Acts 19
COMMENTARY:
: 2 He said unto them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. (191 “heard” [akouo] means give audience, hear, faculty of hearing, to understand, a thing comes to one’s ears, pay attention to, receive news, comprehend, or to believe and respond.)
DEVOTION: The transition from Old Testament saints to New Testament saints was real. One of the differences was the indwelling of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit in the individuals who became believers.
In the Old Testament it seems that the Holy Spirit would come on an individual for a time period and leave the same person after a special event was over.
In the New Testament the Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the Godhead, would come on an individual and stay with them until the end of time. The Holy Spirit was called an “engagement ring” by book of Ephesians in chapter one.
This chapter gives us an introduction of the Godhead with their individual responsibilities. God the Father is covered in verses three through six. God the Son is covered from verse seven through verse twelve.
Finally, the introduction to the Holy Spirit is that HE is the one who seals our redemption. The sealing is given only to those who are genuine believers in Jesus Christ.
Now the message of John the Baptist was an Old Testament message of repentance and look forward to the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Once the individuals understand the change the Holy Spirit indwells them. Paul gave the message that relayed the fact that Jesus Christ had died, been buried and resurrected. Belief in the gospel was essential to salvation.
We are no longer looking forward to the coming of Jesus Christ the first time but to HIS coming for a second time in the future. Paul gives this message to these twelve disciples of John the Baptist.
Once they understand the message they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and a sign gift was given of speaking in a known language. They also had a message of what was going to happen in the future. They started preaching of the coming of Christ in the future in glory.
Can God still use sign gifts today? The answer is YES. The only purpose for sign gifts was for communicating the truth of the Word of God in an known language, so that those who were hearing the truth could make a commitment to the LORD or know that someone had made a commitment to the LORD.
Are the sign gifts necessary for salvation? NO. Many people have wondered if they didn’t speak in tongues when they accepted Christ if they were really saved. The answer is if there was repentance and a commitment to Christ their salvation is genuine.
CHALLENGE: Find out all you can know about the doctrine of salvation from the Word of God and good theological studies. We are commanded to study to understand what is being taught and teach others.
: 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you? (4190 “evil” [poneros] means hurtful, lewd, malicious, wicked, guilty, sinful, morally bad or wrong or bad.)
DEVOTION: Paul traveled to Ephesus to preach the Gospel. He first met individuals who had been baptized by John the Baptist. He asked them about their relationship to the Holy Ghost. They didn’t know anything about HIM.
He instructed them in the WAY of Jesus Christ. They were baptized and the Holy Spirit came on them as at other times during the beginning of the church. They spoke in known tongues and prophesied. The Jews spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost. The Samarians spoke in tongues. The Gentiles spoke in tongues. Now here we find twelve disciples of John spoke in tongues. This showed Paul and other believers that their relationship with the LORD was real at the beginning of the church. As we read later in Paul’s writings, not everyone had the gift of tongues. In fact, he wished all have the gift of preaching. Whether tongues has ended with the first century or not we know that it was a sign given to the early church to prove that all nations were going to be saved. Do we need such a proof today? Can God still use tongues today? YES! Does HE have too? NO!!
Paul preached and taught in Ephesus for two years. They were well grounded in the word of God.
Now along comes the sons of Sceva, one of the chief priests, trying to get in on the movement in Ephesus. They approach a man possessed of evil spirits.
This evil spirit is an angel that fell with Satan before the world began. The angels were the first created beings. They were all good. One day Satan stood up against God and wanted to be God. He took with him about a third of the angels. These evil angels live in the second heaven. We find from the book of Job that Satan walks to and fro on the earth. He is the adversary to all those who are trying to serve the LORD. The LORD allows him to tempt us to do evil.
His army of angels or demons sometimes inhabits humans to fulfill Satan’s purpose. Satan can only be in one place at one time but because of his army of angels it seems like he is in more places than one. These evil angels can only indwell those who have not accepted Christ as their personal Savior. They can oppress us externally. The Holy Spirit and demons cannot live in the same body.
We need to remember that we are tempted in three ways: the world, the flesh and the devil. He is only one way that we are tempted to sin. There is still an army of good angels that serve the LORD. They minister to those who are going to be heirs of salvation or all those who are followers of Christ.
The evil angels have knowledge of what is going on in our world, as this verse tells us. They know who these followers of the LORD are. They knew Paul. They knew Jesus. But these men were not followers of the LORD and the demon knew it and caused the man to jump on these fakes and they ran away naked.
This caused many to become followers of Christ. Their actions showed that it was real. They confessed and showed it by burning books that dealt with curious arts.
CHALLENGE: Watch what kind of material you let into your house. Make sure your actions manifest Christ especially at home.
: 19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. (4021 “curious arts” [periergos] means busybody, magic acts, meddlesome, activities that one should not delve into, witchcraft, black magical arts or sorcery.)
DEVOTION: The change that is to take place once someone becomes a believer should be manifested in their actions. Before these individuals were believers in Jesus they would worship at the local temple of Diana. They were been involved in magic. They bought books that honored the worship of demons. They thought this was all a part of life in their culture.
Things were different now. They couldn’t practice the same things they did before. They were going to stay true to the LORD alone. The only way this could happen is for them to empty their homes of all the books of charms and potions that helped them worship their false god.
Today we have many things in the homes of Christians that they can worship more than Christ. These things can preoccupy their time so that they don’t take time to study the Word of God. They could be games that they play on the television set. They could have handheld games that keep them from doing their part to help the home look clean. Children can get into television, games and other things instead of helping around the house and getting their homework done for school and church. Many children wait until the last minute to get their verses learned for AWANA or other church programs.
Parents need to set examples that their children can follow. They should make sure they do their work at home and at work and for church on a regular basis to show their children that these areas are important to their testimony for the LORD.
Church leaders need to be known for their good use of their time. Too many people think that pastors only work one hour a week. They should see their pastor doing everything he asked them to do during a week and even more. Deacons should be good examples. Sunday School teachers should be good example. Choir members should be good examples.
CHALLENGE: The people in Ephesus burned what stood between what would hinder their service to the LORD. There needs to be some burning today or at least less activities that don’t profit spiritual growth each day.
: 25 Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, you know that by this craft we have our wealth. (2142 “wealth” [euporia] means riches, prosperity, plenty, a means of gaining abundant, personal wealth, especially that promotes a comfortable state, or a prosperous income.)
DEVOTION: Money is made by businesses that don’t honor the LORD. We don’t have many businesses that sell idols. At least we do not have the idols that we put on a god shelf in our homes.
Our money need to be spent wisely each time we are paid. We need to evaluate what we spend our money on. If our home is the most important aspect of our life then it will be our own shrine to our priorities. If our belly is our god we can talk about all the places we go to eat. If our car is our pride and joy then we want people to admire what we drive.
These individuals who earned their money through the sale of false gods were very concerned that they would not have enough to provide for their families. Their major concern was themselves and not the people they were selling their items to each paycheck.
One of our false gods can be the lottery or gambling with our money to hope to win the big one and never have to work again in our life. This is wrong motive. We need to make sure that we want to honor God with our work. God teaches that if a man will not work he should not eat. We have to work at honest trades. Selling idols was not one of those trades.
CHALLENGE: We need to honor the LORD with our occupation. If our occupation doesn’t honor the LORD then we should seek another occupation.
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