Lessons From Acts – Lesson 36
God greatly used Paul in Ephesus for a little over 2 years. And not just locally. God used Paul to write 1 Cor, 2 Cor, and Romans while there. The opposition was tired of losing and their false religion money making system was breaking.
Tempers were at a flash point and under those circumstances there is never a shortage of those who will use the situation. In Ephesus it was Demetrius. He stirred up an unruly mob that was causing an uproar.
Paul was the focal point, this was all going on because God had used Paul greatly for over 2 years. If Paul would have walked out there, things would have exploded. After Paul’s friends stopped him from going in front of the mob someone else tried to talk to them and the response was they cried out for 2 hours.
They were not going to listen to anyone who was not on their side. Period.
Paul was stopped from making a mistake. And since tempers were so hot against Paul he left Ephesus.
Acts 20:1 And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia.
Acts 20:2 And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece,
Paul goes to Macedonia and does a lot of preaching. It says Paul had given them much exhortation. And after that Paul goes to Greece.
Acts 20:3 And there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia.
After being there 3 months the Jews once again are after Paul.
Acts 20:4 And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.
We need to pause and park here a min.
I have said it many times the Bible was not meant to be speed read. Some people do just that they will quickly read their 3 to 5 chapters for that day. 5 min later ask them what they read and many can’t even tell you.
You will get more out of it if you slow down. And pause and stop and think about what you are reading. Ask the Lord to show you why the passage you are looking at is in the Bible. What does He have for you to learn from it?
I will often keep thinking about what I read later in the day. And even more understanding comes that way. And doing that is Biblical.
Psa_143:5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.
Psa_1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Slow down, pay attention, and take the time to think about God’s Word. You will get a whole lot more out of your Bible reading.
And another principal that I have taught over and over again is to take a step back and take a good big picture view. Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.
You can get so close to a verse that you can see the tree but that is it. Verse 4 is an example of this.
Acts 20:4 And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.
You can be reading chapter 20 and read that and just kind of read over it. And think several people where helping, that’s nice and then just read on. When you do that you got a good look at one tree, but can’t see the forest.
Verse 4 is actually a big deal and teaches us a huge lesson but only if we take a step back and look at the big picture view of it.
For this we have to go all the way back to the last Words that Jesus said before He ascended.
Mat 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
That was very clear. Get out there and work. Go to all nations and get them the gospel.
Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
At the time many Jews looked down on Gentiles. Jesus used the term creature because some of the Jews thought of us that way. Jesus made it crystal clear what they were to do.
Go forward to the feast of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit comes to indwell believers and to empower the work. Peter gets up and preaches and 3,000 get saved, not long after Peter preaches again and 5,000 get saved.
And the Bible tells us that people were also getting saved daily. So now you have maybe 9,000 – 10,000 born again Christians in Jerusalem. And the command that Jesus gave was not just for the small group that saw Him leave.
Those commands to go and preach the gospel are for every Christian to be involved in. And what happened. None of them went.
James and the other Apostles are not following Jesus’ commands in this.
So what does God do? He allows persecution in Jerusalem and He appears to Saul on the Damascus road and knocks him to the ground and Saul sees the glory of the Lord and goes blind. Saul has a come to Jesus moment and gets wonderfully saved.
Paul now starts preaching Jesus to all that will listen. Barnabas rescues Paul from Damascus and presents him to the believers and leaders in Jerusalem.
They tell Paul to just go home to Tarsus. You are more trouble than you are worth. Paul sits in Tarsus doing nothing for a long time. God is working ahead already knowing what He will do.
So up to this point the Jewish believers in Jerusalem are still not getting the gospel out to the world like Jesus said.
God allowed persecution to come and many leave Jerusalem preaching the word, but not to everyone like Jesus said.
Act_11:19 Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.
So it is great some are now going and preaching the gospel, but very bad only preaching to Jews.
So what happens? God finds a way. God finds a precious few hearts that will listen.
Act_11:20 And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus.
Up in Antioch a few of them finally preached Jesus to Gentiles. And it has been about a couple of years has gone by. This has been going on a while.
Barnabas sees this happen and gets excited. Finally the commands of Jesus are being done and God is empowering it. Barnabas is on board big time. He realizes the job is big. Antioch is more than Barnabas can handle by himself.
He needs help. Where to find it. How many workers are out there willing to give the gospel to Gentiles and how many are out there that are willing to teach them.
There is no one. Zip. No one is working with the Gentiles. A few finally gave the gospel in Antioch and God blessed. But that is it.
Logically the place to go would be the Church in Jerusalem. But Barnabas knows that he would find no one to help there. Not anyone who would help give the gospel and teach the word of God to gentiles.
Barnabas then remembers Paul and his heart to preach Jesus. He goes to Tarsus and gets Paul. Paul does not take any convincing, Paul goes to Antioch with Barnabas and gets busy teaching and preaching to the Gentiles.
God blesses, many get saved.
At the time of the 1st missionary journey how many workers are willing to go with Paul. Barnabas and a young man who is not ready. That would be Mark. He does not last very long.
So at that time how many workers are their out taking the gospel to the lost gentiles. Only 2 that is it. And it now has been several years since Jesus gave the command.
When it is time for the 2nd missionary journey Paul takes Silas and Barnabas takes Mark. So you now have 4. But that is about it.
James and his crowd said you go to the heathen and we will go to the Jews.
Gal 2:9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
Paul spent a lot of time teaching Gentiles in Antioch then went on the 1st journey, started some churches that had both Jews and Gentiles in them, went back and taught in Antioch for a long time again, went on the 2nd journey and strengthened the new churches and started more new churches.
And all of that had an effect. God was moving in hearts. You get to the beginning of the 3rd journey and you start to see more and more workers. Aquilla and Pricilla, and Timothy and Titus.
The 3rd journey takes several years. And in Acts 20:4 as we near the end of the 3rd missionary journey we now have workers all over. But carefully notice were they are from.
Acts 20:4 And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.
The locations are not there as filler or unnecessary information. The locations are there for us to learn something.
1 guy from Berea, 2 from Thessalanica, 1 from Derbe, and Timotheus who Paul found on one of his missionary journey and 2 from Asia.
What do you notice? Not one from Jerusalem.
And as you read from this point forward both in Acts and the other letters Paul wrote you will see more and more workers. I think in total there is around 100 of them mentioned.
You see this a lot. There were many others who were doing the work of the Lord and teaching and preaching and helping. Most of the time from the 3rd missionary journey on you will see Paul with many others working together. Except for his time out period.
On both the 1st and 2nd missionary journeys Paul took someone with him but he only had a few. And on the 3rd journey you see that as the work progressed there are many more people working and helping.
What do we learn by looking at the big picture view of this?
Several things. One thing we learn is that God was working in the hearts of men to get His work done. And God’s work did get done. People did get saved. Lives were changed.
The Gentiles did get the gospel preached to them. Here it is. But did the believers in Jerusalem get right in this. No. The believers in Jerusalem refused to give the gospel to the Gentiles.
But the gentiles got saved anyway. God worked anyway.
Here we see God’s Word shows us that God is very concerned and interesting and is very involved in His work. And God will find others who will obey and do His Work.
And at the same time God allows man to exercise his free will. God allowed the believers in Jerusalem to refuse to obey the Great Commission.
There are consequences for Christians who thumb their nose at God’s instructions like they did. 1st they had persecution and were given a long time to come around. When they never did God allowed the Romans to come in and destroy Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
So they were given a long time to get right.
And they lost the privilege of being involved in God’s work in this way and they lost the privilege of having a part and seeing God move. And of course they lost eternal rewards in this area.
So there was consequences but God let them out of a free will chose those consequences.
The same is true today. God does not force any of His children to obey and get involved in some way with the great commission. He will allow them to exercise their free will and say no.
At the same time.
2Pe_3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And because God loves the sinner He does not leave His work to chance. He is active and He is prompting and pleading for His children to obey the Great Commission.
And when one says no, God moves on and finds someone who will. And in the end God’s Work does get done.
The Christians at Jerusalem said no and stubbornly refused. Even with all the evidence of what God wanted and even with the clear instructions and even when they saw that God was working big time with the Gentiles and no longer working with them that way.
They refused so God found others who would. The gentiles did get the Gospel. It is true that they would have gotten it sooner if Jerusalem would have said yes. So it caused a delay but that is all.
God found others and the work got done.
Way back in the Shadow Mountain Baptist church days the Pastor would preach and tell us that because not enough of us went out on Saturday that we have blood on our hands and that directly because of us there are people in hell.
At one point it got so bad that we had 70 people show up on Saturday but for the wrong reason. And later it was found out that many of them just went home after they made an appearance and never did go door to door for Jesus.
I never did buy his false teaching that you personally send someone to hell and that the work is dependent upon you. And the Bible clearly teaches that what he taught was wrong.
The Biblical truth is that God’s work needs to be done voluntarily from the heart with the right motivation. And that if one person refuses or even if a large group refuses, then God will find another who will do the work voluntarily and with the right heart.
God loves souls infinitely more than we ever could. God cares for His work infinitely more than we ever could. And God balances His sovereignty and His desire for His word to go forth with the free will of man.
And God will search out and draw and convict and prompt and will find hearts that will respond correctly and His work does get done.
The correct attitude is that it is a great privilege to be involved in His work and I am very thankful that we are involved in getting His precious word to the world.