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And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus (Acts 19:1, ESV).
The longest time the Apostle Paul spent in one location was Ephesus.
He arrived on his third missionary trip and stayed for almost three years. Acts records that Paul taught in a synagogue for several months, then relocated his teaching mission to the hall of Tyrannus and, “This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10).
Some scholars believe that “The Book of Acts” should be retitled “The Book of Acts of the Spirit,” and we read of intense Holy Spirit power occurring in Ephesus.
This is Holy Spirit Lesson #1: God sovereignly chooses specific areas for revival.
And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them (Acts 19:11-12).
Ephesus was founded in the 4th century B.C. and lasted until 1500 A.D., or almost 2,000 years, sitting on the Royal Road, a trade route between Rome and Greece to the Persian heartland (Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan). The city had incredible wealth, with the third-largest library, the second-biggest gymnasium, and perhaps the largest amphitheater in Asia Minor. And the temple of Artemis was almost 400 feet long, 180 feet wide, and four times larger than the Parthenon in Athens. An incredible ancient world city.
One tour guide, living today, having led over 2,000 tours to the ruins of Ephesus (very close to Istanbul), writes, “Being a tour guide for 23 years and a traveler for a lifetime visiting ancient ruins around the world, I believe that Ephesus is the best ancient site to visit today.”
God visited Ephesus during the Apostle Paul’s stay so powerfully that even handkerchiefs that had touched Paul could be taken to the sick for their healing.
This is a Book of Acts Holy Spirit Lesson #2: We can’t define how the Spirit of God will work!! God never confines Himself to our decorum presuppositions.
While in Ephesus, Acts 19 reveals this story…
Some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded (Acts 19:13-16).
Let’s not take lightly spiritual warfare — Holy Spirit Lesson #3 in Ephesus learned by the seven sons of Sceva.
Holy Spirit Lesson #4 of the Spirit: Confession and repentance…
Many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily (Acts 19:18-20).
My religious background is the Christian Church, and our denomination started in Bourbon County, Kentucky — yes, Bourbon County — when an estimated crowd of 25,000 people arrived in August of 1801, at the small Cane Ridge Meeting House near Paris, Kentucky. There were no decent roads, cities, grocery stores, hotels, McDonald’s®, or Porta-Johns®.
Primitive camping today would be glamping in comparison to Cane Ridge in 1801. And yet those attending lingered for seven days with strange manifestations of the Spirit, demonic deliverances, and thousands saved. Cane Ridge became one of the most reported events in early American history, as one journalist wrote, “It ignited an explosion of gospel preaching that soon reached every corner of America.”
Lessons 1, 2, 3, and 4 — not only in Ephesus but in Cane Ridge, Kentucky. How about in Springfield, Ohio, or in your community today?