DAY #210: Acts 18:18-19:12

Leaving the church at Antioch, Paul headed toward Ephesus, but along the way he revisited the churches in Galatia and Phrygia. The heart of this trip was a lengthy stay (two to three years) in Ephesus. Before returning to Jerusalem, Paul also visited believers in Macedonia and Greece. As Paul set out, one of his priorities was helping the believers to grow. Such was Paul’s regular practice—to keep checking up on those he had led to Christ and the churches he had founded.

Left in Ephesus by Paul, Priscilla and Aquila met a gifted speaker named Apollos, who had great passion for Christ but an incomplete knowledge of the gospel.

Apollos was an eloquent and powerful speaker. The eloquent, fiery young man who was so ably interpreting and applying the Old Testament messianic Scriptures in the synagogue was quickly noticed by Priscilla and Aquila. Upon hearing Apollos preach, they immediately recognized the deficiencies in his message. Consequently, they took him aside (probably to their home) and explained the way of God more accurately, telling him about the life of Jesus, his death and resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

With his more complete theology, Apollos, who had been thinking about going to Achaia, was encouraged to do so by the Christians in Ephesus. They sent along a glowing letter of introduction, asking the believers in Achaia to welcome him. He quickly became the verbal champion of the Christians in Achaia, debating the opponents of the gospel in public.


Meanwhile, Paul would stay in Ephesus for about three years. Ephesus was a strategic location from which to influence all of Asia. From Ephesus he would write his first letter to the Corinthians to counter several problems that the church in Corinth was facing.

Paul was making good on a promise. He had paid an earlier visit to this synagogue in Ephesus at the end of his second missionary journey, while on his way back to Antioch and Jerusalem. Though his visit had been brief, he had found a receptive group of Jews and had pledged to return at the first opportunity. Paul’s ministry in Ephesus lasted more than two years and was marked by an obvious movement of God’s Spirit.

Given Paul’s volatile history with the Jews (and his rather blunt preaching about Jesus as Messiah), it is surprising that he was able to minister at the synagogue for three months before the Jews publicly spoke against the WAY - a term commonly used to desribe Christianity.

Consequently, Paul moved his ministry to a nearby lecture hall. Such halls were used in the morning for teaching philosophy, but they were empty during the hot part of the day. Because many people did not work during those hours, they would come to hear Paul’s preaching.

Paul faithfully labored in Ephesus. His lectures were “daily” and continued for the next two years. These were two of the most fruitful years for the expanding church. The province of Asia refers to Asia Minor or modern-day Turkey. During this time, spiritually hungry Asians must have traveled to Ephesus to hear Paul speak.


SO WHAT? (what will i do with what i have read today?)

God is always on the move. He is always looking for men and women to use. He is always looking for people who will invest their lives into others and be obedient to His leading and calling.

Would to God that we would be those people. When God is looking for men and women and students and children to use, he starts by looking for different timber. He looks for a heart that belongs to Him.

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)

So, let me ask you today, what kind of heart do you possess?

God’s call to any man or woman for service is always conditioned upon our heart response. What kind of heart had David? Remember the 23rd Psalm:

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). David had a believing heart; he knew his own sinfulness and his need of the grace and guidance of God to watch over him even as he protected the sheep in his charge.

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters” (Psalm 23:2) David's life was marked by quietness. He knew the joy of communion with the Lord; his was a meditative heart.


“He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3). Though by no means perfect, David’s heart was set on holiness, and longed for that attribute of God in his life above all else.



“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” (Psalms 23:4). In the face of the worst enemy that could ever face him, David was confident; as he demonstrated later in his encounter with Goliath, he was brave, bold, and courageous.


“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies…my cup runneth over” (Psalm 23:5). David had a heart full of gratitude to the Lord for meeting his needs, for supplying him in things both spiritual and material, even with the devil looking on.


“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). David was no mere wistful follower, near to God on some days and some occasions but not on others: David wrote in Psalm 57:7 “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed”

Such was David’s heart-not fickle, but believing, meditative, set on holiness and righteousness, brave and courageous, grateful, and fixed upon God. None of these things were David’s by natural birth; he himself wrote, “I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).


But there had been a day when God had met this young man and renewed his heart, so that the goodness of heart which was his qualification for the anointing of the Holy Spirit for power in God’s service came from God himself. The only qualification for heaven that any of us can ever have is such evidence of God’s grace in our lives.