WEBVTT 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:02.879 Amen. 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:05.679 Thank you, Pastor Mark and team. 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:08.400 Happy Wednesday to your church family. 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:17.679 If you recall on Wednesday nights, we've we've been walking through a series on the global church because I want us to. 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:24.079 So last spring uh we looked at uh just uh the nature of church. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:27.039 I wanted us to think well about church. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:35.439 Um I wanted us to think deeply about the importance of what God calls us to as a church to be united together. 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:39.439 Um but this semester uh I want to take that next step. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:42.799 I want us to see and to think globally. 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:43.439 Okay? 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:53.840 And so we've been walking through the scripture and building a continual case that God's plan has always included the nations. 00:00:54.240 --> 00:01:04.159 Um, ultimately, that plan unfolded in the coming of the Son, Jesus Christ, and the good news about him. 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:18.799 And last week we looked at the Jerusalem Council and the importance and the shift that that made in the global church, because now one of the key things is the gospel goes out. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.599 The gospel can go anywhere. 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:43.760 It is not a requirement that to receive Jesus that you become Jewish in your customs and culture because the cultic aspect of worship, the uh the things that involve the temple and the cleanliness laws and uh of dietary and all of those things have been fully fulfilled in Jesus Christ. 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:47.439 And so now the gospel goes out. 00:01:47.920 --> 00:02:05.200 So today I want to pick up in Acts chapter 19, and I want us to talk about one of the most incredible scenes in the whole of Scripture, and that is the revival that breaks out in the city of Ephesus. 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:05.760 Okay? 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:09.439 A revival in the city of Ephesus. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:17.680 It's the stuff that pastors and missionaries dream about, and it's right there in your Bible in Acts chapter 19. 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:22.080 Uh, and so let's begin with an account of Ephesus. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:30.879 Ephesus is the largest city in uh the province of Asia Minor in the Roman Empire. 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:31.439 Okay? 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:39.919 So it is a top city, a top five city in the whole of the Roman Empire. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:45.039 It has a port, it is massive for trade. 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:53.280 They have a very large population for ancient cities, a quarter of a million people, which is very large for ancient cities. 00:02:53.520 --> 00:03:09.919 And above all of that, above being a banking center, just an economic powerhouse, Ephesus was the center of the temple of Diana, or what your scripture calls Artemis. 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:10.479 Okay? 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:20.159 It goes back and forth between Diana and this temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:32.319 And so uh the goddess Diana, uh, some special things happened there in Ephesus, and this became the hub, right? 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:39.039 People would travel from all over the Roman Empire to this temple. 00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:39.759 Okay? 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:52.800 Now, she was a fertility goddess, so think a lot of sexual stuff that goes into fertility and things that happened at the temple, okay? 00:03:52.960 --> 00:04:03.520 That's part of the uh Roman cultic worship of the gods, okay, along with a lot of magic arts, okay? 00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:07.360 Black magic and spells that went along with that. 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:15.520 So, Paul, he had been wanting to go to Ephesus, and he gets there on his third missionary journey. 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:21.439 And he began as he usually did in the synagogue, and he would spend three months in the synagogue. 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:32.399 He would go to the Jew first, but eventually, in almost every stop, the Jews would reject his ultimate message. 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:40.240 Some would hear and get saved and respond, but in large part they would reject and they would push Paul out. 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:50.959 Well, there was a Christian who got converted there in uh there in Ephesus, and he had a school that he would teach at. 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:51.439 Okay? 00:04:52.560 --> 00:05:03.600 And he allowed Paul in the times that he wasn't teaching in his school, he would allow Paul to set up shop and to teach. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:10.160 And Paul did this and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the masses. 00:05:10.399 --> 00:05:17.519 People would flock to it, and Paul was able to do this over a two-year period of time. 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:37.680 And God allowed the Spirit of God to move in powerful, incredibly powerful ways during this time, uh, as God often does when there is no gospel witness, okay, where the gospel is going into an area for the very first time. 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:41.839 It is often accompanied by powerful miracles. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:47.519 And so in this area, we see Paul is given an incredible gift to heal. 00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:53.279 Uh Paul's handkerchief is actually taken around and heals. 00:05:54.079 --> 00:06:05.519 And there's been so much uh demonic activity, casting out of demons, that there's one particular episode that actually blows up and becomes citywide. 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:29.199 There was a Jewish, I can't remember if he's a priest or something, but he decides that he's going to do an exorcism of a demon, and he he when he does it, he says, I adjure you, by the name of Jesus, of whom Paul preaches, come out of the man. 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:40.959 And the demon responds, I know who Jesus is, and I've heard of Paul, but who are you? 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:49.519 And then he attacks the man, okay, and beats him to a bloody pulp, and he runs through the city naked. 00:06:50.319 --> 00:07:02.639 And that account gets told time after time after time, and suddenly before long, what you actually see, there are incredible statements like in Ephesians 9 10. 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:11.519 He says, And this continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:13.920 Think about this. 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:18.560 And one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:24.879 And in verse 18, it says that there is confession and repentance, okay? 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:31.600 That Christians are working through what it means to follow Jesus. 00:07:31.839 --> 00:07:43.680 And in fact, there's this incredible scene where Christians have gone through their homes and they have collectively decided the Spirit of God has convicted them. 00:07:43.839 --> 00:07:59.759 They pick up those little black magic books, right, that can cast out spells that deal with all the things involving the temple worship, and they bring their books, and right there in the center of town, they have a book burning. 00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:01.199 They destroy them. 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:07.519 Think about this, because they don't sell them to anyone else, but they have a book burning. 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:17.839 And Luke records the financial amount of books that were burned that day, and it's 50,000 pieces of silver. 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:24.319 Now, to translate that to you, one of those coins was a day's wages. 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:34.399 50,000 days' wages worth of all those books. 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:52.720 And we read this, and I share this with you because I want you to be so encouraged, because I want you to see that at this point the church there in Ephesus is probably five to maybe even ten thousand people. 00:08:55.120 --> 00:09:03.440 It is causing such an uproar that it's going to have an economic impact because of tourism. 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:05.919 Everyone travels to Ephesus. 00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:19.919 But but the locals, there's been such a change, there's been such a flip to a worshiping of Jesus, and we don't worship Diana or Artemis anymore. 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:22.879 We don't need your trinkets or any of that stuff. 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:41.200 That the silversmiths are going to rise up because the economic impact, because the gospel of Jesus Christ, has overtaken one of the largest cities in the world in a massive revival. 00:09:42.240 --> 00:09:53.759 And I share that with you because I want you to be so encouraged and blown away at the power of the gospel to save. 00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:11.440 Those that you think are the furthest away, in the darkest setting, the most tied financially to the darkness, all of it. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:19.200 And that is where the most important revival breaks out in the early church. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:20.399 It's a first point. 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:21.840 I want you to see that. 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:32.000 Second one, I want you to understand it comes at a great cost. 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:35.600 It always does. 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:38.960 It always comes at a great cost. 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:50.080 Let me read for you out of 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 8 and 9. 00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:52.240 You can put this on the screen for me. 00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:57.440 This is while Paul is in Ephesus. 00:10:58.159 --> 00:11:14.480 He says, For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, about our affliction which came upon us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:24.879 Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:49.360 Paul will later write to the Ephesians, remember Ephesians chapter 6? 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:52.639 Put on the full armor of God. 00:12:53.440 --> 00:13:00.639 Because our battle is not against flesh and blood, it is against principalities of darkness. 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:02.639 Don't you understand? 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:04.960 You have to put on God's armor. 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:14.240 Don't you understand that everything that you see in front of you, like it is the Lord's battle. 00:13:14.559 --> 00:13:17.279 And Paul had to learn this. 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:25.039 Do you think this revival and those demons left willingly and easily? 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:51.360 Paul, Paul, the one who was stoned and thought dead, the one who received five lashes 39 times from the Jews, the one who was shipwrecked, the one who had endured more suffering than you and I would ever even imagine, said, at this season he despaired of life itself. 00:13:53.759 --> 00:13:58.320 And his only hope was the resurrection from the dead. 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:01.200 It was his only hope. 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:09.840 So I share that with us simply because it always comes with a cost. 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:15.279 The way of the cross is take up your cross and follow me. 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:17.840 It's always worth it. 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:26.080 There's always life and victory and goodness, but there's always a cost. 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:45.440 So here we are unfolding the greatness that the gospel goes out to anyone, anywhere, can hear the good news of Jesus. 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:49.679 And we are called to go. 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:59.039 You, I mean, even you, Andy, even you, you're called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:00.480 It's our calling. 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:03.200 It's magnificent, it's the greatest truth. 00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:05.039 What could be better? 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:09.200 But do not be surprised, friends. 00:15:10.639 --> 00:15:12.879 It always comes with a cost. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:16.240 It is life, it is goodness. 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:22.159 Do you not think the enemy is going to fight back and attack and all of those things? 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:25.039 And it is always worth it. 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:27.279 It is always worth it. 00:15:27.519 --> 00:15:28.240 Will you pray with me? 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:30.240 Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:33.039 I thank you for Paul's example. 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:35.759 I thank you for a revival. 00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:38.320 That is the hope of our nation. 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:45.440 We want our nation to turn to you in masses and passion, especially the youngest generation. 00:15:45.600 --> 00:16:00.000 Father, we are filled with so much anxiousness and addiction and so many problems and issues, Father, that we need a breakthrough of your spirit. 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:07.120 You are the only thing that can set us right, and that is to be able to see you with clarity, King Jesus. 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:14.240 And so, Father, I pray for boldness for us as believers to preach the gospel everywhere that we go. 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:27.279 And Father, I pray that we have strength and perseverance to endure the opposition when it comes because it will, because our battle is not against flesh and blood, it is against the principalities and forces that are against you. 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:29.360 But King Jesus, you have won. 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:35.519 You have overcome the grave, you have overcome the enemy, and you reign above it all. 00:16:35.679 --> 00:16:37.120 You are our hope and trust. 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:38.559 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:39.200 Amen. 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:40.480 God bless you guys.