This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to week five of our look together through the book of
Acts. This is day one, so we're in chapter 19. As we go through a chapter a day,
instead of a chapter a week, going through Luke and Acts, just getting an
overview of the life of Jesus and the life of the early church.

And just as a reminder of where we are in the book of Acts, we are looking
together at Paul's missionary journeys. As he's going out into the world to
minister and God's using him in awesome ways. In these chapters, going this week
from 19, in fact all the way up to chapter 28 at the end, we're going to see God's
work through the life of the apostle Paul.

But we're going to see how he works regardless of the circumstance. In chapter 19
that we're going to look at together today, we're going to see great success through
Paul, amazing miracles through Paul. In chapter 20, we're going to see warnings,
the difficult days may be ahead.

And then in chapters 21 to 28, nothing seems to go right for Paul in one sense.
And yet God is using him in awesome ways, even in those chapters where nothing
seems to be going right. The lesson of these chapters is this, even in the
greatest successes, there are also great struggles.

If you see people that you think they're only having success, I can promise you,
behind the scenes of their life there are great struggles because it's this
world we live in. There is sin in this world, there's struggle in this world,
there's no such thing as a life without struggle. Even in the greatest
successes, there are great struggles.

But for the believer, these chapters remind us also that even in the greatest
struggles, there are great victories. Whether it seems like a success or a
struggle to us, the lesson we're going to see as we walk through these chapters is
God is working. God is working in it all.

And here in chapter 19, we get to see the work of God through the life of the
apostle Paul in a city by the name of Ephesus. Now, you may know the name of
this city because there's a letter in the New Testament called Ephesians that
Paul later wrote back to this city. But this city, Ephesus, this city is the
site of one of Paul's greatest successes in ministry.

Ephesus was originally built as a trade city, but its harbor had been ruined,
and because of that, it had found a new way to present itself to the world and
to make sure it continued to make money. It became essentially a temple and
tourist city. There was a great temple of Artemis in this city, and there were
many, many, many worship, sites of worship and ways of worship that were built
around this temple.

There was a lot of financial stability that was built into this community
through the worship of this false god. There was also a lot of sin in this city.
As with many of the temples in that day, prostitution was a part of the temple
worship, but there was also a lot of witchcraft.

There was a lot of focusing in on trying to find the right way in life through
looking at evil in life. Paul walks into this city to share the good news of
Christ. As we watch what God does in this city, I'm going to just walk you through
what happened in the life of the apostle Paul, just a sort of one, two, three,
four.

Number one, in this city where he had such a great impact, number one, it has a
small beginning. Oftentimes, when God's going to work in great ways in your life,
it has a small beginning. He plants a seed, and then it sprouts.

Listen to what happens in verses one to seven. While Apollos was at Corinth,
Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There, he found
some disciples, and he asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you
believed?

They answered, no, we haven't even heard that there's a Holy Spirit. So Paul
asked, what baptism did you receive? John's baptism, they replied.

Paul said, John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to
believe in the one coming after him. That is in Jesus.

On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul
placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in
tongues and prophesied, and there were about 12 men in all. Just 12, that's what
it started with.

12 men who had heard about the baptism of John and had said, we want to repent,
and they were baptized, but they hadn't yet heard about Jesus. So Paul tells
them about Jesus. They're baptized, and God confirms the fact that the Holy
Spirit came into their life and that they spoke in tongues and they prophesied.

Now, there's nowhere in the Bible that says you have to speak in tongues and
prophesy in order to confirm that the Holy Spirit's in your life. There are a
lot of gifts of the Spirit. But early in the book of Acts, that was the way that
God regularly chose to confirm that the Holy Spirit was in people's lives.

12, 12 is what it started with. Just like there were 12 disciples, a small
beginning seemingly for Jesus, here in Ephesus, this small beginning of just 12.
So this ministry that had a small beginning, number two, it then had a
tremendous impact, a multiplying impact.

Listen to what happens in verses eight to 10. Paul entered the synagogue, and he
spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of
God. But some of them became obstinate.

They refused to believe, and they publicly maligned the way. So Paul left them.
He took the disciples with him, and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of
Tyrrhenius.

This went on for two years. So all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province
of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Wow.

Every Jew, every Greek in the entire province of Asia heard the word of the
Lord. Ephesus was a center, a tourist center. People often traveled through it
or to it.

So you had all these people in these two years coming to Ephesus. When they went
there, obviously part of the tourist stop, became the lecture hall of
Tyrrhenius, where this guy by the name of Paul was teaching. But people went
maybe for curiosity, and they walked out with changed lives.

And they went home, and they told about Jesus. They told about the resurrection.
And all of Asia heard the good news about Jesus Christ.

What an impactful, what a multiplying ministry. In these verses, we're told some
were publicly maligning the way. The way is what Christianity, what discipleship
had come to be called in many places.

It was the way of the cross. It was the way of Christ. And Paul preaches for
three months in the synagogue.

He usually got kicked out after two weeks. He got three months in the synagogue.
Then he gets kicked out, and for two years.

He's preaching in this lecture hall, and people are coming to know Christ. All
who lived in Asia heard. It had a tremendous impact.

And in the midst of this impact that was happening, a third thing about Ephesus
is it was an extraordinary ministry. The kinds of things that were happening
just would take your breath away. Listen to what happened in verses 11 to 12.

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and
aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were
cured, and the evil spirits left them. Or down in verse 18 through verse 20.
Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds.

A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned
them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to
50,000 drachmas. In this way, the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in
power.

There are many times in ministry when we preach and we teach and we know God is
working, but it seems to be a lot behind the scenes. And we may even see lives
change, but we don't hear all the stories of what's happening. But in Ephesus,
it was all on public display.

People were being healed everywhere. So extraordinary that even a handkerchief
that Paul attached somehow God used it to heal somebody. So extraordinary that
people brought in those evil scrolls that they had that practiced witchcraft and
they had them burned.

This was an extraordinary ministry with Paul. This was a multiplying ministry
with Paul. But there's a fourth thing to realize.

It started small, it multiplied, it was extraordinary, but number four, it
caused a great disturbance. Listen to what happens in verses 23 down to verse
29. About that time there arose a great disturbance about the way.

A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in no
little business for the craftsmen. He called them together along with the
workmen in related trades and said, "Men, you know we receive a good income from
this business. " And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led
astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole
province of Asia.

He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. There is danger. Not only that
our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess
Artemis will be discredited and the goddess herself who was worshiped throughout
the province of Asia and the world will be robbed of her divine majesty.

When they heard this, they were furious and they began shouting, "Great is
Artemis of the Ephesians. " Soon the whole city was in an uproar. Now as you
read these verses, what were they angry about?

They were angry that they were losing their business. As we talked about a few
chapters back, many times people give spiritual reasons for selfish motivations
and this is certainly one of those cases. They were losing business because
their business was causing people to lose their lives, lose their souls.

And when Paul came in and preached the good news, the truth, they knew the
truth, they went after the truth and these silversmiths began this riot simply
because of their selfish interests. Truth of the matter is, most of the time we
run away from God. It's because of our selfish interests.

And the whole city's in an uproar. They're shouting, "Great is Artemis of the
Ephesians. " They all come together in the theater in Ephesus and it becomes so
like a riot that they begin to shout, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians," and
they don't stop for two solid hours.

It becomes so like a mob that finally the city clerk has to stand up and warn
them that they're all going to be arrested by the Roman authorities. He says in
verses 40 and 41, "As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting
"because of today's events. "In that case, we would not be able to account "for
this commotion since there's no reason for it.

" After he'd said this, he dismissed the assembly. So here you have Ephesus. I
like to call it Paul's EST church.

It's his longest stay. He stayed there three and a half years. It's his greatest
impact, all of Asia heard.

His highest love was for these people in Ephesus. We're going to see that when we
get to chapter 20 tomorrow. But it's also the place that he got his strongest
criticism.

When God is at work, Satan is also in opposition. When God is at work with great
circumstances, with extraordinary circumstances, you're also going to face
extraordinary opposition. That's the lesson of the ministry of Paul in this town
called Ephesus.

Let's take a minute to pray together. Jesus, we want you to do great things in
our lives, in our families. But we know that that also comes with great
opposition.

So give us courage. Give us courage to do the great thing and to pray for the
great thing. And give us courage when the opposition comes to know that you'll
be there, to know that you are working even then.

Instead of being afraid of some kind of opposition, to know that oftentimes it
simply means we're doing the right thing. None of us like it, Lord. But all of
us know that we can know that you will be with us in it and through it and we
can count on you.

So let us count on you right now today with whatever opposition we might be
facing. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Tomorrow as we look at chapter 20, we're going to see what we can learn from Paul's
meeting with the Ephesian leaders.