Acts 19:23-41 | Living for Christ in a Confused WorldSample

Highs and Lows

“The word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power” (Acts 19:20, NIV), especially in Ephesus.

Talk about spiritual highs. Paul arrives. He meets some followers of Jesus (possibly taught by Apollos) who only knew about John’s baptism and didn’t know about the Holy Spirit. Paul leads them into deeper truth, baptizes them, lays hands on them, and the Holy Spirit comes rushing on them Pentecost-style, complete with tongues and prophecy.

It gets higher. Paul, as usual, goes to the synagogue, and here he speaks boldly and persuasively about Jesus and the kingdom of God for three months. Typical of the pattern, some believe, but others get obstinate and kick him out. So he goes next door to a Gentile lecture hall where he teaches for two years – longer than anywhere on his missionary journeys so far – with the result that “all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10, NIV).

It gets higher. “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them” (Acts 19:11, NIV).

Can it get even higher? Word gets out about what Jesus is doing through Paul, and some Jewish exorcists want a piece of the action. They try to duplicate it, with the result that even the evil spirits start giving testimony to Jesus and Paul, and also give these exorcists such a beating that they run from the house naked and bleeding. Word gets out. The gravity and power of it all grip Jews and Gentiles alike, bringing about great fear and honor for King Jesus, and leading people to mass repentance. People openly confess their sins and burn millions of dollars’ worth of occult scrolls.

Jesus is revered. People are turning to the Lord in droves. Lives are being changed. God is working miracles. It could be out of a Christian movie. Things just can’t come out better. It ends on such a high that Paul decides his work there is done. He sends two of his helpers on ahead of him while he stays in Asia (Ephesus is the crown jewel of Asia) just a little bit longer (Acts 19:22, NIV).

But spiritual highs are often confronted with spiritual lows.

It’s not clear what happened next, except to say that the very next line in the storyline in Acts, where we pick up today, is, “About this time there arose a great disturbance in the Way” (Acts 19:24, NIV). “The Way” is what Luke calls early Christianity. Jesus calls himself “the way,” so those who follow Jesus are on the way. It’s not clear what that disturbance was, except to say that when the dark powers of this world are confronted, they have a way of pushing back.

NT Wright brings attention to something Paul writes about his experience in Ephesus that isn’t spelled out in the flow of Acts:

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death…” (2 Cor 1:8-9, NIV).

The life of a Christian is highs and lows, often at the same time, or back-to-back. The “troubles” and “pressure” Paul writes about might tie in to that great disturbance we’re about to read about in Acts.

The gospel in Ephesus comes to a head. People see it undercutting their way of life. They riot. They do it in the name of a pagan goddess and her idol. It gets violent. Most get caught up in it. The gospel advances, but the dark powers escalate. It’s a great story, but imagine it from Paul’s perspective.

The people he sees repenting one moment get wrapped up in the confusion and chaos of the crowd in the next. The people who held the Lord Jesus in high honor are now shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.” The people who witnessed miracles are going back to counterfeits. The people who burned their scrolls are protecting their idol trade.

To see two years of work for Christ unravel. To witness your work undone or fail to stick. To wonder whether anyone really believed to begin with, or if they were just caught up in the hype. To see you and your people have your lives at risk. Again.

Highs and lows. It’s the reality of living for Christ in a confused world. Our hope is that this week’s plan will help you navigate those highs and lows with commitment and courage, boldness and blessing, clarity and conviction for Christ Jesus and his way in the world.

Today, start by reading the story of Paul in Ephesus in Acts 19.