We were able to work our way from Acts 18:18 through Acts 19:20 this morning. We saw the emergence of Apollos as an eloquent speaker preaching the kingdom gospel / John’s baptism of repentance in preparation for the messianic kingdom, and how Aquila and Priscilla, disciples of Paul, with hands of grace, expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. How awesome to see that Apollos accepted their instruction with meekness and humility. That is a hard position to take, as an educated person, to submit to learn from someone of a lower educational background. Yet, when dealing with matters of spiritual significance, it is not education that is important, it is the heart!
In chapter 19, we have another example of submission to truth with the 12 Jewish disciples, who believed the gospel of the kingdom, and were following the teaching of John the Baptist and the baptism of repentance. Paul had to reveal Jesus as the Christ / Messiah they are looking for. Once he revealed the missing pieces of their belief system, they received the truth with gladness and were baptized.
We must always remember that the book of Acts is a book of history, not a book of doctrine, even though doctrine is in this great book. It helps us when we come across situations like we found today, with the special miracles performed by the hands of Paul. This is an issue of special circumstance when the handkerchiefs or aprons from his body, were taken to the sick and demon possessed, and they were healed. This has been taken out of context, and claimed by the modern faith healers, giving them license to peddle their wares of miracle producing prayer cloths, healing oils, and holy water. It is a shame upon them to abuse this scripture to build their empires of wealth upon the hopes of the ignorant.
The wonderful result of this situation was that the fakers and shills were exposed and wounded, and there was a great revival of truth in Ephesus, so that those who believed brought their books and idols and burned them amounting to 50,000 pieces of silver in value. In today’s money, it could be anywhere from $1,250,000.00 in just the value of 50,000 ounces of silver, up to $5.5 million if based upon wages in the first century. Either way, it was an incredible amount of money.
The end result of this outpouring of truth is found in v.20 — the word of God grew mightily and prevailed in Ephesus! I am looking forward to our study next Sunday.