Acts: The Expansion of the Church
Session 11
Estimated reading time: 44 minutes
Dealing with Culture
In this chapter of “Acts, The Expansion of the Church,” we will be looking at “Dealing With Culture.” Actually, this chapter and the next one will be about the third missionary journey, where Paul spent most of his time in Ephesus. There will also be a little bit about Corinth that we will look at also. We will begin this adventure in Acts 18, and in verse 23.
The third missionary journey lasted approximately four years from around AD 54 to 58, in that vicinity. The majority of that time was spent in Ephesus, but Paul starts out at the very beginning of the time in verse 23 which says:
Acts 18:23 APNT
And after he was there some days (meaning in Antioch), he went away and traveled around in order in the region of Galatia and of Phrygia, establishing (strengthening) all the disciples.
He revisited all the churches again which were the original churches of the first missionary journey. These revisits took place after the Galatians had received the letter of Galatians and had really turned around. This one verse shows how they had become established and were really becoming solid groups of congregations. The rest of Acts 18 is about a man named Apollos. So we can read the record beginning in verse 24.
Acts 18:24–25 APNT
And a certain man whose name was Apollos, a Judean who was a native of Alexandria (Alexandria is in Egypt and is a very large city, very well known for its learning and intellectual things.) and was trained in speech and observant in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.
This [man] was instructed in the way of the LORD and was spiritually fervent and was speaking and teaching fully about Jesus, while not knowing anything except the baptism of John.
Wow! He did not even know about Jesus being crucified and raised from the dead, or about the day of Pentecost, or any of those things. In spite of this, the Scripture says, he was “fervent” and before that he was called “mighty in the scriptures.” There are two things we need to know about this man. He was meek and he was very hungry to want to know the truth: because when he heard it, he was not like those other Jews who were always complaining and going after Paul, criticizing him and trying to destroy everything he was accomplishing. This man when he heard and was instructed in the way of the Lord about what came after the baptism, he really believed. That is what it says in verse 26.
Acts 18:26–28 APNT
And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. And when Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they brought him to their house and fully showed him the way of the LORD.
And when he wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to receive him. And after he had gone, through grace, he greatly aided all the believers, for he debated mightily against the Judeans before the crowds, showing from the scriptures concerning Jesus, that he is the Messiah.
Aquila and Priscilla instructed him about the resurrection and probably led him into speaking in tongues, because that was the part he did not know anything about. He got so excited about it! Aquila and Priscilla must have told him about the great work going on in Corinth so he wanted to go there. He immediately went to Corinth. When he arrived there, he very quickly becomes really well known for teaching the scriptures, for showing from the scriptures how Jesus is the Messiah! Many people believed and were helped by his ministry. He worked together with Paul later and Paul’s testimony about him is in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 6. He said, “I planted and Apollos watered, but God caused increase, (or God gave) the increase.” Paul said, “I planted,” because Paul had planted the church in Corinth. When Apollos came later with his teaching, with his spiritual eloquence, with his desire to help all the believers, it was like he was pouring water on the Word Paul had sown. However, the coolest part is God gave the increase! We will see a little bit more about Apollos later, but now we are going to Acts 19.
Acts 19:1–3 APNT
And while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled around in the upper regions (He is still in Galatia and Phrygia and then coming down towards Asia.) and came to Ephesus. And he asked the disciples whom he found there,
“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered and said to him, “We have not even heard if there is a Holy Spirit.”
He said to them, “Then into what were you baptized?” They said, “Into the baptism of John.”
Whether or not Apollos had witnessed to these men, we are not sure. Evidently they were in the same situation as Apollos had been, knowing only the baptism of John, but they did believe in the Messiah.
Acts 19:4–7 APNT
Paul said to them, “John baptized the people with the baptism of repentance, telling [them] to believe in him who would follow him, who is Jesus Christ.”
And after they heard these [things], they were baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And Paul laid a hand on them and the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in different languages (or spoke in tongues) and prophesied
And all the men were twelve.
That is such a wonderful record about how twelve men came to Paul, were instructed further also and immediately received the Holy Spirit, spoke in tongues and prophesied. From these twelve men and their families, plus Aquila and Priscilla, came the whole move of the Word throughout all of Asia, beginning from Ephesus. Now we begin to see right here the great diversity of people and backgrounds, from where they have come, and who they are. We had the Jews who believed. Now we are going to see other people beginning to come in and being added to the church in Ephesus. We will continue in verse 8.
Acts 19:8–10 APNT
And Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly [for] three months and was persuading [them] about the kingdom of God. (He is still talking to mostly Judeans and some Greek proselytes.)
And some of them were hardened and were striving against and reviling the way of God before the assembly of the Gentiles. Then Paul distanced [himself] and separated the disciples from them. And every day he was speaking to them in the school of a man whose name [was] Tyrannus. (Tyrannus is a Roman name, and most likely this is as school where students, intellectuals, and other people could come to learn, and probably was open for anyone to come.)
(And from this school) And this continued [for] two years, until all who lived in Asia, Judeans and Arameans, (and the Gentiles) heard the word of the LORD.
From this center of the school, the Word begins moving out and reaching all different kinds of people. So far we have two years and three months plus the time Paul had been in Galatia and Phrygia. We are talking about a length of time covering almost three years so far. From these groups of people, then there is a great move out into the culture. I am not going to read the whole story of what happens right here about the exorcists, but they are another group of people Paul meets. Ephesus was known for magicians and exorcists; these exorcists were actually Judeans. However, it says in verse 11:
Acts 19:11–12 APNT
And God was doing great miracles by the hand of Paul,
so that even from the coats that were on his body, handkerchiefs or pieces of cloth were brought and placed on the sick and the sicknesses went away from them and demons also went out.
We see he was preaching the Word and demonstrating the power of God. That is what happens with these Judeans who were exorcising demons. Basically the spirits said to the people trying to cast them out, “Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?” They were attempting to use the name of Jesus to cast out demons and mimic what Paul had been doing. We see up through verse 17, there are many miracles happening. Part of the reason the Word moves so rapidly in Ephesus is because of the demonstration of power.
Acts 19:17 APNT
And this was known by all the Judeans and Arameans who lived in Ephesus. And fear fell on all of them and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ was lifted up.
The glory did not go to Paul, it went to Jesus Christ: that his name was lifted up. He was the one that was responsible for this great move of the Word in Ephesus.
Acts 19:18–19 APNT
And many of those who believed came and declared their faults and confessed what they had done.
And many sorcerers also gathered their books and brought [and] burned them before everyone. And they counted their price and the silver amounted to five thousand [pieces] (of silver). (Which in our money today, would be equivalent to at least $500,000.00! Five thousand pieces of silver!)
Verse 20 is a great summary.
Acts 19:20 APNT
And so with great power the faith of God grew strong and increased.
The King James says, “So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.” However, in Aramaic it says, “So with great power the faith of God grew strong and increased.” The people’s faith really grew strong and increased. Up to this point we have encountered many different groups of people. We have Judeans. We have followers of John the Baptist. We have some Gentiles. We have some Judean exorcists. We have people who were going to the school of Tyrannus who were interested and very possibly educated. We had tradesmen who would have been influenced by Priscilla and Aquila, and Paul also, because during the time Paul was in Ephesus, he continued to work in his trade of weaving the tent cloth like we described in the previous chapter. With all of this variety of people the Word started mightily growing and prevailing.
Now I want to paint a picture of Ephesus to give you an idea of what it was like there. When I was looking at this and started comparing it, I realized that it was actually a greater city than New York City. You will see why I say that. It did not have the large population that New York has, of course. It had about 300,000 people, and was the fourth largest city of the Roman Empire after Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch of Syria, then the next largest city was Ephesus. It was the gateway to Asia and a direct connection to Corinth across the Aegean Sea and from there on to Rome. If you drew a line on your map, you start from Ephesus which was a harbor on the seaport. You go directly across to Corinth, then you cross Macedonia and from there, directly across to Rome. It had a very large harbor allowing many boats to dock there every day. There was a great deal of commerce back and forth, particularly between Ephesus and Corinth.
There was a road from the harbor called the Arcadian Way, which went straight from the harbor to the theater. The street was 100 feet wide and was paved with marble. When one traveled the Arcadian Way and arrived at the theater, they would have seen a magnificent theater that was 495 feet wide, and seated 25,000 people at a time. This is the theater where the mob came together that wanted to attack Paul. It is also where they had captured Aristarchus and Gaius and took them into the theater. We will be looking at this in our next chapter where we look at the subject of dealing with idolatry. With the capacity of the theater, there could have been a huge crowd assembled there.
However, the most famous place in Ephesus was the Temple of Diana, and was considered one of the seven wonders of the world at the time. There is hardly anything left of it right now but it was four times larger than the Parthenon. So if you have ever seen pictures of the Parthenon in Athens, it is enormous! It was situated on a hillside similar to the Parthenon. There were 127 columns, 197 feet high. That is how massive it was and it was constructed entirely of marble. With the obvious wealth and dimensions it is almost impossible to comprehend what it really would have been like. However, the reason they could construct this enormous temple out of marble is because it was the center of worship for the goddess Diana. Her other name is Artemis. She was a very strange mixture of goddess, because the Greeks believed in a virgin hunting goddess named Artemis. The Asians, however, believed in Isis who was a mother goddess and the goddess of fertility. As a result, they merged the two together and Diana or Artemis became not a virgin but a mother. She became a mother without being a mother so to speak. Her image depicted many, many breasts hanging down and the people believed she came down from the sky or directly from Zeus. The King James says in Acts 19:35 they believed she came from Jupiter but it is really Zeus, as if Zeus was her father. Then Horus is her son and the mythology about Artemis.
The main point is that she represented fertility with the breasts hanging down from her body. This is what the people were coming to worship. Everyone from young girls all the way to the older people all came to Diana. There were craftsman who made small shrines that had the image of the goddess on them. These were not keepsakes or something you would put in your pocket to take home. To pay homage to Diana, the people would buy them to give as offerings to the goddess. As a result, the silversmiths and all the craftsmen were making money. All of the priests and the priestesses in the temple were making money, because every time someone bought an amulet, they would bring it back to the temple leave it there. Consequently, the wealth of all the people coming to worship Diana came into Ephesus.
That is the picture we need to have in our minds, of this ground where the Word moved so swiftly. I want to read something I found on a website called “Urbana.” It is a case study of Ephesus. It says:
“The raw material for the church in Asia Minor was full of deeply rooted differences. Each new convert brought personal, cultural, religious and economic experiences, habits, wounds, and patterns that would be deeply challenged as they declared their loyalty to Jesus Christ. Each one of them would be faced with the necessity of deconstructing their old world view (changing it from their old world view) and life patterns in order to enter into the transformation of becoming a true and faithful citizen of the kingdom of God, together, in light of what God and Christ had done for them.” (Like Ephesians 1:3 talks about, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies.)
They had to change from having the mindset of being a citizen of this vast city that was extremely powerful and wealthy, to, “Now, I’m a citizen of heaven. That is my true dwelling place.” Now you see so many of the things in Ephesians relates to the cultural background of where they were from, and why those things were written in the book of Ephesians. The one thing I thought was the most interesting to see is Ephesians 4:1-3. We can take a look at it for a minute. All of these varied people, who came from so many different backgrounds, had to come together and seek to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That is what it is talking about in chapter 4, verse 1.
Ephesians 4:1–3 APNT
I, therefore, a prisoner in our Lord, beg you that you should walk as is proper for the calling that you were called, (Because now they were “Christ in” people. They were Christians, not Ephesians, not Asians, not worshippers of an idol goddess who came from Greek mythology. But to do it…)
with all humbleness of mind and quietness and long–suffering. And hold up one another in love and be diligent to keep the alliance (or the unity) of the Spirit with the girdle of peace,
The only way they could keep the unity is because the unity was in the Spirit; not because of their backgrounds and not because of from where they came. Otherwise, how could the Judeans relate with these kinds of Greek and Asian people who had grown up in this kind of culture? As a result of this, I was thinking that the impact of Ephesus was THE fertile ground for God to reveal the mystery to Paul. Because the revelation of the mystery: the one body: there is one God, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and everything regarding the mystery, all came into fruition for Paul in Ephesus. It was that message which laid the foundation for the Word to move so far from that place.
Now we are going to see that it also had a connection with Corinth, because every city or every major area has a stronghold. Ephesians 6 describes this particular method of the adversary as “rulers of the darkness of this world.” In different places, the strongholds are really easy to see. For instance, you can see San Francisco is very similar to Corinth actually; where the sexual debauchery and similar behaviors are very, very prevalent. Other places you can call what goes on in a particular city a stronghold. Another example, I believe the commercialism and always striving to have the best of everything is a stronghold that prevails throughout all of Southern California. That is a stronghold that really affects the believers in an area.
What we will see in Corinth, just like in Ephesus, the idolatry was what was really prevalent. In Corinth, the rampant sexual immorality led to different factions and pride where people were choosing sides about who they were going to follow. Now we need to put some events together. Look at 2 Corinthians 13. After Acts 19:19, there were some events that happened in between that you can only know about by studying the epistles and piecing them together. The first one is in 2 Corinthians 13 in verse 2.
2 Corinthians 13:2 APNT
I have told you previously and again I tell you beforehand (as if I was with you the second time, I tell you and now also while I am absent, I write to those who have sinned and to the others) that if I come again, I will not refrain,
This verse is difficult to understand in this translation as well as in many other translations. However, when you take the phrase “as if” and simply translate it “when,” as in “when I was with you the second time,” then it actually makes sense. This is the best I understand right now; that Paul, sometime in the middle of his time in Ephesus, made a short visit to Corinth. This would have been the second time he was in Corinth. While he was there, he saw they were beginning to practice sexual immorality. This letter is not the first epistle. Now the next thing that happens, after he went to visit them the second time and notices these things, he sends them a letter which we do not have anymore. The record of this letter is in
1 Corinthians 5. It must have been a very short letter. I do not know why we do not the letter nor what it actually said. However, we do know this one thing, it said in verse 9.
1 Corinthians 5:9 APNT
I wrote to you in a letter that you should not associate with fornicators.
Already, in this lost letter, he is beginning to address some of these things taking place in Corinth. Now, we go back to Acts 19, verse 21.
Acts 19:21–22 APNT
And after these [things] had been accomplished, Paul set in his mind to travel around in all of Macedonia and in Achaia and [then] to go to Jerusalem. And he said, “When I have gone there, it is right for me to also see Rome. (He was planning a future trip.)
And he sent two men from those who ministered to him to Macedonia, (What cities were in Macedonia? Philippi and Thessalonica.) Timothy and Erastus. But he remained a time in Asia.
Erastus, we discover, is from Corinth. He is the steward of the city of Corinth; and he and Timothy travel with and minister to Paul in Ephesus. They then travel to Macedonia, and Paul stays in Ephesus. Here is what happens. 1 Corinthians 1. We need to see how this all comes together here: why 1 Corinthians was written.
1 Corinthians 1:11–12 APNT
For they sent a message to me about you, my brothers, from the house of Chloe, (Here is another believer in Corinth, called the house of Chloe. They sent a message, either a personal letter, or they send someone who brings a message.) that there are disputes among you.
Now I say this because there is one of you who says, “I am of Paul,” and there is one who says, “I am of Apollos,” and there is one who says, “I am of Peter,” and there is one who says, “I am of Christ.”
It became reported to Paul that not only is there sexual immorality beginning to take place in Corinth but also factions have developed. People were choosing sides of who they were following. At this time Apollos was not even in Corinth anymore, so he was very likely not the one who caused the factions. It was simply that people chose his teaching or his method of teaching and decided they liked that better than Paul’s, because later on Paul called Apollos his fellow worker and stated that he was very proud of him. Apollos does not go back to Corinth later because the people had unduly magnified him. Paul received the report about what is taking place in Corinth. Then what does he do? This is the next piece.
1 Corinthians 7:1 APNT
Now about those [things] that you wrote to me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.
After Paul received the message from the house of Chloe about the factions then the Corinthian church wrote a letter to Paul with some specific questions. What do you do about unmarried women? What do you do about this situation? What about spiritual gifts? What about the end times? It is these questions that led Paul to sit down towards the end of his time in Ephesus and begin to write 1 Corinthians.
You can see the most wonderful thing when we go back to 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. You can see what we have been talking about Ephesus having this very specific culture. Corinth has a very specific culture. The teaching Paul is really getting into is about the mystery. Then 1 Corinthians 12 later on, is about the one body. Corinthians begins to lay out about the mystery. What is the mystery? How do you live together with people who have such varied backgrounds? We can look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, in verse 22. In the very beginning of 1Corinthians, I believe it begins to show how we live together in spite of being so different from one another.
1 Corinthians 1:21–2:2 APNT
For because in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom did not know God, God desired to give life to those who believe by the foolishness of preaching, (Paul’s preaching in both Corinth and Ephesus seemed like total foolishness.)
because the Judeans ask for signs and the Arameans seek wisdom. (The Jews were always looking for signs, the Greeks were always saying, “But I don’t understand this.”)
But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Judeans, and to the Arameans, foolishness.
But to those who are called, Judeans and Arameans, Christ [is] (Who? Christ! That is the central thing of the mystery. That Christ is…) the power of God and the wisdom of God,
because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider also your calling, my brothers, that not many among you [are] wise in the flesh and not many among you [are] mighty and not many among you [are] of noble birth. (In complete contrast to Ephesus where that was probably very prevalent.)
But God chose the foolish [ones] of the world to shame the wise and he chose the weak [ones] of the world to shame the strong,
and he chose those in the world whose birth was inferior and despised [ones] and those who are nothing to make of none effect those who are [something],
(The reason he did all that was…) so that no flesh should boast before him.
(Nobody had the right to boast, whether they were Judeans, whether they were magicians, whether they were from the lowest class of people, whether they were tradesmen or whether they were the wealthiest of all. No one, no flesh could boast before him.)
But you also are in Jesus Christ, by whom we have wisdom from God and justification and sanctification and redemption,
as it is written: HE WHO BOASTS SHOULD BOAST IN THE LORD.
And my brothers, when I came to you, I declared to you the mystery of God, not with excellent speech nor with wisdom.
And I did not judge myself among you as though I knew anything, except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Paul, then goes on to explain the mystery, that if Satan had known it he never would have crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the central point of the mystery. In order to break down the strongholds, eliminate the factions, deal with the sexual immorality, deal with idolatry, it had to be the mystery. It had to be Christ only! When I look at a person who is completely different than me, I only see Christ. That is the only way; otherwise the only other recourse is to get involved in all the other distractions in which they were getting involved. It is awesome that the entire premise of 1 Corinthians is the mystery.
No matter what kind of culture a person may have live in, for instance like when we lived in New Mexico; there was an kind of a hopelessness. This came from some partly from the Indian culture, but mostly because of the way the people lived. You would see that people would let garbage lay out in front of their houses. There was an atmosphere of hopelessness among the people because they were not able to work and provide for their families. What is the antidote to this? Christ, the mystery is the antidote! That is the only antidote for every stronghold of the rulers of the darkness of this world. Another example of a stronghold is the bigotry and prejudice in the South still! This is not only in the South either. I went to school in Waterloo, Iowa. It was the most prejudiced city I have ever been in my whole life: blacks and whites and how you could not cross over the river to go on the other side. It was really, really bad! But, what is the solution? We preach Christ! Christ is the one who solves all of this. It is the way we can deal with any culture. These people lived in Ephesus and Corinth; but it was from Ephesus the Word moved throughout all of Asia Minor in two years and three months.
What can God do in the United States or Hong Kong or Shanghai or Beijing or any other large city. We have seen the Word move in large cities like that, where it begins to spread throughout the country. It gives you some food for thought!
Related YouTube Video:
Bookstore Suggestions:
