DISCIPLING THE HARDENED ABUSED OR ESTRANGED

Part V: Relying On God’s Validation

(Acts 19:11-20 et al.)

I. Introduction

A. Several believers have recently shared their concerns about discipling hardened abused or estranged people.

B. One of the most difficult issues we can face with hardened people is that they deny heeding any defense of the truth we seek to get them to believe, for they may frankly deny any supernatural aspect of the Christian faith.

C. Accordingly, we give five lessons on discipling such people, with this fifth lesson on relying on God’s spiritual and supernatural validation in discipling hardened abused or estranged people (as follows):

II. Relying On God’s Validation, Acts 19:11-20 et al.

A. When Paul gave the Gospel to his countrymen in the synagogue at Ephesus, some of them were “obstinate,” refusing to believe, and they “publicly maligned the Way” of the Gospel of Christ, Acts 19:8-9 NIV.

B. Paul thus separated from the unbelievers in the synagogue and moved new converts to Christ over to the secular lecture hall of Tyrannus that was likely used to teach students rhetoric, a hall that was available also to traveling philosophers and teachers (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Acts 19:9).

C. However, though Paul continued to minister this way for two more years so that all in Asia heard the Gospel (Acts 19:10), the slander he faced challenged his credibility and that of his Gospel before others.

D. Thus, God supernaturally gave Paul and the Gospel he preached credibility before all, Acts 19:11-16:

1. God produced miracles through Paul that critiqued the false legalism of his Hebrew critics, Acts 19:11-12:

a. The Greek word for “handkerchiefs” in Acts 19:12 KJV is soudarion, a “face-cloth for wiping perspiration (Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 766), and the word for “aprons” is simikinthion, a workman’s apron Paul used in his tentmaking trade (Ibid., p. 758; Acts 18:1-3).

b. Thus, when Paul discarded his soiled workmen’s face-cloths and aprons in the city dump, afflicted people who rummaged there would touch these cloths and be healed of their infirmities, Acts 19:11-12!

c. Such healings contradicted the beliefs of Paul’s critics! They held to the Mosaic Law that taught that items touched by dead bodies were unclean (Numbers 19)! However, Paul’s discarded, soiled work cloths that landed in the city dump in contact with many decaying dead things were used of God to restore health and life to the afflicted! These miracles signaled the truth of Paul’s claim that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth” in Christ, Romans 10:4.

2. God produced a testimony that vindicated Paul and the Gospel of Jesus he preached while also exposing the false spirituality of Hebrew magician exorcists, Acts 19:13-14 (Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Acts 19:13):

a. Having observed the exorcisms that occurred when the afflicted touched Paul’s discarded work cloths, some Hebrew exorcists began to invoke the name of Jesus Whom Paul preached to exorcise demons, and seven Hebrew brothers, magician exorcists (Acts 19:13-14; Ibid., Ryrie), tried to exorcise an evil spirit from a man using this formula as if it were a magical formula, Acts 19:13-14.

b. The demon acknowledged the authority of Paul and of Jesus Whom Paul preached, but he did not acknowledge the authority of these seven Hebrew exorcists, so he physically attacked them through the demon possessed man so that all seven men fled naked and wounded out of the house, Acts 19:15-16.

c. The Hebrews typically criticized the Greeks who performed naked in their athletic events, so news of seven Hebrews fleeing naked from a house spread to all of the town’s Hebrews and Gentiles, Acts 19:17a!

E. Consequently, the truth about Jesus and Paul was vindicated before all to the glory of God, Acts 19:17b-20:

1. Great fear fell upon all who hears of these events, and the name of Christ was magnified, Acts 19:17b.

2. Many people trusted in Christ and destroyed their cult objects, Acts 19:18-19. The price of the magic items burned in a special bonfire likely equaled 138 years’ worth of pay for a rural laborer (Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Acs 19:19).

3. In the end, the Word of God that Paul preached “spread widely and grew in power,” Acts 19:20 NIV.

Lesson: When Paul and the Gospel he preached were maligned, God provided supernatural validation both for him and for the Gospel he preached so that his ministry and the cause of Christ was validated before all.

Application: (1) May we not fret or try in our own to defend our credibility before hardened foes who malign us and the truth we give but let the Lord Himself supernaturally validate our discipling ministry before them. (2) God used Paul’s regular work cloths in his regular work, so we need to keep to our regular activities for God to use us.