Acts 19

The very beginning of the chapter is quite surprising in that there were early disciples who had not heard of the Holy Spirit. Apparently these were second hand converts, those who were converted by some other than the original disciples. However, they did trust in Jesus but had not yet been discipled. This confirms the urgency of evangelism being a process not just an event. Once a person has trusted Christ, they must be taught the matters of doctrine and practices of the faith. This is similar to the process of education. Just because one has enrolled in school/college they do not have the knowledge or experience of the educational process. They must be instructed or taught. The same is true for new believers; they must be taught what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and what He expects from His followers.

Just as in the churches of today, there were individuals in the early church which sought to use the church and Christ for their advantage rather than to serve God from the heart of purity or from the practice of a true follower. This matter happens in that the person has not experienced a true conversion for when one encounters Christ he or she will be changed. Luke describes by saying, "Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists 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.'...The evil spirit answered them, 'I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul-but who are you?' Then the man who had the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded." I actually find both justification and humor in this passage. The justification is that God will, in His time, deal with those who claim to be of Him but are not. The humor is that the demons turned on their own who sought to exercise authority over them. (I love to see the humor in scripture! It confirms another range of emotions within our God).

Earlier I mentioned the changes which takes place when one encounters God. Luke gives details of the change which took place among the early converts from Ephesus. Their encounter with God came after the above mentioned issue of those whom professed Christ but were not true believers. Luke says, "And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices, 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 50,000 pieces of silver." This is a major issue among many professing believers today, the desire to follow Christ but hold on to their former worldly practices and indulgences. Christ does not call us to come and retain whatever we desire from the world. He calls us to come, abandon our self/desires and follow Him. He calls us to have no other gods before Him, beside Him, or behind Him. He expects a devotion of the whole heart. He expects that we love, obey, and serve Him with every part of our lives and forsake all worldly desires. The question we should ask of ourselves is, "If we faced a demon such as those who professed Christ in Acts 19 would the demon ask,'I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul-but who are you.'"

Lessons We Learned

1. Discipleship is a vital part of the process of evangelism.
2. God will judge those who profess Him but have never experienced Him.
3. God expects that when we profess Him we give up the ways/practices and indulgences of the world.