Like many today, I receive alerts of current events through my phone. I never remember signing up for this service. Dozens of times after thinking I was receiving a text from a family member or friend, I find out the latest about interest rates or, more importantly, that the Grammys have just begun.
The most important events in human history were not the type of events that a smartphone would have notified the public about. To read what people would have thought were the most important events, we need to read Roman historians like Tacitus or Suetonius. Whereas a small select group of classicists and historians read Tacitus and Suetonius today, millions of Christians read Acts. God’s ways defy our expectations.
Paul began his third missionary journey in Acts 18:23, visiting many of the same locations he had visited before and “strengthening all the disciples” in those locations (CSB). He visited Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia, and Asia Minor before returning ultimately to Jerusalem, where, after being arrested, his journey abruptly ended. He then gave his testimony to a Jewish crowd and then Jewish leaders. Both groups rejected his message, and the Roman authorities whisked him away to Caesarea to save his life.
Most of Luke’s account of the third missionary journey is simply recounting the sequence of Paul’s visits. One exception is Luke’s account of Paul’s dealings with Ephesus. In this account, we see a microcosm of how God has worked in Acts and, I believe, how He continues to work today.
Although the Holy Spirit had previously shut the door for Paul to spread the gospel in Asia (Acts 16:6), He opened the way for Paul on Paul’s third journey (Acts 19:1). Ephesus was its largest city. In between the two journeys, God worked through an Alexandrian Jew named Apollos, who initially had zeal, a vast knowledge of the Old Testament, and the teaching of John the Baptist until Priscilla and Aquila guided him to a fuller understanding of the gospel (Acts 18:24–28). This fact reminds us that God’s timing is perfect. Second, after Paul proclaimed the gospel in Ephesus, God bore witness with signs and wonders and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God was continuing to lay the foundation of the Church through the apostles. God still moves through His apostles: As the Ephesian church was being built on the spoken word of the apostles, churches today need the written word of the apostles (the New Testament) along with the Old Testament.
Third, so many Ephesian idolaters stopped purchasing idols that a riot occurred. The gospel still offends, and faithful Christians must prepare themselves for resistance (making sure that the gospel does the offending and not the Christian). Fourth, God spares Paul in the midst of the riot, reminding us that God is still in control over what we see as chaos. Fifth, after Paul later returned to Ephesus, he told the elders to watch themselves and their flock that God had purchased through His own blood (Acts 20:28). Wolves were coming, and they will still come today. The job of pastors then and now is to protect the believers from false teaching and false brothers.
Although in the eyes of humanity, nothing noteworthy was occurring, God was doing a great work in Ephesus. His timing is still perfect, and His Word is still foundational. The gospel still offends, and God is sovereign over our chaos. And He still calls pastors to protect His sheep. Will we pay attention to the great work He is doing today?