Spiritual War in Ephesus

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Don Filcek; Acts 19:21-41 Spiritual War in Ephesus

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This morning we're going to get a chance to see the significant impact that Christ had on that major city of Ephesus in the ancient world
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So in the western end of what is modern -day Turkey or Asia Minor? There's this large city named
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Ephesus last week We saw the Ephesus was a city steeped in dark spiritual practices all kinds of spiritism going on there
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Demon worship idolatry all kinds of crazy stuff but God was with Paul and Company with power there in Ephesus, and we saw that last week
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We're powerful acts as as the author Luke told us there were extraordinary miracles going on there now
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Like I said last week. I mean the word extraordinary coupled with the word miracles. That's kind of extreme right like that Okay, extraordinary miracles like this these weren't just your run -of -the -mill ordinary miracles that were going on in Ephesus Okay, these are extraordinary miracles
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So that's what was going on last week and this week We're going to see that Jesus was having so much success in the city of Ephesus that the very fabric of their culture was being challenged the actual forms and the way that they lived in the city of Ephesus the way that everybody lived in Ephesus was being impacted because Jesus had broken in Jesus had showed up, and it was amazing the impact that it was having the fact is that society changes
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One life at a time and what I want to point out is we don't see Paul Engaged in political activism in Ephesus.
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We don't see him lobbying or pressing for legislation against stuff But Paul proclaimed the glory of Jesus Christ, and that is what was dramatically impacting his society and his culture
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He raised up the good news of the kingdom of God and that was his calling and that was his mission And that's what he did and that's how community and society and culture was changed
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One person at a time as they come to embrace and understand Christ and it was having such a radical impact that so many people were giving their lives over to Jesus Christ in Ephesus that the
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Society are you getting me the culture was changing in that town? And that's what we're going to see in our text this morning as more people believed
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Some parts of that society began to be neglected Things like the silversmiths guild who were responsible for the production and sale of idols
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It's kind of they were starting to go out of business Because they couldn't sell idols anymore because Christ had broken in When Jesus when
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Jesus breaks into our culture there are some things that fall away, right? When he breaks into our lives where there are some things that fell away for you some things that began to feel old
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School and like I don't do that anymore because Christ is in my life Have any of you experienced that where there are some things that fall away?
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I hope you have The sinful elements that we see inside of ourselves
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The simple things that we see in our culture though. Don't just roll over and play dead do they?
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They don't die easy Sometimes they kick us in the teeth causing riots in our hearts
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You know what? I'm talking about anybody ever felt a riot going on inside your heart where it's like I want to do this
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And I want to honor God and I but I'm so pulled and torn towards this
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And there's this Battle that wages back and forth between the culture of the kingdom in our hearts and the culture of this world that is still very real in our hearts
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And we're gonna see that sometimes as we look at this text Sometimes that battle that wages wages in the culture around us and it could even lead to a literal riot
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Like we're gonna see in our text this morning. So I want you to open your Bibles, please to Acts chapter 19 We're gonna be looking at verses 21 through 41 and that's page 795 in the
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Bible that's in the seat back in front of you 795 if you don't own a Bible and encourage you to take that one with you.
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We want everybody here to have a Bible So you can follow along and read these 20 verses from verse 21 down to 41
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Now after these events Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem saying after I've been there
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I must also see Rome and having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers Timothy and Erastus He himself stayed in Asia for a while About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way for a man named
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Demetrius a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis Brought no little business to the craftsmen these he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said men you know that from this business we have our wealth and you see and You see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all
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Asia this Paul has Persuaded and turned away a great many people saying that God's made with hands are not
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God's and There is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute
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But also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence
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She whom all Asia and the world worship When they heard that they were enraged and were crying out great is
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Artemis of the Ephesians So the city was filled with confusion and they rushed together into the theater dragging with him
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Gaius and Aristarchus Macedonians who were Paul's companions and travel But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd the disciples would not let him and even some of the
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Asiarchs who were friends Of his sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater
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Now some cried out one thing some another for the assembly was in confusion and most of them did not know why they come together
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Some of the crowd prompted Alexander whom the Jews had put forward and Alexander motioning with his hands wanted to make a defense to the crowd
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But when they recognized that he was a Jew for about two hours they all cried out with a loud voice with one voice great is
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Artemis of the Ephesians and When the town clerk had quieted the crowd he said men of Ephesus Who is there who does not know that the city of the
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Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis and of the sacred stone That fell from the sky Seeing them that these things cannot be denied you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash
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For you have brought these men here who are neither Sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess if therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone
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The courts are open and there are pro -councils let them bring charges against one another But if you seek anything further it shall be settled in the regular assembly
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But we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today since there is no cause That we can give to justify this commotion and when he had said these things he dismissed the assembly.
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Let's pray Father we get an opportunity to see how radical you can transform a culture how radically you can change things and Just through the message of the good news that you have given to us
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The sacrifice of Jesus Christ and one life changed at a time has a radical impact on the culture around us
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And so father I pray that you would help us to be faithful to the message faithful to the good news that you have given to us and father even as we an opportunity to sing these songs and bring praises and glory to you
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I Asked that we would do so out of hearts of gratitude Recognizing the great and awesome sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross that our hearts would be moved to joy as we sing
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Regardless of where we're coming from regardless of how our week has treated us that we would lift up our voices before you
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Putting all of the bad crud aside even putting aside our own victories and our own selfish joys
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But father that we would turn and find our joy only in you and I ask this in Jesus name Thank you guys for leading us in worship.
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I really appreciate that. Am I on here? All right Go ahead and get up get some coffee doughnuts
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If you start to nod off I might come and poke you and ask you to go get some coffee If I start to nod off go get me a cup of coffee.
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Okay, so that said we want you to just feel comfortable here and Get up if you need to but the main point of what we're going to do from for the next half an hour 45 minutes is just to focus in on God's Word to take the time to hear from what
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God has to say in his word and then take that and apply it to our lives and let it become a
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Part of us and as then we go out from here that obviously the point of hearing from God's Word is to apply it to actually
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Go do it So I fear that sometimes we can sit and I know that I've done this I've been guilty of this is sitting under the teaching of The word hearing
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God's Word and then going out and going. Oh, that was great. That was awesome Let's go get lunch and watch a football game and everything just kind of falls away.
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You ever been there? So my prayer for you this morning is that as we get engaged in God's Word that we get a glimpse
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A vision of who God is and that motivates us and that changes us to actually go out and do something with this What we're going to see here in the text is just kind of setting the stage
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Verses 21 through 22 just those first two verses give the overall direction for the remainder of the book of Acts So it's almost kind of like a little a little side note there that I'm just taking with this chunk of Scripture So it's not necessarily it moves the plot along a little bit
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But it tells us that Paul resolved in the spirit to go back to Macedonia and Achaia in Greece now
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Where are those two places you might ask? Well, we've already been there once in the book of Acts. Paul's already gone there
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He went over to modern -day Greece So that's where it is fill the the church in Philippi that he founded is there the church of Thessalonica Is there the church in Berea and the church of Corinth?
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So those are the churches that we're talking about. So he's saying I'm gonna go back. He resolved in his spirit to go back and Visit them then he's gonna go to Jerusalem It's kind of his game plan and then from that point on I he says
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I must go to Rome So he's planning on going to Rome like the the city, right? I mean you can kind of see that in Paul's plans
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You can imagine from what we've learned of Paul He got a glimpse of his the radical impact that he desires to have on his world
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Does it make sense that he wants to go to Rome? He's like I'm going to Rome. Okay now the million -dollar question in this is
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How did he make this decision? Right, like it says he resolved it He resolved to do something and his resolution was in the spirit
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So the spirit was behind it like what we're talking about is discerning or finding the will of God How many of you would love to just have a foolproof method for that process?
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Okay to make a decision and it's within the will of God Well, unfortunately the text doesn't answer that question for us.
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It's not here to tell us How do you find the foolproof will of God the text isn't that life is kind of messy, right?
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It's kind of difficult and it's about relationship and not about rules How many of you know that we would end up worshiping the process if God gave us a process for discerning his will?
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We would just be like, okay Well here plug these plug these into the equation and here we go and we'll just discern But it's a little bit messier than that.
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It's a little bit more difficult The fact of the matter is there are two striking things here though in his decision first.
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He did make a decision Some of us become immobilized and we don't make decisions very well
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How many raise your hand if you're like a really decisive sometimes you find yourself making decisions too rashly too quickly
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Some of you like me on that Okay And then some of you are like immobilized by multiple decisions and it's really really difficult some of you there
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So I just have a really hard time stepping out and actually doing something. Okay. Well Paul didn't struggle with that He he did it.
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Okay, he just stepped right out and and Did somebody raise their hand for both of them? Pete come on now
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He's really conflicted in himself this morning. So We see that he decided to do something.
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So that's that's the first that's the first thing that we see in that verse But we also see that the Spirit was behind his decision
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That's that's given us and given us in the text. I mean he decided in the Spirit the Spirit was with it now
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It's quite possible though that you got to put yourself in the historical context is the written document Luke is the author not
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Paul. So Luke is probably writing at a vantage point after all of these events have unfolded right all of these things have come to pass so that he can look and see and he's
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Kind of at you know, like hindsight is 2020 So he's able to look back and say Paul said at the time when he was in Ephesus I'm gonna go to I'm gonna go to Macedonia.
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I'm gonna go to Kea I'm gonna go to Jerusalem and I'm gonna go to Rome and then now he's writing from the vantage point of saying and it was Obviously in the
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Spirit because it all came to pass Do you see how we can tend to? Spiritualize that and make it like oh, well, we should just know in the
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Spirit like when everything's gonna well This is a little written a little bit different than that. Do you see what I'm is that making sense to you?
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He's writing after the fact and he's able to say yeah It was clearly in the Spirit because it worked out exactly as Paul had planned it.
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God was in it But the scriptures much I see much less concerned with the method for determining
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God's will and more concerned with the worship of God Wow, we are doing stuff
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That's what scriptures most concerned with if you want to know what the will of God is for you I can tell you you want to know worship
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God That is his will and as you are going and as you are living your life and as you are making decisions and as you are
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Doing things worship God above all else You won't go wrong Not gonna go wrong making decisions.
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If that is the primary decision -making factor is what helps me to worship God the most Go and live life
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You see what I'm saying? So that's what that's what scripture seems to point to more accurately So it's perfect for it's it's perfectly fine for you to make plans
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Okay, that's okay. As long as they're legal and moral, okay Doing stuff is a good idea and doing stuff with dependence upon God is even better Right, so that's all that's all just verse one
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We're not gonna take that much time on each verse here, but that's right where we start off with Paul having resolved
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To go to Macedonia probably saying if the Lord wills first sends Timothy and Erastus on ahead of him.
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We see that in the text Sometimes I've been guilty of viewing Paul as like a
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Lone Ranger in ministry Have any of you ever pictured that he's kind of out there on his own doing stuff. He's got tons of people around him.
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I Think sometimes like he's a man walking the wild Roman frontier carrying his scrolls and parchment and he's probably walking with a big staff and He's got an entourage.
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This dude has got traveling companions. He's friends He's constantly mentoring others in ministry.
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This guy Erastus is as mentioned again later in Romans 1623 if you're taking notes, you can jot that down and look up the reference to this guy again later
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What's gonna happen? Alright, he sends Erastus up to Macedonia ahead of him kind of soften up the territory and then
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Paul's gonna join him and then they're gonna go down to Corinth and Something about Corinth is really gonna resonate with Erastus and Erastus is gonna eventually become the city treasurer of the city of Corinth So this guy's a man is being mentored by Paul He's been sent ahead in ministry and eventually he's going to become a man of high standing
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So that's the kind of caliber of people that Paul was associating with there and they were coming to faith in Christ But while he sends these two ahead not all is well in the city of Ephesus.
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Well sure the gospel continues to go forward Many lives are being changed Jesus has broken into as I said in my introduction the societal fabric
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Is being changed in radical ways And do we see that in our lives
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Jesus? Challenges everything Jesus challenges everything from religious practices to commerce to the way that we do business with one another but he does so as I've suggested on a person -by -person basis and We see that the cumulative total of a bunch of people turning to the way of forgiveness through Jesus Christ Causes as the text says no little disturbance in Ephesus In other words a big disturbance a big commotion
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There's a man there in Ephesus. He is a man of significant clout. His name is Demetrius. We meet him in the text early on I would call him the union chief for the
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UIW not the UAW the UIW the United Idol Workers Union local
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Ephesus branch 101 or I don't know whatever number you want to put on it he represents the silversmiths all the silversmiths of the community and History shows this to be a lucrative business in the economy of ancient
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Ephesus. It's a big business there They produce silver replicas of the temple of Artemis Now how many of those do you think we found in antiquity?
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I mean as we've done archaeology and so how many of those have we uncovered? Huh? none because they're made out of So what happens to silver it gets melted down?
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What we found is we found terra cotta like the underlayment So the things that they were made out of were made out of pottery and then they were overlaid with Silver so we found dozens of these terra cotta images of the actual and what they were selling what they were marketing is the actual
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Temple itself. So a little tiny miniature temple that you could put in your house for in -home worship. Isn't that convenient?
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Okay, you know and I mean you could get one and they'd throw in a little statuette for $19 .99 You know with the extra if you
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I don't know if that's the way that it really works But um, so they've got this business going and it is big business and it's working for them and they're selling these silver
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Replicas if you will of the temple there in Artemis Not a little business big business
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To again demonstrate how utterly reliable the Bible is in historical accounts significantly unreasonably
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Reliable an inscription was found in the town of Ephesus on a big stone pillar that dates to the middle of the first century
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So we're talking about if you follow the biblical chronology and you date things according to different people's rules and and all that stuff
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And when they were in office and such and such and on and on you end up getting to about 57 AD the events that we're talking about so middle of the first century
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AD is where we're at and We found this inscription that says that refers to a man in Ephesus named
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Demetrius who was a defender of the goddess Artemis What's our text going to be about a dude in the city of Ephesus named
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Demetrius who is a defender of? Artemis I Mean, it's like it's crazy accurate that these events really took place
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Demetrius is a real dude. Do you get it? That's just crazy. How accurate
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I mean Archaeology time and time again as we unearth this stuff Proves that these are real people.
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These are historical events that we're talking about here. It's awesome. I Love I love studying that stuff.
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It just gets me gets me pumped So the Union gathers together with others in similar trade they held a citywide business meeting
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Demetrius gives a speech identifying that their wealth comes from religiously based business. Like do you think they already knew that?
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Okay, so they already know it, but he calls them all together But that's not the point the point is it for him to educate them about where their money comes from they are pretty well aware of that right, but the point is we get all our money from religiously based business and somebody is intruding on our
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Trade somebody is putting down the religion that we Basically supports our livelihood says
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Paul has been leading people in Ephesus and almost all of Asia away from idolatry That'd be a significant problem.
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If you were an idol worker If your trade was to produce idols, you better believe it Now there's a couple of flash applications here that I just kind of want to draw out right from the text
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One is beware of the marriage of business and religion Particularly in the church, but whether it's
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Christianity paganism Islam Hinduism or any new ism that is out there Putting it together
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Things get ugly fast when religion and business get together. Do you know what I'm talking about now? I recognize that there are some businesses out there that are founded on Chris on Christian principles
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I'm talking about the church being run like a business You're hearing how that's a little bit different and having a business run on Christian principles
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It's not it's not a bad thing. And I know that there are some here who work at a business like that But I'm talking about when in the church
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The church begins to function and move and run as a
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Business and that is a horrendous combination Particularly because of two main things
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First is that the gospel is free The gospel is free.
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You can't buy it. You can't earn it. You can't work enough Now many out there in our society think that you can buy the blessings of God, right?
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As a matter of fact many out in our society think that that's what the church is all about They all they want is my pocketbook, right?
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All they want is to get into my wallet Man, I want to do the best that we can here at recast to make it clear to our culture that that's not what this
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Is about you cannot buy the favor of God You cannot buy his blessings with money.
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You cannot buy his blessings with good works by being good enough None of it. So that's the first thing that makes it a problem when you wed the church and business
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The second thing that's a problem though, is that how many of you know that too many the gospel is offensive
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Just the good news itself. What is the good news? The good news is that Jesus came that we aren't good enough that that kind of maybe
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Not what our culture teaches us Okay, this is just a starting point of the gospel. You got a problem
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What do you mean? I got a problem, huh? You want a piece of this? Yeah, you know what? You know what
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I'm saying? I mean, how many of you like to be told you have a problem you Like that you like that when somebody tells you no, of course not and so you're looking at this thing and you're going okay
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Well, is this gonna turn to good news at some point because it's not like bad news I've got a problem and then but the problem is resolved in that God Solved the problem by sending
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Jesus his son to die on the cross that if you humble yourself under him and bow the knee to him and say
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I Am willing to come under your authority and accept forgiveness because I couldn't do it myself
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See another problem there see another difficulty with our culture there the
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Part about the knee touching the ground issue the part about humbling ourselves and coming under something that kind of offensive
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Sure, that is difficult for a people who are proud Individualistic and I can do it myself.
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Thank you very much You see why if we're gonna just try to appeal to our broader culture
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We're gonna run into some problems with offense of the gospel and what would be our tendency then if we're running a business if you're if you run the church like a business then everybody becomes a
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Customer and any healthy business model any healthy business model means that we give the customer what?
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They want right Isn't that good business? Yeah, it's not a trick question and if you're anything like me
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There are days when the truth is Not what you want
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Am I right? There are days when the truth is not what I want.
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I want you to make me feel good about myself I want to be all joy and no judgment. I think we all know that feeling we've all been there
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I want to walk away with something encouraging said about me. I feel good or whatever and So the fact of the matter is if we mark it and sell the truth, it's very very hard to keep it true
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We mark it and sell the truth. It's hard to keep it true Notice the first issue
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Demetrius is concerned with What's the primary issue? He's the great defender of Artemis.
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What's his bottom line about? What's his what's going on in his culture? That's causing a ruckus his income
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Financially, he's concerned about the bottom line. What are we going to do to keep the profits rolling?
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Great defender of Artemis, huh? There's this underlying point
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However, that was the first flash application The second is the underlying point that the movement of Christ in this city has had a dramatic impact on The business of idolatry.
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I missed this the first time that I read it I've I read this several times and I was like, well, what's the main point? What's what's really going on here?
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Think about this The gospel moves in with power people give their lives to Christ and as they're giving their lives to Christ Do they continue in their idolatry?
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If they did there wouldn't be this ruckus right? No riot because they're still buying idols, but they give them up It means very clearly that those who followed
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Christ were turning from their Idolatry the message of Christ does not leave room for people to add a little bit of Jesus into their life
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Into their idolatry just I'll take Jesus too They stopped buying the idols. I met many
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Hindu students when I was on campus working with Western, Michigan University Lots of Hindus. It was just an awesome time in my life of going into those going into those apartments we always called it the alphabet soup, you know, the
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Apartments that are all have the the alphabet they're labeled according to the some of you know what
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I'm talking about Some of you don't all kinds of international students in there. That was kind of the center hub We would go into these apartments.
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We would first of all we get signups. So we weren't ever doing cold calls These are people who actually asked for us to come and study the
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Bible with them Really cool all international students coming from all around the world guys from Saudi Arabia we're studying the
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Bible with guys from a lot from India and So we would go in and we'd have these Bible studies
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But more often than not when I went into their apartment They would have a little a little end table set up right by their front door
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And what do you think was on that any guesses? What was on that end table? All their idols all their idols and there'd be a little a little thing of incense
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There'd be a little bowl of rice or some milk there or I mean things that they're literally literally
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Offering these things now what was really intriguing to me is often above them on the wall Push pin in were these
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I mean, I hate to be I'm not trying to be insulting, but they were like trading cards. I Mean they really were they were like a picture of their
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God and it was about the size of a trading card and it was Pushed into the wall and it had a picture of ganache or Vishnu or Hanuman or all of these
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Idols and they would literally worship these things Occasionally though I would run into someone who would proudly show me their trading card and who was it?
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Jesus It looked at me. He looked a little he looked a little Indian Okay, he looked a little bit like he was a
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Hindu, but you know I mean every culture thinks that Jesus looks like them, right? So but they would proudly show me that Jesus was one of their idols.
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They worshiped Jesus, too Aren't we we're all on the same, you know Can you imagine that that seemed far removed from where most of us live?
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Does it pretty far? Or maybe not as far That was a trick question
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Consider far how far you have let Jesus break into Your personal history.
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How much have you let him own of you? Does he own it all is he one piece of the pie?
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Is he one component of your life or is he the whole ball of wax? Or are you sharing him or is he sharing you with others?
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Have we added him like a trading card to our collection of idols We as Americans can be guilty of this.
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Can't we we as Christians as Christians can be guilty of this He's right there on the shelf somewhere between football and self -image
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Or right there between status and entertainment, right? Can you see it?
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Where do we put him? I? Would suggest that there are two ways we miss this in our culture
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We either like I've just indicated we we can add God is just one more thing as I've already said or or we may just entertain the notion that we ought to keep our options open
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You know I'm talking about That notion and what I mean by keeping our options open is it can range from the very common misperception that all roads lead to God You have you heard that in our culture all roads lead to God and it's all just the same or even just the
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Though ever so popular idea that Jesus is real and true for me
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Maybe not for everybody, but he's right for me You heard that one?
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Those are the ways that we get this concept wrong If we think about this logically if we are believing that Jesus is just right for me or that all roads lead to God It's if we bubble that down if we boil it down all the way to its basic thought we end up with Jesus going to the cross for no good reason
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Because there's other ways if there are other ways. Do you think he wanted to go to the cross? If there was any other way as a matter of fact
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He literally said that in a prayer to his father the night before he would be the night He was betrayed the night before he gave his life as a ransom for all of us
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He prayed fervently in the garden that night and said father if there is any other way do it that way
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Let's roll with that idea right Can you hear him in the garden?
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Can you hear him saying that if there is any other way? I don't want to do this.
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I Don't want to take the sins of the world It's gonna To to have your wrath poured out on me
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God. I don't really desire that You see And what was the response from heaven a
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The resounding silence That affirmed there was no other and He went with resolve from that point forward you look at the transformation that happened to Christ in the garden
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And he sets his face towards the cross and he pays the penalty for us the way
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The way for us to be made whole the way for us to be made right there is no other way the new believers in Ephesus Were steeped in historical
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Idolatry When they come to came to understand the forgiveness that they could have in Christ.
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They understood Paul's preaching and They understood that to take Christ meant to say no to other things
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Jesus broke into that community in such a way that the United Idol workers were losing business And if you think about how this applies to our lives
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We could set about and and start a program of picketing things Like we how many of you can think of some things that we should be against as a church
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Okay, two of you the rest of you need to think creatively about your culture, okay
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There are some things we should be against right Thank you for saying that There are some things that we definitely should be against so that what we could do is we could go around and picket
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Pornography we just pick a pick a topic picket pornography and we are going to be against it Okay, or we could take petitions out to get the internet free of it or whatever
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Getting what I'm saying. You just pick whatever your topic is whatever your issue is in this culture and say we could try to Lobby and force legislation through and try to get it our way, right?
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We could pick at that stuff or instead we could preach what is right? Preach what is true?
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Speak into people's lives and call them to give up their idols and come to Christ That is where freedom is found
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Not in opposing the methods of this world But in promoting the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that was
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Paul's method We're gonna see that here in a moment that there's some evidence that that's the way they moved and worked in Ephesus Was through the proclamation of truth not through primarily a smear campaign against evil
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Are you getting what I'm saying on that? Now is there a time is there a place for us to have a voice and to speak out against things?
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Absolutely, but is that our primary and I'm talking about primary. Is that what we are called primarily to do?
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No We are called primarily to lift Christ high in as people see him as he is glorified in us and through our speech
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And through our behavior and through our actions and through our fellowship and the love that we share for one another In Christ, he has made glorious and these other things are put down These other things fall away.
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That's what we're seeing in our text Idolatry is on hard times because Christ has been elevated See how that works out in a culture.
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That's what recast is about. That's what we're trying to accomplish here Not political lobbying or getting the right people in offices or things like that.
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Should we vote? Yes, should we be active? Yes but that's not our primary calling in verse 27
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Demetrius expresses three fears to he's given the speech and They're broad enough to encompass a large portion of pagans in Ephesus He's going to ignite a lot of people from a variety of angles and he's speaking
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He's creative in what he's saying so that he can get as many people on his bandwagon as possible So he appeals to the economic repercussions.
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He probably has more than half of them just at that alone, right? Probably significant portion.
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He's like you're gonna lose your jobs and you're gonna be out if Christ is made glorious and idols are put down and so there's economic their social repercussions that is because Ephesus was respected is the place of the temple of Artemis and Our culture our society the fabric around which our society is woven
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We're going to become the laughingstock if we the keepers of this great temple are the ones who turn away from her as I mentioned before this was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world a
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Most imposing structure to take this in by scope. I mean, you know, they didn't have cranes back then
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Did you know that no crane to lift up? You know the so how high do you think this building would get without cranes?
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It's 425 feet long 225 feet wide 60 feet tall
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One third larger 33 percent larger than a football field
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This building is enormous You it's four times larger than the
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Parthenon to put that in perspective the Parthenon is the is the Building for the worship of Athena in and it was the second largest temple in the world four times larger
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So you can imagine how this was more than religious pride it was also community pride They were keepers of this great building in this great facility and it was significant to them
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And it's ironic that the last fear mentioned. What's the last thing that Demetrius mentioned? Oh, and by the way,
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Artemis worship might go away, too She might be deposed from her magnificence in the eyes of the world. And so it's kind of like well,
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I'll tack that on to How concerned was he with her worship? He was more concerned with his pocketbook
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It's more concerned with the status of their community So Demetrius his message is all struck a chord in that gathering
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They began to shout of course great as Artemis of the Ephesians from here on out in the text You need to just that's kind of chanting in the background.
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This is going there's there's on that great as Artemis of the Ephesians This is a mob that is going to take effect here
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They move from wherever this whole thing starts some people think it was down by the harbor But they move from there to the theater stirring up the city shouting along the way grabbing a couple
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Christians that they find along the Way Gaius and Aristarchus when you are scared a mob comes get you out of the marketplace and is dragging you towards the theater
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Would you be a little scared a little bit nervous? Like how's this what's going on here? And how's this gonna end?
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The theater itself was a massive structure still there in Ephesus if you go get a chance to visit that area of the world
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It holds about 24 ,000 people We're not talking about a small don't get in your mind that this is a small crowd
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This is not a small gathering 24 ,000 people I Imagine that Paul is thinking that this would be a great opportunity to go and proclaim
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Christ He catches word that this whole thing is going down and he wants to go be there at the theater When you think that's gonna be a good idea for Paul Anybody who loves
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Paul is saying don't go to the theater right now. It's not going to go well for you
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So we actually have the the Christians some of his friends that are disciples Blocking him from going and even some of the civic leaders called on az arcs
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They were city leaders civic leaders within that city who were his friends. They're urging him not to venture out into the theater
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The phrase we're urging him has a very persistent nature to the Greek word that is used there
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That implies it took some effort to convince Paul not to go how many of you are like, oh,
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I really want to go Okay, I guess I won't go, you know, I really wanted to but he twisted my arm and talked me out of going to my death
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Paul's persistent. He wants to be there. I wonder if some some of it is that he knows that two of his friends are in Trouble.
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I mean imagine put yourself in that situation guys in Aristarchus are about to take the thunder and he's like I'm sitting back here safe.
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That doesn't feel right You know I'm saying he's like I want to be there and not only that but he's like Big crowd gospel presentation.
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I mean, come on. What's what's what's to lose here? Verse 32 shows
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Luke sense of humor. He's gonna define the crowd for us And define a little bit of the reality of human nature
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The mob is in confusion with people all shouting all kinds of stuff But notice it says most of the gathering had no clue why they had even gathered
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Most of them don't even know why they're there. Do you see that in verse 32? Now some cried out one thing some another for the assembly was in confusion and most of them did not know why they had come together
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Whenever I see a ride in the news any of you received video footage of a riot in the news or whatever Do you ever wonder
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I I wondered every time I see it what started this? How did he at what point do people think it's a good idea at what point is it like, you know what?
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I think it's a good idea to throw rocks at cops. I think this is gonna go Well, it's gonna be a good day gonna go throw some rocks at some cops for real like that You think that's gonna go well for you?
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Okay, and then and then at some point you decide let's break a couple windows and steal some
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TVs while we're at it You know what? I'm talking about. I think where does this come from? There's probably not a lot of principle in those riots in those things that we see on TV Do you think it it might start as principle, you know, we're rioting against the greed of big companies.
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So let's steal some TVs You know That's the way that people think
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Humanity is prone to mob mentality and not much has changed in 2 ,000 years I picture one dude standing in this in this crowd here in Ephesus.
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Just what's going on here I don't have a clue, but I'm here for the riot. Like I mean, they don't even know what they're there for the
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Jews poor timing The Jews get a great idea that this might be a good time to distance themselves from the
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Christians in a formal way We got a hearing we got a whole Greek crowd in front of us. Let's get this dude
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Alexander good at speaking Let's get him up in front of everybody and tell him why we're not Christians because they're angry at Christians So we this is a good time to put some distance between us and them the crowd finds out that Alexander is a
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Jew Not a worshipper of Artemis and They begin chanting to shout him down and they continue this chant great as Artemis to the
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Ephesians for two hours How many of you think that would get annoying?
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Okay, like shouting out the window. I'm trying to take a nap in here. Would you guys keep it down? I'm great as Artemis to the
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Ephesians for two hours now I can relate to this because last week I got to go to the big house Does any of you ever been to the big house?
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It's an amazing venue a hundred and eleven thousand in attendance and Some of you might know that we rolled over a team last week
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At 58 to nothing and every time of course that Michigan scores a touchdown. What do they stand and shout?
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They sing hail to the victors, right? And it's all exciting and stuff And so I know what it's like I mean these people were probably getting hoarse because every time that Michigan scored and they scored a lot
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We stood up and we sang this song and I was hoarse by the end of it But didn't
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I say something about not worshiping football earlier? I don't And and here's the thing. Here's the thing for real.
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Listen to this I am convinced that there were people in that crowd that every time that they stood up and they shouted hair it hailed to the
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Victors it sounded a lot like great is Artemis of the Ephesians to the ears of God Because there is worship that happens.
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Did you know there's worship that happens on? Saturday afternoons in front of TVs and in football stadiums everywhere worship that belongs to the
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Almighty God and it's given to some You know, 45 50 students on a football field or a
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Monday night or wherever it might be whatever it is that is that that captures our heart and causes us to rejoice and just be
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Lose ourselves and I mean I can stand up and get super excited about a touchdown. But what about the grace of God?
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What about that whole resurrection deal? What about the promise of a new life? victory over sin any of that like Wow, is that exciting?
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touchdown a Touchdown versus that like really are you getting what I'm saying? Not that we can't enjoy football
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No, we can't enjoy those things. God is not some cosmic killjoy. That's like, oh, oh, they're enjoying themselves It's not about that.
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It's about our worship. It's about the place where our heart centers on its ultimate joy
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Ultimate joy That touchdown isn't gonna be remembered in three weeks four weeks, maybe even at the next day
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You know what I'm saying that making sense to you guys do I need to talk more about it Finally at the end of this whole thing the town clerk who we should think of as the mayor of Ephesus It's not just a scribe, but he's like in the office of mayor speaks some sense to the crowd.
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He appeals to common sense He says in summary everyone knows that Ephesus is all about Artemis you guys are shouting great as Artemis of Ephesians Everybody knows you guys are like super excited.
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Our town is super excited about Artemis. That's great We have that big temple and we're keepers of a stone that fell from the sky
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We haven't found that Archaeologically speaking assume that there was some meteorite or something. I mean, you know people are prone to worship stuff
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Rock falls from the sky. Oh, let's worship that it's cool shiny and Yeah, I wonder if there was radio radioactive material on that as well
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Strange mob gathered here The mayor says don't do anything rash
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Since it's clear that Ephesus has such a high standing. That's the gist of what he's getting at So you can read the words there in the text.
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That's the that's the nuance of what he's saying Ephesus has this high standing don't do anything to mess it up.
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Don't do anything rash but what he says in verse 37 is amazing informative about the way that the Christians in Ephesus the way that Paul worked in Ephesus He says
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Gaius and Aristarchus are neither sacrilegious or blasphemers of Artemis Because these guys that you brought before me for trial these guys that you're about ready to lynch
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They haven't done anything wrong. They haven't even they've been blasphemed Artemis. They haven't been sacrilegious towards her
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Like what? I mean, I think that seems strange. Does that seem strange to you?
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They haven't said anything bad about Artemis How could they be how could they be sharing the gospel and not saying anything bad about Artemis?
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Don't you have to say something bad about other people's gods in order to lead them to Christ? They did not have a discredit
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Artemis campaign running in the church If Paul wasn't speaking out against their culture, then what was he saying to them?
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What was he preaching? What was he proclaiming? Paul was out proclaiming the truth and he was training
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Christians in Ephesus to proclaim the truth to talk about Jesus Christ and the good news that's found in him
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Paul did not see his ministry in Ephesus as a push to discredit Artemis But it's calling a ministry where the promotion of Jesus Christ and him alone
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Too often the church has taken on the ministry of opposition in our culture to agree with that the church in general
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We can slide into thinking our message is about telling others how wrong they are and how they need to change their ways
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I'm thoroughly convinced that proclaiming truth is unreasonably more powerful than opposing falsehood
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You agree Proclaiming truth is more powerful than opposing falsehood sure, there's a time in a season for answering questions of the faith and There's a time and place for answering questions about the faith of others
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But I would discourage you from lingering on that lingering on a discussion about other people's faiths
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Proclaiming the love of God through the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the point Unfortunately, the believers in Ephesus got this right and there was literally no accusation against him that could stick in this context
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An illustration of this so how does that where does the rubber meet the road on this? I used to respond to a common question when
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I was working with Muslims in England and back here in the States Inadvertently in a religious conversation with a
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Muslim. This question is going to come up if you talk with him long enough What do you think about Muhammad? What do you think about Muhammad?
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What do you think? How are you gonna answer that? What would you say if I told them what
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I thought of Muhammad from a strictly theological perspective? That was going to be the end of the discussion
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There was going to be no further opportunity to talk about Christ no further opportunity to talk about my faith or anything
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And it might even get ugly So I'd often answer that. I think he was an amazing political and military leader a very significant person in the scope of world history
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Was usually a thing that was usually a sufficient answer To just say to show some respect for him as a person created in the image of God But not get into the nuances of theology not get into the nuances of the fact that I think that he
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Believed he received revelation and there might even have been some extra spiritual influence that was going on in the revelation of the
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Quran I'm not gonna get into that Let it go if it wasn't satisfactory and they press further which occasionally happened
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I would say, you know that if I believed more than that about Muhammad I Would be a
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Muslim not a Christian and I'm a Christian So guess what? I'd like to talk with you about Christ because that's who
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I know about I don't know a lot about Muhammad, but I sure I sure know a lot about Christ Let me tell you about him and then
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I would talk to them about the gospel if they would listen The point was not to disagree with Islam.
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The point was to present Jesus Christ as the only sacrifice for sin In verses 38 through 41 the mayor suggests settling this by legal channels
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He says this is an illegal riot that's going on and this is turning ugly and so he says the courts are open a pro -council is available to hear the case and Then he utters what is the greatest gravest concern on his heart?
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The town is in significant danger. Why? If things escalate further and Rome gets involved in this if the
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Roman Soldiers catch word of this they could be charged with rioting. The word rioting is has the nuance of Sedition in it a very very significant charge against a
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Roman citizen of Sedition and if they were charged with rioting or sedition the the city of Ephesus could find themselves moving out of what was called
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Provincial status where they have a pro -council and they have their they're seen as a peaceful area to Rome and so they didn't need a military garrison and if they move out of provincial status to Imperial status that would mean that they get the opportunity to play host to a military outpost
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And by playing host to a military outpost They get heavy taxation. They pay for the soldiers that they have to garrison there so even in the town clerks the mayor's message to them comes a financial a financial comment with teeth to it if We get charged with rioting you guys know what road that goes down and the crowd ends up dispersing and this was a very wise smooth
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Town clerk He got right to the heart of the matter and said you talk about finances
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You wait till Rome put some soldiers in here and this is going to turn ugly But let me return to the main point here as I wrap this up Jesus broke into Ephesus with power in such a way that even the darkest practices of idolatry were losing revenue
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As people changed the culture changed the worship of our Artemus was tanking Not because Paul lobbied the
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Asiarchs which says in the text were his friends not because of Petitions signed not even because Paul was preaching against Artemus, but because Jesus was changing one life at a time
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Do you believe that we have the power to change our community? Do you believe we have the opportunity to transform
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America? I'm currently sitting on a committee called the inspiring youth initiative
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It's a brand new thing that the principal of the high school here has started in our community And we're trying to give teens in our community some hope for something to lure them away from drugs and poor lifestyle choices
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And the more that we talk the more becomes clear that nothing can truly capture the human heart aside from faith
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You can read my blog about this this past week And some of the nuances of some of the discussions that I've had with some of those other people that are sitting on The committee it's very hard to sit on that committee
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Because I'm one of the only ones that believe that faith is the only is the only thing that steadfast What kind of things are other people holding out to these teens?
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well, well clearly you're not going to be able to get that six -figure job if You don't if you if you're going to get involved in drugs
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And you're going to do this and you're going to do this and you're going to make poor lifestyle choices Then you don't have that hope for that income out there
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You're not going to get good grades in college and therefore you're not going to be able to get that that American dream How do you know that kids nowadays are a little bit jaded towards that American dream?
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They've seen they've seen the brokenness of their own families They've seen hardship, and how do you know that if you hold money out to somebody?
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There's a lot of ways to get wealthy that are not above board You know what I'm saying like you might be trying to get them to not do drugs and drive them
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Because you elevate money you might drive them to sell drugs because that's a pretty
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Quick shortcut to six figures, right? Do you see how morality works in this?
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So it really comes down to Christ The hope for you is the hope for America simply in the message of Jesus forgiveness hope the glory of God These are the lasting things that move us to live our lives with purpose you want to change your world
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I'm gonna change your society you want to change your community tell people about the love of Jesus Christ Show your world how glorious he is elevate him and lift him up because everything else is just smoke in there father it is my desire that you would be honored and glorified as We have taken in your word
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And we've seen how Christ can break into the context of Ephesus and how you have broken here in here at the in this community
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And we've seen lives being transformed and changed and God, I ask for more not for more numbers in here not for the sake of growing recast
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Church but for the sake of impacting this community for the glory of Jesus Christ and We recognize that life change only happens in him that we can have all kinds of other shabby and shoddy
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Purposes and other things that sure can help us for a short period of time But in the end will not sustain us will not last but they lead ultimately to death and destruction