Jesus Changes Your Life
Transcript
My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We're starting a series in the book of Ephesians. So if you want to grab your Bibles and go to the book of Ephesians, that'd be a good place to be this morning. Page 567, if you have one of these white Bibles. If you don't own a Bible, grab one of these, take it home with you.
We want you to have a Bible. If you already have three of these Bibles in your house, bring two back. No, but we're excited to get started in this series this morning. Let's jump right in. What we're going to do today is a little bit different as a way to start the book of Ephesians. So we're going to start reading.
We're going to read the first two verses here. And then we'll kind of talk about how we're going to approach things this morning. So, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So, Paul is writing it. He puts his name first. He says, Paul, this is who's writing.
And then he says to whom he's writing. He says to the saints, which means those who have been made right by Jesus. That's what saints are, to the church. And he says who are in Ephesus. That's why this is called the book of Ephesians, because it was written to people who lived in Ephesus. Real clever.
And are faithful in Christ Jesus. So, Paul is writing this letter to the people in Ephesus. And he's going to kind of coach them up. He's going to write this letter and walk them through some things that are helpful. So, that's all we're going to read in the book of Ephesians today. Did y'all like it?
Was it good? All right, cool. So, because we're starting to study just the book of Ephesians, we thought we would, in all of our wisdom, go to the book of Acts. So, go to Acts chapter 19. Here's what we're doing. As a church, we're going to walk through the book of Ephesians.
We're going to spend the fall here. And then we're going to break it up a little bit. We'll have two series kind of at the end of the year and one at the beginning of the year. And then we're going to pick back up in Ephesians. We like to walk straight through books of the Bible. We think it helps us out.
We think we grow as a church by learning whole books of the Bible together. We think it helps us out in leadership because I'm the oldest pastor our church has. It's kind of scary, right? So, we just study books of the Bible together because we're not replete with great aged wisdom. We're just going to read what the Bible says and try to talk about it, try to grow in it together. So, we're doing that this fall.
The reason we're going to Acts chapter 19 is because it gives us some background for the book of Ephesians. It kind of lays out for us how the church at Ephesus got started. So, the book of Acts was written by Luke and it's explaining how the church began. When the Holy Spirit came on the believers at the beginning of Acts at Pentecost and how then the Holy Spirit empowered them as missionaries to start churches. And to see people repent of sin and become Christians. And that's what the book of Acts is.
And it follows at some point. It picks up with Paul and it begins to follow him on missionary journeys. And so, what we're going to get to see today in chapter 19 of Acts is how the church at Ephesus got started. And that's helpful to us because it gives us some context. And when you're studying the Bible, context matters. In life, context matters.
If I just told you that yesterday I said angrily, what are you, blind? You better go look at that and change it. Okay? That's a sentence. Context matters. If I told you I was yelling at a referee in the Missouri-South Carolina game when they called a touchdown on a pass that was obviously not caught by a Missouri player.
And I said, what are you, blind? You better look at that and go change it. Okay, context helps us understand that. If I told you I said that to my wife about her outfit before we went on a date together. Okay, yeah, it makes a difference, doesn't it? Like that's, my evening was different yesterday than you thought.
So that's the context matters. And so what we're doing is we're going to Acts chapter 19 to begin to get some context for the book of Ephesians. And here's what we're going to see. The letter written to the church in Ephesus is not specifically addressing anything. So some of the letters we have in the New Testament, Paul's writing or the author's writing to try to correct something or to fix something.
In Corinthians, there's Paul's addressing questions that they have and he's kind of addressing some sin issues going on. In the book of Galatians, he starts off by basically saying, hey, I'm Paul. What the heck? Like he just kind of begins with this like, have y'all lost it? I'm going to show up and hurt someone. And because he's addressing something specific.
But that's not what's happening in Ephesians. Paul's in prison at this point when he's writing. He spends four years in prison and then he's executed. And so Paul's in prison and he's writing to the church in Ephesus. And he's saying, he's just kind of coaching them up. He's just addressing some things that we're going to get to see in Acts where he's just reminding them.
Where they come from and what matters. What he worked with them when he was there. He spends three years in Ephesus and he's just kind of writing them a letter saying, hey, remember these things. That's kind of how he's approaching this. He's just reiterating some of the things that we're actually going to see in this chapter to help us understand. But the biggest point of Ephesians and what I think we'll see clearly as we walk through Acts chapter 19 is that Jesus saves.
Jesus saves you. That he is the one who works. That it's God who works on our behalf and that Christ saves us. The Holy Spirit empowers us, seals us, gives us new birth. And then life changes. That Jesus saves you and then your life changes.
That's how Ephesians is broken up. The first part of Ephesians is just saying, here's who God is. Here's what he's done. He's just reminding them. Here's who Jesus is. And then he goes into, now here's how you live.
Here's how you act. That's what he says in Ephesians 2 where he says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is the gift of God. It's not works. You didn't do this on your own so that no one can boast. And then he says, but you're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.
So what he says is, you didn't earn this. You didn't work to save yourself. Jesus saved you. But now we work. Now we live this out.
Or he says in Ephesians 4, he says, I want you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have. So they would live their life looking like they actually believe this, that Jesus has saved them. And so that's what we're going to see, I think, clearly as we walk through Acts. We're going to get to just kind of talk through this story. It's interesting to see how this church got started. So there's some stuff we'll just read and get to talk about.
But I think it will help us understand a little bit of why Paul writes the book of Ephesians the way he does. So let's pick up Acts chapter 19. I'm going to pray. And then we're going to walk through this whole chapter so we've got some work to do. God, we thank you for your word. And we pray that over this season, the life of our church, as we study through the book of Ephesians, we just ask that you would bless it.
That your Holy Spirit would be at work in our lives. To change us. To have your word work on us and work in us. That your Holy Spirit would be at work in our lives to lead us to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. Worthy of the calling through Christ Jesus to be in your family. We ask this in your name.
Amen. Acts chapter 19, verse 1. It's on page 541 in the White Bible. And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth. So Apollos is a guy who'd been in Ephesus.
He is kind of trained up a little bit. He heads over to Corinth. Paul has been in Corinth. And Paul heads back to Ephesus. So it says that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.
Okay, so yes. Corinth's right there kind of in the middle. Paul passed through the inland country. So that was a long trip. He had to go all the way around this way to get to Ephesus. Nothing apparently happened much there.
He just looped on around. He gets to Ephesus. Ephesus probably has 200,000 to 250,000 people that live in it. By comparison, Columbia has 140. So Ephesus is as big as Charleston and North Charleston combined.
And it was prominent. It was probably, if you were listing out cities in the Roman Empire, you would go Rome, Athens, Ephesus. Ephesus is the most prominent city in Asia, which is modern-day Turkey. And so Paul goes to Ephesus, and one of the things he would do is he would travel to cities and proclaim the gospel and then try to work out movements of the gospel from cities. So Ephesus is a wealthy port city.
And in Ephesus, they have the Temple of Artemis, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It would have looked something like that. That's a computer rendering. But it was big and fancy and beautiful. And it was one of the main things about Ephesus. And they were very much into the worship of Artemis as their God.
She's the God of that area. And they would have had temple prostitutes that they would have visited as a worship act for her. And it was a very big, very spiritual city. And that's where Paul goes and begins to proclaim the gospel here. And so it says that Paul goes to Ephesus, came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples.
And he said to them, we're going to read this whole thing and then we'll talk through it. He said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, no, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And he said, into what then were you baptized? They said, into John's baptism. And Paul said, John baptized with baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him.
That is, Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them. And they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. They were about 12 men in all. So speaking in tongues either means speaking in languages that everyone can understand or speaking in a language that is not native to your own language.
Or speaking in a language that would be like a heavenly language that no one can understand. And it kind of means all three of those in Scripture. We're not told specifically what it means here. Okay. Paul shows up to Ephesus. He meets some disciples.
So these people would have looked like followers of Jesus. That's what it says. Like they looked like, as far as they weren't practicing Judaism, they weren't practicing the Greek philosophies and religions. They were disciples. But then it says that at some point, and I don't know, we don't know if Paul asked this immediately, if this was just a normal thing he asked when he met people.
Or if at some point he was hanging out and was like, oh, cool, some people who believe. And then after a while was like, wait a second, something's off here. But he asked them, did y'all receive the Holy Spirit when you were baptized or when you believed? And they were like, we don't even know what the Holy Spirit is. We hadn't even heard that was a thing. Which is not the best response.
They're like, no, we don't even know what you're talking about. And he goes, okay, what were you baptized into then? And they said, John's baptism. Well, John's baptism was just a baptism of repentance. He's talking about John the Baptist. You read about him in the beginning of Mark, Luke, Matthew, Book of John.
Like you learn about him in the beginning of the Gospels where John comes and baptizes as a forerunner to Jesus. And all he says is, I'm baptizing you in repentance. Meaning that you're going to come and be baptized because you're a sinner acknowledging your sin. But he proclaims, but there's someone who's coming after me who can actually fix your sin problem. That through the Holy Spirit, he'll baptize you in the Spirit and you will be changed. You'll be born again.
You'll be made new. And so these people had just been practicing repentance. But they hadn't actually believed in Jesus. He says, no, no, no, no. John points to Jesus. And it says immediately, oh, okay.
So they were baptized in the name of Jesus. And then Paul lays his hands on them. They're filled with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit begins to magnify Christ through them. Begins to show up. Here's why this matters for us.
And here's why it matters for the book of Ephesians. Christianity is not first and foremost life practice. It's not first and foremost morality. It's not first and foremost getting your Acts together. See, these people looked. They were disciples.
He calls them disciples. They looked like followers of Jesus until he kind of got around them. It was like, wait a second. Something's missing here. You see, some of us would say, oh, no, no, no. Like my neighbors are good.
They're good people. They behave like they're, you know, they got it together. And it's like, well, not if they don't have Jesus. Some of us, maybe you grew up in the South. And actually, you maybe have been baptized. You've been baptized just into the baptism of John.
And what I mean by that is you've been baptized into good religious moralism. You've been baptized into behavior. Maybe when you got baptized, it was, I'm going to get my stuff together. I really got to get my life back together. I really got to begin to do this right. And it was just a, I acknowledge that I messed up and I got to get it together.
I need to change. And Paul says, no, no, no, no, no, no. You need Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit to change you. You don't need to change on your own. It's not about you fixing this problem. It's about the Holy Spirit coming in and actually making you new.
It's about a new birth. And so for some of you, the thing you need to get out of today, you need to realize today as we walk through this is that maybe you've been baptized, but maybe you should be baptized again in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins in Christ and be empowered by the Holy Spirit and actually be born again as you believe that Jesus saves you from your sin. Not, I'm going to work really hard. I'm going to be moral. I'm going to live the right life and be okay. So they looked okay, but they weren't baptized into Christ and they weren't filled with the Spirit for life.
Christianity is not just a set of rules. It's not just a religion that we follow and practice. It is about a relationship with the God of the universe. Y'all catch that? That he hangs out with them and they were disciples. They were practicing.
They were following. That's what a disciple was. That's someone who followed a teacher and they were following some of this, but he was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Do y'all know the God of the universe? Is he at work in you? Is the Holy Spirit here?
What's going on? We're not here to be good people. If you are trying to be a part of a church where they're going to help you be a good person, I don't know if we're going to be able to help you that much. That's not our main aim. Our aim is that, is to know Jesus. And then, yeah, he'll change us.
He'll go to work in us. But we've got to know him first. This is why Paul in Ephesians is going to say things like, he says, in him, that's Jesus, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him. So he said, you heard the gospel, you believed in him. You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. So that when you actually believe in Jesus for salvation, the Holy Spirit seals you, changes you, comes in, you have a relationship with God.
And he says, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. But God, who's rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead, made us alive with Christ. And it's through grace you have been saved. So what Paul's going to hammer in Ephesians at the beginning of the book is just, no, no, no, no. Jesus saves. He has to work on our behalf.
He has to seal us and save us. All we do is believe in him and the work that he's done. And then life changes. But if you've been baptized or raised up in some sort of, I'm going to be a good person and church will help me do that. Christianity is about being moral. You've missed it.
You need Jesus to die on your behalf. You need the Holy Spirit to be at work in you. You need a new birth. Life is what Jesus refers to it as in John chapter 3, that you actually need to be made new. And you can't do that. The Holy Spirit has to do it.
Verse 8. And he, that's Paul, 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 in unbelief, speaking evil of the way, that's Christianity, before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. Okay. He goes to the synagogue. That's the Jewish place of belief.
And Paul starts there in most all of his missionary work. And the reason is they already know about God. They already know about sin. They already know about the Messiah. All Paul does is show up and say, Jesus is the Messiah. He just connects one dot for them.
He goes into the Jewish people, into their, to the synagogues. And he begins to say, let me show you the scriptures that you already know and trust. And let me point out how Jesus is the Savior. And then they don't want to hear it. Do you know what he does? He goes to some other people who do.
Now, there's two things we can learn that are very helpful for us here. Just as, this is just observation. It's not a, not a big point. Some of us need to quit preemptively disregarding the word on behalf of those around us. What I mean is, we just say, oh, they won't want to hear it. So we never tell them about it.
That is incorrect. And some of us need to be okay with, once we've told them about Jesus and talked to them about Jesus and moving on to people who do want to hear it. So we get to do like Paul. We get to eventually just say, hey, look, I'm working, I'm trying, but I'm going to go to this person who wants to hear it. I'm going to build with the person who wants to build it. I'm going to show the person in scriptures who wants to see it.
It's okay to move on. It's not okay to move on before people have had the chance to reject them, reject Jesus on their own. So Paul moves on. He moves to the hall of Tyrannus, which was just a big lecture hall. And this continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. So for two years, Paul sits in a lecture hall and just teaches about God, about what he's done, about who Jesus is, about the kingdom of God, about the Messiah.
Just for two years begins to just send out the gospel of what Jesus has done to teach about the spiritual reality that the Holy Spirit works in us, changes us through the gospel, that through Jesus, we can actually be made right with the God of the universe. Verse 11. So during this time, it says, 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 and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. That's a crazy sentence. Paul wore an apron.
No, I'm sorry. God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons. Y'all ever watch somebody on TV like praying over a rag and if you give them a certain amount of money, they'll like mail it to you. You ever seen this? Paul started that, you guys. Here's what I want us to see here.
There's a couple of things that I think are really helpful in this text. When Luke wrote this, I think sometimes there's a tendency when we read the book of Acts, and we should do this. We should read the book of Acts and then look at ourselves. If you're reading the book of Acts and you are immediately discounting everything that happens in it, there's something wrong with your theology. If you're going, well, yeah, but technically God doesn't really do that anymore. It's like, stop it.
God does. He does these things. But also there's a tendency to read the book of Acts and act like it is prescriptive for how God works in every situation and then feel terrible. But that's not even what it says. Luke's writing this and he says God was doing extraordinary things. Luke doesn't say God was doing what he always does everywhere we went.
We just read in one verse that Paul traveled from Corinth all the way to Ephesus, and we weren't told anything about that trip. You know why? I don't think much happened on it. I don't think Paul was healing people with aprons. I think that would have been told to us in the loop. It just said he traveled.
Maybe he got sick. Like, we don't know. He got, you know, he got to eat some really good food in one of those cities. But that's not going to tell us that. It just was normal stuff. But then he did extraordinary things.
God did. God did extraordinary things through the hands of Paul so that diseased people were healed and evil spirits left at aprons and handkerchiefs. Here's what I think we ought to respond to this. Here's one of my prayers. I have a few prayers for our church family. I have a few prayers for myself.
I pray specifically that I'll, that God will keep me faithful, that I'll just get to keep doing this for a long time. I pray specifically that you keep me far from sin, that my last day in the ministry is a good day. That's the thing I pray. That the last day, my last day in the ministry, my last day of serving Jesus is a good day. It's not burnout. It's not train wreck.
It's not shipwreck. It's a good day. And I pray that I'll get to be a part of some of this. God doing extraordinary things. And I think that's something we ought to pray together as a church. You're going to get one run at this of following Jesus and living a life for him.
You're going to get one shot at this before we hang it up. Before we go out with our boots on, hopefully. And I just pray that we'll get to be a part of that. Some stuff that we can't explain, where the Holy Spirit was at work, where God was doing extraordinary things. Stuff that you tell your friends and they think you made it up. Yeah.
Let's ask for some of that. But it was extraordinary. God was showing his power as he began this church, that he was working mightily. And it says, Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists. Okay, itinerant means traveled around. Jewish means they practiced Judaism and were Jewish people of heritage and line.
Exorcists means they casted out demons. So like the exorcism, you were correct. That's what they were. They traveled around and did that. They 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. Okay, so they traveled around trying to cast out demons and they find out that Paul doesn't even have to travel.
He just sends an apron. And they were like, that sounds awesome. I want some of that. So all they started doing was just claiming Jesus's name by whom Paul proclaims. They don't know Jesus. This is secondhand.
He's just the new magic trick. He's the more powerful magic. And that's one of the things that was going on in Ephesus at this time was they were very spiritual. And they believed a lot in the occult and a lot in magic and a lot in spiritual activity. And so these Jewish exorcists just start claiming the name of Jesus over things. But they don't know Jesus.
So it says seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. So they were claiming the name of Jesus. They were saying in the name of Jesus by whom Paul proclaims, leave. They were exercising some sort of a demon. There was some sort of demonic activity going on with a person and they were claiming Jesus over it. Now it gets crazy.
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. All right, real quick, let's pause.
I'm going to go ahead and venture a guess that most of us in this room are Western, grew up in the U.S., have been affected by the Enlightenment and Western thought and culture. And we don't really have a place for spiritual stuff. Angels, demons, sure, they're good on that TV show with those long-haired guys that fight them or whatever. But that's about it. What's that, Supernatural? Yeah, they're good on that show.
Cool. But otherwise, we don't really. We'll watch some movies about them. But it's all like fictional horror movies. This isn't a real thing that happens. If you are a Christian, your thought process on that has to change because the Bible disagrees with you.
That you actually believe that there is a God, a spiritual realm that you cannot see and that there are good beings, that the Holy Spirit goes to work in our hearts to change us. And the Bible also teaches that there are evil spiritual beings in a spiritual reality that we cannot see. And I think the book of Ephesians is going to help us because Paul says this a good bit in Ephesians. He actually writes and says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, meaning human issues, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
So Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, is reminding them. And they already know about the spiritual world. They have a leg up on us in that they believe in this whole stuff that they can't see. And he says, no, no, no. Our fight isn't just with human issues. We actually have an enemy that doesn't want people to believe this gospel.
And he begins to coach them up on how to walk in them. Okay. So let's go back. This isn't just a story. This is a real thing that happened. These guys go in and they begin to claim the name of Jesus over this person who has a demonic spirit.
And he says, Jesus, I know, which is true. All the demons know Jesus because he's the king of everything. Paul, I recognize. I've heard of that guy. Not super important. Who are you?
And then he beats up all seven of them. So they left naked and wounded. Okay, guys. I grew up in Edgefield, South Carolina, most of my life. One of the things we used to do is we'd go hang out at horse shows where they would sell horses. And then my redneck friends or myself would get in fights.
I've been in a few fights. I'm not amazing at it. I haven't been in as many fights as some of you. I've been in more fights than others. I know a few things about fighting. Here's one of the basic rules they teach you early on.
If you enter into a fight with pants on and you leave the fight with your pants off, you lost. It's just a basic. It's one of the first. It's like first ten rules of fighting. These guys got owned. It says he mastered them.
That's where that phrase getting owned comes from. They actually beat the pants off of them. That's where that phrase comes from. I actually don't know if either of those are true, but it seems like it could be. They got just worked. I've seen guys get in a fight before and they get beat up.
And, you know, you try to encourage them. They're your friend. And you're like, man, you got in a few good licks before. Well, you got in a few good licks. Like you just try to encourage them. If you were friends of these guys, you'd just be like.
I'll help you find your pants. Like I don't have much. It didn't work out well for them. So here's what happens. This happens. These Jewish people had been exorcists, been traveling around.
I'm assuming it had been somewhat effective. They get owned. And it says, and fear. Oh, and this became, this is verse 17. And this, this event, 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. They see that Jesus is the ruling spiritual power. That he is real. That he is real. And he is at work in Paul. And he's at work in his church.
That's one of the things Paul writes over and over in Ephesus, in the book of Ephesians. That he's the head of all rule and authority. That we've been sealed in him. That we're seated with him above all rule and authority. That we're in Christ. And we don't have to fear these spiritual realities.
We need to be aware of them. But that we can be protected in Christ. And so, it says, also, many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. That many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. What that's saying is that the Christians began to openly confess. People were being saved.
The Holy Spirit was at work in them. And they were just showing up and saying, here's what I've been like. Here's what I've done. Here's my sin. Here's what I used to be a slave to. Here's what I used to do.
I used to visit the temple prostitutes. Or I've been in an adulterous relationship. Or I've been cheating on my financial reporting. Or I've been cheating people in business deals. Or I've been treating my spouse this way. Or they became openly confessing their sin.
Now, my dad, when I was growing up, if people said too much about their personal lives, he would go. I'd be darned if I'd have said that. That was his response to you oversharing. He wasn't very compassionate. If you said something that was a little too much, he'd just be like, keep that to yourself. That was it.
That was his response. And I think a lot of us have that same general kind of like, I want Jesus to save me from my sin. But I'm openly divulging my practices. I'm not doing that. This is actually something the Holy Spirit authors in us. And it's something that we want to see take place in our own lives.
This isn't something you want to see happen in your group. It's something you want to see happen in your life. Here's why. The person who can openly confess their sin is free and believes the gospel that Jesus saves sinners. That's why they come openly confessing. Because all the stuff that used to would have damned them to hell, all the stuff that used to enslave them, all the stuff that used to own them and control them has no power any longer.
Because Jesus Christ died for it. They've been sealed with the Holy Spirit. And it will not stick to them. They will not be held accountable for it. They are no longer guilty. They are no longer covered in shame.
They are free. And they openly confess and divulge their sinful practices. And we want that. And Paul covers that. He talks about that in Ephesians. He says, don't become partners with them.
He's talking about the sinfulness. He says, at one time you were darkness. But now you're light in the world. Walk as children of light. Try to discern what's pleasing to the Lord. And take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness.
But instead expose them. And then he says, everything that's brought into the light becomes light. Everything that's brought into the light becomes light. That the sin that used to own you, that you feel like right now you have to hide, when you bring it into the light, the light wins. And that sin actually shines to point to the great goodness of Jesus Christ who saves sinners. It becomes light.
And that's why this group of people, as they were saved and changed by the Holy Spirit, he began to author in them confession. It's one of the things we're called to in the book of Ephesians. That we would know who Jesus is and that he saves. And then we would begin to change. That life would change as Jesus works in us. But it keeps going.
Verse 19. So these people used to practice magic. They would have done divination. They would have cast spells. They would have read palms. They would have done all these kind of occult practices.
And when they realized that Jesus is king of everything, they just come and burn all their books. And it's 50,000 pieces of silver. Some of you may have a version of the Bible that says 50,000 drachmas. You know what a drachma is? It's a piece of silver. And a piece of silver or drachma is one day's wage.
So this was 50,000 days worth of work, which means 137 years of work was just burned up. 137 years of work. I mean, let me help you picture that. If you worked starting today straight for 137 years, does that help? No, it's the same as if the average income, household income in South Carolina is $40,000, right around there. That means it's $5.5 million.
It's 180 brand-new Dodge Rams. That would be like if our whole parking lot and a little bit more out in the grass over there was brand-new Dodge Rams. I mean, so new they still had the balloon on them that made you want to buy it. You're like, that ram looks good, but look at that balloon. If people became Christians and they were like, I'm a Christian, and they just torched their Dodge Ram, it'd be that. I don't know why you'd have to burn your Dodge Ram to be a Christian, but I'm trying to help you picture the value.
That'd be like if every, I looked at the values of the houses in my neighborhood. That's 55 houses in my neighborhood. That's if like my whole street just said I'm a Christian now and burned their house down. Again, I'm just trying to help you see the value here. So some of you, like, can you imagine how much life had to change for these people if they're burning thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, 137 years worth of work?
They're just burning it? Do you see that? That the Holy Spirit comes in, that the gospel becomes real, that Jesus claims heart and then life changes. They just said it's not worth it anymore. It has no value to me anymore. Some of us right now in this room, you are saying, I want to follow Jesus, but I want to hold on to this.
You're trying to shield parts of your life from Jesus. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And I want, I want you, but I don't want you to mess with this. It would, it would affect my life too much. My, my boyfriend would break up with me. I'd have to quit my job.
My income level would drop. Um, I'd have to get rid of some things that mean a lot to me. They've been passed down in my family. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And that's not how it works. And I don't know what it is, but some of us in this room have some things we need to burn.
We need to be gone. Don't need to have a part of our life anymore. Some of us in this room have some things that we need to openly confess. And you need to begin right now praying that the Holy Spirit would empower that in you. That you would get to experience what it is like when the Spirit of the living God sets you free from sin. So much so that you can talk about it and then it becomes light in your life.
And some of you in this room have some things you need to go home and get rid of. Some things we've been holding on to. Because what happens when Jesus comes in and the Holy Spirit goes to work in us is that life changes. And I love the way Luke writes this. Verse 20. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
Prevail means powerfully overcome. Honestly, that's our prayer for the study in Ephesians. That's our prayer for the life of us as Christians. Is that the word would prevail mightily. That when the thing in your life that you were trying to defend faces the word of God. That the word of God would win.
That when the stuff in our hearts that we want to hold on to comes up against what the Bible says. That the Bible would win. That the gospel would overwhelm it. And the word of God would prevail mightily. 21. Now after these events Paul resolved in the spirit.
So prayerfully discerned is what he's supposed to do. To pass through Macedonia. And I don't. I never know how to pronounce this word. Achaia. There you go.
And go to Jerusalem. Saying. After I have been there. 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. That means a big disturbance. Concerning the way.
For a man named Demetrius. A silversmith. Who made silver shrines for Artemis. And brought no little business to the craftsmen. That means brought big business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together.
With the workmen in similar trades. And said. Men. You know that from this business. This business. You know.
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. Has persuaded and turned away. A great many people. Saying that gods. Made with hands. Are not gods.
Crazy. And there's danger. Not only that this trade of ours. May come into disrepute. But also.
That the temple. Of the great God Artemis. May be counted. As nothing. And that she may be deposed. From her magnificence.
She. Whom all Asia. And the world. Worship. This guy named Demetrius. He's a silversmith.
His whole. Trade. Gets messed up. Because. Too many people. Are becoming Christians.
And they've stopped believing. And worshiping. And following. Idols. They've stopped believing. Artemis.
They've quit. Worshipping. Artemis. His whole. The economic system. Of this place.
Is breaking apart. Because the gospel. Has spread. So there are people. Taking shrines. Of Artemis.
Walking outside. And throwing them away. Or bringing them to him. And saying. Hey. Can you melt this down?
Make some drachmas. I don't need your silver shrine anymore. Some pieces. Would be great. Some people. Maybe.
Just were like. I don't want anything. I don't want to spend it. I don't want to have it. I want to throw it away. I'm not selling it.
I don't want somebody else. To worship this thing. It's gone. I'm going to toss it in the ocean. And then I'll fish around it. Like.
The economic system. Is changing. And he's saying. No. No. No.
No. No. No. No. No. We can't have this.
Happen. So. He goes and tells everybody. Wouldn't it be beautiful. If the Holy Spirit went to work in us. Went to work in this.
In the church. In this area. Which is not just this church. But it's all the churches that faithfully follow Jesus. So much so.
That the economic system of Columbia. Looked different. You know. It starts with us. If you say. Yeah.
I want that. Has your economics. Household system. Started looking different. Because of Jesus. That's how that works.
That we would begin to. Help people. When we wouldn't otherwise have. That we would begin to. To spend money in different areas. Or.
Or change the way we. View. Like. That. That our lives would change. That Jesus would save us.
The Holy Spirit would empower us. And our lives. Would change. Verse 28. When they heard this. They were enraged.
And were crying out. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So the city. Was filled with confusion. And they rushed together. Into the theater.
The theater held about 20,000 people. It was a big theater. Dragging with them. Gaius and Aristarchus. Macedonians. Macedonians.
Who were Paul's companions in travel. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd. The disciples would not let him. Paul was like. I'm going to go talk to him. And they were like.
You're going to sit down. Because I don't think it's going to go well for you. They wouldn't let him. And even some of the Asiarchs. Those are people who were just Roman officials. Who weren't Christians.
Who were friends of his. Sent to him. And were urging him. Not to venture into the theater. Again. Small point.
Christians ought to have friends who aren't Christians. That was it. That was my point. Now some cried out one thing. And some another. For the assembly was in confusion.
And most of them. Most of them. Did not know why they had come together. They just saw a riot. They started yelling things. People were yelling.
Great is our midst of the Ephesians. And someone was like. We need a living wage. And someone else was like. Women's suffrage. And someone yelled.
Free chicken on Fridays. Because they didn't know. They were just hyped up. They all went into the theater. And started shouting. Most of them.
Did not know why they were there. But they were super ticked about it. Okay. There is something. That's going to rally them all together. Here in a second.
And we'll see that this has. Been a problem for thousands of years. Most of them. Did not know why they were there. Why they had come together. Verse 33.
Some of the crowd. Prompted Alexander. Whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander. Motioning with his hand. Wanted to make a defense.
To the crowd. So I don't know what. Motioning with his hand was. I don't know if he stood. I think this is what. I would have gone with.
Maybe he did like a. I'm going to talk. Like. I don't know. I don't know what he did. He motioned with his hands.
Trying to show them. Hey. Let me. Let me give a response. To y'all yelling. And being angry.
Verse 34. But when they recognized. That he was a Jew. For about two hours. They all cried out. With one voice.
Great. Is Artemis. Of the Ephesians. Do you see what rallied them together? Some good old fashioned racism. They saw that he was a Jew.
So they all yelled. For two hours. Great. Is Artemis. Of the Ephesians. They didn't want to listen to him.
Because he wasn't their type of people. That's. That's how. That's why throughout this. John. Lucas kept saying.
The Jews and the Greeks. The Jews and the Greeks. The Jews and the Greeks. And then he gets here and says. When the Greeks saw that he was a Jew. They yelled.
They yelled. Great. Is Artemis. Of the Ephesians. That doesn't even rhyme. Run.
We looked it up in the. In the. In the Greek. Doesn't even rhyme. It actually sounds kind of similar. Artemis and Ephesus.
It's not a good chant. But it's like they said. When they saw he was a Mexican. They chanted USA. For two hours. I have never been.
That excited about anything. To chant the same thing. For two hours. I go to Carolina games. Like one a year. And by the time sandstorm's done.
I'm done. Like I'm tired of spinning that rag. Like. And if they ever set up the little. The ball. And the wind knocks it over.
I'm like. Put it together. I only jump up and down so long. But these people shouted. Great. Is Artemis.
Of the Ephesians. For two hours. There was great racial tension. In this city. Paul addresses that. In Ephesians.
One of the things. He begins to try. To help the believers see. Is that because you belong to Jesus. Race isn't an issue anymore. That he's destroyed the hostility.
That's actually what he. The way he words it. If I can find it. For he himself is our peace. Who has made us both one. And has broken down in his flesh.
That's Jesus. The dividing wall of hostility. By abolishing the law of commandments. Expressed in ordinances. That he might create in himself. One new man.
In place of the two. So making peace. And might reconcile us both to God. In one body through the cross. Thereby killing the hostility. When Christians try to come together.
Race is an issue. Not was. Is. Because we have a lot of racial preferences. And cultural preferences. That we're unwilling to lay down.
That become very difficult for us to work together. And Paul says. No, no, no. Y'all got to figure it out. Because we have one new man. There's unity.
And Jesus has killed the hostility. And that was very important to those in Ephesus. You know how many people. Greek. Believers. Who had become Christians.
That had to give up Artemis. And how much of their history. And their life that was. Had been there for 500 years. How much they had celebrated Artemis their whole life. And how much they were like.
Well it's just part of our culture. And it had to die. To follow Jesus. They had to lay it down. In order to walk with him. And be able to welcome others.
Do you know how much Jewish history was entrenched. And these Jewish believers. Just had to let stuff die. So that they could be one new man. But they yell for two hours.
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. I'm looking forward to it. We're going to get to spend some time. Talking about race. In the book of Ephesians. I think it will be good for us.
It will be hard. Verse 35. 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 Ephesians. Is temple keeper of the great Artemis. And 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 you have brought. These men here. Who are neither sacrilegious.
Nor blasphemers. Of our goddess. And if therefore. Demetrius and the craftsmen. With him. Have a complaint against anyone.
The courts are open. And there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges. Against one another. But if you seek anything further.
It shall be settled. In the regular assembly. For we 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. We're not going to spend much time.
Talking about this. But this clerk. Had it together. He apparently had some authority. He shuts down the whole thing. And sends everybody home.
And knew what the issue was. He was like. Y'all brought them here. Under a pretense. We're going to get in trouble. With the Romans.
For having a riot. And if Demetrius has a problem. He can go to the courts. Go home. Verse 20. I mean chapter 20.
After that. The uproar ceased. Paul sent the disciples. After encouraging them. He said farewell. And departed for Macedonia.
That's Paul's time in Ephesus. He shows up later. One time. Talks to the Ephesian elders. That's in this chapter. Chapter 20.
He writes two letters to Timothy. Who is a pastor. In Ephesus. And he writes the book of Ephesians. And in the book of Ephesians. He says.
Jesus saves. He goes to work in us. And what we believe about him matters. Our theology matters. That's what he showed up. And corrected with those disciples.
He says. Wait. Wait. Wait. Y'all are thinking about this wrong. You need to know.
The reality of what's going on. You need to understand. How Jesus works. And. Then life changes.
That we would walk in a manner. Worthy. Of the gospel. That's our hope. That's our prayer. For this series.
That as we walk through it. We would see Jesus change lives. That we would grow. In our knowledge of the gospel. That we would grow. In our understanding.
Of right doctrine. And then. Our lives would change. But for some of us. This morning. The band's going to come back up.
And we're going to respond. We're going to respond. Today. We're going to act. Today. Today.
Some of you need to repent of sin. Have Jesus save you. And the Holy Spirit make you new. That you've grown up in the church. You know things about Jesus. But you don't know Jesus.
The Holy Spirit has never gone to work in your heart. You have never been born again. Saved by grace. Through the accomplishment of Jesus Christ on the cross. And you need to. You need to place your faith in Jesus.
That what Paul says. That when you heard the word of the gospel. And you believed. You were sealed with the Holy Spirit. And some of you right now. That needs to happen.
That you're here this morning. Because of moralism. Because you're here to be a good person. And to behave well. And to get your life together. And you need Jesus to change you.
You're not going to be able to do it. Some of us here. Need to confess openly. That in a minute. When the band's singing. You're going to need to get up.
And go walk over and talk to somebody. You're going to need to tell them. That something's going on in your life. That you've been hiding. That you've allowed to have power. And control over you.
You need to bring it into the light. And celebrate. That Jesus Christ saves sinners. You need to bring it into the light. So that it becomes light.
And so that you can be free from it. Everyone in this room is a sinner. And everyone in this room needs Jesus. To save you. And he died. To set us free from sin.
So that it would no longer have to follow us around. You would no longer have to tell yourself. Yeah they love me. But only because they don't know this. Yeah they accept me. But only because I keep this a secret.
That's a lie. That we get to be open. We get to be honest. We get to confess. And divulge our practices. And be real about where we are.
Because Jesus Christ saved sinners. He didn't call us together to be good. And to behave well. And we need to ask the Holy Spirit. To author in us. To work in us.
To empower us. To confess. Some of you have. For lack of a better phrase. Some books that need to be burned. You have some things in your life.
That just need to be torched. You've been holding on to. You've been saying. Well it's not that big a deal. It's okay. Because I you know.
It's just this. It's a memento. It means like. Whatever. Some kind of thing that's going on. And the way you're living.
You just got to get rid of. Because when Jesus comes in. Lives change. And I want to be real honest with you. If that's not true for you. If Jesus hasn't been disruptive.
If he just slid into your life. And everything looked the same. That's not Jesus. Jesus. When Demetrius says. God's made with hands.
Aren't gods. Some of us. Have a little handmade God. That we've named Jesus. But it goes where we tell it to go.
And it does what we tell it to do. And it sits where we put it. And we can go back. And visit it again later. And we can do what we want to with it. Or we can leave it the heck alone.
That's not how Jesus works. He's disruptive. He's a king. He does not do what you tell him to. And for some of us. If your life has been.
I follow Jesus. But he only ever moves. When you tell him to move. And he only ever works. When you ask him to work. And he only ever is present.
When you want him to be. That's not how Jesus works. Some of us need to repent. Confess. Ask Jesus to save us. And to disrupt our lives.
To change our finances. To change our life goals. To go to work in us. So that we can live. And walk in a manner worthy. Of the gospel.
The band's going to sing. Some of us are going to repent. And become Christians. And in a couple weeks. You'll get to be baptized. Into Jesus.
Maybe you were baptized before. Into good behavior. Good behavior will not save you. But Jesus will. And the Holy Spirit can. And we'll baptize you in Jesus.
And we'll celebrate with you. Some of you have some sin. You need to confess. You're going to need to say out loud. For the first time. Something you've never said to anyone.
But that you've been telling yourself. You cannot be free from. And that is not the gospel. Some of you have some things in your life. That you're going to have to get rid of. But ultimately.
It's all joy. And it's all something. That leads us to Christ. Because we get to have a real relationship. With a living God. Who goes to work in our hearts and souls.
To make us new. And then we're going to take communion. And communion for us. Is a celebration. A reminder of the gospel. That we.
That as often as we. Break the bread. And drink the cup. We proclaim Jesus' death. Until he comes. That we gather regularly as a church.
And we take communion. Because we're celebrating. That we are people. Who needed the death of Jesus. To be okay. We've recently moved the tables.
Up to the front. And the reason for that. Is that we get to proclaim. Openly to each other. As we take communion. That when you walk up here.
And people can see you. You're celebrating the fellowship. Of our church. The connection you have. With each other. And you're proclaiming the gospel.
Which is. I'm a sinner. Who needs. A savior. This band is going to sing. We're going to repent.
We're going to confess. We're going to become Christians. We're going to take communion. We're going to celebrate. That Jesus Christ died for sinners. And that in him.
In him alone. We have hope. Let's pray. God. We ask that the same Holy Spirit. That was at work.
In the believers. In Ephesus. Would be at work. In this room today. That you would work. In our hearts.
Just as you did there. That you would do here. That there would be confession. That there would be repentance. That there would be forgiveness. That there would be freedom.
And that you would move. In extraordinary ways. We ask this in Jesus name. You guys stand and sing with us.
