Acts 20:13-38: Paul's farewell to the Ephesian elders at Miletus. He's hastening to Jerusalem for Pentecost. He can't stop in Ephesus, but he sends for the elders, because he loves them too much to skip them.Paul gives his testimony. His character. His teaching. His warnings."I did not shrink from declaring the whole counsel of God." "I coveted no one's silver or gold." "I served with humility, tears, and trials."The same gospel for Jews and Gentiles. Everyone called to repentance. Everyone called to faith in Christ alone.His warning: "Fierce wolves will come in among you," from outside AND from within. Elders must protect the flock. Take care of yourselves so you can take care of everyone. Follow me as I follow Christ.Don't neglect the weak. Don't forget the marginalized. The world should say, "Nobody takes better care of people than the people of God."Your testimony is powerful. Don't discredit the work God is doing in your life.Grace has brought us this far. Grace will take us home.#Acts20 #FarewellToEphesus #GraceWillTakeUsHome #WholeCounselOfGod #FollowMeAsIFollowChrist #YourTestimonyIsPowerful #RedemptionHillChurch

Acts 20:1-12: After the riot in Ephesus (Demetrius the silversmith and the "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians" mob), Paul sends for the disciples, encourages them, and departs for Macedonia. He continues into Greece, where a plot against him forces him to change plans. He travels with a diverse team, men from Berea, Thessalonica, Derbe, and Asia. Different backgrounds, one mission.At Troas, Paul preaches all night on the third floor. Eutychus, a young man in the window, falls asleep during the long sermon and plummets three stories to his death. Paul goes down, lays across him (echoing Elijah and Elisha), prays, and Eutychus is raised.Two big themes:God preserves His church, through riots, plots, and travel. The same God who preserved them then preserves you now.Don't just go through the motions. Eutychus isn't shamed for falling asleep, but the passage warns us against spiritual drowsiness. Awake from your sinful slumber and come to life in Christ.

Acts 19:11-20: God is doing extraordinary miracles through Paul in Ephesus. Handkerchiefs that touched his skin bring healing. Evil spirits flee. The word spreads.Enter the seven sons of Sceva, itinerant Jewish exorcists trying to invoke Jesus' name like a talisman. "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims." The evil spirit answers: "Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?" The demon-possessed man leaps on them, overpowers them, and they flee naked and wounded.Two massive truths:There is no spiritual neutrality. You're either with God or against Him. There's no spiritual Switzerland. Do not play games with witchcraft, occult, or magic.There is no secondhand faith. You can't borrow someone else's faith. Not your parents', pastor's, or grandma's. You must know Jesus for yourself.Fear fell on Ephesus. Believers burned their magic books (50,000 pieces of silver). The word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.Has hell heard your name?#Acts19 #SevenSonsOfSceva #NoSpiritualNeutrality #SpiritualWarfare #WhoAreYou #NoSecondhandFaith #JesusIsWorthIt #BurnTheBooks #RedemptionHillChurch0:00 - Welcome: Week 56 in Acts2:00 - Scripture Reading: Acts 19:11-204:00 - Paul's Heart: To Greatly Help Those Who Believed8:00 - Recap: Paul in Ephesus (Two Years at Hall of Tyrannus)10:00 - The Lion Enclosure Story (Some Ideas Are Really Bad)19:00 - This Is a Supernatural Book About Supernatural Things23:00 - The War Is Made Up of Many Smaller Battles24:00 - God (Not Paul) Is Doing Extraordinary Miracles26:00 - 2 Timothy 2: Vessels for Honorable Use30:00 - Repentance = Change the Environment33:00 - Evil Spirits Are Real (No Spiritual Neutrality)35:00 - Don't Play Games With the Occult36:00 - 1 Corinthians 10: Food Sacrificed to Idols40:00 - Horoscopes, Fortune Tellers, Ouija Boards46:00 - The Seven Sons of Sceva (Snake Oil Salesmen)48:00 - "Jesus I Know, Paul I Recognize, But Who Are You?"50:00 - NO SECONDHAND FAITH (You Can't Borrow Someone's Faith)55:00 - Filled With the Holy Spirit = No Room for Anything Else59:00 - Have They Heard of YOU? (Are You a Threat?)1:02:00 - Every Turn Toward Christ = Battle Won1:06:00 - Fear Fell + Name of Jesus Extolled1:07:00 - They Burned Their Books (50,000 Silver)1:11:00 - Stand Firm: Put on the Armor of God1:13:00 - Closing Prayer

Acts 19:1-20 (Part 1): Paul finally arrives in Ephesus, the gateway city to Asia. He finds disciples who only knew John's baptism. "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They hadn't even heard of the Holy Spirit.Paul explains: John pointed to the one coming after him, that is Jesus. They're baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul lays hands on them. The Holy Spirit comes. They speak in tongues and prophesy, about 12 men in all.This is the fourth and final Pentecostal outpouring in Acts: Jerusalem (Jews) → Samaria → Cornelius (God-fearers) → Ephesus (ends of the earth). The sign gift confirms the gospel is universal, for every people on earth.Paul reasons in the synagogue for three months. When opposition rises, he withdraws to the Hall of Tyrannus and teaches daily for two years. All of Asia hears the word.Ephesus becomes one of the most important churches in the New Testament. Mary, Timothy, and John the Apostle would eventually minister there.Return to your first love. (Revelation 2:4)#Acts19 #Ephesus #HolySpirit #EndsOfTheEarth #HallOfTyrannus #ReturnToYourFirstLove #JohnsBaptism #Pentecost #RedemptionHillChurch

Week 54 in Acts. Baptism Sunday!Acts 18:18-28: Paul is "in transit," traveling from Corinth through Ephesus, Caesarea, Antioch, and back through Galatia. A bridge text. But Luke is showing us something profound: discipleship in motion.Paul takes Aquila and Priscilla with him. He greets the church (encouraging them with stories of God's faithfulness). He strengthens disciples wherever he goes. "He greatly helped those who through grace had believed." What a tombstone epitaph.The Great Commission isn't just about making converts, it's about making disciples who make disciples. A renewal of the creation mandate: not just multiplying people, but creating worshipers of God who bear His image.You are the link in a chain of God's grace extending to someone else. Not might be. Not maybe. ARE.Apollos preaches eloquently but incompletely. Aquila and Priscilla take him aside with compassion. They disciple him. He goes to Corinth and likely disciples Sosthenes, who becomes co-author of 1 Corinthians.Paul planted. Apollos watered. God gave the growth.#Acts18 #MakeDisciples #GreatCommission #Apollos #AquilaAndPriscilla #PassTheTorch #RedemptionHillChurch

Week 52 in Acts! Halfway through the book.Acts 18:1-17: Paul leaves Athens and arrives in Corinth—a city so steeped in debauchery that "to live like a Corinthian" became Greek slang for moral corruption. The church wasn't planted in a place that degenerated—it was planted in the cesspool itself.There Paul meets Aquila and Priscilla, the New Testament's most beautiful picture of unified marriage. Always mentioned together. Tentmakers by trade, missionaries by calling. Their tent-making fueled their mission—not the other way around. Your work is sacred when done unto the Lord.But Luke's bigger purpose? Verifiable historical details. Claudius (4th Roman emperor, AD 41-54), expelled the Jews from Rome in AD 49 (confirmed by Suetonius). Gallio (proconsul of Achaia, AD 51-52, brother of Seneca the Younger). These timestamps anchor the gospel in real history.Luke 1:1-4: He wrote so you would have certainty (asphalion = locked-down assurance) in what you've been taught. The gospel either happened or it didn't. If it did, Jesus is the Messiah.#Acts18 #Corinth #AquilaAndPriscilla #UnifiedMission #Certainty #LockedDownAssurance #ChristAndHimCrucified #WorkIsSacred #RedemptionHillChurch

Acts 17:16-34: Paul waits for Silas and Timothy in Athens. His spirit is provoked by the city drowning in idols. A Roman satirist once said, "It was easier to find a god than a man in Athens."Paul reasons in the synagogue, in the Agora, and finally at the Areopagus (Mars Hill), invited by Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.This is a masterclass in subversive apologetics. Paul uses the Stoic argument structure (God exists, God's nature, God rules the world, God cares for mankind) to lead them to a shocking conclusion: God has appointed a day of judgment, proved by the resurrection of a man.Paul makes five major points: God is Creator, Sustainer, Ruler, Father, and Judge. He quotes their own poets. He acknowledges their altar "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD"—"What you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you."Some mock. Some delay. But some believe, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris.Are we appropriately distressed over the idolatry in our world? Where is our divine jealousy?

Acts 18:1-17: Paul leaves Athens and arrives in Corinth, a city so steeped in debauchery that "to live like a Corinthian" became Greek slang for moral corruption. The church wasn't planted in a place that degenerated, it was planted in the cesspool itself.There Paul meets Aquila and Priscilla, the New Testament's most beautiful picture of unified marriage. Always mentioned together. Tentmakers by trade, missionaries by calling. Their tent-making fueled their mission, not the other way around. Your work is sacred when done unto the Lord.But Luke's bigger purpose? Verifiable historical details. Claudius (4th Roman emperor, AD 41-54), expelled the Jews from Rome in AD 49 (confirmed by Suetonius). Gallio (proconsul of Achaia, AD 51-52, brother of Seneca the Younger). These timestamps anchor the gospel in real history.Luke 1:1-4: He wrote so you would have certainty (asphalion = locked-down assurance) in what you've been taught. The gospel either happened or it didn't. If it did, Jesus is the Messiah.#Acts18 #Corinth #AquilaAndPriscilla #UnifiedMission #Certainty #LockedDownAssurance #ChristAndHimCrucified #WorkIsSacred #RedemptionHillChurch

Pentecost Sunday! Acts 17:1-15: Paul and Silas arrive in Thessalonica where there's a synagogue. For three Sabbaths, Paul reasons from the Old Testament scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead.Over 1,000 Old Testament prophecies converge in one man, Jesus. Yet the Jews wanted a warrior-king, not a carpenter from Nazareth. They wanted conquest, not crucifixion. Instead of celebrating the answer to centuries of prayers, jealous Jews form a mob.Accusations: "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also!" "They say there is another king, Jesus!"The gospel doesn't just bring salvation, it reorients entire lives. From self-centered to Christ-centered. From idols to the living God. From horizontal concerns to vertical citizenship. That's threatening.Paul and Silas flee to Berea (50 miles) in the night. The Bereans examine Scripture daily to verify. Many believe.The gospel came not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit.

Acts 16:16-24: Paul and Silas meet a slave girl with a spirit of divination. She's making her owners rich through fortune-telling. Demonically possessed, she follows them for days shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God who proclaim the way of salvation!"Theologically accurate. But unhelpful. Paul commands the spirit: "In the name of Jesus, come out of her." It does. Immediately. No power struggle. She's freed, not just from demons, but brought into God's family.Her owners are furious. Their hope of gain is gone. They drag Paul and Silas to the marketplace, accusing them of disturbing the city and promoting unlawful customs. The crowd joins in. They're stripped, beaten with rods (no limit like Jewish law), and thrown into the inner prison, reserved for murderers.The same gospel that saved Lydia saves this slave girl. The same gospel disrupts everything. It exposes hearts, challenges powers, and demands everything, offering everything in return.The cost is real. But Christ has already endured infinitely greater for us.#Acts16 #SlaveGirl #SpiritOfDivination #GospelDisrupts #PaulAndSilas #Beaten #InnerPrison #Philippi #RedemptionHillChurch