Acts 19 – 20
Verse 19:10 caught my eye more on geography than anything else:
This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
When you read this it think everyone things of Asia as being either South East Asia or Russia. People are no longer called “Chinese” but “Asian” when they have eyes similar to the Chinese, because they could be from Japan, Korea, Vietnam or a host of other nations. Then you have to remember India, Russia and even Israel is in Asia. So when they are talking about Asia with many Greeks, I can only assume they are traveling to what is present day Turkey and not India or Thailand.
Without mass communication and flight the Gospel is limited to where they can walk or ride a horse. But when Jesus said spread the Gospel that’s exactly what Paul did. You look at a map of where Paul traveled and it’s very impressive. He was all over the place making sure the Gospel was taught to the point where they could teach without his guidance. Do you have that same passion?
Verse 19:40 ends an “uprising” and near riot:
For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.”
The craftsmen who made idols were losing business because of the teachings Jesus. They started a commotion that escalated. The people whose livelihoods were dependent on buying idols were no longer making sales and therefore were going out of business. The town clerk quickly acted and dispersed the crowd and clamed everyone. Imagine today if Jesus came and how the churches would respond. This would be a problem, especially the “mega churches” where their livelihood was dependent on Jesus “coming” and not being here.
Verse 20:12 caught me by surprise:
And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted
This “youth” trying to hear Paul fell three stories and died. Paul, through the power of Jesus, brought him back to life. The first thing that would be going through my mind was peace since there was irrefutable proof that this Jesus thing was real. Instead the words are “not a little comforted”, so this prompts me to check other versions. There is a mix of “greatly relieved” and similar wording to the ESV. I cannot imagine that they were not comforted, so therefore “a little” must imply they were greatly comforted.