Miracles Performed by Paul for Authentication

Acts 19:8–16
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For three months Paul had an open door to preach in the Ephesian synagogue (v. 8). In due time the Gospel had both saving and hardening effects. As soon as Jewish unbelief reached the stage of cursing Christ, Paul choose a new meeting place, in the lecture hall of a well known teacher in town named Tyrannus. Possibly he was one of Paul’s Jewish converts, and when things got rough for Paul in the synagogue, Tyrannus invited him to use the facilities of his divinity school.

It appears that Paul used his building from 11 o’clock in the morning until 2 o’clock in the afternoon, which was the heat of the day, and when Tyrannus would not be using it himself. In these Ionian cities, because of the heat, all worked stopped at 11 a.m. and did not resume again until late afternoon. We are told that there would actually be more people asleep in Ephesus at 1 p.m. than at 1 a.m. This shows us two things: (1) The eagerness of Paul to teach and (2) the eagerness of the Christians to learn. Paul continued in this arrangement for two years (v. 10). It may well shame many of us because of our petty excuses for not studying the Word of God. 

Ephesus was known for its magic, and apparently the Christians had not yet put away all such evil practices (vv. 11-12). However we need to take note that these were special miracles (v. 11) and not to be duplicated by others. There was no New Testament in existence in those days, so God enabled Paul to perform miracles so that the people might realize that God was putting his stamp of approval on them. Today we do not need to see miracles in order to know if God approves it or not, because we have God’s Word as our authority. This is why it is so important that we understand that the book of Acts is a history book, and not a doctrinal book. This does not mean that God is not capable of performing miracles today, but simply that He does not authenticate His work by performing miracles.

Application

Paul did not give up just because people gave him a hard time. He just moved on to another location.  I have had to do that at various times in my life, and I trust that my family has also learned from these experiences.