Exodus 18:1-27

Moses' father-in-law heard of all that God had done for Moses and the Israelites. For some reason Moses sent away his wife and sons, it is not clear why he did this.

Jethro and Moses' family came to see Moses in the wilderness. Moses told Jethro all that had happened, and how the Lord had saved them from everything. Jethro then declares that he now knows that the Lord is greater than all the other gods, and he offered sacrifices to the Lord. Aaron then came to join Jethro and Moses with all the other elders, and they ate together.

We can see something prophetic here. The Midianites worshipped other gods, but Jethro saw the evidence of the reality of the One True God and saw worshipped the Lord. This is the way things are meant to work. The world should see the reality of God in the life of the church, and then turn to the Lord. We also see the Israelites eating with the Midianites. The goal of God's plan is that all people, Jews and Gentiles, should worship Him together, and live together as one.

The next day Jethro sees Moses serving as judge for all the people. Jethro warns him that he will wear himself out if he carries on doing this. Instead he should select reliable men to help him, and stick to the most difficult cases. All church leaders need to heed this lesson, for it is very easy to try and do everything yourself. This is not the way the church is meant to be.

Moses was sensible and took his father-in-law'd advice.

Exodus 17:8-16

They now face the first direct attack. The Egyptians never actually got to them, and the other problems were ones of circumstances. This time the Amalekites come and attack them. Joshua is to go and fight the battle with some of the men. Moses would stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in his hands. Note that it does not say that God told him to do this, but he had seen God work through his staff on a number of occasions. So Moses is learning how to use the power of God.

The battle commenced, and when Moses held up his hands the battle went in their favour. When his arms dropped, the battle started to go against them. Moses was not able to maintain his spiritual posture by himself, so Aaron and Hur supported him, literally, and the battle was won. There may be people in your church who consider to be might men or women of God, but no matter how mature they are, they need support from others. So we should always support our leaders and other workers, never imagining that we can just leave it to them. If our leaders disappoint us, sometimes it may be because we are not supporting them enough.

God tells Moses to write down that the Amalek's will be completely destroyed. Moses also built an altar and called it "The Lord is My Banner".

Exodus 17:1-7

Yes another grumbling incident. Again it was over water, this time because there wasn't any.

Moses is getting rather fed up with them. He knows that in quarrelling with him they are putting God to the test, they are saying that God will not provide for them.

Yet again the people are hankering after Egypt. Moses calls out to the Lord, almost in despair. Note that Moses' prayer is not said with great eloquence, but is borne out of desperation. The key difference between Moses and the people is that the people complained to men about God, but Moses complained directly to God. The Bible actually contains many examples of people complaining to God (Jacob, Moses, David, Job, Jeremiah), and it is actually something to be commended! When we go directly to God we show that we know that He is the ultimate source of everything, and that the answer lies with Him. God would far rather we told Him exactly how we feel, than we put up a religious pretence. Then He is able to deal with us and change us as we need.

God gives Moses instructions. He is to strike the rock and water will flow from it.

The people were casting doubt on God being with them. In taking his complaints to God, Moses knows that God definitely is with Him.

Exodus 16

The Israelites continue on their way, now having to travel through the Desert of Sin. Again the Israelites started grumbling. This time they were complaining about the lack of food, and were imagining that they had a wonderful time back in Egypt. This was of course not true, but when we go through testing times we can often develop a rosy picture of the past.

There is a pattern emerging of the people encounter difficulty, the people complain, God does something. An interesting question is what would have happened if they had not complained? It is difficult to give a definite answer, but it is possible to try it out in our own lives. For I guess that most of us have a tendency to go through the same cycle. Well, the next time we encounter the cycle, lets try to do things differently. Instead of complaining, give thanks instead and see what happens. Indeed, this is what Jesus did. Being faced with 5 000 people and hardly any food, He did not complain, but gave thanks, and we know what happened.

The Lord then promises to send the manna from heaven. This was done not just to feed them, but also to test them. For they would get the food only on 6 days. They would have to trust God that they would have enough for the seventh day. Predictably, some failed to follow the instructions. The purpose was to teach them. The lessons included: (i) God would make it possible for them to rest on the seventh day; (ii) there is no point hoarding stuff. We still need to learn these lessons today. There can be great pressure to work seven days a week, but we should trust God and expect Him to give us times of rest. This should not be done in a legalistic fashion, but treating rest as a gift from God. We need to beware of hoarding as well.

Exodus 15:22-27

The battle at the Red Sea was over and now they continue on to the Promised Land. One might think that having experienced such a great deliverance they would now be completely trusting of the Lord, but this was not the case and at the next challenge they failed again, grumbling instead of trusting. We need to beware of this trait within ourselves. It is so easy for us to slip from thanking God to living in doubt. We need to learn from our experiences, and through them to come to know the Lord better. Otherwise we can have all the experiences we wish, it will do us no good.

The people came to Marah and they could not drink the water because it was bitter. Now note that the water was bitter, so there was a problem. We need to learn that the Lord is in control of everything. Our security is in Him, not in what we see. We need to live by our knowledge of God, not by sight.

The people complained to Moses, and Moses called upon the Lord. God gave him specific instructions and the water was made good. God then gives them an instruction. If they obey the Lord all will be well. We often try to do all sorts of things to make sure nothing goes wrong, but the most important thing we can do is to obey the Lord.

They then came to a place of springs. So there was actually no need for them to complain about the water at Marah, if they had waited just a little longer they would have come to the springs at Elim. We too should make sure we are not quick to blame God.

Exodus 15:12-21

The Lord's hand is powerful and leads to the destruction of His enemies.

God leads the people He has redeemed, and guides them in His strength to His holy dwelling. So we can be confident that the Lord will lead us, and where He will lead us to.

While nations may mock for a while, but in the end they will fear and tremble. As it says in Philippians 2:5-11, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.

Various enemies are mentioned by name, and are listed in roughly the order in which they would encounter the nations as they travelled from Sinai to the Promised Land. God's protection is not just general, but specific. He will protect us from specific threats to enable us to reach the destination.

The Lord has a plan to bring us into His dwelling place and He will fulfil that plan.

Miriam sang a further verse about the destruction of their enemies.

Exodus 15:1-11

This song celebrated the victory that God had given them. It is good for us to praise and thank God for what He does for us as it helps to fix it in our souls.

The motivation for the song is the saving act of the Lord in destroying the Egyptian army.

The Lord is our defence. He has become our salvation. By the things that God does He has become our salvation. For the Israelites it was by destroying the Egyptian army, for us it is His work on the cross. God took the initiative in acting.

The Lord is a warrior. The Israelites were opposed by the Egyptian army, but God Himself is a warrior. He is a warrior for us too. God fights on our behalf in leading us along the path of salvation. God chose the path the Israelites would take out of Egypt to the Promised Land. He chooses the path that He leads us along. Sometimes we may encounter difficult and threatening situations, but the Lord is a warrior on our behalf. He is able to deliver us from all our enemies.

The enemy boasted of what he would do, but confronted by the Lord he could do nothing. We can encounter situations in our life that boast about how they will destroy us, but before the Lord they can do nothing. We need to remember always that the Lord is a warrior for us.

Exodus 14:21-31

Moses did as the Lord had commanded him, and God drove the sea back. There are a number of things to note here. First, this is a miracle, but God used "natural" means to achieve it, ie using the wind. Secondly Moses had to stretch out his hand, but God did the work. We may sometimes wonder, how on earth is this going to change anything, when God tells us to do something, but what we forget is that while we are obeying God, He will be doing the necessary things to make it work.

The Israelites went through the Red Sea on dry ground. There was also a wall of water to their left and right, which must have been pretty frightening. So even when God was doing the miracle, it would still take faith to live in the good of the miracle, trusting God that the wall of water was not suddenly going to subside. The fear they had of the Egyptians may also have helped to urge them to take the "risk".

The Egyptians pursued the Israelites, but once they were in the Red Sea God caused confusion amongst them. Moses had to stretch out his hand again over the sea, and this time the waters returned, destroying the Egyptian army.

The Israelites then feared the Lord and put their trust in Him and in Moses.

Exodus 14:16-20

Now Moses is given explicit instructions. God tells Moses what he is to do, and what God Himself will do, and why He is doing this. As God had said earlier, it was done in order that God would gain glory for Himself, so that the Israelites would realise who He was and that He was the most significant factor in their life.

Look at the instruction to Moses. "stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water". Moses had never done this before, nor would he do this again. The instruction is given as though Moses has the power to do this, and when it happened it would look as if he had the power to do this. In fact it was God's power that would be at work (see verse 21). We are meant to live in fellowship with God, living according to His power and purpose, not our own power and purpose. When we do this it will sometimes look as if we have the power.

This is why character is so important. It takes character to obey God's instructions in the first place, no one will think it is going to work! It will then take character when it does work, for suddenly everyone will treat you as some sort of superman.

The angel of the Lord also moved so that the Egyptian army did not come into direct contact with Israelites. As well as the things that God tells us about, there are things that He does that He will not tell us about.

Exodus 14:13-15

Moses is now a man of faith and declares that they should not be afraid for they will not see defeat, but deliverance from the Lord and the defeat of their enemies. The people thought that they had been brought to this place so that they would be destroyed. In fact it was their enemies who would be destroyed. We can face similar situations in life and we need to realise that we often misinterpret circumstances. We are very good at imagining the worst, but in Christ we should believe for the best.

Now see what their response was to be, they were to be still. One of the Psalms say "be still and know that I am God". When we are in situations that overwhelm us and that we cannot do anything about our natural reaction is to panic and either run or freeze. Instead we should carry on and trust in God. "The Lord will fight for you". There are things that we are called to do, and we must do these things. But there are things we cannot do, and sometimes it seems that because we cannot do them we will be defeated, as it seemed to the Israelites here.

God then tells them to move on. When we panic we stop doing the things that we do know how to do. We stop caring, giving, loving, praising, witnessing, encouraging etc. Not because we have become full of hate, but because we have become full of fear. If God has not told us to do something about a situation, and we are not able to do anything about it, then God does not expect us to do anything about it. He will take care of the matter. Our job is to trust Him and carry on doing the things that He has called us to do. fear tries to distract us from doing the work that God has given us to do.

Exodus 14:10-12

The Israelites saw the approaching army and were terrified. They thought they were about to die and complained that they never wanted to be saved in the first place. Let's look at these two things.

First, there assessment that they were about to die was entirely reasonable. The Egyptian army was about to come upon them, there was no way of escape, and they had no military power to resist. Any military strategist would have agreed with their assessment. It was reasonable, it was rational and it was wrong. It was wrong because they had not taken account of what God was going to do. Note, also, that God had not told them what He was going to do in detail at this point. He had told them he would save them, He would take them to the Promised Land.

Now in our own lives there are many times when things look bleak, and any rational assessment of situation would agree that there is no hope, but we are to live by faith, not by sight. Now this does not mean ignoring the facts, or pretending that the facts are not as they are (see Romans 4:19). Faith does not ignore the facts, but it does look beyond them. So when a purely rational assessment takes away all hope, we should not despair. Consider also that at this point God had not told them He was going to part the Red Sea, but He had told them He would take them to the Promised Land. Now God has not told us all that He will do in our life, or how he will do it. No doubt there are situations right now that you or I face and God has not told us exactly what He will do about it. But He has told us He will save us, He has told us he will complete the work He has started in us, He has told us that we can trust completely in His love. These are the things we need to know above all.

Exodus 14:1-9

The Lord gave further instructions to Moses. Now see that these plans deliberately set up the Red Sea incident. God deliberately put the Israelites in a position where the Egyptian army would pursue them and they would be trapped. He did this so that He would receive great glory. Now we might think this is rather self-indulgent of God, but we need to look a little more deeply at the meaning of "glory". Part of the meaning of glory is "weight" in the sense of "importance", or "significance". One of the key things the Israelites needed to know was that God was the most important factor in their life. We too need to know this and God sets events up in our life to help us realise this. These events are usually traumatic at first, but what He is doing is trying to teach us that it is His love, His care, His power that is more important, more significant, than anything else in our lives. His love will overcome any circumstance.

In due course Pharaoh realised the Israelites were not going to return, and so sent his army to chase after them. Eventually they caught up with the Israelites.

So the people were trapped. No way forward, and no way back. Most importantly, no way of running away. As we saw in an earlier post, God's main concern was that the Israelites would not run away. For if they had run away, where would they have run too? They would have run back into captivity, into slavery. We may often be tempted to run away from things in life, but when we do all we do is run away from freedom, and run into captivity. We were not created to run away.

Exodus 13:17-22

God did not lead them by the most direct route. That would have taken them through the Philistine country, and land that contained Egyptian fortresses. Now given the great miracles that God had performed, not to mention the even greater ones He would do in the future, one might wonder why this presented a problem to God. The reason the Bible gives is that God was concerned that the Israelites might face war, change their minds, and return to Egypt.

There is always an element of choice in the plans that God has for us. We have to choose to follow Him. The Israelites had to choose to follow God and go to the promised land. What concerned God was that if they had gone the shorter way they would have been able to turn and run. Now we know that going the Red Sea route led them to face an even greater problem, but in that case they had no choice but to stick with God. Sometimes God leads us along paths so that the only way through is to trust Him. It is true that most of us only live by faith when we have exhausted every other option.

Moses took Joseph's bones with him, in accordance with Joseph's instructions.

The people were constantly accompanied by the presence of God in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God guided them along the way. We too can be confident that God will lead us along the way with His presence and guidance.

Exodus 13:1-16

In releasing the Israelites from captivity very first-born creature in Egypt had died. Now every first-born creature in Israel had to be consecrated to the Lord. In Exodus 4:22 God said to Pharaoh that Israel was His first-born son. Jesus was the first-born of Mary. Without the Lord we would have nothing, so it is good for us to give the first fruits of everything to the Lord. In planning our budgets we should set aside money for giving first of all, not waiting to see if we have anything left over.

The Israelites were to commemorate the day of their release for all time. When they finally entered the promised land and got settled there they would be inclined to forget that they only got there because of the saving act of God. When we repent and believe, God starts to work in our life and things get better. We can then easily start to think that we do not need God after all. It is good for us to continually remind ourselves of the One who died for us. That is one of the reasons why Jesus instituted the act of Holy Communion, that we would do it in remembrance of Him.

This remembrance is to be passed on from one generation to the next.

Psalm 35

We often think that we are on our own, and often live as though we are dependent only upon our own strength. Indeed, we think it is a mark of failure if we cannot cope on our own. Here David shows no such qualms. He calls on the Lord to contend with those who contend against him. We too should call upon the Lord to fight against those who forces that oppose us.

We think easily enough of declaring to ourselves that God is our salvation, but here David calls on God to declare to his enemies that God is his salvation. It can seem that those things that oppose us will defeat us, but we should call on God to declare to them that He is our salvation, and that all who oppose us will fail. We are not the ones who will be defeated, only those who oppose us.

"Then my soul will rejoice". It is good to praise the Lord in the midst of the battle, but there will be even greater rejoicing when we have won the battle.

We, like David, should call upon the Lord to rise up and fight for us.

Psalm 34:7-22

"The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them". We do well to dwell upon these words, for it helps us to see life as it really is. We can feel alone and isolated, far from any effective help, but this is never true. If we fear the Lord, if He is the one that we look to, then He is near to us, and He will deliver us.

The Lord is the one we should look to. "Taste and see that the Lord is is good". Belief is not some abstract concept, it is real and tangible and will make a material difference to our lives. David urges us to "try the Lord out", we will see a difference. Nothing else can satisfy in the way that He does, even lions grow weak and hungry, but those who trust in God have a continual supply. Verse 9,10 remind me of Jesus' words to the woman at the well that whoever drinks of Him will never go thirsty.

David then teaches us how to fear the Lord. The tongue is vital, we are to refrain from telling lies, we are to turn from evil and do good.

We may still face many troubles, but the Lord will rescue us from them all. We may even feel crushed in spirit and broken hearted at times, but the Lord is close to us and will save us. These verse mean that just because we seem to be beyond help, and feel at a complete loss does not mean that we actually are. It does not mean that God has abandoned us. Quite the opposite.

We will be redeemed by the Lord.

Psalm 34:1-6

David wrote this Psalm when he pretended to be insane the king of Achish (1 Samuel 21:10-15). David was on the run from Saul, and had gone to the Gash. Achish knew of David's reputation for killing thousands, so David was in even more danger. David pretended to be mad, and so escaped. This is not the most glorious incident in David's life, but out of it came one the best psalms. Even in the most inglorious times in our lives good things can come.

David declares that he will praise the Lord at all times. He then urges the afflicted hear and rejoice and join him in praising God. David went through difficult circumstances, so he was able to sympathise with others who went through difficulties, and was able to show them how the Lord could help them.

David sought the Lord, and God delivered him "from all his fears". We may have many fears in our lives, but God can delivers us from them all. When we look to the Lord our faces will become radiant. David wrote this not as a victorious warrior, but as a man on the run. He was a "poor" man, encountering many troubles, but God saved him from them all. No matter how many troubles you may be encountering just now, the Lord will save you from them all. He sets us free from our fears, and delivers us from our troubles. So when we look at our lives, we should see our fears as things we will be set free from, and our troubles as things we will be delivered from, not things that will defeat us.

Psalm 33

In most of the previous psalms the circumstances and feelings of David have played a key role in the Psalm. This one is different as it is focused entirely on the character and nature of God, and our response to Him.

First we are to sing joyfully to Him and praise Him. It does not matter what our circumstances are, it is always good to praise the Lord. Sometimes we say to people who are having a tough time, "just go and enjoy yourself for a while, forget about your troubles". In the same way, we should spend sometime just rejoicing in the Lord, whatever our own circumstances, knowing that this will do us good.

The Lord it faithful and true. This is axiomatic. We do not need to look at circumstances to see if it is true. Rather it is a fundamental truth, and we will eventually see it work itself out in our lives.

The whole universe was created by the Lord. He spoke, and it came into being. So we should all revere Him.

The nations and rulers of the earth have many plans, but they will all come to nothing. It is the Lord's plans that will stand firm. Many men have made claims to their great power, but they all come to nothing.

The blessed nation is the one chosen by God, and we are His chosen people. The Lord sees all humanity and considers our ways.

The Lord delights in those who trust in Him, in His unfailing love. Every other source of strength is futile and will ultimately fail.

Therefore we wait upon the Lord, He is the one we look to for salvation.

Psalm 32

"Blessed are ". There are similarities here between the beatitudes that Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount. Interestingly Jesus started by declaring that blessed are the poor in spirit, and in the first two verses here the focus is on those whose sins have been forgiven.

There are two key elements, one is that we are forgiven, and the other is that there is no deceit in our spirit. Many people convince themselves that they are not that bad really, or do not need forgiveness. Such people only deceive themselves and maybe others as well. When we have an honest spirit and come before God in humility we receive forgiveness and this is a blessed state to be in.

Conversely, when we deny our sin, or try and hide from it, we find that we waste away. There is a constant nagging guilt, we know that something is not right with us, yet we do not want to admit our guilt, either out of pride or fear.

But when we do confess our sins, the Lord forgives us. This brings security. We fear that the Lord will reject us, but quite the opposite happens. The Lord becomes a place of refuge for us.

Once we have repented then we are open to receive the Lord's instruction, and He can lead us in the way of eternal life.

We must guard against stubbornness, for it only makes things difficult for everyone. If we are open with the Lord, then we will receive love and mercy from Him.

Psalm 31:15-24

"My times are in your hands". In the midst of difficulties it can seem that we are at the mercy of events or forces beyond our control. The truth is that it is God who is in control.

The fact that the Lord is sovereign and is in control does not mean we should adopt a fatalistic attitude or do not need to do anything. Instead it should urge us to call upon the Lord. God wants us to seek Him and to seek His help. He wants us to realise that we are in a relationship with Him and should live life in fellowship with each other. So David calls upon the Lord to help.

Then he starts to declare the greatness and faithfulness of the Lord again. "How great is the goodness you have stored ..." We can sometimes think that the future has only trouble in store for us, but God has a treasure house of goodness in store for us. Moreover, He will bestow this on us "in the sight of men". If we honour God, then He will honour us. And He can protect us from all the plottings and intrigues of men.

David experienced the deliverance of the Lord, and so encourages everyone to "be strong and take heart". These words were written by a man who knew what he was talking about.

In this Psalm we see David go through a whole gamut of emotions, we should not be discouraged when we find this happening to us, it is normal. Sometimes a false idea of faith is pedalled that seems to say that if we trust God we will have no troubles at all.

Psalm 31:6-14

In the midst of difficulties, those people or things that oppose us will be those who "cling" to worthless idols. "Cling" is literally "watch", they look to idols for help and guidance.

In all circumstances we can be confident in the Lord. No matter how we are feeling right now, there will come a time when we rejoice and be full of gladness. The Lord sees our anguish and the affliction of our soul, He knows what is going on inside us. He does not hand us over to our enemies, but will put us in a spacious place.

David pleads for mercy. Note that while he had just made great declarations of faith, he is still perfectly honest about how he is feeling right now. Everything about him seems to be collapsing. Everyone is conspiring against him.

But. But is one of the great words in the Bible. Faith does not deny reality, it does not deny circumstances, but it looks beyond them. David is fully aware of his own weakness, and the number of foes against him, but there is something that is more important than all of these, his trust in God. The most important feature of your life right now is that you trust in God.

Psalm 31:1-5

This is a Psalm written by David when he faced a powerful conspiracy. Jesus, Himself, quoted from 31:5 when He was on the cross (Lk 23:46).

The first thing to do is to take refuge in the Lord. David calls on the Lord not to let him be put to shame, but instead to be delivered according to His righteousness. We all have a fear of being "put to shame". When we face impending disaster we fear that we will be shown to be complete failures, looked down on by others and considered worthy only of contempt. We should pray that God does not let this happen, but that instead God will rescue us according to His righteousness, ie according to the cross. The cross is the righteousness of God and if we believe in Christ, then God will treat us in line with the righteousness.

David calls on God to listen to him and to come quickly to rescue him, and become his strong fortress. There are times in life when we know that we are secure in the Lord, there are other times when we feel very vulnerable and God's protection seems far off.

David then declares that God is his fortress. Although God may seem far off, it is only the way that things seem, it is not the truth. So we should declare the truth. As he often does, David asks God to lead and guide him. We usually want to be yanked out of a situation, but here David asks God to lead him through the situation. There were traps set out for him, but God could lead him safely past them. We see this working out in the many times that men tried to trap Jesus but failed.

So David commits his spirit to God, trusting that He will redeem him. We too need to entrust our spirit to God. We find that we cannot manage things on our own, and this can lead to distress. Instead, we should commit our spirit to the Lord, trusting in Him. Then we will find perfect peace and strength.

Psalm 30

We are to praise God for who He is, but we are also to praise Him for what He has done for us. In fact the two go together, for it is in God's nature to rescue His people. We need to remember that, for sometimes we live as if God needs to be persuaded to help us. Nothing could be further from the truth, for it was God who took the initiative in sending Jesus to save us.

In this case the Lord had lifted David out of the depths and not let his enemies gloat over him. When we are in difficult circumstances we can easily believe that the things that oppose us will triumph over us, but we worship a God who will not let our enemies gloat over us.

David must have been experiencing a serious illness of some sort. He called on the Lord, and God healed him.

There are times when we are fully aware of God's blessing on our lives, and His presence with us. But there are other times when God seems to be far away. In those times we can feel dismayed. Our God is a God who turns are wailing into dancing. If we are encountering difficult times then we should declare to our souls that we will rejoice in the Lord, we should declare to our emotions that God will turn our sorrow into joy, and we should declare to the things that oppose us that they will not triumph over us.

Psalm 29

This Psalm speaks of the Lord's greatness.

Everyone is to ascribe greatness to the Lord. The "heavenly beings" could be the false "gods" worshipped by other nations, or the angelic host.

The Lord is said to be more powerful than the great storms at sea. In the gospel we see that Jesus had authority to calm the storm, and was a powerful demonstration of His divinity. It should also be noted that Baal (a false god worshipped by surrounding nations), was thought to be present in thunderstorms. This psalm boldly proclaims otherwise. Now we think it ridiculous to think that there is some god in a thunderstorm, but there is still a lesson for us here today. For our lives can seem to be at the mercy of great forces, whether these be natural forces, economic, or political forces. And we attribute the power of these forces to other things. The Lord is Lord of All, everything has to submit to Him.

The cedars of Lebanon were the strongest trees, but even the voice of the Lord would break them.

This same God gives peace and strength to His people. No matter what we are facing we should ascribe greatness to the Lord, then we will receive peace and strength.

Acts 20:25-38

Paul knew that this would be the last time he saw the Ephesian leaders, so he gives them guidance for the future. "I am innocent of the blood of everyone". Paul saw himself in a similar light to Ezekiel. He had preached the whole will of God to them, so the responsibility now lay with them. They knew the truth, so they now had to believe and live the truth. 

They had to watch themselves, and also the whole church in Ephesus, for God had given them oversight of the church. Leadership is about responsibility. The church is precious to God, because He bought it with the blood of Jesus.

Paul also knew that the church would face dangers. There are those who will come and try to steal the flock like wolves. We always need to be on our guard against such dangers. One of the ways in which this is done is through false teaching. Correct teaching matters, and Paul had gone to great pains to warn them about this.

Finally Paul committed them to the word of grace. It is the word of grace that saves, not the word of law. Paul's own life had been an example to them, and he followed the principle of Jesus that it is better to give than to receive.

Acts 20:13-24

Paul is now on his way to Jerusalem, and is determined to get there as soon as possible. Paul did not want to go to Ephesus itself, but the leaders from Ephesus came out to him. Paul seemed to know he would never see them again, and so gave final instructions to them.

"You know how I lived..." Our lives should be consistent with our preaching, and a demonstration of the truth. This was certainly true of Paul. Paul served with humility and tears. He cared about the people he was serving. He was under constant pressure. He taught them the whole truth, both publicly, and in house visits..

The essence of his message was that all, whether Jew or Gentile, should repent and have faith in Christ.

Paul felt that the Holy Spirit was leading him to Jerusalem. Paul did not know exactly what would happen there. We do not always need to know exactly what God is going to do. Abraham followed God, even though he did not know where he was going (Heb 11:8). But Paul did know that he would face hardships wherever he went. He was not motivated by wanting to know what would happen next, but by the desire to preach the good news of God's grace. His goal was to complete the work given to him by the Lord.

Acts 20:7-12

The first day of the week was Sunday and they broke bread. Sunday was the day of the week that Jesus rose from the dead and is the event that changed everything. Jesus commanded us to break bread in remembrance of Him. 

Paul spoke to them and went on for a long time. We should note that most of the reports of sermons or teachings given in the New Testament are condensed versions of the real thing. One man, Eutychus, fell asleep during Paul's teaching. So if you have felt like dropping off during a sermon one Sunday, you are not alone! However, Paul went on rather longer than most preachers today.

Eutychus fell into a deep sleep and then fell out of the building and was killed. Paul went down to the man and put his arms around him and declared that he was alive. They broke bread, and Paul continued speaking until the morning! We are not told if anyone else fell asleep!

Although it doesn't say so explicitly, the fact that Paul threw himself on the man indicates that he actually brought him back to life. His actions are reminiscent of Elijah (1 Kings 17:19-21).

Acts 20:1-6

Paul encouraged the disciples and then left for Macedonia. Note that it is "the disciples" not "his disciples". We are called to be followers of Christ. Travelling took longer in Paul's day, but that did not mean that less was done. A few hours spent of an aeroplane, and the associated hanging around and waiting is usually waster. Paul encouraged the various churches he met along the way.

Jews had plotted against him. So many key figures in the Bible lived their lives under constant threat. Moses and David are examples from the Old Testament, Jesus and Paul examples from the new. Our natural leaning is to long for a life free from trouble and pressure, and we see getting free of the pressure as the route to freedom. God's solution is to be able to cope with the pressure and to know His peace. Seeking to be free from pressure is one of the things that leads to break-ups of marriages, and people giving up, even suicide in the most extreme cases. God's way leads to life. May God give us the peace that passes all understanding. See that His peace "passes understanding". In our various situations we can always work out why we will never be at peace, but God's peace passes all understanding.

Acts 19:23-41

"The Way" was a term used to refer the Christians, perhaps it arose because Jesus referred to Himself as "The Way". The gospel was leading to people turning from idol worship, this meant that those who made money from making idols were losing out. So Demetrius, a silversmith, stirred up trouble. We need to be clear that the good news will involve loss for some people, and will lead to conflict. Jesus Himself said that He came to bring not peace but a sword (Matt 10:34). Ungodliness is woven into the economic system. This is still true today. In organising opposition, they played on devotion to the goddess Artemis. Artemis (Greek version of Diana) was a fertility goddess, and prostitution was involved in her worship.

The "threat" to Artemis aroused the passions of the people, and so a riot was started. They grabbed two of Paul's companions. Paul wanted to appear before them, but other disciples stopped him from doing this.

The crowd was in uproar, and shouted the name of Artemis for two hours. The Jews wanted to make it clear that they had nothing to do with the Christians.

The city clerk brought an end to the riot by his calmness. He pointed out that Paul and his companions actually had not done anything wrong, and that any charges could be pursued properly through the courts. Things would be bad for Ephesus if Rome heard of riots in the city. So everything fizzled out.

Acts 19:8-22

As always, Paul went to the synagogue and preached there for three months. Presumably he took some breaks! Acts is very clear about the power and importance of preaching and arguing for the gospel, something that tends to be denigrated by some today.
Again, as always, there were those who objected and attacked the gospel. So Paul left and went to the lecture hall to continue his preaching. This went on for a further two years, and so a vast area had the chance to hear the gospel.
As well as preaching, "extraordinary miracles" were part of Paul's ministry. Today we so often seem to separate preaching and miracles, expecting only one or the other, but the Biblical pattern is for them to go together. We also see that handkerchiefs that touched him were taken to the sick and they were healed. Sometimes we can be overly intellectual in our approach, here is an example of something happening that we might consider a bit silly.
Driving out evil spirits was not an unknown phenomenon, but there is a world of difference between the real thing and the counterfeit. The sons of Sceva obviously noted that Paul was being much more successful than they were, so they sought to adopt the same "formula". They were in for a shock, for it is nothing to do with a formula, but about knowing Christ. So the sons of Sceva were beaten up by demon. This should also serve as a warning to us that using the "right words" in prayer is not the key to "success". Knowing Christ is the key.
The event with the Sons of Sceva lead to more people honouring the Lord. It also filled believers with fear that led to repentance, getting rid of scrolls associated with sorcery.
Paul then left, aiming to go to Jerusalem, and then Rome.

Acts 19:1-7

Next Paul arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples who had not received the Holy Spirit. It is obvious that the gospel was not just spreading through Paul and his immediate team, but by other means as well, as people like Apollos and the Ephesians had heard somethings about Jesus.

The Ephesians had only received John's baptism, a baptism of repentance. Paul then told them about Jesus, and when they believed in Jesus they were baptised. Paul laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. There was evidence of this in that they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 

There are a few things that can be noted. One is that there is no set pattern to receiving the Holy Spirit, it happened in different ways and at different times to different people. We should never get hung up about how or when.

The second is that the key to the breakthrough was their hearing and believing in Jesus Christ. Remember this was also the key with Cornelius and his household. The prime task of the Holy Spirit is testifying to Jesus Christ, and our preaching and teaching should be centred on Christ.

Thirdly Paul clearly saw being filled with the Holy Spirit as crucial, and there was clear evidence of them being filled with the Spirit.

Acts 18:19-28

Paul left Corinth, and Priscilla and Aquila went with him. It is perhaps notable that Priscilla's name comes first, maybe she contributed more than Aquila. The churches gave to each other, both financially, spiritually, and in terms of people. The Greek churches gave money to the Jerusalem church, Jerusalem gave spiritually to all the churches, and various churches gave people to the mission.

Paul went to the synagogue in Ephesus and reasoned with them. He seems to have had quite a good reception, as they wanted him to stay with them. For some reason Paul declined, probably because he had other places to go to.

Next he went to Caesarea and then to Antioch. After that he went on to Galatia and Phrygia,

We then read about Apollos, and we see that Paul was not the only one helping the church spread. Apollos knew about the Lord and used his knowledge of Scripture to expound the gospel, but he had not received the Holy Spirit. Priscilla and Aquila explained about the Holy Spirit to him, and Apollos went on to soeak even more boldly and was an encouragement to the churches.

We can learn various things from this. First, although Apollos spoke accurately about Jesus, he still needed the Holy Spirit, and was even more effective after he was filled with the Spirit. Conversely, we should note that even before he had received the Spirit he was effective and taught accurately. We must not despise people who are not "filled with the Spirit", though we should also encourage them to be so.