Paul's Third Journey: The Church In Ephesus And The Work In Asia (Ix)

by J. Miller | Category: The Growth Of The Fellowship | Sept 1959

After Paul had spent some time in Antioch, he departed, and went through the region of Phrygia (a district of the Roman province of Asia) and Galatia. We are told that he did this in order (Kathexes, successively, consecutively). This was ministry toward the saints, as it says, " stablishing all the disciples."

In the meanwhile a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, a learned man, came to Ephesus. Alexandria was in those days a seat of learning. Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures. He was instructed in the way of the Lord, and besides, he was fervent in spirit, and he taught the things concerning Jesus, but his knowledge of the Lord's way was only as far as the baptism of John. This is a pleasant sidelight in the Scriptures as showing how far John's teaching and work had travelled. The same is true of the twelve disciples whom Paul found when he came to Ephesus, as recorded in chapter 19. Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos when he began to speak in the synagogue, and they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more carefully. It is evident that Apollos was a man of a disciple spirit and accepted the instruction which he was given by Priscilla and Aquila. When he was minded to pass over to Achaia the brethren encouraged him, so it seems evident from this that there was a church of God in Ephesus at this time, and also that Apouos was added thereto before he passed over to Achain. Thus it was that the disciples in Ephesus wrote to the disciples in Achain to receive him, the church in Corinth being the outstanding church of Achnia. To the coming of Apollos to Corinth the apostle Paul refers in 1 Corinthians 1.12 ; 3.5, 6, 22; 4. 6, and he says, "I planted (the church in Corinth), Apollos watered; but God gave the increase." Luke tells us that "when he was come, he (Apollos) helped them much which had believed through grace: for he powerfully confuted the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ" (Acts 18. 27, 28).

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, that is, the region of Galatia and Phrygia (18.23), came to Ephesus. There he found certain disciples to whom he addressed the question, Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?" Some of the people who profess to speak with tongues have construed the words "Since ye believed" (A.V.) to mean that it is possible now that believers do not receive the Holy Spirit when they believe, and speak of the second blessing, meaning the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the speaking with tongues. This is pure perversion of the teaching of Scripture, for it is by baptism in the Holy Spirit that the Lord places believers in His Body, the Body of Christ, and if only such as speak with tongues are members of His Body, then the Church which is His Body is a very, very small thing, and the vast majority of believers throughout this dispensation of grace would be outside that Church which the Lord will present to Himself at His coming again. This Church is composed of all believers from Pentecost who are indwelt by and baptized in the Holy Spirit. But what do the words mean, "when ye believed" (R.V.), or "since ye believed" (A.V.)? Pisteusantes in the Greek, translated "when or since ye believed", is an aorist participle, which simply means that they had become believing persons, and being such, had they at the time of believing received the Holy Spirit? They replied to Paul's question, "Nay, we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was given" (19. 2). Though "given" is in the R.V. in italics, which shows that there is no equivalent word for it in the Greek, yet it seems clear that this is implied. The A.V. makes these disciples doubt the existence of the Holy Spirit. It says, "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Spirit." We do not think that this is the meaning of the Greek idiom here.

Paul then asked the twelve disciples into what they had been baptized, and they said, "Into John's baptism." Then Paul stated the meaning of John's baptism, which is the clearest definition of the meaning of that baptism; "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on Him which should come after him, that is, on Jesus." The difference therefore between John's baptism and Christian baptism may be summed up in this, that John's baptism was with a view to believing on the Lord when He was manifested; the baptism which the Lord commanded was in the light of the fact that persons had believed on Him. Faith in both cases was the means of salvation, not baptism. Baptism in both cases was bowing to the divine will and requirement.

When these disciples heard Paul's words they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. "Into the name of the Lord Jesus" does not alter the Lord's command that disciples were to be baptized "into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28. 19). It simply means, that whereas these men had been following the authority invested in John's baptism and teaching, now they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus and were forthwith under His authority. In a word, they were baptized into Christ Jesus (Romans 6.8), in a similar sense as the children of Israel were baptized unto (Eis, into) Moses, who was to be from thenceforth their leader and commander (1 Corinthians 10.2). When these twelve disciples had been re-baptized and Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spake with tongues and prophesied. They were thus brought up to date in the way of the Lord, for up till then they had been living in truth for the past, as Apollos himself had been.

Paul entered the synagogue as had been his custom in other cities, thus following the principle which he annunciated, in Romans 1.16, "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." In the synagogue he spake boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the kingdom of God. Which I would judge means that a fundamental and dispensational change had taken place in God's dealings with men, that instead of divine rule being now vested in the people of Israel, it was now vested in the gathered together disciples of the Lord. Unto this end the new birth was a prerequisite to being in the kingdom of God, though entrance into that kingdom is not by the new birth, but no person can either see the kingdom of God or enter it who is not born again (John 3.3, 5).

Some in the synagogue were hardened and disobedient, and spoke evil of the Way before the multitude. This is not the way of salvation, as in 16.17, but is the Way wherein God's saints in this dispensation should walk. Note how Paul went to Damascus, that if he found any that were of the Way he would bring them bound to Jerusalem (9.2). Paul before Felix the governor at Caesarea said,

"I confess unto thee, that after the Way which they call a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers " (24. 14). See references to the Way in 9.2; 18.25, 26; 19.9, 28; 22.4; 24.14, 22. There are other references to the Way elsewhere in the New Testament. God has ever had a way for His people to walk in and to serve Him. When opposition arose in the synagogue to Paul's teaching relative to the kingdom of God, he separated the disciples from the synagogue, and afterwards reasoned daily in the new meeting place, even in the school of Tyrannus. This he continued to do for the space of two years, and all that dwelt in the Roman province of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

During Paul's two years' ministry God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul which are indicated in verse 12, and by these the power of the word of God was confirmed, that Paul's new teaching was not just that of another sect, adding yet another to the many forms of teaching which had even then segregated men into different groups and communities.

In Ephesus Paul came up against the evil work of Jews who wandered around, no doubt supplementing their livelihood by the satanic practice of being exorcists, and in their evil-doing presuming to name over them, which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus whom Paul preached. The seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, did this. On one occasion the man with the evil spirit leaped on them and mastered them, and they fled naked and wounded. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks in Ephesus, fear came upon all and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

Many believers came confessing their evil deeds, and such as practised curious or magical arts brought their books of magic together

and burned them in the sight of all, the price of which was fifty thousand pieces of silver. They did well not to sell their hooks, thus spreading the evil of their magic, but they burned them. The Spirit's comment on all this is, " So mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed."

In Ephesus we see the devil opposing again the work of the Lord, but not this time through the scheming of the Jews, but by the work of Demetrius a silversmith, who with craftsmen of the same trade was engaged in making silver shrines to Diana, the great Diana of the Ephesians, the goddess which fell from Zeus or Jupiter. Truly it was a fallen goddess like all her votaries, all fallen men and women. It was one huge lie which deceived multitudes. Now this stronghold of the devil and demons was being attacked by the word of God, and their idol was being shown to be nothing in the world (1 Corinthians 8.4). If men live long enough and they are honest with their own convictions, both lies and lying will be seen to be what they are. Truth will eventually be victorious. It would be a thousand pities if it were not so. The assembly (Ecclesia) of Demetrius we are told was in confusion (verse 32) and they set the city in an uproar, rioting prevailed, and the authorities had to step in, as is seen in the action of the townclerk (verse 35). He spoke to them of the courts and the proconsuls where matters could be settled, and of the regular assembly (Ecclesia) of citizens who dealt with the conduct and rule of the city. When he had thus spoken to and warned the church of Demetrius he dismissed that church.

In chapter 20.1 we are told, that when the uproar ceased, Paul, having sent for the disciples and exhorted them, took leave of them, and departed for to go into Macedonia.

Paul refers to these scenes of rioting in Ephesus, in 1 Corinthians 15.82, "If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." He referred again to the scenes in Ephesus, in 2 Corinthians 1.8-10:

"For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life: yea, we ourselves have had the answer of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver: on whom we have set our hope that He will still also deliver us."

Great indeed was the result of God's work through Paul in Ephesus during the time that he spent there teaching the word of God. But as it was the centre from which the word of God spread out throughout the province of Asia, it also saw the beginning of sectarianism, through evil men and false teaching, which in time rent the Fellowship in pieces. Paul warned the elders of the church in Ephesus of the evil days that would come after he was gone (Acts 20.17-35). He spoke of his work amongst them for three years (Acts 19.10 speaks of his reasoning in the school of Tyrannus for two years), and of his work being carried on with tears. But while he exhorted them to cleave to God and to the word of His grace, this did not cancel the prophecy which fell from his lips on that solemn occasion, as to the disruptive effects of the work of the wolves and men from among themselves.

Paul exhorted Timothy to tarry at Ephesus when he was going into Macedonia, to charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine (1 Timothy 1.3); this, I judge, is not the occasion when Paul departed into Macedonia after the rioting in Ephesus (Acts 20.1), for at that time he had already sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia, but he himself stayed in Asia for a while (Acts 19.22).

The evil of false teaching had become so bad in Ephesus by the time that Paul wrote his second epistle to Timothy (the last of all his epistles), that he called on Timothy with all that called on the Lord out of a pure heart, to purge himself with all others who held fast to the truth, out from those whose word ate like a gangrene. Every one that named the name of the Lord was to depart from unrighteousness (2 Timothy 2.16-26). Thus undoubtedly a separation took place in the church of God in Ephesus, for only in this way could the truth of God be preserved from the blighting effect of false teaching.

The last view that we get of the church of God in Ephesus is not reassuring as to its continuance. It was still a golden lamp of testimony, but alas, the warmth of love of early days had disappeared. The effect of the satanic work of the false teachers had left the saints limp and lifeless. In a word, they had left their first love. There were many things to their credit, as the passage, in Revelation 2. 1-7, shows, but their leaving their first love tipped the scales against them, and unless there was repentance the Lord would move their lampstand out of its place. Its place was beneath the lamps (the lamps were the saints) on which they had been set to give a collective light as the church in Ephesus. In a word they would be unchurched. They would cease to be a church acknowledged by the Lord in the midst of which He walked. Such is the sad and melancholy view we get of the church of God in Ephesus, which began in such an auspicious manner.

It becomes all who are engaged in the Lord's work to take note of what befell so great a work as that which God accomplished through the apostle Paul in Ephesus, lest there be a repeat of events such as these, when men are no longer present who seek to keep others in the way of the truth.

J. Miller | Sept 1959
The Growth Of The Fellowship