When Paul came upon Ephesus during his third missionary journey, he began by preaching and teaching in the synagogue there. He recruited 12 disciples, just like Jesus. They had received baptism under John, but allowed Paul to baptize them in the Way of Jesus Christ. As Paul began teaching and preaching, he came upon opposition among the Jewish leaders. Much like pastors today, there was much false teaching, hostility, and enmity toward anyone who spoke of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. So Paul decided to take his 12 men, his followers, and go to the school of Tyrannus to teach and preach there. He stayed there over the last 2 years of his time in the region. We read this account in the beginning of Acts 19.

That wasn’t the only trouble Paul faced while sharing the Good News to those churches. As I said in the last blog post, there was a great multitude of different people in Ephesus, trying to win the hearts of the citizens to THEIR way of thinking. There were Jews who did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah. There were Greeks, Romans, and Pagans…all with their own sets of gods and goddesses. Then there were the Christian missionaries like Paul, teaching the Way of Christ. Competitive missionary activity was a daily occurrence in the marketplace and when the Holy Spirit started using Paul to perform miracles of healing and exorcism, other missionaries tried to “prove” their gods superiority over Jesus Christ. But even the evil spirits knew the difference and ended up turning on those false teachers (Acts 19:11-20). There was fighting in the streets, book burnings, sorcery and witchcraft, false teaching from every direction, corruption, bribery, etc. Sounds a lot like what we are seeing in our world right now.

Paul had gone through many trials and tribulations in his ministry before he arrived on the shores of Ephesus. We read in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11 verses 23-33, about all the things Paul had suffered for the sake of spreading the Gospel. Paul states…

 “Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger? If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am. God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, who is worthy of eternal praise, knows I am not lying. When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas kept guards at the city gates to catch me. I had to be lowered in a basket through a window in the city wall to escape from him.“

Paul is one of my favorite people throughout all of history. He teaches us so many things, but the most important are how to endure for the sake of Christ, and what unity in the body of believers is to look like. What does it take to characterize as a follower of Christ? How do we find unity as believers?

Paul is going to explain the answers to these questions in the book of Ephesians. Continue with me on this journey. Maybe you too will find comfort, strength, and encouragement through the words of Paul. Until next time…

God Loves You And So Do I

Leslie