the chariots of fire. God allowed tremendous power to be demonstrated by Elijah's mantle. 19:13-17 People will be people, and will try to find a shortcut, or quick fixes rather than go the hard road and do it right. God allowed the handkerchief thing, because Paul being mortal man could not be everywhere at once. In the fledgling Christian community, there were so many needs, and God blessed what was going on. So as a direct result from people seeing the handkerchief miracles, they chose to cast out demons in Jesus name, by recognizing that Paul preached Him. They thought that the magic potion, so to speak, was to get the words right, if they just said the right things, then the demons would have to leave. So by casting out the demons "by Jesus whom Paul preaches" they were trying to use magic rather than accepting the power of Jesus into their own lives. A side-note here, did you know that exorcist was a Greek word? In the Greek, it is transliterated "exorkistes" and means one who employs a formula or conjuration for expelling demons, (Strongs). They were smart enough not to take authority as the disciples did by "commanding" the demons to come out, but rather "adjure" is used. Which means to take an oath, or solemnly implore. In other words, they knew that they were on shaky ground, overstepping their limits, and were playing word games to keep it from coming back on themselves. It is quite funny what happened, the evil spirit in his answer was very revealing, "I recognize Jesus" in the Greek the word for recognize is "ginosko" which loosely translated means to have a very intimate knowledge of, or to become well acquainted with, usually translated know. In other words, the demons knew exactly who Jesus was. "I know about Paul" different word for know, "epistamai" which loosely translated means to be acquainted with, or to understand, to gain ones attention. Yep, they were a little worried about Paul, because He came in the name of the Lord Jesus. Here is the funny part, "but who are you?" In other words, what authority do you have? The answer, none. They were trying to use the authority of Paul, but were unwilling to follow the teaching of Paul and be saved in order to gain the power of Jesus. The result, the demon gave them a whipping, all seven of them were overpowered, stripped naked, wounded, and left the scene running for their lives. This is a good warning for those who choose to chase after demons, the spiritual world is real, and there is tremendous power there, both good power and evil power. If you choose to dabble into such spiritual matters, make sure first of all that you are in the right place, that your heart is pure, and that you are focused upon Jesus Christ as Lord. Those who dabble in the casting out of demons may not realize what they are playing with. 19:17-20 There were apparently a lot of Christians who still entertained the ideas of witchcraft, or magic. They had apparently kept the books, and had decided to add Christianity to their lives, without ridding themselves of the devil's stuff. Upon hearing this story, there was a book-burning. They burned the books which valued "fifty thousand pieces of silver" in order to understand this sum of money, Wiersbe indicates that it is "equivalent to the total salaries of 150 men working for a whole year". That is a lot of money, they realized that it was time to stop counting the costs, and get their hearts right with Jesus, ridding their lives of evil. One of the things that I did upon returning to the Lord was to go through my library and get rid of all the novels that I had which were not focused upon the Lord. The reason, if I kept the books, I would read the books, I realize that this is small in comparison, but think on it, isn't that what is demonstrated here? I got rid of some great modern authors, ones I loved to read, but they didn't glorify Jesus, some even glorified the dark world, horror. Praise God that they are gone. It doesn't make me any better than anyone else, the reason I got rid of the books was because I am weak in my flesh, and by retaining them, I know that I will eventually read them again. One of the things that we are called to as Christians is holiness, a working out of our salvation, an effort to remove the evil from our lives and to turn our lives to focus completely upon Jesus Christ as Lord, (boss). Sorry about the tangent, look at the result of the book burning and of the people getting right with the Lord, "the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing." v. 20 Now the power had hit their lives, mighty power that overcomes evil. Paul's work was finished here. It is an example in our lives, if we want the full power of God in our lives, we must be willing to part with the scraps from our life in the flesh, clinging totally to Jesus. 19:21-22 Paul completed his work there and continued on, with Rome as his goal. The story continues, more tomorrow. Exodus 28 There is a lot of detail in this chapter, details as to the design of the priestly garments. There are several reasons for the intricate designs that are made in the materials, I am only going to touch on a few. First, with the names of the sons of Israel on them, it was a constant reminder of why the priest was performing the service. He was also constantly reminded of the work for the atonement of sin due to a lot of the garments that he wore. In all, they were a picture of a holy and pure high priest, one who was committed to the truth, as Christ is our eternal high priest. The little bells served two functions, first they were evidence that the priest was going about his duties, and second if they quit tinkling, it meant that the priest had been struck dead since he had sin in his life that he did not take care of before going before the Lord. On this occasion I understand that they had a rope tied around the ankle of the high priest so they could drag him out without entering the Holy of Holies. It was serious stuff. Now we can enter boldly before the throne of grace because our high priest Jesus has offered the final sacrifice. It is over, done with. Lord as we study Your word today and contemplate the meanings of the scriptures as they apply to our lives, show each one of us how it applies to each one of us individually. In Him, Joe Turner. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ Acts 19:23-41 Exodus 29 Memory Verses: Romans 5:1; 1 John 5:8 Good Morning Brothers and Sisters, Acts 19:23-29 The Gentiles tolerated the Christians, without too much of a fuss, unlike the Jews. The Christians were not much of a challenge to the Gentiles because it was seen as primarily Jewish, and not affecting the gods that they worshipped. In this passage, Demetrius recognized that there was a falling off of business, directly because Paul was preaching that idols were false gods, and not to be worshipped. He incited the laborers to riot against Paul, the cause of all of their problems. Notice something here, as long as the Christians did not affect their lifestyles, they were tolerated, but once they became bad for business, they had to go! Demetrius added that Paul was dethroning the goddess Artemis, but in effect what seems to be his motivation is to regain the business that was lost from idol making. Satan had enticed the silversmiths to rise up against Paul, and was probably hoping that they would kill him. 1 Peter 5:8; John 8:44. This follows the burning of the books, and the church growing in power and might.Acts 19:18-20 Satan decided to follow a different tactic, going after the love of money, 1 Timothy 6:10. Any time that he sees us gaining ground for Jesus, he is going to try to destroy the ministry. Sometimes the attack of the devil is not as obvious as this, sometimes it is much more subtle. The effect is to destroy the ministry, or to severely hamper it. Try to picture this in your mind, we are in a constant battle. There is a war going on between good and evil. If we are in a war, and the opposition is gaining ground, isn't it logical that resistance will increase when ground is gained? I can attest to this, as this Bible Study has grown, we have seen the devil attack in various different ways. That is to be expected, it's all a part of encouraging men and women to draw closer to the Lord Jesus, which is the very thing that the devil does not want. 19:30-31 Paul is excited about the possibility of preaching to the crowd, ready to enter the theater to defend Jesus. But he was prevented, God was protecting Paul. 19:32 Luke found it comical that a lot of the crowd didn't even know what the excitement was all about. Can you imagine, the theater was supposed to hold around 25,000 people, it was packed and the people didn't even know why. All they knew was that there was a lot of excitement going on, with Jews in the crowd, who surely did not worship this false God, it demonstrates for us that they were not aware that it was over idols. 19:33-34 The Jews put forth a spokesman probably to be a disclaimer, but in response to this, since many of them saw little difference between the Jews and the Christians, they didn't want to hear from a Jew and chanted for two hours to Artemis. 19:35-40 The town clerk called the crowd to reason. He established the foolishness of the mob mentality, and explained to them that things needed to go through the normal channels in order to bring a charge against Paul. The last thing he wanted to see was mob justice which would cause Rome to look unfavorably upon him. Rome did not look favorably upon rioters v. 40. Rome allowed Ephesus to exist as a free city, one that elected its own government, and it was possible to loose this privilege. In looking at this, it is obvious that the dismissing of the crowd and appeasing them was best handled through the town clerk. God uses even the unsaved in order to protect His kids. Not only that, Paul was exonerated of any crimes, v.37-38, so by default, he received an official approval of his ministry, just as he did in Philippi, 16:35-40 and Corinth 18:12-17. In a note summing up the conclusion of this riot, check this out: "The crowd was dismissed, and no doubt the people went home congratulating themselves that they had succeeded in defending their great city and their famous goddess. It is doubtful that many of them questioned the truthfulness of their religion or determined to investigate what Paul had been preaching for three years. It is much easier to believe a lie and follow the crowd. But Ephesus is gone, and so is the worldwide worship of Diana of the Ephesians. The city and the temple are gone, and the silversmiths’ guild is gone. Ephesus is a place visited primarily by archeologists and people on Holy Land tours. Yet the Gospel of God’s grace and the church of Jesus Christ are still here! We have four inspired letters that were sent to the saints in Ephesus—Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Revelation 2:1–7 . The name of Paul is honored, but the name of Demetrius is forgotten. (Were it not for Paul, we would not have met Demetrius in the first place!) The church ministers by persuasion, not propaganda. We share God’s truth, not man’s religious lies. Our motive is love, not anger; and the glory of God, not the praise of men. This is why the church goes on, and we must keep it so." Wiersbe, W. W. (1996, c1989). The Bible exposition commentary. "An exposition of the New Testament comprising the entire 'BE' series"--Jkt. (Ac 19:21). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books. As an added thought here, when things get difficult, the blessings that we draw from those situations are much greater. When things are easy, the blessings seem less important. Perhaps that is why the church doesn't experience much power in today's world. We have virtually no resistance, virtually no opposition to the Gospel, we are free to worship as we please. Exodus 29 There are several sacrifices made during this chapter, first, the sin offering for the priests, they laid their hands on the head of a bull, which symbolized transferring their sin to the bull, which was sacrificed in their place. Ever heard the phrase "holy cow"? Some believe that this is where it was from. Hebrews 9:22. Then the first ram is sacrificed for sin of the people, look at the result, v. 18, it is a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Ephesians 5:2 The last ram is sacrificed, and the symbolism of the blood on the ear, to hear the word, on the thumbs, holiness in God's service, on the big toe, that they will walk in the ways of the Lord, (Walvoord). Skipping forward, the priests were allowed to eat part of the consecrated meat and food, this was because they were considered holy after laying their hands on the bull daily. The purpose of all of these sacrifices was so that a Holy God could come and dwell with sinful people. Until Jesus, daily sacrifice was required to appease God, as well as being a constant reminder to the Jews that they were servants of God, reminding them that He brought them out of Egypt. Lord, as we face opposition in our daily lives, show us ways to overcome, and to spread Your word to the lost. Enable us to be receptive to the needs of those around us, offering them encouragement in their times of trouble, and being able to draw them closer to You. In Him, Joe Turner. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ I struggled for some time with the text. Sometimes when reading scripture, it can be like reading the same thing over and over again - been there; done that. But it truth God brings us through the same things often to have us learn something thereby and our parents and God, himself, uses repetition to make things 'stick' mentally. With that aside, I searched for something in this text. I felt if I went over it enough there would be something I hadn't seen. And then I saw it and thus my subject. Now this was touched upon by Joe, earlier, probably when we were in chapter 9 and, when he had mentioned it, I realized it had completely gone by me. I see, now that I was to find it here. In 19:23 it says "And the same time there arose no small stir about that way". That way is 'hobos' and John's Gospel teaches that Jesus said, 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me". In Acts 9:2 we see that Saul is persuing with a vengeance those in 'this way'. It us used earlier in our prior text as the people "spake evil of that way before the multitude', verse 9. and is also used in Acts 22:4; 24:14,22 in the same manner. I thought this was all pretty cool stuff or as one of my daughters has said at times 'cool beans' and that out of all this text, my point was over. But then I discovered what follows. About 'the way', the Geneva Study Bible says 'By this word "way", the Hebrews understand any type of life, and here it is taken for Christianity". Gill's regaring 9:2 calls 'the way' a way of thinking and relative to verse 23, says "The Syriac version reads, "the way of God"; and the Vulgate Latin version, "the way of the Lord": that is, the Christian religion, and the doctrines and ordinances of the Gospel, which the saints were directed to walk in; and the Ethiopic version renders it, "about this doctrine"; which mightily grew and prevailed, and which such numbers embraced; and how great the stir was about it, and from whence it arose, who began it, and what were the consequences of it, are hereafter related". But then one of the commentaries said 'the way' when you look at the take on it 'the way of life' originally was with reference to occupation. So I ask how are we occupied. You see in this text and the verse that uses this phrase we are looking at 'a small stir' about what? The Way. These people were occupied with a trade of making a profit from idols. The Christians were occupied with the gospel of Jesus Christ. So again I ask, how are we occupied? By idols or by Christ. How are we occupied - by our daily needs, vanities or by the Lord? Why a small stir - because the gospel was interfering with their way (verse 25 speaks of their occupation, verse 27 of 'our craft is in danger'). What endangers yours? When two competing ways are on the same track oftentimes the rules are cast aside and the competion gets ugly. Here in our text you see these trademen in a crowd type mentality coming against 'the way' that challenged theirs.Look at pro-life and pro-choice proponents, each side how they battle. It has been ugly. And we who are of The Way must be mindful that we have a heavenly armour and have been heavenly outfitted; we must leave worldly means aside. Look at verses 36,41 "Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly. For we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar, there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse". We too will be accountable for how we have walked in the way. I am glad I occupied myself with finding a word from this text. Selah. _________________ Selah, Normzrib |
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