In today's blog we are going to focus on the circumstances in which the church in Ephesus was founded. Ephesus was the home of a variety of pagan gods and goddesses. It was famous for its great temple to Artemis or Diana. This temple was one of the wonders of the world. Superstition was rampant in the city of Ephesus and this included astrology, sorcery, incantations ('magical' spells), exorcisms and every form of magical deception. We have a record of description of the apostle Paul's visit to Ephesus (Acts 19). For three months, Paul used the Jewish synagogue as his base for witnessing to the Jews about Jesus the Messiah. For a further two years in company with other disciples, Paul had daily discussions in a lecture hall belonging to someone by the name of Tyrannus.
There was a mixed response to this preaching. Some must have accepted the truth of Paul's reasoning and the church at Ephesus was founded by these converts. However, there was opposition.
Some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. [Acts 19:9]
This reference to the way is interesting. It was in Antioch that the name Christians was given to those disciples of Jesus. The term, 'the Way' was another way of referring to followers of Jesus. This was probably based on Jesus claim, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14: 6). However, the overall impact of Paul's preaching was that 'all the Jews and the Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.'
In God's plan there was an encounter with an evil spirit which impacted positively in the spread of the Gospel. Some Jews were seeking to profit from the miraculous power of Jesus Christ. They were trying to imitate Paul's power over the evil spirits and were dabbling in exorcism. There were seven sons of a Jewish priest named Sceva who tried to drive out an evil spirit from a demon-possessed man. This had dramatic results which was a shock to everyone - especially the brothers. The evil spirit challenged the brothers saying that the demons acknowledged the name of Jesus and also Paul as a servant of Jesus but the spirit made it clear that they were unknown to him.
Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
[Acts 19: 16 NIV]
This incident became well known and made a powerful impact on the city so people were seized with fear. I love way Luke describes the positive effects of this incident: "the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honour." There was a time of public confession of the evil deeds associated with sorcery. Those who turned their back on their evil way of life demonstrated the change in their life by publicly burning their valuable scrolls, containing their incantations and spells. The value of the scrolls which were destroyed was massive - fifty thousand drachmas (a drachma was a single coin which was roughly a day's wages). Although this incident demonstrates the extent of superstition in the city of Ephesus, it also illustrates that there was a powerful revival which provided a great start to the establishment of the church in Ephesus.
In the same chapter in the Book of the Acts, there is a description of a riot of the craftsmen who made and sold small images of Artemis / Diana. The riot was provoked by a rousing speech given by a silversmith by the name of Demetrius. He warned them that Paul's preaching was going to ruin their lucrative business. He implied that the reputation of Diana and her temple was being seriously undermined. Soon the whole city was in an uproar and the mob took two of Paul's companions hostage. The riotous mob gathered in the amphitheatre and some officials who were friends of Paul warned him not to venture into the theatre. The riot was brought to an end by the wise counsel of the city clerk who persuaded the craftsmen to go to court rather than provoking a riot. There was always the possibility that the Roman army would intervene to suppress the riot and this would have resulted in violence and bloodshed.
In Acts 20, Paul provides a review of the three years he had spent at Ephesus and there are some powerful statements showing that Paul had shown great commitment to the upbuilding of the church at Ephesus.
“You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, [19] serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; [20] how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, [21] testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. [Acts 20:18b-21 ESV]
Paul warns them that savage wolves would come into the church and the church would be attacked by false teachers who did not care for the welfare of the church. The false teachers would not all be outsiders- some of their own number would try to deceive the Christians and turn them from the truth.
I think it is helpful to reflect on the picture we get of the formation of the church in Ephesus from the Acts. There are three headlines which emerge:
A church in a war zone of sorcery, idolatry and bitter opposition to the Christian faith.
A legacy of sound Bible teaching and Gospel preaching which had resulted in the birth of this church in a pagan city.
Warnings against the influence of heresy and false teaching.
All three headlines provide a good starting point to compare the church at the time of the Acts with the analysis of its spiritual state in Revelation chapter 2. The questions we need to ask ourselves are: What went wrong with this church? Was the spiritual decline of the church at Ephesus due to the tough opposition encountered in the pagan, superstitious city of Ephesus? Did the church stop preaching the Gospel and stop teaching the Word of God? Was the church weakened and destroyed by false teaching? It was none of these! They had stopped loving Jesus and loving each other.
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