On the Road Again
Pray.
Paul is completing what we call his second Missionary Journey. He left Corinth and brought along his friends, Priscilla and Aquila. They all went to Ephesus, which is in Asia. Previously, Paul had wanted to go to Asia, but the Holy Spirit said no and so this is his first time there that we know of. Paul went to the synagogue, where the Jews there were open to the gospel; they seemed to be very disappointed when after a short time, Paul decided it was time for him to travel to Jerusalem and Antioch to report on God’s success.
Meanwhile, Priscilla and Aquila stayed in Ephesus where they met a man named Apollos. He knew all about the Old Testament, and all about what John the Baptist said and did. Apollos preached John the Baptist’s message of repentance, turning to God, baptism, and looking forward to the coming Messiah. None of what Apollos said was wrong, but it was incomplete. Apollos didn’t know that the prophecies of Jesus Christ had already happened! Priscilla and Aquila filled in all the details for Apollos. He was obviously a very humble man who was ready to learn and do the right things for God because he listened and believed. He was able to now fully teach the gospel because he now knew about the Holy Spirit and how He comes to live inside of you when you believe in Jesus as your Savior. Apollos was then sent off as a missionary.
When Paul returned to Ephesus (on his Third Missionary Journey), he met some people who, like Apollos, followed the teachings of John the Baptist. When Paul asked them if they knew the Holy Spirit, they said they did not. So Paul explained to them just what Apollos had learned. He explained that when Jesus ascended into heaven, he promised all of us that He would send His Holy Spirit to take His place in our earthly lives to help us be powerful Christians. When these men heard the Good News, they accepted it and were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Paul and these new Christians were very successful in converting their friends to Christianity. They also were blessed with many miracles. It said in Acts that some people were healed by merely touching a piece of fabric that had touched Paul! There were some men who saw the miracles and decided that all they needed to do was use the name of Jesus Christ and they could do miracles, too. Unfortunately for them, they did not have a relationship with Jesus. They saw a demon-possessed man and tried to make the demon come out of him by using the name of Jesus . What happened? The demon answered that he knew who Jesus was and he knew who Paul was, but he didn’t know who these guys were, so the demon made the man who was possessed beat them up!
I am not sure why miracles were so prevalent in Ephesus during this time, but I am guessing that it could be because the people of Ephesus were used to seeing incidences of sorcery or the occult. Maybe God was trying to get their attention in a way they were familiar with. Or maybe God was showing that He could use something as insignificant as a rag to cause a miracle, when these sorcerers had very expensive tools. There were a lot of people playing around with the occult in Ephesus at this time. Do you know what that means? Some examples are predicting the future and speaking with dead people. When the people of Ephesus saw the men get beat up by the demon-possessed man, they became so scared that they publically acknowledged their faith in Jesus Christ and burned all of their very expensive books and scrolls that had to do with the occult.
What did God say about sorcery or the occult? In the Old Testament God clearly states that we are to stay very far away from those things. We are not to attempt to control our own lives or the world around us. We are too trust God to do those things for us. So the safe thing is to just stay away from anything like horoscopes, even if your friends think they are fun.
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