There we go. All right, my bad, guys. Hey, well, welcome. If you're new here, my name is Ricky. I'm one of the pastors here at the church.
Um, now I'm excited that after a number of special events and things over the last few weeks, we're returning to our regular pattern of studying through a book of the Bible, and we're going to be working through the book of Ephesians in the months to come, but don't turn there. Turn instead to Acts 19, because before we jump into Ephesians, I want us to see the beginning of the church in Ephesus, the people that were there and how the church started. And the reason we're taking a couple weeks to look at this beginning of the church has to do with spring training.
Now, I don't know, in the first service we had almost no baseball fans, That was very sad. But has anybody ever seen— been to the Cactus League or the Grapefruit League or spring training?
So the Cactus League's in Phoenix. Anybody ever seen that? You guys are so close. We're so close. So all the major league players— you may not know this— every single year will either go down to Florida or a ton of them go over to Phoenix and they all play in these little tiny stadiums.
So all across the Phoenix metro area, they have like a home stadium for various teams, you know, like the Padres will have their stadium or the Angels have a stadium, whatever, and they'll have a home stadium that's small and they'll work through a bunch of games, and even before that, they start at the basics. I went to one of the games, I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I went to one of the games with a friend who was a big baseball fan, and one of the things he loved about Major League Baseball is this, that no matter how good you are, no matter how many awards you win, no matter whether your team won the pennant last year or not, no matter if you're the Rookie of the Year, whatever, it doesn't matter. Every year at spring training, you go back to the beginning and you start chasing down grounders and catching fly balls and learning how to throw and catch and slide. And essentially what he was describing is they rebuild their game every single year. Doesn't matter if you won the World Series, great, you're catching grounders again, right?
That's the first day of spring training. And one of the great things is culturally, it almost evens the playing field. Every year, all the new people coming up from the minors, all the old veterans returning, they all do the same drills, they all work through it together, they form themselves into a team before they hit the season.
And I believe that this kind of season at our church is something like spring training. Training.
We've experienced a lot of change over the last couple of years as a church, not the least of which was the pandemic, obviously, that kept us from gathering or gathering as freely for a period of time. There were a number of fault lines and fissures across American culture that divided people, and even some of that has affected folks in, in our church and churches in general. Things like race relationships or political perspectives or debates about wearing masks or not. And add to that, I was talking to Dr. Chappell last week, and then he was describing that American Christianity has undergone what he calls the great rotation, meaning that in every church, a chunk of people have rotated out and gone to different churches, and a chunk of people have come in. And there's a lot of reasons for that we may touch on next week.
But just knowing that, yeah, we've experienced some of that as well. Well, in addition to that, a happy thing is that we've had a number of folks come to faith in the last year or two at the church and are learning what it means to follow Jesus. Just talking to a brother who was saved in December. This year has basically been him going, "Okay, great. Now what do I do?" And working through how to follow Jesus.
And so I want us to start in spring, our spring training, with the most fundamental of the fundamentals. I mean, this is us catching, learning to catch and throw again. We're going to start in Acts 19 with the beginning of the church in Ephesus answering this question: What does it mean to be a Christian? Because if we can't get this right, if we don't have the most fundamental of the fundamentals right, then nothing we do is going to matter.
So, we're going to read a section of Acts 19, and I'm going to summarize it as we go.
But this is just to give you a flavor. Of what the narrative is like. Acts 19:8, speaking of Paul coming to Ephesus, "And he," Paul, "entered the synagogue and for 3 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 before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the Hall of Tyrannus." This continued for 2 years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. And then skip to verse 19 and 20, which summarizes the narrative here.
And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. This is God's Word.
This is how the gospel came to Ephesus. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that as we look at Acts 19 together, Lord, you would allow your Word to come alive. You would help us to see in vivid color the beginning of this church and help us to see and really examine what does it mean to be a Christian on the most fundamental level. Lord, we want to be a church that gets it right. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
6 · A church in Orange, California is described as lacking all the external markers that contemporary culture associates with an impressive church—technology, facilities, production value
I have a friend, Eric Trebetsky, who came and preached here earlier in the year, and he loves his city of Orange, California. Their church meets downtown in Orange, California at the Women's Club of Orange. It's this old, cool little building there. And his church is, by the standards of California and especially Orange County, he would say unimpressive. I've had the privilege of getting to worship with them a couple of times, and I can attest to the fact that, yeah, it's— I mean, it's a nice building, no air conditioning, so on hot days it is hot. They don't own their own building, they rent one. They have no lights that are cool in their room other than the light switch at the back of the room that somebody turns on before the service starts. They don't have a large band full of Orange County rock musicians. They have a few folks with guitars singing the same songs that we do. They have a basic sound system. They have a small pile of donuts. They don't have to have this ridiculous, you know, 12-foot table of donuts we have, and I love, by the way. I guess what I'm trying to say is they don't have a lot that humanly speaking, somebody would walk in and go, "Oh, this is impressive. This is amazing. This really pops. This has flash and sizzle to it."
7 · A visitor to the unimpressive church kept returning not because of production quality but because he recognized the congregation as "real Christians" who were actually trying to follow Jesus and practice what they preached
And there was a guy that Eric was talking to that, you know, he could tell maybe would gravitate toward that kind of thing more, but the guy kept coming back to their church. And so he finally asked the guy after one of the services, So I'm just curious, why do you keep coming back? And he says, I love coming here. And Eric said, well, but why? What is it that you, you know, and he wasn't even, I think if I remember the story right, this guy, well, he wasn't even sure this guy was a Christian. And the guy replied, look, I come here and the people here are a bunch of real Christians. Like, I see it, you guys are, trying to follow Jesus. You're doing the stuff. You talk about the Bible and then you try to do it.
8 · The illustration leads to the claim that the essential characteristic of a church should not be its programs or style but whether it is composed of genuine Christians following Jesus in every area of life
And I thought, that's it. That should be the heartbeat of every church. That rather than being known for comfortable seats or a nice kids' ministry or a good band or whatever, you know, I like the preaching style, I like the worship style, I like the way that they structure small groups. More than all of that, I think the fundamental thing that every church is trying to get right or should be trying to get right is this: are we a group of genuine, real Christians trying to follow Jesus in every area of life? That's what we want to be, I believe.
9 · Explicit transition connecting the illustration to the exposition of Acts 19, restating the controlling question
And I believe Acts 19 is the backdrop that helps us answer that question. What does it mean, though, to be a real Christian or a bunch of real Christians?
10 · Historical and cultural background of Ephesus is established: it was a major religious tourism center built around the Temple of Artemis, one of the ancient wonders
Well, when Paul comes to Ephesus in Acts 19, he had likely been there on a brief visit earlier, kind of passing through, but he comes now to proclaim the gospel. And it is a formidable city for a gospel-preaching guy to take on trying to talk to about Jesus. Now, here are a couple reasons. One, the way I could describe Ephesus is religious Disneyland in this way. It was the home of one of the great wonders of the ancient world, almost like the pyramids and the lighthouse, you know, the Library of Alexandria, and the Colosseum. The temple of Artemis at Ephesus. This is a 400-foot-tall structure, 200 feet wide, 4 times bigger than the Parthenon in Athens. And there was in that community, it became a hub for religious kind of tourism and pilgrimage. People would come, we will talk more about Artemis as we go, to the goddess of fertility to beseech them for good crops and good years of reproduction among the livestock, or to to have children, and people would come, and there would be people in the market selling little Artemises, you know, and little statues you could take home with you. And there were meat vendors selling, you know, Artemis's favorite gyros, and, you know, I don't know what they would sell, but they would be selling food, and you have this party atmosphere at times. And Paul comes to this religious hub with the message of the gospel.
11 · Major structural transition introducing the first of three negative definitions of Christianity (what it is NOT)
And as we see him proclaim the gospel, I think we'll see what it means to be a real Christian. First thing we're going to learn: religious practice is not enough to be a real Christian.
12 · Paul encounters disciples in Ephesus who had been baptized with John's baptism of repentance but had never heard of the Holy Spirit or received the gospel of Jesus
Now, Paul, in verses 1 through 7, encounters a group of— well, they call themselves disciples. And in fact, these disciples have even been baptized. So Paul initially is thinking, okay, great, these are people just like us. They must be And Paul asked them, "Well, have you received the Holy Spirit?" And their reply says a lot. Their reply is, "We haven't even heard of the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit?" And so Paul backs up and goes, "Whoa, okay, yeah, we missed something here." He asked, verse 3, "Well, into what were you baptized?" And they said, "With John's baptism." So apparently John the Baptizer's baptism practice spread through some of the Jews in the ancient world, and they got that but not the message of Jesus.
13 · The Ephesian disciples exemplify the insufficiency of sincere religious practice: despite genuine repentance and baptism, they were not yet Christians because they lacked the gospel of Jesus
Now notice what these guys have going for them. They are sincere in their religious practice. They did a good thing. They were baptized into John's baptism. They're saying, "Listen, I'm being baptized under John's baptism, saying I repent. I want to cleanse myself of these sins." But even that, Paul says, or Paul shows us, is not enough to be a Christian.
14 · Direct application to the congregation listing various religious practices that are insufficient for salvation: church attendance, Christian family background, belief in God, contrition for sin, ministry leadership, and even baptism
And in fact, we'll see in a second, he preaches the gospel to them. So let me expand this for our context here. It is not enough, church, to have a sincere religious practice. It is not enough to sit in a church week after week after week. It is not enough to be part of a family where other people believe in Jesus. It is not enough to believe in God. It's not enough to feel sorry when you sin. It's not enough to lead a Bible study. None of that is enough. It's not enough to be baptized, even. Not enough.
15 · Personal testimony: the preacher himself exemplified religious practice without genuine faith as a child—excelling at all the right answers and behaviors but without actual love for God or understanding of Jesus
And I'm testimony to that. Like, I grew up in this church, and I was the kid who, in kids' ministry, was every Sunday school teacher's favorite kid. And I know because some of them are still in the church, and they're like, "Yeah, you were. You were the favorite." Because I knew all of the religious answers. I knew how to do the religious stuff. Now, it doesn't mean I love Jesus. I just knew how to do the stuff. I was also hated by everyone else in those classes. They'd be like, "Does anyone know who the baptizer was?" "Me!" You know, I was just that kid. You know, "Andrew, what do you think?" "Uh, was it Jerome?" "No, not Jerome." You know, And I was like, pick me, pick me. I was that kid, hated by all except for the Sunday school teacher. And I think it's an illustration of the fact that you can be in a church, you can practice the religious stuff, you can go through the things that everybody else around you is doing, but honestly, when I look back as a kid, I didn't love the Lord. There was no love for God in my heart, and there was really no understanding of who Jesus was related to me. It was just a part of a religious practice that I engaged in and was good at. It's not enough.
16 · The positive claim emerges: real Christianity is defined by salvation in Jesus
Real Christianity is all about salvation in Jesus. That's the distinguishing mark of real Christianity. It is about salvation in Jesus. Look at verse 4 with me here. Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling 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 to speak in tongues and prophesying." Okay, what is going on here? Listen, Paul recognizes something good. You were baptized with the baptism of repentance. Repentance is saying, "I'm sorry for my sin." But John knew that that wasn't sufficient. Even as he was proclaiming the baptism of repentance, he knew it wasn't sufficient, and he knew the one after me will bring, in a sense, the rest of the message. What is the rest of the message? The rest of the message is Jesus.
17 · Ephesians 2 is brought in to articulate the gospel Paul would have preached: even religious people are dead in sin; salvation comes not by works but by grace through faith in Christ's death on the cross in their place
Now, we don't get the whole sermon Paul preached to these guys, but I think we get a flavor of it in Ephesians chapter 2. And Ephesians chapter 2 goes like this. Paul says this: even to religious people, okay? And you were dead in the trespasses and sins. Verse 1 in chapter 2 of Ephesians, he says you were dead. It wasn't like you were, well, you were a little short, you know. It's not like, well, you almost got an A, you're at like an 88, you know. It wasn't like that at all. You were dead. The religious practice by itself, deadness. But verse Verse 4. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, not through religious practice, through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works or religious practice, so that no one may boast. Boast. This is what they lacked. They knew, "I'm a sinner, I need to repent of that." They did not know then what to do with their sins. But Jesus answers the question. "I'm sorry, I've sinned, God help me." But how can their sins be washed away? How can their sins be forgiven? It is by Christ. It is through Jesus in his death on the cross in their place, and them accepting and receiving the gift of Jesus Christ by not religious practice, by faith that makes these brothers now Christians. To be brothers, be truly brothers in a sense.
18 · Personal conversion testimony: hearing "Jesus died for you" for the thousandth time, the Spirit awakened the preacher's heart to see both his self-righteous sin and the sufficiency of Jesus
Look, for me, as a kid sitting in kids' ministry, one day after I don't know how many thousands of times the faithful people at the church spoke to me about the gospel, one day the teacher said something that I had heard a million times. You probably heard a million times, the simple phrase, "Jesus died for you." And she was just— she said it matter-of-factly, you know, "We got to remember, you know, and to become a Christian and remember that Jesus died for you." And in that moment, it was like, bam, something happened in my heart where I saw two things. One, I wasn't a good kid. I was actually a self-righteous jerk, and even in my religious practice, in a sense, was sinning. Not in a sense, I was sinning by self-righteousness and pride. But there was a solution, and the solution wasn't be better. The solution was believe in Jesus. And in that moment, Jesus awakened my heart, and I went from deadness to life, not through works, not through practice, but through Jesus.
19 · Summary claim connecting the personal testimony to the text's purpose: Acts 19 preserves this account to teach the church that salvation is by Jesus, not by religious practice
Look, that is the heartbeat of Acts chapter 9. But I think this is written and preserved for our edification so that we remember it is not sincere religious practice that saves. It is Jesus who saves.
20 · Direct pastoral appeal to those who rely on religious practice: the hardest step is admitting that being good at religious stuff is insufficient and trusting Jesus instead
Let me just encourage you, friend, if that's you, if you're good at religious practice, one of the hardest things is this: to lay down your being good at religious practice and say it's not enough. You need Jesus. Let me encourage you to do that today.
21 · Major structural transition introducing the second negative definition: using Jesus for one's own purposes is also insufficient for real Christianity
Second thing we learn here: using Jesus is not enough. Religious practice isn't enough. Neither is using Jesus enough. Now, verses 11 through 20 get even weirder. Than that, if that's possible.
22 · The account of the seven sons of Sceva who tried to use Jesus' name for exorcism without actually belonging to Jesus
We were introduced to Paul, and he's doing this ministry in Ephesus, and it was so extraordinary that it says even handkerchiefs or aprons that touched Paul's skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them, and spirits came out of them. And so it's this itinerant group of Jewish exorcists sees this happening, and they're like, "Man, we gotta go through hours and hours of stuff and reading the Torah and shaking stuff all around." And all this guy does is speak in the name of Jesus and the demons flee. So there's a demon and they're there with the demon and here's what happens. They come and confront the demon and say, you know, use the name of Jesus. And it says in verse 15, the demon tells them, which this is, I think, one of the funniest sections in the Bible. Verse 15, the demon says, Jesus I know and Paul I recognize, 'But who are you?' And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them— that didn't go well— and mastered all of them, meaning, like, he had total control of the whole situation, and overpowered them, meaning their power, his power, overpower, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. Okay, didn't go well. That's the summary. Like, these itinerant Jewish exorcists that are traveling around, and here's what they're thinking.
23 · The exorcists exemplify the error of trying to add Jesus to one's existing spiritual system as a tool for personal ends, rather than submitting to Jesus as Lord
They're thinking, "Great, we got our whole kind of religious spiritual system. We see Jesus can do some stuff, so let's grab Jesus and add him to our spiritual system so that we can do what we want." Notice this: these guys, they're not interested in coming to Christ. They're not interested in handing their lives over to Christ. They just want to use Christ to do what they already want to do with their lives.
24 · Direct application naming the same temptation in the contemporary church: wanting Jesus' benefits without wanting Jesus himself, wanting his power for our agenda rather than surrendering to his
And, friends, how many of us have been in that situation before? We don't want to— we want the stuff Jesus does, we don't want Jesus. We want his power for our life, in a sense. We got our spirituality, we're going to add him in and get what we want.
25 · Film illustration of a woman dating a mobster not because she loves him but because she wants the destination he represents
I was watching a movie recently with Jen and it was like— the title and everything is not important. All you have to know is the scene. Scene is, it's kind of mobster Chicago, and this girl who seems like a nice girl starts dating a bad guy, young mobster, and you're like, oh, why is she dating this guy? This is terrible. But she wants to get out of Chicago. She wants to not be poor anymore. She wants to see the world, and she feels, you know, and you're just thinking, what is she seeing in this guy? 'Cause this guy's a jerk. He's a total jerk. And so, you know, they're being lovey, and she tells the guy, oh, you know why I like you? And he's like, why, babe? You know, or whatever. I don't know, I can't do a mobster voice right now. He's got the little hat on with a cigarette or whatever, and he's like, "Ah." And she says, "You know why I like you? Because you're going places." And you're like, okay, first of all, that's like the most 1920s noir line ever. "You're going places." But here's the thing you hear in that. She doesn't like the guy. She likes where he— she thinks the the guy will take her.
26 · The illustration is applied to various ways people try to use Jesus: for prosperity, miracles, marriage restoration, wayward children
And how many of us have done that with Jesus? It's like, "I don't like you. I like the thing that I think you're going to do in my life. I like the place you're going to take me." This is one of the problems living in a city, in El Paso, that is familiar with Jesus. People are kind of familiar with Jesus, and many try to use Jesus to get what they want, right? So you have the person that wants more health or more wealth or more— a miracle, whatever, and they go to a prosperity gospel church. That promises those things, that if you just come, you can use Jesus to get what you want, right? It's also the person who needs a miracle and they come to Jesus for the miracle. It's the person who says, "I wanna save my marriage or rescue my kid," but they don't want Jesus, they want their marriage to be saved or their kid to come back. Now, some of those desires aren't even bad, but using Jesus is not the same as being a Christian. Or trying to use Jesus, rather, is not the same as being a Christian.
27 · Personal testimony of teenage years when the preacher pursued purity and Bible reading not out of love for Jesus but to get Jesus to give him a girlfriend
I remember as a teen, I really tried hard to pursue purity. I really tried hard to have good relationships, respectful relationships with girls around me. I really tried hard to read my Bible. I really tried hard, but if I'm honest, I think I did a ton of that because at the end of the day, I was really hoping that Jesus would make a girl like me.
And so I would do the stuff and be like, "Why isn't any girl liking me? I'm doing the stuff." Or I'd fall into sin somehow, and I would think, "Oh, great. Now I'm never gonna get a girlfriend." You know? And in that moment, what's going on in my heart? What's going on in my heart is I'm not after Jesus. I'm after the thing that I think Jesus will bring.
28 · The positive claim: real Christianity comes with the power of the Holy Spirit, but that power is for Christ's purposes, not our own
Here's the truth. Real Christianity comes with the power of Christ for the purposes of Christ. It comes with power, but for his purposes, his purposes. Now, you have to see here, that it comes with power, right? These disciples think they know God, they think they know Jesus, but Paul preaches the gospel and almost says, like, to make this as clear as possible that they are in Christ, they believe, they're baptized again, and then they are filled with the Holy Spirit in this supernatural way. And what is that connoting? Why is that detail included? Luke wants us, the writer of this text, wants us to see, to underline, these people are now Christians because they have the Spirit. Now, I'm not saying if you don't speak in tongues, you don't have the Holy Spirit. That's not what I'm trying to say. I'm trying to say Luke is highlighting the obvious act of presence of the Spirit in this moment to confirm almost for everybody involved that, yes, now, believing in John's baptism, no, not enough. Believing in Christ, yes, absolutely enough. And with coming to Christ comes the power of the Spirit. Now, 1 Corinthians 12, Paul tells the whole church that they— he uses this metaphor that they've been plunged into the Spirit. In Galatians 4, we learn that through the Spirit, the Christian experiences relationship with their Abba Father, relationship, experiences God, doesn't just know about God, but experiences a fellowship with God in a way that non-Christians can't experience. Galatians 5 then calls us to— Walk by the Spirit, meaning live your life in the power of the Spirit. Now listen, that, we gotta pause there and say, that is amazing. That is way better than trying to just be good and religious enough on your own in your own strength. And it's way better than trying to take what you wanna do in life and use Jesus to get it. No, this is more power than you could imagine but it is for a purpose. It is for the purpose of Christ.
29 · Paul exemplifies Spirit-empowered ministry: he does not use miracles for personal gain or spectacle but for gospel proclamation
We're filled with the Spirit to look more like Christ, to pursue Christ, and to proclaim Christ. That's what you see in the text. Look at Paul's example here. He does not, you know, realize, "Man, this is going well. I got handkerchiefs." So he's not by the side of the road with a little booth in Ephesus going like, "Handkerchiefs, 100 denarii, guaranteed to cure anything," right? He doesn't have a little box he stands on. "All right, step right up, ladies and gentlemen. I got a deal for you today. If you today, right now, right now, if you give us $100, you can have a miracle in your life," right? He doesn't say that. He does not do that. Instead, what we see in the text is that his— this ministry, if you could even call it that, these miraculous signs and wonders are done as he's going about the proclamation of the gospel in the city of Ephesus. The emphasis of his ministry is not, "Look what I can do. Look at these miracles. Look at this power." The emphasis of his ministry is, "Look at Christ." And as he proclaims Christ, the Holy Spirit comes, in a sense, behind him, pointing to Christ. In Acts, the way I think about it is the way the gospel itself, the kerygma, the proclamation, the heralding of the gospel is the thing being proclaimed and heralded, not the work of the Spirit. But the work of the Spirit, in a sense, takes that billboard and adds flashing lights around it with arrows pointing to it. Look to Jesus, believe in Jesus. That's exactly what you see. People are amazed, people are drawn, people hear the gospel, people are saved.
30 · Summative claim synthesizing the section: real Christianity includes Spirit power, which is glorious and experiential, but that power exists for Christ's purposes—conformity to Christ and proclamation of Christ
Real Christianity comes with the power of Christ, not just your own strength, comes with the power of Christ, but it comes with the power of Christ for the purposes of Christ, to follow Jesus, to look more like him, and to proclaim him. That is what the Spirit does in our lives. Now, is the Spirit not glorious? Is experiencing the Spirit not a gift? Being able to relate to God as Abba Father in that way and pray, is that not glorious and beautiful? Yes, it is. But the power of Christ is for the purposes of Christ, not our purposes.
31 · Major structural transition introducing the third negative definition: attempting to coexist with Jesus alongside other loyalties is also insufficient
All right, third thing we learn here: coexisting with Jesus isn't enough. Religious practice isn't enough. Using Jesus isn't enough to be Christian. And coexisting with Jesus isn't enough to be called a Christian.
32 · Summary of the economic impact of Christian conversions in Ephesus: converts abandoned occult practices and stopped purchasing Artemis idols, disrupting the religious tourism economy
Now, oh man, the end of Acts 19 is a wild, wild ride. I'll try to summarize it as briefly as I can. In Acts 19, The people who become Christians get rid of their occult practices and books, and people, as a result of so many people in Ephesus coming to Christ, stop buying the little Disneyland Artemis idols all over the place. All the stuffed Artemises that are in a pile stop selling real well. No, no, no, it's not stuffed. They're made out of gold, and what you would do is you'd go on a pilgrimage to Ephesus, and you would worship at the temple of Artemis, and then take some of these little statues home so that you could continue worship at home, almost as a souvenir. And all of a sudden, people stopped buying these little idol-related trinkets.
33 · Demetrius the silversmith organized the idol-making guild and incited a riot against Paul's ministry because Christian conversions were destroying their business
And so there's a blacksmith called Demetrius, and he looks at his profit-loss margins and goes, okay, last year, this year, we're— last, you know, 6 months, we're always— we're losing money every week. We're selling less and less of these little idols. So he gets all the guildsmen, the craftsmen together, and says basically, look, we gotta stop these guys 'cause if they keep going, none of us are gonna have jobs. All the idol makers will be out of a job and nobody will come to Ephesus, so we gotta stop these guys. And he whips up a crowd and essentially a riot breaks out in the city of Ephesus. And people began chanting, great is Artemis of the Ephesians, great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
34 · The riot escalates to a confused mob shouting for Artemis for two hours
I mean, imagine downtown El Paso, A mob forms and everybody rushes to the middle of downtown El Paso at San Jacinto Plaza, and the streets are clogged and people are just shouting for Artemis. I don't know what our equivalent would be. Great is Chico of the Chihuahuas. Great, you know, whatever it is. This is what's happening. And it says, my favorite verse is verse 32, some cried out one thing, some another, for the whole assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. Like, it's just a riot. But the thing that's uniting the riot is this: does somebody say that we can't have Artemis? Does somebody say their god over Artemis, that we can't have that? Let's push back on it. And a Jewish person gets up and they're like, wait a minute, he's a monotheist, don't let him speak. And then it says, for 2 hours they kept shouting, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" And nobody could speak to the crowd. And eventually, at the very, very end, this Roman official comes And his argument is basically, he doesn't even address any of the issues. He just basically says, look, we're like, we're in a Roman area, okay? Here's the deal. When there's riots in a city, the Roman soldiers don't ask a lot of questions. They just come in and kill people, all right? They just come in and start like destroying stuff. So we all got to go home. Otherwise, somebody's going to notify the Romans. They're going to come in and clean house in Ephesus. They're not going to ask a lot of questions. They don't care about Artemis, they care about order. So we got to go home. And everybody goes, "Oh, I guess he's right," you know. And they finally go home.
35 · The riot reveals that polytheistic Ephesus was willing to tolerate Jesus as one god among many, but Christianity's exclusive claim to one God made coexistence impossible
Now, what's the point of that story? Well, there's a lot there, but I just want to point out one very basic observation: just trying to coexist with Jesus doesn't work. Because here's what Ephesus wanted: Ephesus was happy to accept other gods into the hall of gods. They were happy to say, "Hey, you've got a god? Great. Put him up there next to the other, you know, the rest of the Roman pantheon. And sure, you can worship him too, as long as you keep worshiping Artemis or let people worship Artemis. And we put Caesar up there as well. So as long as your god will go on the shelf with the other gods, we got no problems." But Christianity comes in and says, "No, we're clearing the shelf." There's one. And all of a sudden that gets threatening.
36 · Contemporary application: American pluralism tolerates Christianity as long as Christians accept religious relativism, but the exclusive claims of Christianity provoke the same opposition today as in Ephesus
And even in our culture today, America is very much the same thing. America's like, cool, you believe whatever you want. You have a higher power, you have a thing, you have a God, you like Jesus, okay, great. This guy likes Jesus, this guy likes Buddha, this guy's like Gandhi, whatever, you know. Do what works for you. But as soon as you show up and go, we're clearing the shelf, there's only one, people are like, whoa. And living as a Christian often in a sense, threatens the gods of the age.
37 · Extended analogy: American Christianity often functions like Build-A-Bear, where people customize Christianity to fit their preferences—progressive, conservative, therapeutic, political
And the reason this is so important is I think in America we have what I would call a Build-A-Bear Christianity much of the time. Has anyone ever been to Build-A-Bear? That was a big thing, like, in the '90s. All right, so Build-A-Bear is one of the most disturbing things I've ever experienced. So my sister went to Build-A-Bear. We were on vacation in some city or traveling in some city, and they had a Build-A-Bear thing. So you go into the room, And there's these limp, like stuffed animals without stuffing, and they're just lying there. And so you pick a carcass up, and then they shoot like feathers or foam or whatever into it. It's like, grrr, you know? And then you add its head, and you can put a little heart inside of it, and you dress it up, and you give it a little hat and a little outfit, and you walk out, and then you pay approximately $500, and they give you this bear, and it's just exactly what you wanted. Exactly the bear you want. It's like, "Oh, I don't like that little hat. I'd like this little hat." "Oh, I don't want my bear to have green eyes. I want him to have blue eyes." And you take that home and you're like, "Oh, this is my Build-A-Bear." And I think so many times that's what Americans do related to Christianity. They'll say, "Look, this is what I want, and sure, I like this general shape of Christianity, but I want to have this. I want to add this. I want it to look like this. I don't want it to feel this." I want Christianity without the judgment. Love is love, right? Everybody just loves whoever they want. I'm gonna love whoever I want. I don't need a marriage license to do that. But I love the part that Jesus loves people. I love that. Other people are like, you know what? I'm angry about things. I want an angry Christianity that's gonna help me take back the country. You know, I'm gonna do this. Like, oh, I'm a social justice kind of person, and I want to see these things happen, and so I'm gonna take Christianity and shove it into that. And here's the reality, some of that stuff is not necessarily bad, but here's what is bad. Trying to put Jesus on the shelf next to your other idols does not and cannot work. It can't.
38 · The positive claim emerges from the text: real Christianity turns the world upside down, starting with the believer's own life
This is what you find in the town of Ephesus. Look at Acts 19, verse 17. Real Christianity turns the world upside down, starting with your world. Verse 17, 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. And many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. What's going on there? They're seeing there's an incompatibility here. I can't just put Jesus up on the shelf with the other stuff. He is the shelf now. Verse 19, and a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. When you come to Christianity, when you come to Christ, real Christianity turns the world upside down, starting with your world. You begin to see, I can't just live my life the way I want to and also have Jesus. It's not even a 50/50 split. "Well, listen, Jesus, you can have 50% of my life, but I got to, you know, I got to keep 50% here. I got to be able to watch the shows I want to watch. You start messing with the dial, I'm out." Like, real Christianity means your whole world gets turned upside down.
39 · The cost of the Ephesian conversions is emphasized: burning books worth thousands or millions of dollars
Look, what they did here, bringing these books together and burning them in the sight of all, the commentators believe that was— the estimate of what they did was ranged from losing thousands of dollars, which is like, "Ow," to millions of dollars.
Right? This was costly. And they weren't even saying, "Listen, I want to maintain my lifestyle, so at least I'm going to sell the magic books, get the money, and keep doing what I want to do." Look, this is them, this is the early Ephesian church going all in. In with Jesus, not coexisting, saying, "Jesus, you take everything."
40 · Pauline theology is invoked to interpret the Ephesian book-burning: like Paul counting all gain as loss for Christ, the converts recognized that Jesus is the treasure, and the magic books were now obstacles to be removed
I see in this the echo of Paul later in his letters where he says, "Whatever gain, I counted it as loss. I counted it as loss for the sake of knowing Christ, for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ." Why are these people getting rid, in a sense, of their treasure? Because they're not getting rid of their treasure. This stuff no longer is their treasure. Jesus is their treasure. Jesus is the thing they want. And they now see, listen, I want Jesus. This is holding me back from Jesus, so out the window it goes.
41 · Personal testimony: The preacher's struggle to surrender his law school aspirations and submit to God's call to ministry
Look, I remember I was a UTEP student once upon a time, about 30 years ago. And I'm just kidding, not 30 years ago. It feels like that, though. I remember mid-college that I wanted to be a lawyer, and I wanted to be a lawyer even though I knew that God had placed a call on my life for ministry. And I wanted to be a lawyer because I thought, well, listen, I want to have a legal degree, and I want to be able to make money, you know, and I want to be able to have a career. And then if I can fit Jesus into that, then I will do that. Now listen, I'm not saying everybody has to be a pastor, everybody has to be called to vocational ministry. What I am saying is this: there was an area in my life where I was wanting to follow Jesus as long as he coexisted with my other desires for my life. And I remember I had this moment where I had to just, like, decide, I really am gonna do what I feel Jesus is calling me to do. And I was behind the UTEP library. There's a little space between that building and the business building. And so I was back there, just pacing, pacing. And I just began to cry. I just began to cry, 'cause I just thought, man, this is so hard. I really feel like I'm pushing things that I've wanted to do for years onto the table and saying, Jesus, you can take it. This is yours. I remember crying and praying, and this student walked out of the business building, and they saw me crying, and then did one of these, like, You know, like, "I'll just go out another door," and they just went back in. And I just remember thinking, "I look absolutely ridiculous." I'm on— like, I'm on my knees behind the UTEP library building crying because I so badly wanted my life on my terms plus Jesus. And in that moment, I think it was a key moment for me where I where I had to pray and go, "Lord, I don't want my life on my terms plus you. I want you, and you are my life." And again, I'm not saying everybody has to be a pastor, but that is the heart of what it means to be a Christian, is to take every area of your life.
42 · Bridge to the upcoming Ephesians series: the entire book will unpack what it means to push every area of life onto the table and ask Jesus what he wants, making him the center of race relations, marriage, parenting, work, and conflict
This is what we're going to see in the book of Ephesians. We're going to take every area of life, from race relations to reconciliation to marriage to parenting to work to conflict, all of that stuff, all of it gets pushed onto the table. And you say, "Jesus, what do you want? Jesus, what do you want me to do with my life? Because you're my life. Whatever I need to do to get more of you, that's what I care about." Like, that's what you see in this passage.
43 · Pastoral moment of gratitude: echoing Alex's testimony after returning from the NICU, the preacher affirms that Cross of Grace is indeed a congregation of real Christians who give up time, energy, and money to serve—not because of production value but because of Christ's heart in them
Now, let me just close by saying this. A few days ago, we had a staff lunch, and it was Alex's first staff lunch after coming back after being out a while with Bode being in the NICU. And he echoed those words that Eric Trebesky shared. He just was so— with tears in his eyes, he just said, "I'm so grateful that Cross of Grace is a place of real Christians who give up their time, who give up their energy, who give up their money to serve people because they have the heart of Christ." And church, let me just encourage you. I really do believe, say, look, just look at you guys right now that I'm just filled with gratefulness. You guys are a bunch of real Christians and you don't gather here because we have anything overly attractive. Our fog machine broke a decade ago. No, I'm just kidding; we never had a fog machine. No lasers, no stuff.
44 · The sermon's three main points are recapitulated as a prayer: that the church would make Jesus their salvation (not religious practice), receive his power for his purposes (not their own), and allow Jesus to turn their world upside down (not coexist)
This is my prayer, though, as we walk through the season of spring training, that we would never lose the most fundamental of the fundamentals, that we be a place of genuine Christians where, one, we're not using religious practice, we're making Jesus our salvation, where, two, we're not trying to use Jesus for our purposes, we're saying, "We want your power for your purposes." and 3, where we're not saying, "Let's coexist with Jesus." "Lord, transform my life. Turn it upside down."
45 · Baptism invitation: Like the Ephesian disciples who were re-baptized after hearing the gospel, anyone who was baptized without genuine faith in Jesus should consider baptism now
And in a few weeks we're going to have baptisms. Let me just encourage you, just like these disciples here, if you have not been baptized as a Christian— and I mean that when I say that, as a Christian— I think Acts 19 would call you to be baptized. If maybe even you were baptized as a kid or as a baby and you didn't have anything to do with it, Or maybe like me, you were baptized in a Pharisaical part of your life where you were like, "Yeah, I didn't love Jesus. I just wanted to get the points." If that's you, let me encourage you. Baptism serves us. It's that moment of saying— where we say over people, "Buried in the likeness of Christ, raised to walk in newness of life." We're not just saying, "I'm sorry for my sins." We're saying, "I'm sorry for my sins and I cling to to Jesus who gives me new life. Let me encourage you to consider that if you've not been baptized. And if you have been baptized, let— it should encourage you every time you see somebody being baptized because you're like, that's a picture of me. It reminds you.
46 · Transition to communion, framing it as a second reminder alongside baptism of the gospel realities proclaimed in the sermon
And the second reminder that we have is communion. So we're going to actually take communion in response to the message today. I'm going to invite Chuck to come up. So go ahead and grab that little Communion packet near you, and let's kind of lean in as Chuck walks us through communion today.