Acts 19:1-20 - Homiletics

The advance.

The founding of a Church at Ephesus, the capital city of Proconsular Asia—a great center of Greek and Asiatic life, civil, religious, and commercial, the seat of the famous temple of Artemis, the place of concourse of all Ionia for its celebrated games—is one of those great epochs in the history of Christianity which arrest the attention and demand the consideration of the Christian reader. Not above two years (if so much) had elapsed since the Holy Ghost had expressly prohibited the preaching of the Word in Asia, for reasons which we know not; but now that prohibition is removed, and, after a preliminary movement by Apollos, we find St. Paul planting his foot firmly on the soil of Asia, and taking possession in the Name of the Lord Jesus. The banner which he then set up has never been taken down to this present hour. What the influence of the great success of St. Paul's ministry at Ephesus upon other Asiatic cities may have been, we have no means of knowing in detail; but that it was very great and widespread we learn from the tenth, twentieth, and twenty-sixth verses of this chapter. The first, second, and third chapters of the Revelation of St. John supply further important evidence, both as regards Ephesus itself and the other Churches of Asia; and so do the two Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy. From hence St. John exercised his jurisdiction over the whole of the Churches of Asia. The Epistle of Ignatius to the Church of Ephesus carries on the tradition; and we learn from later ecclesiastical history how important a position Ephesus held, being styled ἡ πρώτη καὶ μεγίστη μητρόπολις τῆς ασίας . The third general council was held there in A.D. 431. In thus casting a hasty glance at the succeeding history of this apostolic Church, we are led to the reflection how little we know what may be the consequences of any single forward movement in the kingdom of God. The humblest servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, in a meeting with a few like-minded brethren, may be laying the foundation of institutions which will last while the Church lasts, and exercise a world-wide influence upon the destinies of mankind. A mission to a race of semi-barbarians may be the planting of a Church under whose shadow millions may hereafter walk in all the joy of Christian hope, and in all the beauty of Christian holiness. The simplest word spoken in the kingdom of God, the simplest action taken in the Name of the Lord Jesus, may be the instrument used by the power of God for advancing his own purposes of grace and salvation to untold multitudes. When Augustine had his first interview with King Ethelbert in the city of the men of Kent (Cant-wara-byrig), who could have foreseen the influence upon the Christianity and civilization of the world which that interview was destined to exercise? And so in the case of every fresh effort to preach Christ where he is not known, there is a glorious uncertainty as to the ultimate consequences of such advance. The missionaries' stammering speech telling the story of the cross to a handful of heathen may be the first step of a mighty change which shall make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. One Heaven-born thought in the mind of a man of God, one prayer in the Holy Ghost, one faithful word of truth, may be the seed of a sacred history which shall fill, not earth only, but heaven also with enduring fruits of joy and salvation. Let St. Paul himself make the application: "Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" ( 1 Corinthians 15:58 ).