Micah 4:8-10 - There you shall be rescued

4:8

At the end of chapter 3 we read of the destruction of Jerusalem. Here we read of the complete restoration. One should never assume that destruction is the end of the matter. This applies to the nation of Israel, we can also apply it to our own lives, or the lives of those we love and pray for. At times it can seem as of there is no hope, as if things have gone to far down hill, but with God this is never the case. The destiny of Jerusalem is to have dominion and kingship.

4:9

We then get a sudden change in tone again, we are back to the current judgement. Zion would have to go through much suffering. “Have you no king?” Israel and Judah did have kings, though not very good ones. The truth was that their true king was the Lord. This had always been the case, but they had sought to deny this truth. So human kings failed them. Eventually their true king did come, but they rejected Him. All this rejection of the Lord as king led to much suffering, both in Micah’s day and the years after that, and in the years after they crucified Christ.

4:10

Micah then foretells of the exile in Babylon. At the time Babylon was not the major power, that place belonged to Assyria. Though Babylon was on the radar, as we see in Isaiah 39. So Micah foretells the Babylonian captivity, and many of the people did indeed go off to Babylon as exiles. But this exile would not be the final destination, for they would be rescued from that place.

Acts 20:25-27 - The whole counsel of God

20:25

Paul knew that he would never see the disciples in Ephesus again. We see that he preached the kingdom. Sometimes people get hung up on “preaching the kingdom”, “preaching salvation”, “preaching the gospel”. The truth is that all these are interlinked and part of the same whole. Sometimes people will use “preaching the kingdom” as a pretext for missing out various essential parts of the gospel! In the Bible there is no conflict between the kingdom and salvation. Nor is there any conflict between the importance of the individual and the corporate importance. Take a look at the Old Testament, what do we see? We see God working with the nation of Israel, and clearly the corporate nature of God’s plans, and His working with the nation is an essential part of what God is doing. But what do we also see? Indeed, what do we see in how God works to bring about this plan? He works in the lives of individuals, there are enormous chunks of the Old Testament devoted to God’s working in the lives of individuals. This is mostly in the lives of leaders like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David etc, but also in the lives of “lesser” figures (in the world’s eyes) like Ruth.

20:26,27

See what a serious matter the preaching of the gospel was to Paul. “I am innocent of the blood on any of you”. The gospel is a matter of life or death. Paul declared the whole will of God. He did not focus on one aspect of God’s will at the expense of another aspect, but gave a complete picture of the gospel. So often today people will focus on one part of the gospel only. This is a serious error whether that one aspect be good in itself. So if someone focuses on caring for the poor, reaching the powerful, prosperity, family or whatever, if it is overemphasised it leads to imbalance and error.

Micah 4:6,7 - I will make the lame a remnant

4:6

“In that day ..” So in the midst of the present confusion and disobedience, and when over the next period of time much judgement was going to come upon Israel and Judah, God outlines His long term plans. God always keeps the long term goal in view, and so should we. God’s plans have not changed, and the destination is certain to be reached. God would gather the lame and the exiles. Remember that at this time there weren’t many exiles. “and those I have brought to grief”. The Bible has no qualms at all about saying that God has caused some of the suffering, for it was judgement upon Israel and Judah for their sins. At the same time we should realise that that is not the whole story, it does not explain all suffering, but there are times when the judgement of God comes in this age.

4:7

The lame and the exiles would become a strong nation, and the Lord will rule over them. So again we have the ruling of the Lord as the fundamental feature of the “successful” nation. We also see God calling into being things that are not, and God reversing situations. The remnant came from those driven away as a result of God’s judgement. We should also note that Israel has not yet become that nation. She is now a nation again, but is not under God’s rule, indeed is very atheistic in many ways.

Acts 20:22-24 - Constrained by the Spirit

20:22,23

Paul was going to Jerusalem “compelled by the Holy Spirit”. We do not know exactly how this happened, presumably Paul felt some inner unction from the Spirit to go there. In this incident we will learn some useful lessons on being led by the Spirit, both from the point if view of the one “led by the Spirit” and from the perspective of those around him. We should note also that Paul did not know what was going to happen there. Being “led by the Spirit” goes together with knowing the Scriptures, prayer, worship, service etc. It is never an excuse for not doing these things. The only thing Paul did know was that God’s plans for his life usually involved suffering!

20:24

This is a wonderful verse, and one that we should all seek to make our own. “I consider my life worth nothing”, in an age where self-fulfillment seems to be everything this stands out in stark contrast. And this attitude of self-fulfillment being the goal has permeated the church. Paul’s aim in life was to finish the race and complete the task that Christ had given him, and that task was to make known the good news of Jesus Christ.  How this works out for each one of us will be different, but serving Christ should be the goal of each one of us, doing the things that He has called us to do.

Micah 4:3-5 - We will walk in the name of the Lord

4:3

The Lord will judge between nations. Today we see man determined that God plays no part in deciding what is right and wrong. On some matters, mostly related to sexual ethics and abortion, we completely reject God’s ways. On others, like murder (though abortion is something of an exception), lying and theft, we claim credit, though we do not take murder as seriously as God does. But there will come a time when men look to God. This happened to some extent when nations in the west based many aspects of law and society on Christian values, but a greater fulfilment is still to come. We then get the promise of world peace, with swords being beaten into ploughshares. Note that true world peace only comes when nations submit to God. You cannot have one without the other. Jesus famously said “my kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). This can be taken as saying His kingdom is a heavenly kingdom in the sense of being otherworldly, but it is better to take it as meaning His kingdom is not based on worldly principles, but on Godly principles, and the most fundamental principle is that we should worship the Lord with all of our being.

There is a marked similarity between Micah 4:1- 3 and Isaiah 2:2-4. There is no agreement on “who borrowed from whom”, if indeed either did borrow from the other.

4:4,5

“Everyone will sit under their own vine”, this is a common motif for peaceful prosperity of the community in the Old Testament. Free from fear, having all that we need. Again, note that this comes when everyone acknowledges the Lord as God. So at present now, as then, the circumstances are very different from this. Everyone has their own gods, with little acknowledgement of the Lord, and increasing opposition. So what are we to do in these circumstances? The end of verse 5 has the answer, “we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever”.

Acts 20:13-21 - You know how I lived among you

20:13-16

This is one of the “we” passages where it seems that Luke is now with the party. Luke went by boat to Assos, while Paul walked there, presumably to meet some people along the way. We get a load of travel details, and other factors like Paul wanting to get to Jerusalem for Pentecost. These sections are, for most of us, not the most interesting, containing little of any direct theological significance. However, an important point is that the events in the Bible are, for the most part, quite clear located geographically and historically.

20:17-21

While Paul had not gone to Ephesus, in order to save time, he called the elders from Ephesus to meet with him. We see that eldership in churches was an established structure from a very early stage in church development. Paul reminds them how he lived among them, and the things he had endured. Our teaching needs to be correct, but our lifestyles also need to be consistent with the message. Paul taught them everything, not just the “nice” bits. He also did this publicly, and from house to house. Verse 21 then sums up what he preached, repentance and faith in Christ. When we reach today we so often teach only one of these, usually faith in Christ. But without repentance it really isn’t faith in Christ at all. Turning to Christ so he will bring “fulfilment” in your life or whatever, isn’t faith at all. The fact is we need to turn from our sin, we need forgiveness of our sins, and we need new life. Believing that Christ can give us that is true faith.

Micah 4:1,2 - Many nations shall come

4:1

What has Micah just said at the end of the last chapter? He has talked about the destruction of Jerusalem, but that is not the end of the story. In the last days things will be very different. The corruption and lawlessness that existed in Israel and Judah will be no more. Instead of people at best wavering about the Lord, the Lord’s temple will be established as “highest of the mountains”. It will be exalted above all others, and people will stream to it. To put this in modern terms, at present we see the church generally despised in the West, and this is for the most part thoroughly deserved. And with it God is despised. People do not want to know about God, but a time will come when all this changes. Notice here that the emphasis is on the Lord.

4:2

Nations will come and say “Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord”. People will want to know about God. Foretastes of this have been encountered in revivals with people queuing to here the word of God. They will want to learn from God, to learn His ways. The Law will go out from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. This is yet more reason why the church is so foolish when it adopts the ways of the world. When it does this it does not have a promise to stand on! It is the word of God that stands forever. When revival comes it will be people turning to the Lord, wanting to know what He has to say, not what the latest fads are in man’s society.

Acts 20:7-12 - A long and boring sermon?

20:7

The “first day of the week”. This indicates that our Sunday had become the primary day of worship, rather than the Jewish Sabbath. This is because the resurrection was seen as the pivotal event in history. The breaking of bread would include communion as well. Paul gave them a rather long oration, speaking until midnight!

20:8-12

We probably think that we would have found Paul’s speaking a little on the long side, well at least some of the folk in those days did as well. A young man called Eutychus was seated near a window was falling into a deep sleep. NIV’s “talked on and on” probably captures the situation better than ESV’s “still longer”. The young man fell asleep, and then fell out of the window, which was on the third storey. He was picked up from the ground dead.It is not absolutely clear from the text whether he actually was dead. Either Paul’s throwing himself on the man brought him back to life, or Paul discovered that he wasn’t actually dead but had been unconscious. If the former, then this is the second instance in Acts of someone being brought back from death (Acts 9:40). Paul then went back upstairs , they broke bread and Paul continued speaking until daylight! He certainly had a lot to say! The young man was taken home alive, much to everyone's relief. V12 perhaps favours the interpretation that he had actually died.

Complete notes on Haggai

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Acts 20:1-6 - Grecian travels

20:1-3

Paul now embarks on further journeys. The details of his journeys such as routes and times are consistent with information given in other ancient sources. He travelled through regions he had visited before, encouraging the believers. He stayed in Corinth for three months and it is believed that that is when he wrote Romans. As always, there were Jews opposing him, and on hearing of one plot he chose to change his travel plans, going to Philippi by land and sailing from there.

20:4-6

Paul travelled with a group of companions, this being much safer. Also he probably had money with him that had been collected from various churches for the church in Jerusalem. Paul may originally have aimed to get to Jerusalem for Passover, but would now arrive in time for Pentecost.

Micah 3:9-12 - Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins

3:9,10

Micah addresses the leaders in no uncertain terms. They are the ones who need to hear. When leaders are going against God’s ways they act as if God’s servants need to listen to them, as if God’s servants are the ones on trial, but in reality it is the godless leaders who are on trial, who have questions to answer. Jesus reminded Pilate that he only had “power” because God gave it to him. In the early preaching in Acts we find the apostles making it clear that Jews had responsibility for putting Jesus to death, they needed to respond. Today we find the world in the west putting believing Christians “on trial” (usually metaphorically, but sometimes actually on trial) for speaking the word of God, but it is leaders who are the ones who are actually on trial.

The leaders in Micah’s day abhorred justice and perverted fairness. The economy was built on bloodshed and lies. We need to be very careful about this today as well, for our economy may well be built on exploitation of poorer nations. There examples of good being produced in badly run factories abroad where workers are poorly paid and health and safety is considered an inconvenience. Let me give you another possible example. From time to time we hear of needing more nurses from abroad, do the countries they come from not need nurses? Just a thought.

3:11,12

Decisions were made on the basis of who would pay a bribe, instead of simply making the best and right decision. “Priests teach for pay”. Someone may produce a “Christian” book, or deliver a sort of teaching, not on the basis of seeking to faithfully explain God’s word, but on the basis of making money. Prophets were likewise, giving the word they were paid to give. All the while they were doing this, they claimed to have the Spirit of the Lord, to be working on His behalf. So judgement would come upon the land. The place would become like a ploughed field, and Jerusalem a heap of rubble. This happened when Babylon invaded Jerusalem.

Acts 19:38-41 - He dismissed them

19:38,39

The clerk then urges Demetrius and the other craftsman to use the proper legal processes to bring any charge that they might have. Proconsuls were available to preside over the court, so there was no excuse for not using proper legal processes. In fact, whatever the problem they had, they should use legal processes not a riot to resolve the matter. This illustrates one of the reasons we should pray for governments and for peaceful and ordered societies.This helps provide the conditions for the spread of the gospel (1 Tim 2:1-4).

19:40,41

This reveals the reason for the city clerk being so keen to have an orderly approach to the matter. The Roman empire did not like riots occuring in its regions. Ephesus was a free city and there was a danger that they would lose this status, which gave them a degree of independence, if they got a reputation for being unruly. The clerk’s efforts seem to have worked and the crowd was dismissed.

Micah 3:8 - I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord

3:8

Micah was working in a time when there was little respect for the word of God, especially among the elite, and indeed the society as a whole. To live in such an atmosphere, and to be someone who is declaring the word of God in that environment can be quite daunting, even intimidating. But that leaves out the Spirit of God! Micah was not daunted, rather he was “filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might”. That is one reason why in such circumstances we must be careful that we do not seek to live out of our flesh. Ie to act out of resentment or anger that is in our own spirit. If we do so we will either end up giving in and collapsing, as Peter did when he denied Jesus after his protestations to the contrary. Or we will do something stupid, or we will be completely without love. We need to live out of the Spirit. It is only in His power that we can resist the godless culture, and only in His power that we can do that with love. And Micah’s task was to declare to Israel her sin and transgression.

Acts 19:33-37 - You ought to be quiet

19:33,34

It is not clear who Alexander was. Some identify him with Alexander the coppersmith of 1 Tim 1:20 and 2 Tim 4:14. However, Alexander was a very common name, so this is at best speculation. He was pushed forward by the Jews, so it seems that they wanted him to speak on their behalf, and to distinguish themselves from the Christians. However, as soon as the crowd realised he was a Jew they resumed their shouting of “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians”, apparently considering the difference between Christians and Jews to be rather academic. This shouting went on for two hours. Crowds can be very persistent in supporting evil.

19:35,36

The city clerk was the highest official in Ephesus. He sought to mollify the crowd by assuring them of their allegiance to Artemis/Diana. He claims that the image “fell down from Zeus”, ie came from the heavens. Instead of using this allegiance to Zeus, he urges the crowd to act carefully and not rashly. Whenever we react rashly it is usually a sign of weakness or insecurity. An example today of the same thing are Islamic terrorists, their actions, while utterly evil, are also a sign of weakness.

19:37

The clerk then gets them to think clearly about the situation before them. No one was making a claim that Paul or his companions had stolen anything from the temple. Nor were they blasphemers. They had not spoken directly against Artemis. If we look at the things that Paul said, he proclaimed Christ, and said we should not worship things made by human hands. This is why the clerk referred to the image of Artemis falling from Zeus (ie it was not man made), he was trying to calm down the anger of the crowd. We can perhaps learn something from this in our speaking about Islam or on LGBT issues. Rather than direct attacks on Islam or LGBT, we should proclaim the positive truth of the Bible’s teaching, and showing the ridiculousness of ideology behind LGBT stuff, and the superiority of the gospel over Islam.

Micah 3:5-7 - The sun shall go down on the prophets

3:5

The prophets were supposed to guide the people in the right paths, to pull them back from straying, but the false prophets were doing the exact opposite. They were making the people stray. False teachers today do exactly the same. Ministers who teach that LGBT is good are leading people down wrong paths. The prophets were meant to feed the people spiritual food, but did nothing of the sort. The prophets also spoke only for money.

3:6,7

You can be a false prophet or teacher and for a time you might make money or gain some sort of popularity, but you can also be sure that God’s judgement will come. Then darkness will cover you, you will see no more visions, have no more insights. These were only a figment of your own imagination anyway, but even these will go and darkness will come. Once they might have basked in some sort of fame, but then shame will come. Their shallowness and emptiness will be evident to all. They will have nothing to say.

Acts 19:28-32 - Great is Artemis!

19:28

The actions of the traders who would lose out whipped up anger among the people. We need to be aware of how easy it is to whip up a storm of protest, we perhaps see this most today in “Twitter storms”. The local allegiance to Artemis was very high.  So a mob was crying out “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians”.

19:29-31

This caused a great commotion in the city, and two of Paul’ travelling companions were also caught up in this, being dragged into the temple. The temple could hold about 20 000 people. The theatre was near the open market and contained various statues. Paul himself wanted to join them, but the other disciples stopped him. Paul was always ready to face up to opposition. However, we also see that even though he wa an apostle, the counsel of other disciples played a part. Asiarchs (officials of Asia) also warned him against going in.

19:32

Luke gives an accurate and insightful description of the mob. When activists of whatever sort insight some sort of mass protest most people do not really know what they are doing or why they are doing it. Interestingly enough, the Greek word used here to describe the assembly is “ekklesia”. So ekklesia in itself does not necessarily mean a church gathering, it all depends upon the context.

Micah 3:1-4 - He will not answer them!

3:1-3

Micah now addresses the leaders and the prophets, these are the people who should have been leading the people in a godly direction. As leaders they should embrace justice, but instead they hated good and loved evil. They were utterly corrupt. In doing so they exploited the people. Micah uses very graphic language to describe this, speaking of them tearing the skin and bones off the people. The pots used in those days in Israel were rather small, so bones of animals that were eaten had to be broken up before they could be put in the pot for cooking, hence the talk of pots and bones in v3. Micah is not implying that they were cannibals, but is likening their exploitation of the people to cannibals eating people.

3:4

The leaders and prophets thought they were impervious to threats, that they could do what they like. This is always the case when the powerful become proud. But they were not impervious, the judgement of God would come and there was nothing they could do about it. This would come in the form of the Assyrian invasion for Israel. When it happened these rulers and prophets would cry out to God, but He would not answer them. Rather, He would hide his face from them. This would happen because of their sin.

Acts 19:23-27 - I predict a riot

19:23-27

The gospel is not a private matter but one which affects and challenges society. Society itself is based on assumptions, these are very often assumptions that are contrary to the ways of God. For instance, abortion laws are based on the premise that a child in the womb is not a person and is therefore of less value than the mother. Society's view on homosexuality are based on the premise that homosexuality is as “good” or “valid” as heterosexuality. Society’s approach to transgender issues are based on the assumption that gender has nothing to do with biological sex. So In Paul’s days a part of the economy was based on the assumption that we should worship idols, and some made a significant amount of money out of this. So when Paul preached that idols are nothing and that we should not worship them, and then a significant number of people believed this and stopped buying idols others lost money. Likewise, the gospel proclaims God’s way with regard to life, sexuality and gender, and this threatens and challenges society.

Ephesus was a major centre for idol worship, in particular the temple of Diana or Artemis.

Note also what Paul was accused of (v26), it was teaching the obvious truth that these idols were nothing more than objects made by the hands of men, and were not gods at all. Likewise, the Bible’s truth that homosexuality is not valid, that marriage between a man and a woman is a radically different matter than “marriage” between two people of the same sex, and that biology and gender are inherently linked are blindingly obvious to anyone who cares to think logically. Yet, Paul’s teaching caused great offence to some, just as Biblical teaching on sex and gender causes offence to many today. Just because someone takes offence does not mean they are justified in doing so. Maybe they need to to change their thinking.

The objectors in Paul’s day also tried to link their objections to concern and respect for Diana/Artemis. But notice two things. First, the real reason they were so concerned was their own financial loss. Secondly, there is an inherent contradiction in their argument. “Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed”. If Artemis was truly a god then surely she could defend herself against mere men like Paul. How could a mere man threaten a god, unless of course the god was really nothing at all. Likewise, their are inherent contradictions in society’s teaching on sexuality and gender. For instance, if gender has little to do with biological sex, why is there so much concern to attempt to change one's biology through hormone treatment and surgery?

Micah 2:12,13 - I will assemble all of you

2:12

So Israel is a mess, with little interest in hearing the true word of God. One might think then that Israel is done for, and that would be true if Israel was her own nation, if it was a matter of Israel proving that she was good enough. But that is not the case, Israel is God’s nation. Her existence depends purely upon God, and so does her salvation. So, as in most of the other prophets, we find that condemnation, most severe condemnation, of the nation is followed by promises of salvation. and so it is here. So God declares that he will gather all of them together, a remnant of Israel. Note the use of the term “remnant”. That would seem to imply not all Israel in numerical terms will be saved. The Lord will bring them together as a shepherd would bring sheep into a sheepfold. And the place will throng with people. Lots will be saved, and this would seem to imply that many from other nations would be saved. The shepherd analogy is used a lot in the Old Testament, and it is highly significant when Jesus uses it of Himself. It is a clear reference to Jesus being the Messiah who was promised in the Old Testament. Jesus also said that he had sheep in another fold that He had to go for. There is much judgement, but there is also much salvation.

2:13

How could this salvation come about? Only because the Lord will be at their head. He is the One who will lead the way. “They will break through the gate and go out”, one could perhaps see a reference here to the church breaking out and going into all the world, or maybe I am just reading that into the text.

Acts 19:21,22 - Resolved in his Spirit

19:21

Paul “resolved in the Spirit” to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, and then to Rome. So we see the importance of the Holy Spirit again. However, we are given no indication of how he “resolved in the Spirit”, we must assume that it was through prayer and contemplation on the word of God. The Spirit directs and guides us in all sorts of ways. Sometimes He does so directly through dreams and visions, as He did with Paul, but this is not the most common way. Prayer, Bible study, fellowship, praise etc are the most common means. We will see later that everyone else thought going to Jerusalem was a bad idea. There are some things that the Spirit does in our lives that no one else will understand, yet it is still the Spirit. At the same time, if no one ever understands what you are doing then that is a pretty good sign that it is not the Spirit who is guiding you!

19:22

However, Paul stayed in Asia for a while, sending Timothy and Erastus ahead of him to Macedonia. Erastus is also mentioned in Romans 16:23, where he is referred to as the treasurer of the city, and in 2 Tim 4:20. We cannot be absolutely certain that this is the same Erastus, but it is at least plausible. In 1929 an inscription was found in Corinth mentioning an Erastus as an “aedile”, a city official.

Acts 19:18-20 - Book burning

19:18,19

Many believed and they confessed their sins as well. This refers to confessing sins (namely their magic/pagan practices). In John it says that the Spirit will convict the world of sin (John 16:8). This is something that we should expect to happen in our day. So much teaching today effectively says “ignore sin”, or even deny that sin exists, but this is not the Holy Spirit’s way and He is the one who is in control. This repentance also led to actions, in this case in the form of destroying books related to magic practices. These “books” would be papyri and would be rather short, not books in the sense we think of (the printing press had not been invented!). Ephesus was something of a centre for magic. This book burning amounted to a very significant sum of money. It was also done in public, an open declaration of their having done with such things.

19:20

“So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed”. We see again the emphasis on the word of the Lord. The gospel is not man’s idea. See how often “scholars” seek to view the Bible in purely human terms. Any such view of the Bible is bound to miss what is really going on. This does not mean we do not ignore the human side of the Bible, for God used men, used geographical places, used political events, used history, but if we look at it purely in those terms we will miss the heart of the Bible. And if we look at the church or seek to run our churches as a purely human activity we will quickly falter, as is demonstrated again and again. It is not our church, it is Christ’s church, and it is led by the Holy Spirit.

Complete notes on Zephaniah are now available

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Acts 19:14-17 - Seven sons of Sceva

19:14-16

Demons are real, and spiritual warfare is real, and the demons know this. So when Paul used the name of Jesus “it worked”, the demons actually were encountering the authority if Chist. When the Seven Sons of Sceva used the name of Jesus it was just words, there was no power. Notice that the demons talks about knowing Jesus and knowing Paul. The power comes from Christ, without Him we can do nothing, but we do matter, our faith does matter. So the man possessed by demons jumped on the sons of Sceva and they fled naked and bleeding. The “name of Jesus” is not magic.

19:17

The outcome of this incident became known to the people around and the result was that fear fell on them. They recognised that playing around with demons was no laughing matter, and more importantly that the “name of Jesus” was a serious matter. So the greatness of the name of the Lord was known.

Micah 2:10,11 - A preacher of wine and strong drink

2:10

Micah is not sparing in his condemnation of the people. He tells them to “arise and go for this is no place to rest”. Israel was meant to be the home of God’s people, of God’s people living according to God’s ways. But this people were clearly not living in God’s ways, whether it be with justice, with economic fairness and honesty, sexual morality or worshipping only God. They did none of these things, so they might as well leave. Indeed they would be forcibly evicted. The “uncleanness destroys”. When we abandon God’s ways it brings destruction. In our own country the abandonment of the sanctity of marriage over many decades has brought many social ills and great economic cost, not to mention the lives that have been scarred. The current obsession with LGBT issues will only lead us to continue down the same road.

2:11

So this people rejected the words of God, they rejected prophets who preached the word of God (Luke 13:34). But if a “prophet” comes who preaches lies and nonsense then he would be welcomed. A prophet who preached strong drink and wine would be welcomed as a man of God! Today there are many so-called Christians who preach that LGBT is good, and they are welcomed by some. We should expect judgement to come.

Acts 19:11-13 - Prayer handkerchiefs

19:11,12

With Peter we get quite detailed accounts of some miracles, this is less so with Paul, the emphasis being more on his preaching and teaching. However, verses like these two show that plenty of miracles did take place. It also means that cessationist type arguments that say miracles decreased as we go through Acts are built on rather shaky foundations. We also see some odd things happening, with handkerchiefs that touched him healing people. What does this tell us? Well, on the one hand we should be very wary of ruling out “odd” things that might happen. God does not always pay attention to our sensibilities. We should also note that people were healed, there was no doubt about this. But we should also note that if we think that if we follow the same actions then the same results will happen we may be disappointed! It is the faith and anointing that count. And we should also note that the emphasis throughout Acts is on the gospel itself. These things may well accompany the gospel, but they do not replace it, and are not more important than it.

19:13

Driving out demons was not a new phenomena, it was a practice known to Judaism and others. So some Jews did try to copy Paul, and used the “name of the Lord Jesus”. This did not end well! The “name of Jesus” is not an incantation, it is a statement of truth, and we need to be “in Christ” for it to have any real meaning and power for us.

Micah 2:8,9 - You take away my splendour

2:8

Micah then continues his rebuke of the nation. If someone listens to and accepts the word of God, including rebukes, then it does them good. But God’s people were now acting like enemies of God, rejecting His word. The fruit of this was that they robbed people of possessions, and in situations where the victims had no reason to expect any danger. Note that here it is rich or comfortable people who are the victims. Usually it is the poor. All theft is wrong, whether or not the victim is rich or poor. Now the poor are much more vulnerable, and a godly person will have concern for the poor, but all theft is theft, regardless of who the victim is.

2:9

This again seems to be about the better off families. “The women of my people you drive out”. How was this so? Well, the only way that Israel could be saved from the coming onslaught was by repenting. So by refusing to preach repentance the false teachers and prophets were doing harm to the women and children. We see the same pattern today. So much of the church will not preach repentance, but without repentance there is no salvation.

Acts 19:8-10 - All heard the word of the Lord

19:8

Paul then went into the synagogue, so he is continuing his practice of going to the Jews first. One might have thought he would have got fed up of doing this, but it was part of God’s mission. At the end of Acts Paul seems to finally give up on “going to the Jews”. The point is that the Jews were given ample opportunity to believe the gospel (and remember that some did believe). God was extremely patient. Paul “spoke boldly” for three months. He was “reasoning and persuading”. These things do have a part in our gospel presentation. And he spoke about the kingdom of God. This is one of the few instances of the phrase “kingdom of God” in Acts. It is mentioned six times in Acts, compared to thirty two times in Luke, but this does not mean it was not underlying a lot of what was going on.

19:9,10

As always, opposition did arise. The gospel brought life to some, but others were hardened. Hearing of God’s glory, goodness and kindness hardened their hearts. So they spoke evil of the Way. So Paul left and went to the school of Tyrannus. He is acting like a philosopher, so hoping people would come to hear him, or rather to hear the gospel. And Paul spent two years there proclaiming the gospel. Note that it says he had “discussions daily”. So this was presumably not all straight forward preaching, but interactions with people as well. When Luke says “all the Jews and Greeks ...” we should probably not take this too literally, but rather imply that lots of the people in the province of Asia had a chance to hear, and there was a widespread impact.

Micah 2:6,7 - Do not preach!

2:6

As happened to other prophets, there were false prophets who claimed that Micah was talking rubbish, that he should not preach such things as he was saying, that he should not warn that disaster would overtake them. Nothing has changed, There are many today who, claiming to speak in Christ’s name, that we should not say that LGBT stuff is wrong, that we should not say Christ is the only way to the Father, etc etc.

2:7

This verse number seems to be misplaced! The first part of the verse is a continuation of the complaint of the false prophets, the second part is Micah’s response. So in the first part the false teachers are saying it is wrong to say God has grown impatient and that judgement is coming. God would never do that, they say. Just as some say God would never condemn homosexuality, God would never condemn anyone to hell. God isn’t like that.

Micah’s response is that his words to good to those who walk uprightly. Likewise, preaching that calls people to repent and believe (Acts 2:38) does good to those who listen and respond. Preaching that affirms people in their sin does no good to anyone, just allowing people to continue merrily on their way to hell. And all of us without Christ are on our way to hell.

Acts 19:4-7 - The Ephesian dozen

19:4

John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. Now repentance is still vitally important, as has been noted on numerous occasions throughout this study on Acts, and is something that the church too readily ignores. However, it is not the whole story, and John the Baptist was fully aware of this. He knew that one far greater than he was coming, and that his job was to testify to this One, and prepare the way for Him. He also knew that this One would baptise with fire and the Spirit (Matt 3:11,12).

19:5

They were then baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now this is an example of bewaring of overreading a phrase or verse in the Bible. In Matt 28:19 Jesus tells us to baptise in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Here we just have the name of Jesus. We would be foolish to read too much into this! (There are some who do.) Notice that they were baptised almost immediately.

19:6,7

Paul placed his hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. So we see again the tangible effect of the Holy Spirit coming upon people. There are some who see this only as applying to the apostles, and that the sign of tongues and prophecy applied only to the apostles. But Scripture does not make this claim. It seems to make more sense to say that tongues and prophecy are signs of the Holy Spirit, not of Paul or Peter being apostles. There were about twelve men, and they are sometimes referred to as the “Ephesia dozen”.

Micah 2:1-5 - We are utterly ruined!

2:1,2

Like Amos, Micah highlights a number of economic sins of Israel, their exploitation of the poor. Proper treatment of the poor is an important part of the Law, and something that Israel was repeatedly castigated for by the prophets. Economic sins have persisted throughout history. They can be especially invidious because they become deeply ingrained in the structure of society and it easy to forget that we are doing them. Men lay awake at night thinking about how they could do evil. Did they explicitly plot evil? Maybe some did, maybe others just plotted how they could “make money” not deliberately exploiting people, but having no concern for the effect of their actions. They coveted the fields of others. Naboth’s vineyard is the most notorious example of this.

2:3-5

Men do these things because they can, thinking that no one will see or stop them. But God sees all things, and at some point He brings judgement, and judgement was about to come upon Israel. And the evildoers would not be able to escape from this. They took land away from others, soon Assyria would come and take their land away from them. “No one to determine boundaries by lot”. This was the way land was passed on to sons when the father died. These men who took land by exploitation or extortion would not be able to pass it on to their sons.