Read Acts 19:21-20:1. What lessons can we draw from this story?

Paul’s witness in the large, sophisticated city of Ephesus was so effective that it impacted an important economic engine for the city, tourism focused on the Temple of Artemis. And what a temple it was! This magnificent structure was composed partly of 127 pillars, each 60 feet high, of Parian marble, a pure-white, flawless marble highly prized for sculptures. Thirty-six of these pillars were sculpted and overlaid with gold, earning the temple its reputation as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

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Concerned that Paul’s anti-idolatry rhetoric was draining financial support from the temple (Acts 19:27), Demetrius the silversmith whipped his fellow craftsmen into a frenzy. A rapidly expanding and highly energized crowd swept from the marketplace into the large amphitheater, which seated some 25,000 people. There the commotion continued, featuring two continuous hours of shouting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:34, ESV). After the crowd is dispersed by the town clerk, Paul meets with the believers and leaves the city.

At the end of his third missionary journey, Paul meets with elders of the Ephesian church. How would you summarize Paul’s concerns? (See Acts 20:17-38).

A tentative chronology of Paul’s relationship to Ephesus:

• A.D. 52: Paul’s initial, brief visit to Ephesus (Acts 18:18-21).
• A.D. 53-56: Paul’s three-year ministry in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-20:1). He composes 1 Corinthians near the end of his stay there (1 Corinthians 16:5-9).
• A.D. 57: While at Miletus, Paul meets with the elders from Ephesus (Acts 20:17-38).
• A.D. 62: Paul composes his letter to the Ephesians, probably from confinement in Rome.

“Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears,” said Paul (Acts 20:31, NKJV).

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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What does Paul do on his first visit to Ephesus, at the end of his second missionary journey? (Acts 18:18-21).

Ephesus was one of the largest cities of the Roman Empire, with a population of about 250,000. It was the capital of one of the Empire’s richest provinces, the province of Asia, which covered much of what we know today as Asia Minor. In Paul’s day, the province was enjoying a time of growth and prosperity.

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A port city, Ephesus was also at the crossroads of important land routes. While the people worshiped many deities in the city, Artemis, regarded as the protector goddess of the city, was supreme. Her worship was the focus of civic ceremonies, athletic games, and annual celebrations. (Artemis was called Diana by the Romans; see Acts 19:24, Acts 19:35, KJV; NKJV).

Paul later returns to Ephesus on his third missionary journey (Acts 19:1-12), and remains there “for three years” (Acts 20:31). The apostle makes a significant time commitment to Ephesus, with the intention of firmly founding Christianity there.

What strange event leads to widespread reverence for “the Lord Jesus” in Ephesus? (Acts 19:13-20).

Luke shares the strange story of seven itinerant, Jewish exorcists in the city. Mingling the names of both Jesus and Paul in their incantations proves to be a misguided venture for these exorcists. When the news flashes through the streets of the city, “everyone was awestruck; and the name of the Lord Jesus was praised” (Acts 19:17, NRSV). The event also had a profound impact on some of those who had already become believers, who publicly burned their expensive handbooks of magic arts, worth “fifty thousand silver coins” (Acts 19:19, NRSV). With the wider residents of the city, believers learn that the worship of Jesus must not be diluted with the worship of anything or anyone else.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Sabbath Afternoon

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Read for This Week’s Study: Acts 18:18-21; Acts 19:13-20:1; Acts 20:17-38; Ephesians 1:1-2; Ephesians 6:21-24; Ephesians 3:13; Ephesians 1:9-10.

Memory Text: “Making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:9-10, ESV).

When we write something, we have a purpose for doing so, sometimes a weighty one. Abraham Lincoln, for instance, wrote his famous Gettysburg address in 1863, after the terrible devastation in the American Civil War battle there, which left about 7,000 soldiers dead. In that address, invoking the founding fathers, Lincoln expressed his belief that the Civil War was the ultimate test as to whether the nation created in 1776 would endure or would “perish from the earth.”

Paul has a profound purpose that motivates his letter. Partly because of his imprisonment (Ephesians 3:13, Ephesians 6:20), and partly because of ongoing persecution and temptations, the Ephesians are tempted to lose heart. Paul reminds them of what happened when they were converted, accepting Christ as their Savior and becoming part of the church. They have become Christ’s body (Ephesians 1:19-23, Ephesians 4:1-16), the building materials in a temple (Ephesians 2:19-22), the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:21-33), and a well-equipped army (Ephesians 6:10-20). They play a strategic role in fulfilling God’s grand plan, to unite everything in Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10). Paul writes to awaken the believers in Ephesus to their full identity and privileges as followers of Christ.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 1.

Sunday–>

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How to Follow Jesus in Trying Times

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul tells us about the Ephesians themselves. Years after the exciting events of the early days of Christian mission in Ephesus, the Ephesians struggled with the significance of their Christian faith.

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Paul, once the troubler of the economy of this fourth-largest city in the Roman Empire, is now sidelined and imprisoned. Writing from prison, he worries that the believers in Ephesus may “lose heart,” forgetting any active sense of what it means to be disciples of Jesus in the sophisticated, urban, and thoroughly pagan culture of Ephesus. Though his hearers are already Christians, Paul’s tone is one of recruitment. He seeks to reenlist them in Christian faith, to reignite the fire of their devotion to Christ, and to resurrect the excitement of being part of God’s great enterprise in the world, the church.

Because the Christian faith is all about Christ, Paul radiates admiration and worship of Him. If wobbly Christian disciples are to regain their footing, it will be because they recapture their first love for Jesus and establish fresh trust in His grace and power. So Paul highlights Christ’s exaltation in heaven, above all the powers and deities that seek to attract the devotion of believers in Ephesus. Jesus is the goal of the divine plan for the ages, a plan in which believers, as the church, play an important role in God’s plans to unify all things in Christ.

As Paul seeks to draw believers in Ephesus into fresh devotion to their Lord, he does not dumb down the demands of Christian discipleship. He spells out in some detail what Christian behavior and community look like. Christians are called to Spirit-inspired, Christ-honoring, God-directed worship, which Paul illustrates again and again. A devotion to Christ impacts how one acts and speaks. To love Christ means to respect and value fellow believers. It means resisting the patterns of mean-spirited and sexually decadent behavior so rampant in their culture. It means, in our relationships within church and household, borrowing from the example of self-sacrifice offered by Christ. It means offering fellow citizens of Ephesus clear examples of a new pattern of human existence.

Paul spends a good deal of his letter expressing his excitement for this new pattern of what it means to be human through membership in God’s church. He is especially invigorated by the thought that God has joined estranged segments of humanity — Jews and Gentiles — as one in the church. In living out unity where hostility would be expected, they have an opportunity to exhibit the characteristics of God’s new society and the coming kingdom.

In pursuing the importance of being part of God’s church, Paul develops four metaphors for the church. Believers make up the body of Christ, demonstrating their devotion to Christ and their unity with each other. They are a living temple, built through the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, in which God is worshiped. They are the bride of Christ, who look toward a grand marriage ceremony when the Bridegroom comes to claim them as His own. In a final metaphor that expresses Paul’s efforts to reenlist them in Christian faith, they are the army of Christ, which wages peace in His name, combating the forces of darkness in God’s strength as they look toward Christ’s return.

Ephesians, then, speaks especially to times like our own in which the allure of the world and the passing of time threaten to dull Christian discipleship. It lifts up Christ and accents the significance of following Him as engaged, active members of His church as we live out the hope of His return. This quarter we have the privilege of listening prayerfully to Ephesians and experiencing anew the excitement of following Jesus in challenging times.

John K. McVay, Ph.D., is president and professor of religion at Walla Walla University in College Place, Washington, USA, where he has served since 2006.

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We’re ending the quarter on a high note. Join us for Lesson 13, Ablaze With God’s Glory.

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