Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Thursday, August 1, 2013 Read – Acts 19:1-20 With Apollos off at Corinth, Luke now returns to the story of Paul. He tells us that Paul travelled by land “through the interior regions and came to Ephesus” (Acts 19:1). Luke has no stories to tell about this journey through the interior regions. Once at Ephesus Luke tells us of a rather peculiar encounter Paul has with some “disciples” – were they Christian disciples or were they disciples of John the Baptist? As the story unfolds it becomes clear that the issue is similar to the problem Aquila and Priscilla faced in the story about Apollos – though there are some important differences. When Paul asks them if they received the Holy Spirit when they became believers, the “disciples” tell Paul that they have never even heard of a Holy Spirit (Acts 19:2). When questioned further by Paul, he discovers that the only baptism into which these “disciples” were baptized was the baptism of John. The impression that Luke gives us is that these “disciples” were clearly of the sect of Jews who were followers of John the Baptist – a sect we know existed but do not know much about. Paul proclaims to these followers of John the Baptist that John had pointed people away from himself and toward Jesus – the one who was to come after him. Upon hearing this, the “disciples” are baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. What is important about these two episodes about the confusion of John the Baptist and Jesus is that Apollos, though deficient in knowledge about the baptism of John, was already a believer in Jesus. He only needed to be corrected. The “disciples” Paul found at Ephesus were not yet believers in Jesus and so they needed to be welcomed into the church through baptism. One more thing about these “disciples” that Paul found and brought into the church is Luke’s telling his readers that there were “about twelve of them” (Acts 19:7). The number twelve ought to jump out at us. Jesus had twelve disciples – a point so important to Luke that he tells the story of the replacement of Judas by Matthias bringing the Apostleship back to twelve. Perhaps the sect of Jews who followed John the Baptist also knew of twelve disciples – did John gather twelve? Though we cannot know the answer to that – we can only speculate – it is tempting to hear something more in Luke’s mention of twelve than just an estimate of those present. As we listen to the rest of chapter 19, we need to remember that Paul had left Aquila and Priscilla behind in Ephesus and that they, along with Apollos had experienced at least some success in proclaiming Jesus to the Jewish people in the synagogue (Acts 18:26). As Luke picks up the story in chapter 19 with Paul in Ephesus, it is as if Aquila, Priscilla, and Apollos have never been there. Luke does not mention a reunion between Paul and Aquila and Priscilla – in fact they aren’t even mentioned again. What happened? Why doesn’t Luke acknowledge the ministry of Aquila and Priscilla in his story of the ministry of Paul? Of course, once again, we can’t answer such questions – but it is interesting and important to ponder them. When Paul begins his ministry in Ephesus it’s as if no one had been there – it’s the same story as Paul entering Philippi or Thessalonica or any of the other places. Luke tells us that Paul went first to the synagogue spending about three months proclaiming the kingdom of God persuasively to the Jews he found there. As happened in every place, some believe and others don’t and eventually Paul left. As he had done in other places, particularly Corinth, Paul move on to a place outside of the synagogue, the hall of Tyrannus, and keeps on proclaiming the gospel both to Jews and to Greeks. Luke tells us he kept on for two years with at least some degree of success. The next section of Luke’s story is a difficult and unusual one. In a story that sounds at least a little like the story we heard earlier of Peter’s shadow having the power to heal those brought to him (Acts 5:15), Luke tells us that handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul’s skin were powerful in healing the sick and casting out evil spirits (Acts 19:12). As was noted in the story of Peter, this sounds like little more than magic to our ears. Frankly, I am not sure what to make of it. Luke has dealt with magic before and the point we were able to garner then was that, while there is only a fine line between a miracle and magic in the mind of Luke, the one striking difference is that a miracle happens because God brings it about and magic is an attempt to control God. And as we listen further, that turns out to be the same point here. Luke now tells us a humorous story of the seven sons of a high priest names Sceva. Exactly who and what Luke is referring to when he mentions Sceva as the high priest escapes us. There was no high priest named Sceva as far as Jewish records go – but that does not mean Luke is not referring to an actual family. The humor in the story is that these Jewish exorcists attempt to use the name of Jesus to cast out a demon. Once again Luke is distinguishing between a genuine miracle, which is something God does at God’s initiative, and magic which is to attempt to control God. In the end, the whole experience exposes a great number of “magicians” in Ephesus – a fact other sources confirm since Ephesus was noted as a center of magic in the world at that time. The miscalculation of the Jewish exorcists who attempt to use Jesus results in many magicians burning their book and apparently becoming Christians. Luke tells us the value of their magic books was 50,000 silver coins – about 5 million dollars!