In Acts 19 and 20, we are deeply into the part of Acts in which Paul is the main character. He is the main missionary to the Gentiles, and is on his third missionary journey. We read a long account of Paul’s time in Ephesus, where he worked for over two years sharing the gospel. When he first arrived, he found some believers already there, and asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit after their baptism. He made sure they had been properly baptized, and that they had received the Holy Spirit, and then he preached and taught in the local synagogue for three months. Paul usually shared the gospel first in synagogues to fellow Jews, thinking they had a faith basis already laid down on which the Christian faith could build.
In Ephesus, as in other places, some Jews believed, and some did not. Those Jews who did not want to hear more from Paul made him unwelcome. So he moved to a location called the lecture hall of Tyrannus, where non-Jews met to share ideas and debate. There Paul shared the gospel for two years.
So many former pagans began to believe in the gospel that it affected the local economy, which was centered on the Temple of Artemis. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver statuettes of Artemis for tourists and residents, found that sales were way down. Paul’s preaching that gods made with hands were not gods at all and that Jesus was Lord had affected the bottom line for local pagan artisans. Paul and the gospel were hurting business, discrediting the Temple of Artemis, and, finally, the artisans thought, bothering the goddess. An hours-long riot with the Ephesians screaming “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” ensued.
Paul wanted to speak to the crowd, but his friends thought the rioters would tear him to pieces. A local bureaucrat calmed the crowd, informing them that they were in danger of being charged with rioting, and that if Paul and his followers had done anything wrong, they could be charged. As with Jesus, no one could point to any actual illegal activity on Paul’s part. He was innocent but under deep suspicion.
So Paul left town for a while, but returned to Miletus, near Ephesus, to have a last word with the elders (in Greek, presbuterous) of the Ephesian church. He told them that he intended to go to Jerusalem, where he anticipated persecution, hardship, and prison. He reminded them of the way he built up their church, supporting himself by his own efforts, and he instructed them on how to be hard-working, hands-on shepherds of their church. He warned them that wolves would come into the flock trying to lead their faith astray, and that as elders, they must defend the church. He told them he expected never to see them again. Then they parted with prayers, blessings and tears.
We have the great gift of having in our Scripture, a letter from Paul to this very church in Ephesus. When Paul wrote it, he had no idea of it would become a part of Scripture. He wrote it from prison, hoping to build up and help this church in his physical absence. He spoke primarily to the former pagans in that church, reminding them that in their former lives, they were separate from Christ, without hope and without God in the world. He reminded the Jewish Christians who were part of that church that Christ had reconciled the two groups into one body through his work on the cross. Paul understood that his ministry as an apostle was to the Gentiles.
Chapters 4-6 give the new former pagans some instruction in how to live now that they were followers of Jesus. Paul spoke of the different ways that the Spirit had gifted each believer, so that all had work to do to build up the body of Christ, which is the church. Some of his advice on how to live seems quite basic, but these former pagans did not have the benefit of a Jewish upbringing and knowledge of God’s law. Paul patiently caught them up on a lifetime of standards for ethical behavior. In chapter 5, we have Paul’s transformation of the ancient idea of the household code, with fathers, husbands, and masters in charge, and mothers, wives, and slaves under their control. Paul showed how in Christ, there is a mutual submission and consideration for one another operating in this basic building block of society, the Christian home. Paul ended with a description of the full armor of God, declaring that in the Christian fight against the evils of this life, we are able to stand firm, clothed and protected with truth and righteousness. We are shielded by our faith and armed with the Word of God. Paul closed by asking the Ephesian church to pray for him as he continued to share the gospel as “an ambassador in chains,” asking that he would be able to declare it fearlessly even as a prisoner.