Red Stone Church
Sceva, Ephesus
very long chapter 41 verses but we're not going to read all 41 verses. I just plan on reading through and hitting kind of the main ones that are going to communicate the meaning of this passage today. So I'm actually going to pick up in verse 8 and we're going to pick up where Paul has actually returned to Ephesus and before we get started I just want to take a moment of prayer and kind of let my nerves settle a little bit and kind of prepare our hearts. So Lord we just sit right here with the Word open ready for you to renew our minds, to change our hearts, Holy Spirit teach us the wisdom that is in this passage and may we leave here encouraged and emboldened today to go out into the world taking the message of Christ crucified with us wherever we go in Christ's name. Amen. All right so picking up in verse 8 Paul has entered a synagogue here in Ephesus says he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God but when some became stubborn and continued an unbelief speaking evil of the way before the congregation he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him reasoning daily in the hall of tyrannis. This continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord both Jews and Greeks. In verse 11 and God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcist undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits saying I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims there are seven sons of a Jewish high breeze named skiva who are doing this but the evil spirit answered them Jesus I know and Paul I recognize but who are you and the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them mastered all of them and overpowered them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded and this became known to all the residents of Ephesus both Jews and Greeks and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Also many of those who are now believers came confessing and divulging their practices and a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the side of all and they counted the value of them and found it that came it came to 50,000 pieces of silver so the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevailed modily then on down to verse 23 about that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way for a man named 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 hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul is persuaded and turned away a great many people saying that gods made with hands are not gods in verse 28 when they heard this they were enraged and were crying out great as Artemis of the Ephesians so the city was filled with the confusion and they rushed together in the theater dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel 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 in verse 35 and when the town clerk acquired the crowd he said men of Ephesus who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple keeper of the great Artemis and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky seeing then that these things cannot be denied you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash for all flesh it's like for all flesh is light in the grass and the flowers the field the grass withers the flowers fall but the glory of the Lord remains forever amen I knew I was going to mess that up I told them in the meeting this morning even set it in my head like 50 times well my name is Gary if you don't know who I am I get the honor and privilege a couple times a year to serve in this in this capacity I serve other places at Redstone to teach and preach the word it's something I'm really passionate about and I feel like God has really called me into so I really hope this sermon is great I wrote it on a napkin last night at Waffle House over dinner so we'll see how it goes and hope to have you out here about 130 if not lunches on me so there we broke the ice okay you can stop being nervous at least on your end so when we uh before we start I was thinking through uh just some ways to kind of connect with you guys and kind of attach like where we live now and the passage which I think is very important because a lot of times we can approach the Bible is just kind of like this historical text it's just kind of dry those things happened at one time we haven't really seen anything like that happen again and uh now of course I'm going to go a little further back for this first example but there's two brief stories I want to share with you and one is of a church father named Saint Boniface and if any of you know history there was this country that existed it's now called Germany but it was called Germania and in Germania there was all of these warrior tribes they were a fierce people but they worshipped Norse gods you know Thor, Odin all of that it's not the Disney characters that Disney just robbed that but anyways it was kind of a thorn in Rome's side like Rome even as big as an empire as they were could never conquer Germania it was just the frustration of every emperor that ever existed but in uh 719 AD this guy named Saint Boniface the church sent him to Germania and what he did is he mimics a lot of what Paul is doing an ethicist in this he immediately goes to the most influential people in that society which were the tribal chiefs and he shares the gospel of the tribal chiefs and he noticed this pattern of when he'd share the gospel with the tribal chiefs and they would come to know Christ most of the tribe would follow suit so he had a lot of great success well in that culture there was the kind of the shrine that people go to called Donner's Oak and Donner was just another name for Thor and that's where the priests in that religion would make sacrifices and all that way he goes up there to Donner's Oak and he looks at the people that are gathered up there and he says hey I'm gonna come back here tomorrow and I'm gonna touch this tree and now I'm gonna touch it I'm gonna cut it down and I'm sure they all kind of giggled and they're like wow we can't wait to see this guy because they believe that if anybody impure or defame the tree that they would be struck by a bolt of lightning and killed instantly by Thor from his hammer so he comes back the next day he rears back his axe barely chips the bark according to history and this massive wind just kind of comes out of nowhere and topples the tree over like roots and all and and and apparently everyone there was so shocked about how impotent the god they worshipped was that fear overcame them and they repented and inquired of who this Jesus is and it's and the legend goes is that St. Boniface like actually baptized a great number of them into the faith that day pretty wild right and like kind of bold like I don't know that we would find a lot of people willing to do that these days right because probably illegal for one like being caught the next day you chop down this oak tree that kind of thing but I share that with you to kind of display like what the church is actually doing in Ephesus as you see this momentum grow from the gospel being preached the other story I want to share with you shows the other end of that of what happens when we show courage like that people that are on the other side there's this lady who was a very prominent new age teacher her name is Doreen virtue and she's actually got a youtube channel she in an interview in 2022 shared part of her story she said you know just five years ago like as early as like 2017-2016 she talks about how she was a very prominent new age teacher top selling author she traveled the world her and her husband rubbed elbows with the who's who celebrities they lived on a 50 acre ranch in Hawaii do you guys know how expensive land is in Hawaii they owned a 50 acre so this tells you the amount of money this lady had her and her husband well she she traveled the world doing seminars and conferences and teaching about you know positivity statements divination reading astrology like you name it if it was in and even would co-op you know things look like Jesus saying like the name and claim it stuff right so it was kind of this hodgepodge of just like teaching of the catch-all like you know get what you want out of life was the main motive well she happened to be driving one day home she got home from a conference and she was somehow ended up on a christian satellite radio station and Alistair Begg was on there now if you know who Alistair Begg is you know right away where this is going so he's she's listening to Alistair Begg preach on second Timothy chapter four about teachers preaching to itchy ears and she says she's quoted as saying I could tell he was describing people just like me she said God used Begg's sermon to convict me for the first time in my life his words pierced my stony heart and I felt ashamed of my false teachings when I got home I immediately told my husband Michael that I wanted to start attending a real church and he readily agreed I then found myself reading the entire Bible and it changed everything when I got to Deuteronomy 18 I encountered a list of sinful activities include that included several I was practicing divination interpreting signs and omens and mediumship this passage says that people using this message methods are detestable and an abomination of God I was broken I was deeply shamed and humbled by these words I dropped to my knees and shame and sorrow profusely apologizing to God and I kept wailing in repentance I didn't know I didn't know I didn't know on that very day the Lord saved me and changed my life forever she said this decision had far-reaching consequences my husband and I left our fancy home in Hawaii she sold the the ranch she then she then says my new-age publisher ended our professional partnership and all the new-agers that so highly respected me before I was the target of scornful emails daily because I began publicly renouncing my old beliefs and teachings she even went so far as to try and pull all of her books all of her teachings all of her podcasts all of that off of the market so that they could be destroyed and would not have this far-reaching damage that she had realized she had also went to seminary got a degree in theological and biblical studies and now has an entire ministry dedicated slowly to getting people out of the occult and the new age practices and even like helps minister to Christians who have kind of co-mingled all of those things together like she did she left millions of dollars and threw all of that away for the sake of following Christ how foolish do you think the world looks at her and thinks she is right like she didn't she didn't keep getting the royalty checks and then like tithing to you know wherever she's going to church she disregarded all of that as trash for the beauty of Jesus so knowing those two stories I want us to kind of like ask a few questions at the forefront of our mind as we read this passage today what does it look like when we bring the gospel to bear on a culture such as saint monophies when it when we bring it I mean we really bring it we don't hide we don't apologize we don't do it but like when we really realize that people's eternity is at stake what like what does that look like when that bears on our culture our society our homes our schools our politicians all of that what does that actually look like what are the results if that happens the other thing i want to ask is when we're thinking about misvirtue what is it about Jesus that will compel a person to do something like this publicly right i would bet that most of our spiritual stories in this room probably in some regard are very private in manner right we were praying with someone or or something like that but but it didn't require this going out and like throwing things on a trash heap and burning them right but it what would compel a person to do that like they would lose their their social status like they would no longer be liked or respected by the people that they were once adored by so just ask that question like what is it about Jesus that would draw not just one person but as we read it has an entire economy like like an industry of people to do this it's quite amazing so let's go ahead and dig in so if you don't know anything about Ephesus it was a pretty amazing city it was kind of like one of the spiritual meccas of Ephesus and it's also contains a lot of the like kind of wonders of the ancient world one of them was the huge amphitheater that could seat 25 to 50,000 people that was built in like 550 BC can you imagine that i mean that would be the equivalent i don't even know like it would be almost like the equivalent of them building Bristol Motor Speedway in 550 BC the other part that drew a lot of people to Ephesus was the temple of Artemis and the temple of Artemis was massive it was 425 foot long by 220 foot wide and it had these i had 127 of these like 60 foot high pillars that held up the colonnade but really the shocking thing about Ephesus is that much of its industry was related to this temple and this temple wasn't just isolated to Ephesus like there was a whole region that worshipped this god goddess Artemis and so craftsmen sold shrons and household images of the goddess Artemis that worshippers could take on long journeys they could take them back to home and the Ephesians were actually very proud of their religious heritage so given that we can kind of see why things escalated to the way that they escalate in this passage so we pick up where Paul just kind of rearrived back in Ephesus him and Apollo's are kind of like one two punch in the region right so Paul is in Corinth and then Paul goes to Ephesus and in Apollo Apollo was also in Ephesus he goes to Corinth and so they're kind of bouncing back and forth which makes a lot of sense now when Paul writes you know i plant the seeds in Apollo's waters but god gives the growth you know i'm familiar with that passage it kind of makes sense now when you see exactly how they're bouncing around and so at the end of that chapter we hear that Apollo's was preaching in Ephesus and Priscilla and Aquila approach him and like hey there's this life death and resurrection thing that like maybe we need to fill you in on and so they fill him in on it and so when Paul gets back to Ephesus he meets these 12 guys um it says about 12 numbers not exactly accurate but he asked him he was like what have you been baptized into and they're like the baptism of John so they kind of could have either set under Paul's or or they could have been left ever disciples of John the Baptist and then we're just kind of like church adjacent folks that were just like still going to synagogue we don't really know exactly but the the main point though is that Paul approaches him he shares the gospel with him lays hands on they receive the spirit do signs and wonders and the entire synagogue probably witnessed this so he continues to press in at this synagogue and and so we find that's like kind of the first nine verses of chapter 19 is kind of this overlap of like tying up chapter 18 and now we're starting a new story in chapter 19 about how things take place in Ephesus and kind of the main idea here is that you see two kingdoms clashing in Ephesus you see the kingdom of God and you see the kingdom of man or earthly kingdom and who do you think is going to win obviously we know the end of the story but there's a lot we could pull from the text um I think right off the bat I think we can see that when you're presented with Jesus like Paul is doing in this synagogue you got two places you can go with Jesus it's either you're with him or you're against him there's no neutral place that Jesus occupies in fact to preach a neutral Jesus would be no Jesus at all so that's why when Paul preaches you see these people like I'm gonna get stubborn I'm gonna continue to believe oh I want to inquire more about him right and so you could totally see God at work um and I think Paul really exhibits some brilliant like missional wisdom in Ephesus like he doesn't just go to like where people will be the most desperate spiritually he goes to where there's the most hardened minds and hearts possible but he starts with the synagogue because he knows that if he preaches the gospel in the synagogue it's going to be put to the strictest scriptural litmus test possible which meant he knew exactly what he believed was going to pass the muster exceedingly well so he was not scared to go into those places and preach the gospel and see it put through his paces and come out on the other side people believing that Christ was king it's also in some of those places like when he goes to the arapagus or when we see right now where he like actually takes those disciples when those people become stubborn when they start speaking evil of Jesus and actually cursing the gospel he takes him to the hall of tyrannis where a lot of like Greek philosophers and secular people went he's not he's not afraid to put the gospel out there in front of these folks and have them like see if it's an imposter faith to see if it's just another god on a shelf somewhere or another temple that gets built so Paul as time went on begins to meet opposition some become stubborn they continue to deny the validity of validity of Jesus they were cursing Christ and Jesus even told us that this would happen that he would divide people right he says in john 15 verse 18 if the world hates you know that it has hated me before it hated you it's not a new thing if you were the world the world would love you as its own but because you're not of the world but I chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you so we could take a little bit of comfort and I know that sounds counterintuitive when people oppose us when we preach the truth of god it's a natural thing that happens Jesus even warned us that that would happen but Paul is concerned really with preaching to those willing to hear who would hear his reason who would hear his teachings for though he like ceased to preach in the synagogue and he went to the hall of tyrannists he wasn't confined there like we can read from the text that he still continued to go out to the other regions of Asia and his companions would go with him and they would preach the gospel administered to people but it says this one word that when me and spitzer talked the other day it kind of clicked the word all is repeated several times in this passage and I think it's Luke's way of saying hey listen this was no little thing that was happening in Ephesus it's all of Asia like it wasn't just as it was all of Asia like the gospel was spreading fast and rapidly it was winning it was winning people to the kingdom and so he he talks about how it was in verse 10 this continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord both Jews and Greeks so just look for that word all because it shows up a good handful of more times then we get to this part of the passage that I kind of found perplexing and I'll be honest I've known I've been preaching for like several months and I've been reading this over and over and over again and it literally dropped on me like Monday of last week of kind of this if you guys have paid attention during acts Luke is really good at doing compare and contrast and when he does he is he compares the fallenness of humanity with the glory of God and it shows how wicked human beings and demons are compared to Jesus and this passage is no different there's a lot of compare and contrast in here between what's going on in Ephesus and what's going on with the church and how those two are impacting one another and so it says that Paul was was being used by God to do extraordinary things so think about this Paul was probably just doing his daily routine he was wiping the sweat of his brow with a handkerchief and throwing it to the side and it to me it's so I went to this concert in high school is traysackens and I thought it was so weird people get really weird with celebrities and it makes me feel super icky like I don't get it at all and I've met some famous people in my life and they're just like normal human beings like it's it's nothing like grand it's but I went to this concert and you know he's up there doing his thing and he's like a huge dude by the way he's like seven foot tall but he's like wiping his sweat off his house and literally throwing them into the crowd and women are beating each other to get these things I'm like this is the grossest thing like I actually like his songs but like this is ruining it for me this is so weird but just think about this Paul was working wearing an apron making tents popping sweat off his brow and people were taking those and laying them in faith on people who were sick and oppressed by demons and God was using a piece of cloth to free people from demonic possession illnesses and diseases think about that right so then we get to these traveling exorcists these seven sons of a high priest named Skiva and this commentator says these like all their countrymen in all places went about to get their bread and what they could making trial of everything by which they could have the prospect of gain finding that Paul but cast out demons through the name of Jesus they thought by using the same they might produce the same effects and if they could they knew it would be that to them an ample source of revenue for demoniacs abounded in the land there is so much sin and rebellion in this passage from just the pursuit of financial gain and wealth and popularity it is unreal to me but when you look at our current society that we live in like why does everybody want to be a tick-tock influencer I'm like to me it exhausts me like it's hard enough for me to post once a week about our business on instagram and it really is frustrating to me because I hate social media but can you imagine every day getting up and having coffee and be like wow I've got to come up with something to entertain people today like even the best comedians among us like work for years to create an actual if you need you guys know john chris like you know how long it takes him to create one hour long comedy tour like like where he goes to a place in his on stage for an hour like just imagine how much work that is but these people live and breathe it like if they scheme all the time what can I do to gain the most money possible with the least amount of effort so it's not even like these guys were motivated by higher morals by saying we care about people that are demon possessed and there's probably a lot of fame with that because people are really wild by it if they ever were successful in a genuine way but if you're even verse 15 it's such a feeble attempt um they they talk to this demon and and actually it's in verse 13 it says all right you're you by the jesus whom paul proclaims it's not even in the name of jesus it's like by this guy that paul talks about all the time uh come out of him it would be like me going to some random kid in here and saying hey by the authority of your parents you better listen to me and they're gonna be like who are you like i don't have to listen to you you're you're nobody like where do you get that authority from and just as like evil as their motives were they were met with an equal or or greater evil from this demon he kind of just saw them as an irritant wasn't it they weren't even a threat in fact he's like you know what you irritated me so much i'm gonna beat the heck out of you rip your clothes off so that you have to run out of this house naked and the whole crowd gathered outside everybody's gonna know in this region that you're the naked like scared exorcists right so so these men that the demon knew right away that they were not from jesus they had no authority they're just noisy gongs hollowed out vessels that had no authority no power no presence and the contrast here between paul and the sons of skiva is phenomenal to me i want you guys to follow me with this think about seven grown men who are professional exorcists that travel this is how they make their living right they go into this house and like come on boys we got it it's just one guy we've sworn demon we can take this guy we got this right so they go in and they get absolutely pummeled i mean think about action movies right the evil guy always sends a bunch of henchmen and the the hero always wins like obviously this demon is not a hero i'm not i'm not saying that so don't throw stones at me just yet but i'm just saying like we see it in action movies all the time but that's what happens here but then the whole region experiences this contrast where god is using paul like like not even paul himself like physically using pieces of garments that have touched him to free people from demonic possession do you see how crazy of a contrast that is and that that's what finally hit me about this of like that's why people were filled with fear and then go to seek jesus because in my mind i was just reading the sons of skiva part and saying well how does seven guys get beat up by a demon turn people to jesus like that doesn't make any sense but it's that contrast between the power and the might of jesus is so much greater that a piece of cloth can do what not seven men could do right how amazing is that i was blown away by that and it just as such when you look at the scope of emphasis in asian all the rampant paganism and demonism and i'm sure there were some believers like how are we ever going to missionally reach this place and then this happens so then it leads to this public display of repentance that is just out of this world and these it says the god who may uh it says uh oh i'm sorry i'm all the way back in 18 it says and this became known to all the residents of emphasis both Jews and greeks and fear fell upon them all and the name of the lord jesus was extolled and also also many of those who are now believers came confessing and bulging their practices this is kind of a huge deal it would be like miss doreen virtue saying okay i repent i'm not going to teach that stuff anymore but these books are kind of valuable that i've written so i'm going to take them over to mr kays and get as much money out of them as possible then i don't have them i've washed my hands of them but i get to keep the money that's not what happens here yeah luke doesn't exactly tell us what silver coins these were but a lot of historians and commentators have theorized that that this would have been worth like 50 000 days worth of wages which would be millions of dollars in today's money think about that what is it about jesus that would cause someone to do that and i think what it is is that the pagans in emphasis witnessed the true nature and malice of the devil whom they served but simultaneously the power of christ whom they opposed and both of those were awful considerations they saw that the name of christ was not to be trifled with nor his religion compounded with pagan superstitions the name of the lord jesus was glorified by which his faithful servants casted out devils and cured diseases without any resistance whatsoever for now it appeared that jesus to the Ephesians really was the name above all names amen so they they they had never heard or seen a god so powerful in mighty that that human words can't even describe it poets only dream of writing poems that would do god justice in describing his beauty his majesty and all the intricacies of who he is they witnessed a king so strong and mighty that there are no chains or oppression that cannot be broken with just the slightest breath or mention of his name from his followers common sweaty rags were used at his will to heal the sick and free the oppressed all things are under the rain and rule of jesus and the Ephesians single-handedly witnessed this all serve at the will of the father whether you're against him or for him every single Ephesian witnessed this you see that i was reminded of Elijah against the prophets of bale and how they were shamed and he was like tormenting them and kind of using this holy mockery like where's your god at maybe sitting on the toilet maybe he's using the bathroom you know like what's going on and the and the and the workers of evil in this town of Ephesus were they were put the scorn they were shamed just like the prophets of bale the spread of the gospel exhibits itself in such a way as the undermined of the entire controlling trade of the city of Ephesus that that kingdom was crumbling and it was headed straight for its death throes and it says was such strong language loop describes it that it continued to increase and prevail modily modily that's a word you should underline modily it's not he's not just you know ad hominem or exaggerating modily as we know luke was a very faithful historian so he's recording these instances and how the town of Ephesus was just being turned upside down you remember in chapter 16 or 17 i'm sorry when these guys were like you got to do something about these guys they're like turning our world completely upside down right Ephesus was getting flipped on its head and even though the church was on the offense like it wasn't like they were going in like dynamiting the temple of Artemis they're like yeah God's gonna deal with that in due time like it's not gonna be there anymore like there's this slow role of momentum and it's absolutely wonderful to watch God work in this way you know we see this conflict and i think a lot for a lot of us it really makes us feel uncomfortable because we in America are living in a time that is increasingly becoming opposing to Christianity we're not welcome in the public square anymore you really want to have a fun time like go out and share something on x formerly known as twitter about Jesus boy do the people come out of the woodwork there's weeping and gnashing of the teeth right there's no different for these guys with Ephesus like no different like if you oppose somebody in a public square today from the from point of faith like you're not really gonna like crush their business right like they're gonna go home and still own their yoga studio or something right like that's that's not happening the church was literally crushing a trade beat around a built around a false demon god like these people are legitimately angry and things are escalating you know Jesus Jesus said in Luke chapter 12 says do you think i have come to give peace on earth no i'll tell you but rather division he knew he was going to be a controversial person he knew that and he was warning them hey prepare yourselves brace yourselves just like the passage i referenced earlier now we come to the head of the conflict it's the riot at Ephesus right i mean how many and uh view in this room off top of your head can remember some riots that we've experienced in this country off the top of your head right like as early as a few years ago i mean a whole summer of it so this guy Demetrius who is probably a very prominent wealthy person because the nature of his business is using silver and silver was not a cheap resource he made shrons out of silver he describes him as a silversmith and so he decides hey i've had enough of this garbage i am going to get a mob together and we're going to have some torches and pitch borks and we're going to we're going to wreck some people like we're going to we're going to end this right now so he goes out and he gathers all the people that have worked in the same trade and the guy's kind of a brilliant uh uh politician here he reminds me of a lot of people we know these days and and what he does is he reveals his own heart in the speech he gives and you can see just how evilly motivated this guy is so let me just read through his speech and we'll kind of break it down because he really does reveal some things here he says men you know that from this business we have our wealth his first statement to the crowd was appealing to their wallets and in turn reveals his own basis for concern Demetrius revealed that his true idol was actually his wallet and money and it kind of wrapped it in some fake zeal for Artemis as we'll see later he says and you see and hear that not only an ethicist but an almost all see Demetrius even affirms what Luke is saying that it was all of Asia it was all of Ephesus says almost all of Asia this Paul is persuaded and turned away a great many of people see he was mad that they were losing influence and power there's a great many of people that had walked away from that right what do you think that those people did with all of those nice like silver and gold and fine metal shrines what do you think they did with those they probably burned them they probably did exactly what Moses did with the golden calf if they were sitting under the teaching of Paul or if they'd been familiar with the teaching of all I guarantee you that's what happened so this guy's losing his butt like he's not making money anymore and so then we get to like one statement that if you if he was as endearing and as honest and as and as sincere about his faith to Artemis as he was he would not been as near as rocked about this next statement about Paul what Paul said saying that gods made with hands are not gods so we know that Paul was not shy from presenting the whole counsel of the word of God like the guy was a great teacher so I was reading this and I was like man he almost kind of like sub-tweets Paul who subtweated past scripture from the Old Testament and I was thinking of Jeremiah 10 and Isaiah 44 well and Isaiah 44 of God says how foolish are those who manufacture idols these prized objects are really worthless the people who worship idols don't know this so they are all put to shame who but a fool would make his own god an idol that cannot help him one bit all who worship idols will be disgraced along with these craftsmen mere humans who claim they can make a god they may all stand together but they will stand in terror and shame such stupidity and ignorance their eyes are closed they cannot see their minds are shut and they cannot think the person who made the idol never stop stops you reflect and God even goes to like mock them here why it's just a block of wood I burned half of it for heat and use it to make my bread and roast my meat how can the rest of it be a god then he says to Jeremiah 10 very short says people who worship idols are stupid and foolish stupid and foolish the things they worship are made of wood they bring beaten sheets of silver from tarsus and gold from eufas and they get these materials the skillful craftsmen who make their idols then they dress their gods in royal blue and purple robes made by expert tailors but the lord is the only true god he is the living god and the everlasting king the whole earth trembles at his anger and the nations cannot stand up against his wrath this statement from paul that saying gods made with hands are not gods would have been a direct shot fired across the bow war kind of language like god is coming for you but surrender to Christ right there's this kingdom that is far better than the kingdom you're living in then it then to make sure it goes on danger not only that this trade of hours may come to disrepute the trade that they were in was in danger of no longer existing it was increasingly becoming irrelevant as the days went on then he shrouds it with this false religiosity with his final statements is the temple of the great god goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing so he appeals to their wallets now he's appealing to their zeal and that she may even be deput disposed of her magnificence she who all uh whom all asian world worship he just shrouds all of it in this religiosity to kind of seem like he was this high-minded moral person in front of the crowd one commentator about this path uh has something to say about this page that the danger to our craft comes first into matrices statement and the danger to the magnificence of Artemis second but the precedence given to the trade is sapped over by a not only which tries to make the religious motive the chief no doubt Demetrius would have probably been at about public worship of Artemis because he had to make public face for his business he would um it is natural to be a devout or moral or patriotic person when it pays to be so one would not expect a shrine maker a devout shrine maker to be so easily susceptible to the conviction that they be no gods which are made with hands something to note the only other protest by gentiles against the gospel that Luke records in acts is one is resulted from financial loss as well really shows a lot about how wicked the human heart is and since Artemis was such an important part of the fusion culture the success of the gospel there would have been interpreted as an attack on not only the culture but the society and the economy of the city it was a full front attack it was it was moving forward and there was nothing these guys could do to stop it and it was frustrating them and they and even if they thought they could kill Paul and his companions like they're still like all these other thousands of people that just publicly repented and burned their shrines in their books so you've got them to contend with as well so we we love our idols okay i'm speaking to us now in our in our context we love our idols and when they get confronted it pierces us deeply and we emotionally and viscerally respond to it because most often our identity our self-worth our purpose is wrapped in those things and so when the idol gets smashed or that high place in our life gets destroyed we're going to respond with the veracity of the highest emotions and it the thing it's something to note about our idols is that it's one of the most honest mirrors of our heart it shows us where our time our money and our energy goes to it reveals like what we are motivated by so then we get to the crowd okay and this is where things escalate and then they just kind of drop off everybody's confused nobody knows why the heck they're gathered in this theater all they know is that they're mad and they're angry like they're they're out to get somebody and all they're doing is chanting great as Artemis of the Ephesians great as Artemis of the Ephesians and it isn't that something that's something that is completely void of God utter chaos consumes like when you see this and then and then it's like i guarantee you like all these other folks that had just come to the Lord there's peace there's there's order there's sincerity there's vision right and so the church is focused like there these guys are in a pain of like what do we do we're angry we're mad like why are you here John like Frank what's going on does anybody know why we're here i was literally watching a street interview from this protest where the supporters were were on behalf of Hamas and everything and this guy goes up to these two college girls and they're out there chanting with the signs and he goes hey why are you guys here today and they literally I kid you not look at each other and they're like I have I don't know right so it's not like this stuff doesn't happen anymore but they're just like hurrah but like what are we hurrying about like why are we here and so even though Demetrius like gets up gives this grand speech it just gets thrown into chaos and and nobody knows what the heck to do and it to some degree this reminds me of when God sent his army up on the hill and he says i'm going to go before you and i'm going to take them out because they didn't want to go in because they thought they were going to lose and when you read into the story God went down and caused immense confusion amongst the the army and they all ended up killing each other because they were just it was just chaos and confusion and it's similar to this here so they're potentially if you think about the amphitheater there could have been 25,000 people here or more if you think about that that's a massive crowd and again it's the all of the city I mean that's crazy to think about and I was I was remembered in first Corinthians 15 when Paul talks about how he wrestled with beasts and Ephesus I think he's describing the nature of this mob that it was just so carnal and so chaotic that it was like a bunch of wild beasts running around looking for something to eat but Paul was actually elsewhere at this time and he actually wanted to go into this here can you imagine that this huge crowd of people and Paul's wanting to go I want to go to talk to this crowd and the the church kind of steps in the brothers and they're like yeah we don't think that's such a good idea like you're just going to lose your life for no reason like they just let these guys do their thing but he was probably thinking about what was preached on last week when God told him one night in a vision says don't be afraid to speak out don't be silent for I'm with you and no one will attack and harm me for many people in this city belong to me see God was already at work in Ephesus before the church even got there there were already people that God was reaching but I would never say that we could take that statement that God give to Paul and that vision and equally apply it to all people at all times but I would say that's definitely worth highlighting in chapter 18 to remember that it's the nature and the character of God that he truly cares about the mission that he sent us on he wants to see us successful but he also wants us to know the comfort that like where I'm sending you I prepared good works for you to do but I've also prepared things for you before you get there and we see a number of people listed that were present at this crowd and one of note would be the age arcs now I kept seeing that and seeing that and I looked them up and what it is is the age arcs are actually very prominent political figures in a lot of the Roman provinces throughout the empire now it may seem insignificant to us but to me I see that of like there was no part of society that the gospel was not touching at this point the highest of the highest and the lowest of the low and these were prominent political figures that were potentially it says they were friends with Paul they were setting under his teaching which meant the governance of that nation was getting influenced by the gospel and the teachings of Christ and what a beautiful and wonderful thing but then this guy this town clerk gets up he makes a lot of like brash statements about who can question the validity of Artemis yada yada yada and essentially historians say that they they had this meteorite that they theorize that sat in the center of the temple and it had all these bubbles on it and it looked like a feminine part and they attributed that to fertility and all that so if you think about it they literally worshiped a rock that fell from space that idolism is such a ripoff that it takes what God has made and you refashion it in your image like do you see how silly that is and what God calls people stupid and foolish that worship idols like think about yourself in this moment of like your check or your or your dollar bill right like it's made out of ingredients that God put on the earth but it has an image of a man on it and just think about how silly it is to rest the laurels of your life on that piece of paper or that number that shows up in your bank account every week or what people say about you or all of these things right so I think what we can learn is how we go into a culture and we bring the gospel to bear but also too like what are those places as high places in those temples as as shrands that we are guarding from God's like no you can't have that yet like we should go and publicly burn those things figuratively speaking don't go out and start weird fires out in the middle of the city it's not good we saw Gatlinburg several years ago that does not work so then we come to the application because that's the that's one of the most important parts is we could read this we become students of the word but let's not just stop there and be doers of the word so you might be kind of saying okay Gary all this sounds great they went at this huge paganistic city things got turned upside down the gospel's winning but I'm gonna go back to work tomorrow and and kind of real life care happens well I don't really have any fantastical answers for you I don't have a big long dissertation of practicality or striking revelations or a prophecy or any of that it literally is plainly we should just continue to pray for courage and boldness and doing the mission Jesus gave us to do it's as simple as that that's what all of acts is about you see the church me opposition what do they do they go back they come together they pray for courage and boldness in preaching the word it's as simple as that and that may frustrate you because you know a lot of times we kind of search like all right I want to take three pages of notes and and I got to have something like really cool to walk away from this so they get like a little goosebumps and a shiver my liver and all that kind of stuff right but that's not what it's it's about sometimes the word is just as plain as day and it's plain to me that like there is some mission strategy that we can get from this text but really it's about the word of God prevailing modily in the city and time and place and culture and homes that we live in we live in a very fallen world but how magnificent that simultaneously we're being called to be active participants in its redemption and its renewal like that's a huge purpose why would we waste our time and energy and our life's purpose on something as worthless as an idol when we could live for that to renew the earth like to bring people into redemption like how wonderful is that redstone like we get to be active participants in that we have to remember that we're not always going to be liked or accepted by society and culture and that is perfectly okay but we also can't become culturally amish either right and retract kind of live in these little bubbles like there has to be an intersection there has to be an intersection so you know like campus like we can't be afraid to go to college universities where this stuff like this is rampant right now um I'll just tell you I heard of an email that got sent out the other day from a school local school I will not name them publicly from the stage but um they're they're agenda literally is when the first week at students come back is to basically do nothing but preach this like debauchery and sexuality at them for the first week they're back at school like they're they're making an entire week and event about that so we need people that work for the university who are believers to stand up against those things because we cannot be fearful because they're going to be people may hate us now but the people that come to know Jesus because we're not afraid to speak up they'll shake our hands for all eternity and thanks how much more important is that the reputations we have in this life are so fleeting and we could lose them at any moment's notice it doesn't matter it's imperative that we desire to love Christ more than we're liked by culture or the world wins in this at the cost of the truth is just a nice religious way of covering up the fear of man it feels good for the ego but it sure as heck poisons the mind and heart we have to lift our heads up and look up and and look away from the screens and realize like we're in the middle of two kingdoms at war we've got the kingdom of Christ that is reigning and ruling presently right now coming through his believers and they've got the sinfulness and fallenness of man and demons in the earth the prince of the power of the air we can we can learn from Paul to concentrate our work in some of the most important centers of culture and society we shouldn't be squeamish about where we stand the preach the gospel and we shouldn't be afraid of making ourselves conspicuous we should never worry about how someone might be offended when you speak the truth but our main concerns should be worrying about how they might be misled deceived and destroyed if you don't speak the truth we have to we have to as a church if some of us struggle with this repent of our fear of man because essentially that's what I find most often prevents us from living a mission of life is we're afraid of what people will say or think we're afraid that they will put the gospel to test and we won't be able to defend it but we can just as the disciples and the apostles depending on the Lord to provide them words before councils we can we can rely on that same spirit that led them we have to seek ways we have to repent of shrieking back and seek ways to permeate the culture and society and and the places of thought public schools workplaces universities politics all of that like we should go into every sphere of life bringing the ruling reign of Jesus to bear on those places we must be honest yet about our own ottles that may trip us up in that process as Paul would say cast off every weight and sin that weighs us down those things weigh us down they do not help us flourish they promise everything and deliver absolutely nothing nothing has really changed in humanness sense of the city of Ephesus we still live in a time and day where all of those things are still really rampant now obviously probably the closest thing we have to Ephesus would be Crestone Colorado if anybody ever heard of Crestone Colorado it's this place really high up in the mountains and it is literally like a spiritual mecca of the US there's over 24 different spiritual retreat centers there there are replicas of shrons all around the world there's a labyrinth there's all kinds of stuff it's I mean it's rampant with witchcraft the occult it's everything right it would be like redstone sending missionaries there to preach the gospel and all those resorts just start you know shutting down or maybe you know maybe they become like you know extensions of Doe River or something I don't know but then all those other remaining resort owners or retreat owners they gather together like we got to get rid of these people they're ruining this they're taking away our way of living well what's more important that person's way of living or a person's soul that's wrecked for all eternity see we focus on the completely wrong things at times so I pray that redstone becomes a shining light on a hill even though we're kind of in a valley like we can still kind of shine right maybe people see a glow over the apartments there pray that we as we gather each week that we would be emboldened and encouraged to go out and preach the gospel not being afraid to crush idols and destroy high places in our culture people will receive eternal life from that I pray that we would not shrink back from the necessary holy confrontations and conflicts to see people truly become a part of the Kingdom of Christ made a holy spirit grant us to strength to serve God and fight for people's souls with all of our mind heart body and strength I'm going to end with a prayer from that Paul wrote to the Ephesians in chapter three of his letter to him he says for this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named I pray that he may grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith I pray that you being rooted and firmly established in love may be also maybe also to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and the width and the height and the depth of God's love and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us to him be the glory and the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever amen redstone go in boldness and encourage amen. you you you you you [BLANK_AUDIO]