Acts 19:11-20 & Intro to 1 Corinthians

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: Acts (1 Corinthians)

Rusty's Notes

The following notes include excerpts from: Frank Viola’s “The Untold Story of the New Testament Church” 2004
 
October 13, 54
Emperor Claudius dies.

• His wife Agrippina poisons him with his favorite dish—mushrooms—so that her son, Nero, can become emperor.
• Nero’s first five years as emperor will be relatively moderate.
• But his pretense of morality and fairness will begin to run out in A.D. 59 when he has his mother killed.
• Nero’s madness was mostly kept in check by the guidance of philosopher Seneca and Burrus (head of the praetorian guard).
• In A.D. 62, Seneca retired and Burrus died, and the madness of Nero was fully unleashed.
• In A.D. 65, Nero ordered Seneca to commit suicide.

 
DEMONISM DEFEATED AT EPHESUS
11 God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands, 12 so that even facecloths or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.

• While in Ephesus, Paul performs extraordinary miracles.
• Sweat-rags and aprons that have had contact with his body are taken from him and used to heal the sick and cast out demons.
• When our Lord performed miracles, He usually had at least three purposes in mind: (1) to show His compassion and meet human needs; (2) to teach a spiritual truth; and (3) to present His credentials as the Messiah.
• The Apostles followed this same pattern in their miracles. In fact, the ability to do miracles was one of the proofs of apostolic authority (Mark 16:20; Rom. 15:18–19; 2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2:1–4).
• Miracles of themselves do not save lost sinners (Luke 16:27–31; John 2:23–25). Miracles must be tied to the message of the Word of God.
• God enabled Paul to perform “special miracles” because Ephesus was a center for the occult (Acts 19:18–19), and Paul was demonstrating God’s power right in Satan’s territory.
• But keep in mind that wherever God’s people minister the truth, Satan sends a counterfeit to oppose the work.
• Jesus taught this truth in His Parable of the Tares (Matt. 13:24–30, 36–43); Peter experienced it in Samaria (Acts 8:9ff); and Paul experienced it at Paphos (Acts 13:4–12).

13 Now some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists also attempted to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches!”

• Satan imitates whatever God’s people are doing, because he knows that the unsaved world cannot tell the difference (2 Cor. 11:13–15).
• It was not unusual for Jewish priests to seek to cast out demons (Luke 11:19), but it was unusual for them to use the name of Jesus Christ.
• Since these men had no personal relationship with the Saviour, they had to invoke the name of Paul as well; but their scheme did not work.

14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were doing this. 15 The evil spirit answered them, “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul—but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them, overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded.

• Had this exorcism succeeded, it would have discredited the name of Jesus Christ and the ministry of the church in Ephesus. (Paul faced a similar situation in Philippi. See Acts 16:16ff.)
• However, God used the scheme to defeat Satan and to bring conviction to the believers who were still involved in magical arts.
• Two lessons emerge from the story.
• For one, Christianity has nothing to do with magic.
• The name of Jesus is no magical incantation.
• The power of Jesus drives out the demonic, and his Spirit only works through those who, like Paul, confess him and are committed to him.
• Second, the demon did confess the power of Jesus over him, “Jesus I know.”
• Compare Jas 2:19, “Even the demons believe and shudder.”
• The people of Ephesus recognized this and extolled the powerful name of Jesus as a result (v. 17).
• What was true for them is still true. In the name of Jesus is all the power needed to drive out the demonic forces in every age.[1]

17 When this became known to everyone who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, they became afraid, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high esteem.

• Instead of disgracing the name of Jesus, the event magnified His name and caused the Word of God to spread even more rapidly.

18 And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices,

• The tense of the verbs in Acts 19:18 indicates that the people “kept coming … kept confessing … kept showing.”

19 while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

• As a result, a great number of magicians repented of their practices.
• These believers apparently had not made a clean break with sin and were still practicing their magic, but the Lord had dealt with them.
• They burn their magical scrolls and dispel their secrets in public.
• The value of all the documents that go up in smoke amounts to 50,000 drachmas.
• The total value of the magical books and spells that they burned was equivalent to the total salaries of 150 men working for a whole year!

20 In this way the word of the Lord spread and prevailed.[2]

• These people did not count the cost but repented and turned from their sins.[3]

 
Crisis in Corinth

• Apollos returns to Ephesus from his visit to Corinth.
• He brings Sosthenes with him, the former ruler of the synagogue.
• Sosthenes has since become a Christian.
• Apollos meets with Paul and informs him about the problems the church is having.
• Apollos tells Paul that some in the Corinthian church are reverting back to their heathen lifestyles.
• They are committing fornication, worshipping idols, and stealing from one another.

 

• PAUL WRITES CORINTHIANS A
  (This letter is lost to us.)
• Year: A.D. 54
• From: Ephesus
• To: The church in Corinth (which is 4 years old)
• Provocation: Provoked by Apollos’ report, Paul urges the Corinthians to no longer keep company with fornicators, idolaters, and thieves in the church.
• He also explains to them his desire to have a Jerusalem relief fund.
• Finally, Paul tells the Corinthians that he will visit them after he leaves Ephesus.
• He will then visit the churches in Macedonia and return again to Corinth, after which he will take the relief fund to Jerusalem in Judea (see 2 Corinthians 1:15-16).

 

• Paul sends the letter with Titus.
• While in Corinth, Titus helps the Corinthian believers to begin collecting money for the Jerusalem relief fund. (2 Corinthians 8:6)
• Titus leaves and returns to Ephesus.
• The doctrine of Hellenistic dualism begins to gain ground in Corinth.
• According to this doctrine, if individuals have the Spirit of God, they live above the earthly plane and are unaffected by what they do with their bodies.
• The material world is temporary so it does not matter what kind of physical behavior in which a person engages.
• Thus sexual immorality is acceptable.
• Further, since God is not interested in the physical world, there will be no resurrection of the dead.

 
Spring 55

• Some Corinthian Christians who work for a business woman named Chloe pay a visit to Ephesus.
• Chloe’s people fill Paul’s ears with the horrors of the Corinthian church.
• They tell him the following:
• There is division, jealousy, and strife among the believers.
• The church is fracturing into four parties.
• 1) Some of the Greeks are showing exclusive loyalty to Apollos, saying “I follow Apollos.”
• They equate his Greek oratory style with “higher” wisdom and knowledge.
• 2) Some of the Jews are showing exclusive loyalty to Peter, saying “I follow Peter.”
• They are chasing after signs and wonders.
• 3) Still others are making the elitist claim that they exclusively follow Christ and have no need of any apostle.
• “I follow Christ” is their motto.
• 4) Finally, there are some who are boasting exclusive loyalty to Paul, pitting him in competition with the other workers saying, “I follow Paul.”
• Paul is disturbed by hearing this news, so he begins addressing the problems in a letter.
• When Paul finishes the letter, he is visited by three respected brothers from the church in Corinth—Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus.
• The three men singe Paul’s ears with more disturbing news about the Corinthian assembly.
• Paul had just finished writing 1 Corinthians 1-4 when the three Corinthian brothers abruptly visited him.
• The wording in Chapter 5:1 suggests that Paul had just received news about the illicit sexual relations in the church, and he responded to it immediately.
• They report to him the following:
• * A brother in the church is committing incest and the believers are ignoring it.
• Some are even boasting in their Christian liberty while this is going on.

 

• * Some of the brothers are taking one another to court.

 

• * Some of the brothers who have been influenced by Hellenistic dualism are visiting prostitutes and engaging in gluttony, thinking that what they do with their bodies has no bearing on their spirits.
• Their slogans are “everything is permissible (lawful) for me” and “food for the stomach and the stomach for food.”

 

• * A number of the believers are very sick.
• A few of them have died recently.
• The slaves work late and cannot make the church meetings on time.
• The well-to-do are not waiting for them, but are eating the Lord’s Supper ahead of their poor brethren. This was a full meal in those days.
• Still worse, the well-to-do are treating the Lord’s Supper as if it were a private dinner party.
• They are gorging themselves on the food and getting drunk on the wine.
• Corinthians (like Romans) ate on the couches (usually situated in a “U” shape called a triclinium).
• They leaned on their left elbows and ate with their right fingers.
• They were separated by social class:
• The wealthy (9-12 people) were inside and fed one kind of food while the poor and slaves sat outside and ate leftovers and less superior food.

 

• * There is quarreling over the issue of the marriage veil.
• Some of the wives are removing their marriage veils when they pray and prophesy in the church meetings.
• This has caused some who have visited them to accuse the wives of being immoral.
• The Greco-Roman world had an acute shortage of women. Roman women married in their early to mid-teens. (Men waited to marry until their mid-twenties.) The legal minimum age for marriage was twelve. Both Roman and Jewish marriages were typically arranged by the parents of the prospective spouses. When a woman married, she wore a veil in public. The veil was a social indicator that a woman was married. An unveiled woman signified to others that she was unmarried. Thus for married women to wear veils in public was a matter of decorum and supreme importance in Roman society. Married women who did not wear veils in public settings were viewed as shaming their husbands and portraying themselves as promiscuous wives, i.e. unashamed adulteresses. In 44 B.C., a “new” type of woman emerged in Rome. By the first century, these “new women” had spread throughout the Roman Empire. The “new women” were liberated married women who pursued their social lives at the expense of their families and who defied previously accepted norms of marriage fidelity and chastity. They were sexually promiscuous and dressed in a seductive manner. Because Paul was a liberator of women, it is not difficult to see that some Christian women associated his views on a woman’s freedom with the immoral ideals of the “new women.”
• Their husbands have asked them to wear the veil in the meetings, but the women are contentiously arguing that they are at liberty to do as they wish.

 

• Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus also hand Paul a letter from the church that is packed with questions.
• Here are some of the questions contained in that letter:
• * Didn’t you tell us not to associate with sexually immoral people in the world?
• How can we do that since most of the people we work with engage in sexual immorality?
• Some in the church who read your last letter about abstaining from sexual immorality are practicing sexual abstinence in their marriages.
• They have a saying among them which is: “It is not good for a man to touch a woman.” Do you agree with this?

 

• * Some of the believers have unsaved spouses. Should they divorce them or stay married?

 

• * Some of the brothers who are betrothed (engaged) to women in the church are not sure if they should pursue marriage. What is your opinion?

 

• * Is it wrong to buy meat that has been offered to idols at the pagan meat markets?
• Some are arguing that idols are just human sculptures and the gods that they represent do not exist.
• They believe it does not matter if one eats meat offered to idols.
• Others disagree with this position and feel eating such meat is sinful.

 

• * Is it wrong to dine in pagan temples?
• Some believe this is a social necessity and pagan gods do not exist anyway, so how could it be wrong?
• Those with a higher social status did not typically dine in the tabernae (taverns).
• They instead dined in pagan temples, which included dining with the pagan god itself.
• Sometimes a statue of the god would be placed on a separate couch as if he were dining with the feasters.
• And a prayer would be offered to the god before the meal.
• Others believe that the consecration to idols does something to the meat so they cannot eat with a clear conscience.

 

• * Some are critical of you, Paul, and are raising questions about the genuineness of your apostolic calling.
• They are asking why you do not take money as the other apostles do, like Peter and Apollos.
• Well-to-do Greeks despised common labor and looked down on those who engaged in it.
• This would include those who worked as leatherworkers and tentmakers.
• To such ones Paul lost credibility because he worked with his hands and did not take money for his teaching as the Sophists did.

 

• * The meetings of the church are chaotic.
• The gift of tongues is exalted by some because it is the language of the angels.
• Many are speaking in tongues at the same time during the meetings, and it is creating massive confusion.
• Further, some of the married women are challenging those who are prophesying with many questions.
• This is creating both confusion and disruption in our gatherings. What should we do about this?

 

• * Some in the church who have been influenced by Hellenistic dualism are denying a future resurrection. Can you address this?

 

• * Please go over your instructions concerning the Jerusalem relief fund.
• There is some confusion over it.

 

• Paul responds to what he has heard from Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus immediately, expanding the letter he had written after hearing the report from Chloe’s people.
• We will call this letter CORINTHIANS B.
• This is our 1 Corinthians.
• Paul asks Apollos to visit the church in Corinth with some others, but it turns out not to be the Lord’s will for Apollos to visit at this time.
• Timothy is not with Paul as he pens the letter.
• But Paul plans to send him to Corinth when he returns.
• He wants Timothy to encourage the church as well as to see how it receives the letter.

 

• PAUL WRITES CORINTHIANS B
  (This is our 1 Corinthians.)
  Year: Spring 55
  From: Ephesus
  To: The church in Corinth (which is about 5 years old)
  Provocation: In chapters 1–4, Paul addresses the report that he has heard from Chloe’s people.
• In chapters 5–6, Paul addresses the issues of sexual immorality and civil litigation.
• In chapters 7–15, he answers the church’s list of questions.
• In chapter 16, Paul goes over his instructions for collecting the Jerusalem relief fund.
• He then gives the church his new travel plans, which had changed from before.
• Instead of traveling from Ephesus to Corinth, then to Macedonia, and then back to Corinth as he first planned, he will travel from Ephesus to Macedonia and then make one long visit to Corinth.
• Paul closes the letter by commending Timothy, who will visit them shortly, and exhorting the church to yield to Stephanas and other workers during their present crisis.

He ends by sending greetings from the churches in Asia Minor, Priscilla, Aquila, the church in Ephesus (that meets in Priscilla and Aquila’s house), and the brothers whom Paul is training.

[1] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, pp. 404–405). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ac 19:1–20). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 481–482). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.