Paul's Third Missionary Journey

• After an extended stay in Antioch, Paul launched his third missionary journey, which was his final journey in Acts.
• The journey began with a second pastoral visit to the regions of southern Galatia and Phrygia.
• Paul also returned to Ephesus, where he conducted the most successful evangelism and church planting campaign of his career.
• In this chapter we will look at these and other activities of Paul during his third missionary journey. In doing this, we will learn some valuable lessons about missions strategy.

After spending time in Antioch, Paul set out again, returning to the regions of Phrygia and Galatia. In each place he traveled, he strengthened the disciples.

18:23 After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out

• Unlike his first two journeys, we are not told if Paul took anyone with him.

Strengthening all the disciples

• Paul's concern for people did not end when he led them to the Lord, or even when he started a new church. He returned to strengthen those who had chosen to follow Christ.
• Although evangelism and church planting are major issues in missions, the role of the missionary is more than evangelistic; it is also pastoral.
• Not only must churches be planted, believers must also be encouraged and strengthened in their faith.
• They must be taught the Word of God and led into the Spirit-filled life. In this way they can grow into mature believers and effective witnesses for Christ.

While Paul was ministering in Phrygia and Galatia, a brother by the name of Apollos from Alexandria, Egypt, arrived in Ephesus. Apollos was an educated man with a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures. He had been taught the way of the Lord and preached with great fervor. Even though he had only received the baptism of John, he spoke accurately about Jesus. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly about Jesus in the synagogue, they took him aside and taught him about the ways of God more thoroughly.

Later, Apollos decided to go to Achaia. The brothers in Ephesus encouraged him and wrote a letter of recommendation for him addressed to the disciples in Achaia. When he arrived there, he was greatly used by God to strengthen the church. He powerfully refuted the Jews in public debates, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was indeed the Christ.

• The story of Apollos illustrates the fact that men and women other than the twelve apostles were faithfully proclaiming the message of Christ in many parts of the ancient world.
• There seems to have been an active church in Apollos' hometown, Alexandria, of which the book of Acts tells us nothing.
• Churches were being planted in many other places not mentioned in Acts or Paul's epistles. Luke only writes about those places that help to further his purpose in writing Acts.

18:24-25 Apollos

• Apollos is described as a learned man with "a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures."
• This understanding obviously included what the Scriptures taught about the Christ, for Apollos had been "instructed in the way of the Lord" and he "taught about Jesus accurately."
• In 1 Corinthians Paul described Apollos as the one who watered the gospel seed that he had planted, causing the church to grow (3:5-6; compare 1:12; 3:22; 4:6; 16:12).

18:25 He spoke with great fervor

• These words of the NIV are an interpretation of the Greek text, rather than a translation.
• An accurate translation of the Greek is "fervent in spirit (or Spirit)" (compare NASB, NKJV, RSV).

While Apollos was ministering in Corinth, Paul set out from Phrygia and traveled westward through the interior of Asia, finally arriving at Ephesus. There he encountered twelve disciples. Without hesitation he asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered that they had not even heard about the Holy Spirit. Puzzled, Paul inquired further, "Then what baptism did you receive?" They answered, "John's baptism."

Paul then explained to them that John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, which people received in anticipation of Jesus' coming. When the twelve disciples heard this, they were rebaptized, this time in the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul then laid his hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came upon them. Then they began to speak in tongues and prophesy.

Paul then took these men and went into the Jewish synagogue, where for three months he preached boldly and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God. After a while, however, some members of the synagogue became obstinate and refused to believe what Paul was preaching. Some even slandered the Christian way.

Paul then left the synagogue and began teaching daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. These lectures continued for two years. Amazingly, by the end of this time, everyone who lived in the entire province of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, had heard the word of the Lord!

• Paul's Ephesian campaign has been described as the chief achievement of his missionary career and the climax of his missionary work.
• Interestingly, Paul's ministry in Ephesus is the only recorded instance of his evangelistic and church planting efforts during his third missionary journey. It is as if Luke wanted to highlight this extraordinary work.
• In the Ephesian campaign, Luke sums up Paul's missionary strategy, a strategy he successfully employed throughout the Roman Empire (compare Romans 15:17-21). This strategy can serve as a model for missionary strategy today.
• Paul arrived in Ephesus with a well-thought-out goal and strategy. Paul's goal was to evangelize and establish churches throughout the Roman province of Asia (compare v. 10).
• His strategy involved three main elements, which we call pillars. The first pillar of Paul's strategy was to ensure that the Ephesian church was empowered by the Holy Spirit. This happened in the Ephesian outpouring (19:1-7).
• The Ephesian outpouring is the seventh and last key outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts. As with the previous six, it resulted in powerful missional witness.
• Also, as with the previous six outpourings, it demonstrates Luke's empowerment-witness motif, first presented in Acts 1:8.
• Luke's primary intent in writing Acts was to call the church of his day (and ultimately the church of our day) back to its pentecostal and missionary roots.

• The Ephesian campaign directly followed the Ephesian outpouring.
• It took place over a period of about two years and resulted in every person in the Roman province of Asia hearing the gospel and in probably hundreds of churches being planted.
• In executing the Ephesian campaign, Paul was following a predetermined missionary strategy.
• Now that the church had been empowered by the Spirit, it needed to give itself to the proclamation of the gospel and the mobilization of workers to reach out to Ephesus and all of the province of Asia.

19:8 Paul spoke boldly

• Boldness is a characteristic of Spirit-empowered witness (compare Acts 4:29-31; 9:28; 13:46; 14:3; 18:26; 28:31).
• The fact that Paul preached with great boldness, even in the midst of great opposition (compare 1 Corinthians 15:32; 16:9-10), is an indication that many years after his initial infilling with the Spirit (9:17-18), he was still full of the Holy Spirit.
• Paul's ministering in the power of the Spirit is also indicated by the fact that he laid hands on others to receive the Spirit (19:6) and was used by God to work extraordinary miracles (v. 11).
• The proclamation of the gospel with signs following is the second pillar of Paul's missionary strategy (see Figure 12.2).

About the kingdom of God

• Luke includes the story of Paul's ministry in Ephesus as his most comprehensive example of Paul's missionary strategy.
• It in effect sums up his missionary strategy demonstrated in his first and second missionary journeys.
• Paul employed this strategy in reaching all of Asia with the gospel of Christ in just two years.
• We will do well to understand and employ this strategy in our own missionary and church planting efforts today.
• In the Ephesian campaign, Paul's strategy included three key "pillars."

Pillar One: Empowering

• The first pillar of Paul's missionary strategy was empowering (see Figure 12.2).
• This empowering was twofold. It first involved the empowering of the missionary himself. Every missionary and church planter must go to ministry full of the Holy Spirit. Empowering also involved the empowering of the churches to be planted.
• Paul entered Ephesus full of the Holy Spirit. He thus ministered as a Spirit-empowered witness in accordance with Jesus' prescription in 1:8.
• Paul understood, however, that it was not enough for him alone to be full of the Spirit. He knew that if the work was to prosper, any church he planted must also be Spirit-empowered.

During Paul's time in Ephesus, God did extraordinary miracles through him. People would take cloths that had touched his body and place them on the sick, and they were cured and evil spirits left them.

One day some Jews, the seven sons of Sceva, tried to cast demons out of a man. They commanded the evil spirits to come out "in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches." To their surprise one of the evil spirits spoke back to them saying, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?" At that, the demon possessed man jumped on them and gave them a beating. When word got out about what had happened, the people of Ephesus feared and held the name of the Lord Jesus in honor. Believers then began to come forward and publicly confess their misdeeds. A number of sorcerers brought their scrolls and burned them publicly. In this way the gospel message grew in power and spread throughout the region.

Paul then decided to return to Jerusalem, passing through Achaia and Macedonia on his way. After that he planned to visit Rome. He sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia to prepare the way; however, he remained in Ephesus for a while.

About that time, an idol-maker named Demetrius incited a great disturbance in Ephesus. He did this because the growth of the church was beginning to hurt his business. He stirred up a large crowd by claiming that Paul was defaming the Ephesian goddess, Artemis. Soon the entire city was in an uproar, with a wild mob shouting over and over, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

The crowd then seized two of Paul's companions and dragged them into the theater. Paul himself would have followed them there, but the disciples and city officials restrained him. After about two more hours of confusion and shouting, the city clerk was able to quiet the crowd. He explained to the people how Paul and his companions had neither robbed the temple nor blasphemed the Ephesian goddess. If Demetrius and his colleagues had a complaint against these men, he said, they could file it in the courts. He then dismissed the assembly.

• Success in ministry does not always bring applause; sometimes it results in bitter opposition.
• In Ephesus so many people were coming to the Lord that the local idol-making industry was severely impaired. Because of this, the leaders of this industry stirred up a riot against the church.

Spirit-Empowered Ministry (vv. 11-20)

• Paul's ministry in Ephesus was marked by power encounters. Luke cites two examples.
• The first was the overcoming of demons through "extraordinary" means (vv. 11-12).
• The second was the almost comical result of the seven sons of Sceva's misuse of the name of Jesus (vv. 13-19).
• As a result of seeing the power of God displayed, many people turned to the Lord (v. 20).

19:11 God did extraordinary miracles

• Paul's preaching in Ephesus was accompanied by powerful manifestations of divine power.
• Note that the subject of this sentence is "God." Paul was the channel; the miracles, however, were wrought by the power of the Spirit.
• Though God can, and at times will, work such extraordinary miracles, they are not to be considered normative.

After the riot, Paul took time to encourage the Ephesian believers. He had hoped to set off immediately for Syria; however, because of a Jewish plot against his life, he decided to go first to Macedonia. Everywhere he went along the way, he encouraged the brethren. From Macedonia he went to Greece, where he remained for three months. With Paul and Luke was an international team of missionaries, including Sopater and Secundus from Macedonia, Gaius and Timothy from Galatia, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. These men took a different route than Paul; however, they eventually rejoined him and Luke in Troas.

On Sunday the believers in Troas met to receive the Lord's Supper and to hear Paul speak. Because he was going to leave the next day, Paul talked until midnight. As he spoke, a young man named Eutychus became so sleepy that he fell from the window of the third story room where they were meeting. Rushing down, they found Eutychus dead. Paul, however, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. "Don't be alarmed," he said to the people. "He's alive!" Greatly encouraged, the disciples went back upstairs and continued their meeting until the next morning.

From Troas Paul went by foot to Assos, where he met the missionary party that had gone ahead of him by ship. The group then proceeded to Miletus, where Paul sent for the elders of the Ephesian church to come and meet with him. Knowing that this was the last time he would see them, he spoke with great affection. He reminded them of his conduct and his trials when he was with them and how he had gone about preaching the kingdom of God and had not hesitated to teach them everything they needed to know about following Christ. He further told them that the Spirit was compelling him to go to Jerusalem. Though he had been warned through prophetic words that he would be captured and put in prison there, he knew that he had to obey the Spirit's voice. His chief desire in life was to complete the mission that the Lord Jesus had given to him and to testify concerning the gospel of God's grace. He further told the elders that he was innocent before man and God because he had not hesitated to proclaim to them the whole will of God.

Paul then instructed the Ephesian elders to remain true to God and to the calling the Spirit of God had given them. They were to be faithful shepherds of the church, which Christ had purchased with His own blood. He further warned them that "savage wolves" would soon come in and ravage the church. Some would even arise from among them. They should therefore be vigilant and guard the flock of God.

• Paul, during his stay in Ephesus of over two years, had established a strong church in the city and throughout the province of Asia. He had done this by applying his missionary strategy of the Spirit.
• In the process he had mentored and trained many leaders with whom he had formed strong bonds of affection. These bonds are seen in this story.
• Also seen is a glimpse of some important elements of Paul's teaching ministry. His pastoral concern for the Ephesian elders, and for those to whom they were called to minister, is evident.
• At the heart of all that he said and did was his unswerving commitment to the calling he received from Christ. Paul must have transferred that same commitment to these elders.
• Jesus said, "Everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40).
• Paul continued to move under the Spirit's direction. It was the Spirit of God who was directing him to go to Jerusalem and eventually to Rome (v. 22; compare 19:21).

International Missionary Team (vv. 1-6)

• Paul often moved with others in missionary teams. Many times those teams were international in makeup.
• We see a similar thing happening today. Missions has come full circle. It is now from all nations to all nations.

• So ends the story of Paul's three missionary journeys. It does not, however, end the apostle's passion to take the gospel "where Christ was not known" (Romans 15:20).
• Paul still hoped to visit Jerusalem, and from there travel to Rome (Acts 19:21; Romans 1:15). From Rome he hoped to take the gospel even farther westward into Spain (Romans 15:24, 28).
• Paul would, indeed, visit Rome, but not as he had originally planned. He would visit as a prisoner.
• In the next two chapters we will look at Paul's visits and ministry in Jerusalem and Rome.

• Sometimes in gospel ministry we must "go it alone" as did Paul at the beginning of his third missionary journey.
• At such times, we must not be tempted to withdraw or shirk our responsibilities to God. We must press forward to the work.
• If we will be faithful to do the work that the Lord assigns us, even when we have to do it alone, in His time He will bring companions to our side to help us.
• Although Paul began this journey alone, before it was completed he had a large team of workers with him (compare 20:4).

• When public or classroom teaching is not sufficient, sometimes we must do as Priscilla and Aquila did with Apollos.
• We must personally instruct certain individuals and mentor them in the faith and in ministry.
• We must do this so that they might more clearly understand the gospel and their responsibility in spreading it.

• We as missionaries and church planters must approach our work with a well-thought-out, biblically-based strategy. Everything we do must be focused and intentional.
• Our labors must be aimed at planting Spirit-empowered missional churches.
• To do this, we must make sure that we enter ministry full of the Holy Spirit, and we must further ensure that the people we lead to Christ and the churches we plant have also been empowered by the Spirit.
• Only then will these believers and churches have the spiritual dynamic necessary to spread the gospel to the surrounding areas.
• Further, we must preach the gospel in the power of the Spirit, expecting Christ to confirm His word with signs following.
• Finally, we must carefully mobilize the churches we plant for further missional ministry. We can do this through focused intentional training and the effective sending and placement of those who have been trained.

• When we enter new areas to preach Christ, we can expect opposition, especially if we are successful.
• Local religious and business leaders will often rise to oppose our efforts to establish the church in their area.
• In such cases we should not be deterred. We must stay full of the Spirit and remain focused on the task that God has given us.
• As we do, we can expect God to confirm the preaching of the gospel with miraculous signs.

• As ministers of the gospel, our chief desire in life must be to be faithful to the calling we have received from Christ.
• We can do this only if we will keep our motives pure, live holy lives, remain full of the Spirit, and stay true to the Word of God.
• Every minister of the gospel must be steadfast in prayer and always open to the voice of the Spirit.