But what difference is it making? Yes, you believe in Jesus. You even claim to be a believer in salvation through faith in Him. Is that having any effect on your life?
So, you are Spirit-filled? Is that having any effect on the lives around you?
The book of Acts makes two changes clear. First, the gospel changes you. Second, being a spirit filled follower of God will have an effect on the world, the people, around you.
As you read, ask yourself. Is your faith making any difference? If not, why not?
-Pastor Conley
Acts 16–20:38(MEV)
1 Then he came to Derbe and then to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewess who believed, but his father was a Greek.
2 He was well spoken of by the brothers who were at Lystra and Iconium.
3 Paul wanted him to travel with him. So he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
4 As they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to observe, that were set forth by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem.
5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.
6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia and were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
7 When they came near Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not allow them.
8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.
9 During the night a vision appeared to Paul: A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
10 After he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.
11 From Troas we set sail on a straight course to Samothrace and the next day to Neapolis,
12 and from there to Philippi, which is the main city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony. We stayed in this city several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went out of the city to a riverside, where prayer was customarily offered. And we sat down and spoke to the women who had assembled.
14 A woman named Lydia, a seller of purple fabric of the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God, heard us. The Lord opened her heart to acknowledge what Paul said.
15 When she and her household were baptized, she entreated us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and remain there.” And she persuaded us.
16 On one occasion, as we went to the place of prayer, a servant girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
17 She followed Paul and us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”
18 She did this for many days. But becoming greatly troubled, Paul turned to the spirit and said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out at that moment.
19 When her masters saw that the hope of their profits was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace to the rulers.
20 And they brought them to the magistrates, saying, “These men, being Jews, greatly trouble our city
21 and teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.”
22 The crowd rose up together against them. And the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them.
23 After they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely.
24 Having received such an order, he threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s shackles were loosened.
27 When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.
28 But Paul shouted, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
29 He called for lights and rushed in, trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas.
30 He then led them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and your household will be saved.”
32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his household.
33 In that hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds. And immediately he and his entire household were baptized.
34 Then he brought them up to his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced with his entire household believing in God.
35 When it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants, saying, “Release those men.”
36 The prison guard reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to release you. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to them, “They have publicly beaten us, who are uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they secretly throw us out? Certainly not! Let them come themselves and bring us out.”
38 The sergeants reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans.
39 So they came and entreated them. And they brought them out, asking them to leave the city.
40 They went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia. When they had seen the brothers, they exhorted them and departed.
1 When they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
2 According to his custom, Paul went in, and on three Sabbaths he lectured to them from the Scriptures,
3 explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I preach to you, is the Christ.”
4 Some of them were persuaded and joined with Paul and Silas, including a great crowd of devout Greeks and many leading women.
5 But the Jews who did not believe became jealous and, taking some evil men from the marketplace, gathered a crowd, stirred up the city, and attacked the house of Jason, trying to bring them out to the mob.
6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brothers to the city officials, crying out, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,
7 and Jason has received them. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”
8 They troubled the crowd and the city officials when they heard these things.
9 When they had taken a bail payment from Jason and the rest, they released them.
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all eagerness, daily examining the Scriptures, to find out if these things were so.
12 Therefore many of them believed, including honorable Greek women and many Greek men.
13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also, stirring up the crowds.
14 The brothers immediately sent Paul away to the sea. But Silas and Timothy remained there.
15 Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and departed with instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him quickly.
16 While Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
17 Therefore he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
18 Then some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What will this babbler say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached Jesus and the resurrection to them.
19 They took hold of him and led him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?
20 For you are bringing strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”
21 For all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing else, but either telling or hearing something new.
22 Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious.
23 For as I passed by and looked up at your objects of worship, I found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom you therefore unknowingly worship, Him I proclaim to you.
24 “God who made the world and all things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by hands.
25 Nor is He served by men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives all men life and breath and all things.
26 He has made from one blood every nation of men to live on the entire face of the earth, having appointed fixed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
27 that they should seek the Lord so perhaps they might reach for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.
28 ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the Deity is like gold or silver or stone or an engraved work of art or an image of the reflection of man.
30 God overlooked the times of ignorance, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent.
31 For He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed, having given assurance of this to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
32 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed. But others said, “We will hear you again concerning this matter.”
33 So Paul departed from them.
34 However, some men joined him and believed. Among them were Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
2 He found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to them.
3 And because he was of the same trade, he remained with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.
4 He lectured in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul was pressed by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
6 But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be upon your heads. I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
7 Then he departed from there and entered the house of a man named Justus, one who worshipped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.
8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians, who heard, believed and were baptized.
9 The Lord spoke to Paul in the night through a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent.
10 For I am with you, and no one shall attack you and hurt you, for I have many people in this city.”
11 So for a year and six months he sat among them, teaching the word of God.
12 When Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews in unity attacked Paul and brought him to court,
13 saying, “This man is persuading men to worship God contrary to the law.”
14 When Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, “O Jews, if it were a matter of a misdemeanor or serious crime, I would rightly bear with you.
15 But if it is a question of words and names and your law, look into it yourselves. For I do not intend to be a judge of these matters.”
16 So he drove them out of court.
17 Then all the Greeks seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. But none of these things mattered to Gallio.
18 Yet Paul remained many days. He had his hair cut in Cenchrea, for he had taken a vow. Then, bidding farewell to the brothers, he sailed to Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him.
19 He arrived at Ephesus and left them there. But he himself went into the synagogue and lectured the Jews.
20 When they asked him to remain for a while longer, he did not consent,
21 but, bidding farewell, said, “I must by all means attend this upcoming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return to you if God wills.” And he set sail from Ephesus.
22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.
23 After spending some time there, he departed and passed through the entire region of Galatia and Phrygia in sequence, strengthening all the disciples.
24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, born in Alexandria, who was an eloquent man and powerful in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.
25 This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John, but being fervent in spirit, he accurately spoke and taught the things concerning the Lord.
26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him and explained the way of God more accurately.
27 When Apollos intended to pass into Achaia, the brothers wrote to encourage the disciples to welcome him. On arriving, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace.
28 For he vehemently refuted the Jews publicly, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples
2 and said to them, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” They said to him, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 He said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.”
4 Paul said, “John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the One coming after him, that is, in Christ Jesus.”
5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied.
7 There were about twelve men in all.
8 He went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, lecturing and persuading concerning the kingdom of God.
9 But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the crowd, he withdrew from them and took the disciples, lecturing daily in the school of Tyrannus.
10 This continued for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
11 God worked powerful miracles by the hands of Paul.
12 So handkerchiefs or aprons he had touched were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists invoked the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We command you to come out in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches.”
14 There were seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva doing this.
15 The evil spirit answered, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?”
16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was jumped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled from that house naked and wounded.
17 This became known to all Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus. And fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
18 Many who believed came confessing and telling their deeds.
19 Many who practiced magic brought their books together and burned them before everyone. They calculated their value, which equaled fifty thousand drachmas.
20 So the word of the Lord powerfully grew and spread.
21 After these things happened, Paul determined in his spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”
22 He sent two who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, into Macedonia, but he delayed in Asia for a time.
23 About that time great trouble arose about the Way.
24 For a silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines for Artemis, brought much business to the craftsmen.
25 He gathered them together with the workmen of similar trades and said, “Men, you know that by this trade we have our wealth.
26 And you see and hear, not only at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, that this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that these things made by hands are not gods.
27 Now not only is our trade in danger of coming into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis, whom all Asia and the world worship, may be discredited and her magnificence destroyed.”
28 When they heard this, they were full of anger and cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
29 The city was filled with confusion. And in unison they seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and rushed into the theater.
30 When Paul intended to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him.
31 Even some of the rulers of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him begging him not to venture into the theater.
32 The assembly was confused. Therefore some cried out one thing and some another, and most of them did not know why they had come together.
33 The Jews pushed Alexander to the front as the crowd prompted him. Alexander motioned with his hand, wishing to make his defense to the mob.
34 But when they learned that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all with one voice cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said, “Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell from heaven?
36 Seeing then that these things are undeniable, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash.
37 For you have brought these men here who are neither temple robbers nor blasphemers of your goddess.
38 So if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. Let them press charges against one another.
39 If you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the legal assembly.
40 For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no reason we may give to account for this uproar.”
41 When he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.
Acts 20:1–38 (MEV)
1 After the uproar ceased, Paul summoned the disciples and embraced them and departed for Macedonia.
2 When he had gone through that region and had greatly exhorted them, he arrived in Greece,
3 and stayed there three months. When the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.
4 Accompanying him to Asia were Sopater of Berea, and Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.
5 These men went forward and waited for us at Troas.
6 But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and after five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days.
7 On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to leave the next day, preached to them and continued his message until midnight.
8 There were many lamps in the upper room where they were assembled.
9 A young man named Eutychus sat in the window, falling into a deep sleep as Paul spoke for a longer time. Being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third floor and was taken up dead.
10 Paul went down and leaned over him, and embracing him said, “Do not be troubled, for he is alive.”
11 When he had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed for a long while until dawn and departed.
12 They took the lad in alive and were greatly comforted.
13 We went ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos, intending to take Paul on board there. For he had arranged this, intending to go on foot.
14 When he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene.
15 The day after sailing from there we arrived off Chios. And the next day we crossed over to Samos and stayed at Trogyllium, and the following day we came to Miletus.
16 Paul had decided to sail by Ephesus, to avoid spending time in Asia. For he was hurrying so he could be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.
17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.
18 When they came to him, he said to them, “You know how I always lived among you from the first day that I came to Asia,
19 serving the Lord with all humility and with many tears and trials which befell me through the plots of the Jews.
20 I did not keep from declaring what was beneficial to you, and teaching you publicly and from house to house,
21 testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
22 “Now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what shall befall me there,
23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
24 But none of these things deter me. Nor do I count my life of value to myself, so that I may joyfully finish my course and the ministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
25 “Now I know that all you, among whom I went proclaiming the kingdom of God, will see my face no more.
26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.
27 For I did not keep from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
28 Therefore take heed to yourselves and to the entire flock, over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
29 For I know that after my departure, dreadful wolves will enter among you, not sparing the flock.
30 Even from among you men will arise speaking perverse things, to draw the disciples away after them.
31 Therefore watch, remembering that for three years night and day I did not cease to warn everyone with tears.
32 “Now, brothers, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.
33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.
34 Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities and for those who were with me.
35 In all things I have shown you how, working like this, you must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
36 Having said these things, he knelt down with all of them and prayed.
37 They all wept much and embraced Paul’s neck and kissed him,
38 grieving most over the words he spoke, that they were to see his face no more. Then they escorted him to the ship.