Focused on the Word - The Church at Ephesus - Paul's 3rd Missionary Journey
Sermon Notes
There are four aspects of the church at Ephesus we want to focus on this morning
1. God is always at work ahead of us. God is at work, using the intersecting ministries of Apollo, and Aquila and Priscilla as both an initial foundation before Paul arrived and also in correcting Apollo’s less than complete doctrine (18.23-28). And don’t you love how Aquila and Priscilla took him aside to teach him more accurately - they didn’t call him a heretic or deride him publicly - they quietly took him aside.
2. God affirms His stamp of blessing on the young church in Ephesus through His servant Paul, the gift of tongues and prophecy (it reminds us of Acts 2 and Pentecost), and the power of the Word (19.1-7). In my mind, I understand that these followers of John the Baptist were Old Testament believers - they were not Christians. They knew nothing of the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the Acts Pentecost sense.
Note the four elements of conversion process: repentance, faith in Jesus, baptism, and the gift of the Spirit.
3. God always works through His Word. Luke tells us of the two foundational years - the power of the Word in the school of Tyrannus and the spread of the Word to all who lived in Asia (19.8-10).
This is amazing to me. The normal work day in the Greek world was like this. People would work from early morning until about 11 AM, and then take a break (including rest) until about 4 PM, and then continue the work day until late evening (as late as 9ish).** So that means that Paul (after making tents in the morning hours) probably taught in this school from 11-4 each day, 6 days a week, for a period of two years, which is equal to about 3,120 of Gospel and Scriptural instruction for those who attended.
And these were normal working people - people who worked long hours just like people do in our day yet they were so diligent about taking time to learn the Word - perhaps as high as 4 hours/day. I wonder about this in our day. How many hours do you think the average believer spends in the study of the Scriptures/Gospel each day? How much time is invested on outreach?
It is interesting to me to note that the average TV in homes of Christians is on 4 hours/day. I cannot help but wonder what might be different about the church if Christians were as diligent about the Word as brothers and sisters were in the city of Ephesus.
** This is true today. When Vicki and I were in Italy just two weeks ago, we were in the home of an Italian attorney, and that was his schedule. He typically goes home each evening about 10:00 pm (he came home earlier that evening [about 8:00 pm] to accommodate his western guests).
4. God demonstrates the influence a church can have in the city’s response to the presence of the Gospel (19.11-41).
• We see the power of a church in a city when it puts away foreign gods - we see the dealing with the presence of evil in an idolatrous culture in both miraculous and logical ways (11-20)
• We see the impact of the church on an idolatrous culture’s economy (21-27)
Note v.21: Paul’s ambition was to go to Rome. He was strategic about each of his mission trips, and he was strategic about getting to the center and capital of the Roman world - Rome.
• We see that riots and danger are dismissed by court rulings that favor the growth of the church (28-41).
Ephesus is the last major stop we see in this last of Paul’s 3 missionary journeys, I want to reflect just a moment on Paul’s pattern of evangelism. He seemed to follow this three-fold pattern of Gospel outreach.
1. The secular places chose
2. The reasoned presentations he made
3. The extended periods he stayed
I’m inclined to wonder why it would be any different with us - being strategic about being in secular places, taking time to present the Gospel in intelligent, reasoned ways, and then taking time to disciple people and follow them up.
Application/So What?
1. Do we see how God is already at work all around us?
2. Am I a person of the Word, and am I building into and discipling others through the power of the Word?
3. Is there idolatry in my life that I need to get rid of and burn?
4. Am I losing my first love or is it still aflame in my life (Revelation 2.1-7)?
5. Are we a church like Ephesus? Am I/are you a church member like the members at Ephesus? Which one?