Spiritual Troubleshooting | Acts 18:24-19:20
Luke describes how three spiritual problems in Ephesus are solved: (1) zeal without knowledge; (2) repentance without belief; and (3) belief without repentance. This sermon is part 14 of “Spreading the Faith,” Bryan Craddock’s verse-by-verse sermon series on Acts 8-20.
The machines that we use in daily life keep getting more complicated. It’s not uncommon to unbox a new device and find that it does not work. The more you know about technology, the more potential problems you might imagine. But every instruction manual has a section at the back on troubleshooting.
The manufacturer’s advice is often insultingly simple. Make sure that it’s plugged in. Try turning it off and back on again. Most of the time those basic solutions are all that you need.
The Christian life can seem complicated too, and sometimes it may not seem to work as promised. The more you know about it, the more potential problems you might imagine. But the solutions are often more basic than we want to admit.
Now I think that Luke intended Acts 8-20 to serve as a manual for spreading the faith. He describes Paul’s conversion and his three missionary journeys. But as he does so, his narrative corrects our false assumptions, defines the experience of conversion, and guides us in bridging cultural divides. It prepares us to face persecution and inspires us to go with the gospel even when personal sacrifice is required. It highlights the importance of God’s grace and teaches us to embody it in how we reason with different types of people and in how we approach practical everyday decisions.
When we look at the book this way, we see that it is a very thorough guide. So, it should not surprise us that Luke includes a section on spiritual troubleshooting. In Acts 18:24-19:20, he describes how three spiritual problems in Ephesus are solved. Each one can be defined in simple terms. But the magnitude of its impact on someone’s life can vary. At the extreme, it will keep someone from Christ. At a lesser level, it may simply hinder your spiritual growth. So, being clear about these problems will help us address them in our lives and help others.
Zeal without Knowledge
One of the most spectacular buildings in the ruins of ancient Ephesus is the Library of Celsus. Archaeologists estimate that it housed 12,000 scrolls. It was built around sixty years after Paul’s ministry there, but its impressive architecture testifies to the high value placed on knowledge in the city. That library could not compare, however, to the library in Alexandria, Egypt. It was established in the third century before Christ and contained at least 40,000 scrolls.
As important as knowledge is, Paul says that it can puff us up (1 Cor 8:1). Pride in what we know can blind us to what we don’t. So, extremely knowledgeable people can still have zeal without knowledge, because our knowledge is always incomplete, particularly when it comes to knowing our infinite God.
In Acts 18:24-25, Luke introduces us to someone for whom this could have become a serious problem. He tells us,
Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.
There was a large Jewish community in Alexandria that was known for integrating Judaism and Greek culture. A famous philosopher named Philo argued that Moses is the true source of Greek philosophy. He died around AD 50, so Apollos may have been acquainted with him and might have studied under him.
Luke describes Apollos as eloquent or learned, a man of words. This probably means that he was trained in rhetoric. At the same time, he was competent or mighty in the Scriptures and had been instructed in the way of the Lord. So, he had an accurate understanding of the biblical prophecies about the Messiah that pointed to Jesus. But since his knowledge only extended to the baptism of John, he probably did not know that Jesus had come, taught, performed miracles, died, rose again, and ascended into heaven. His understanding was on the right track but needed an update.
Nevertheless, Apollos was fervent in spirit. He was boiling over. He zealously called Jews to prepare for the Messiah’s coming. He was so passionate that he was willing to leave his home in Egypt and sail 500 miles across the Mediterranean Sea to Ephesus in Asia. But was he teachable? Would his confidence keep him from listening?
Zeal without knowledge can harden your heart to the gospel. Paul speaks of his fellow Jews in Romans 10:1-4 and says,
Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Earlier in Romans, Paul teaches that the only way for any of us to be made righteous is by God’s grace as a gift through faith in Jesus (Rom 3:22-24). But many Jews were determined to live righteously by keeping the Old Testament law. They refused to accept that they were unable to do so. Moses warned them that they would experience God’s curses (Deut 30:6-7). One generation after another failed and faced God’s discipline. The prophets revealed that they needed a new and different covenant with a Messianic savior. They should have recognized that Jesus fulfilled those prophecies, but their zeal blinded them and kept them ignorant.
How was Apollos’ lack of knowledge exposed? Acts 18:26 says,
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
Rather than risk humiliating Apollos by correcting him publicly, Priscilla and Aquila wisely speak to him in private. But Aquila was a tentmaker. As far as we know, he had no formal biblical training. In his zeal, Apollos could have easily dismissed him as uneducated. He could have been even more disrespectful toward Priscilla as a woman speaking up in a male-dominated culture. Since Luke lists her first, she may have been the driving force in this conversation.
We are not told how Apollos responds in that moment, but it becomes clear that he was humble and teachable. His ministry is shaped by the input he receives. It even determines his next destination. Acts 18:27-28 says,
And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.
Apollos heads to Achaia, specifically to the city of Corinth (Acts 19:1). His teaching strengthens the believers there, reinforcing their confidence that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Sadly, the problem of zeal without knowledge manifests itself there. Apollos is probably not to blame, but when Paul writes to the believers there in 1 Corinthians 1:11-13, he says,
For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
People are always tempted to take sides and argue with shallow slogans. We certainly see it in our society. In Corinth this misplaced zeal failed to recognize that Paul, Apollos, and Peter were all proclaiming the same gospel for the glory of Christ. Do we fall into this trap? Do we align ourselves with someone and parrot things without genuinely understanding what the Scriptures teach? We need to be humble and teachable as Apollos was. We need to hear the word to keep growing in our knowledge, and that leads us to a closely related problem.
Repentance without Belief
One of the stops in my tour of Greece was the island of Mykonos. From the old harbor, a maze of narrow stone pathways winds through whitewashed buildings. It was laid out that way in ancient times to confuse anyone who might have invaded the island. It’s beautiful but very disorienting. You turn one way or the other to reach where you want to go, but you cannot really tell where it leads. So, you just follow it to the end to find out.
Some people approach spiritual life that way. They commit themselves to a path with no understanding of where it is supposed to lead. Some even see it as a mark of deep spirituality to keep following the way blindly. This rigid devotion often reflects the problem of repentance without belief, and we find an example of that disconnect in Acts 19:1-4. Luke tells us,
And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism." And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus."
By this point, it has been over twenty years since John the Baptist died. If these disciples heard him preach in person, then they have stayed on that path for a long time. John called people to repent and be baptized, turning from their sins in anticipation of the coming Messianic king who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Mt 3:3, 11).
But these disciples seem uncertain about these truths that John preached. Some interpret their response in verse 2 to mean that they had simply not heard whether the Holy Spirit had been poured out. But their statement is not that specific. They seem to question whether the Spirit exists at all. Paul’s words in verse 4 also suggest that they might not have been looking for the Messiah’s coming either.
So, Apollos was heading in the right theological direction and just needed updated information. These men seem to need something more. They responded to John’s call to repent and pursue holiness, but they do not seem to grasp the theological and prophetic reason for it. I suspect that they were just trying to be more sincere and obedient. While that may seem admirable, they were missing the point
Repentance and good works are not enough. No matter how hard we try, we never measure up to God’s perfect standard. We need a Savior, and John the Baptist made that clear. John 1:29-31 tells us,
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.' I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel."
By referring to Jesus as the Lamb who takes away sin, John draws upon the Old Testament background of substitutionary sacrifices. It arises in Genesis 22 where the Lord provides a ram to die in Isaac’s place. It is there in the story of the Passover lambs slaughtered in Egypt so that the firstborn sons of the Israelites would be spared. It is woven into Israel’s ongoing celebration of Passover and the Day of Atonement and all the other animal sacrifices that were required at the Tabernacle and the Temple. Then in Isaiah 53, the Prophet Isaiah links that need for a substitute to an individual, and the purpose of John’s ministry was to prepare people to believe in him.
Paul stresses that purpose to these disciples and tells them that Jesus is that Savior. So, they believe, and Acts 19:5-7 says,
On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all.
Luke does not say whether Apollos experienced anything like this. In fact, speaking in tongues is only mentioned two other times in Acts: the initial outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost (2:4) and the salvation of Cornelius, the first Gentile (10:44-46). Those were major transitions in God’s work, and the manifestation of the Spirit confirmed that they were God’s doing.
So, why do these disciples of John speak in tongues? We are not told. Perhaps the Lord graciously chose to work in this miraculous way to confirm to them that they finally had the power to live an obedient life. I quoted this passage earlier in our study of Acts, but it’s worth repeating. In Ezekiel 36:26-27, the Lord foretold the coming of the Spirit by saying,
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Our most sincere efforts to obey God’s commands are not enough. Repentance without belief is not real repentance. We must believe that Jesus saves and that the Spirit empowers us. Some are relieved to hear that good news, but many people arrogantly refuse. Paul saw both responses in Ephesus. Acts 19:8-10 says,
And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
This is not referring to the continent of Asia as we now know it, but to a Roman province along the west coast of modern-day Turkey. Ephesus was the capital city of that province, and the Lord worked through the ministry of Paul and other faithful believers to spread his word from there to all the surrounding towns and villages. People come to believe through preaching. In Romans 10:14, Paul asks,
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
To solve the problem of repentance without belief, we need to hear and trust the word. But in some cases, we may encounter the opposite problem.
Belief without Repentance
I have been telling you about my trip to Greece and Turkey. Imagine that a generous donor promises to provide for us all to go back together. So, you sign up. You tell your family and friends. But you don’t pack a suitcase, you don’t get a passport, and you don’t show up at the airport. You believed the promise, but you never acted upon it.
Belief without repentance is like that. A lot of people accept New Testament teaching about who Jesus is and believe that his promise of salvation is true, but it does not influence the direction of their life. Luke gives us an example that is so extreme that it’s hilarious. But first he sets the context. In Acts 19:11-12 he tells us,
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.
Miracles like these demonstrate the power of God. They also confirm the promise of the gospel, showing that in Christ’s kingdom there will be no more sickness, sorrow, or pain. This is the first mention of Paul healing people. He might have done so on his previous missionary journeys, but since Luke does not record it, this could be a special occasion.
We know that Jesus performed miracles for people who exercised faith (Mt 9:2, 22, 29). So, it is not that these handkerchiefs or aprons had magical power. The reality of the gospel transcends the empty promises of magical power. But since magic was such a big part of life in Ephesus, the Lord graciously works miracles among people who believe to confirm their faith. We should note, however, that in other times and places, there are plenty of faithful believers who do not experience miraculous healing, and God works through that too.
It is not surprising that outsiders would misinterpret how these miracles are coming about. In verses 13-14, Luke tells us,
Then 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.
There is no record of a high priest by that name. So, these exorcists are probably con artists. The fact that they try using the name of Jesus suggests that they did not have any real power of their own. If they had any effectiveness at casting out demons, it would have only been because demons chose to play along. Satan’s goal is simply to steer people away from following the Lord, and that can happen in a multitude of other ways besides demonic possession.
Now in a sense, you could say that these exorcists believe in the power of Jesus’ name. They do not intend to repent and follow him. They just know that it worked for Paul, so they decide to give it a try. What happens? In verses 15-16, Luke says,
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.
Belief without repentance is not true belief. It does not unite you with Jesus so that you are in him and he in you, as Paul speaks about later in the letter that he writes to the Ephesians. Even this evil spirit recognizes that. In fact, you could argue that the spirit is more of a believer than the exorcists. They are just trying something out, but the spirit accepts the true power of Jesus. James 2:17-19 makes this point by saying,
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder!
Repentance and faith are inseparable. When you truly believe in Jesus, it changes how you live. This fiasco with the exorcists helped people in Ephesus understand that. Acts 19:17-20 tells us,
And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Also 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.
At that time, a silver denarius was a day’s wage for a laborer. The value of all these scrolls would have been a year’s salary for over 150 laborers, a sum that might be worth several million dollars today. But people came to see that belief in Jesus is not consistent with practicing magic. So, they repented and accepted the cost of turning from their old way of life to follow Christ alone.
Have you made that choice? Are there still things in your life that are inconsistent with belief in Jesus? He promises us eternal life in his kingdom, a life that is far better than anything this world has to offer. Are you getting ready for the trip? Don’t neglect repentance.
__________
Spiritual life may seem complicated, but it’s not hard to troubleshoot most of our problems. When we have zeal without knowledge, we need to hear the word. When we pursue repentance without belief, we need to trust the word. When we have belief without repentance, we need to obey the word.
So, if you have never done so, I invite you to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Perhaps you need to learn more. If so, you might want to read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We’ll learn more about the city as we continue in Acts. The third chapter of 2 Peter is another good chapter that helps us see how knowledge, repentance, and belief go together.
As I mentioned, this troubleshooting guide applies to believers too. The problems are dialed back, but we still get off track in the same ways. The believers in Ephesus burning their magic books demonstrate that. Do you need to work through one of these problems in your life? Don’t hesitate to do so! Our knowledge, belief, and repentance should always be growing. As you do, reach out to your fellow believers and help them in the process.
May the word of the Lord increase and prevail mightily in and through us!
Reflect
Which of these problems is the biggest struggle for you? How so?
What steps could you take to keep the right focus?
How can you come alongside someone who is struggling with one of these problems?