Riot About This

House is on fire. What two things are you grabbing?

What is your hottest take?

Another way to phrase it, what is a “mostly insignificant” hill that you will absolutely die on?

I Could Care Less vs. I Couldn't Care Less

Reese's vs Reesees

Toilet Paper MUST go over not under

"Irregardless" is not a word. The word is "Regardless"

Stop saying "Literally" if you're not talking about something LITERAL (my boyfriend is literally the best. No. He’s figuratively the best)

Pineapple on pizza - this one always comes up.

But is there anyone here who will fight me over these takes?

We’re jumping back into the Book of Acts tonight, but we’re picking up the pace. We gotta finish this by the end of the year, and we have 9 chapters left. So we’re going to hit the major themes as we go.

We’re gonna look at Acts chapter 19 tonight.

The Set Up (Context)

Paul is moving on from the city of Corinth and heads to Ephesus to share the Gospel in a new city.

But Paul doesn’t just pick random cities to go to. He picks culture hubs. He picks cities of influence. He picks places where theres a lot of people who need Jesus.

And Ephesus definitely fits that mold.

Ephesus is the center of all things mystical, magical, occult, and spiritual. Think witches, and wizards, and cults, and crystals, and idols. You name it, it’s there.

It’s also home to one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World: the Temple of Artemis.

So this is spirituality infused, idol worshipping place is where Paul decides to set up his next missionary venture.

verses 8-10 of Acts 19 tell us that Paul was here for two whole years sharing the Gospel with people. He was conducting daily discussions about Jesus at a place called the Lecture Hall of Tyrannus. Tyrannus literally means Tyrant or Dictator so probably not the dude’s real name - has anybody in had a teacher that you called a tyrant behind their back? This is the place that Paul is renting our every day to have discussions .

And it says in Acts 19:10 that EVERYONE in the province heard the Gospel because of all the discussions that Paul was having.

Imagine that for 5 hours a day, 6 days a week, for two whole years you’re talking about Jesus with anyone who will listen. That’s like 3100 hours of Gospel convos.

And it has a huge effect on the city of Ephesus and the whole province.

I’m sure that tons of people are coming to know Jesus, churches are bing planted

but it’s also angering all those witches, fortune-tellers, mystics, and idol worshippers.

So here is where I want to sit tonight.

Turn to Acts 19:23

Read Acts 19:23-32

Acts 19:23–32 CSB

About that time there was a major disturbance about the Way. For a person named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, provided a great deal of business for the craftsmen. When he had assembled them, as well as the workers engaged in this type of business, he said, “Men, you know that our prosperity is derived from this business. You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and misled a considerable number of people by saying that gods made by hand are not gods. Not only do we run a risk that our business may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence come to the verge of ruin—the very one all of Asia and the world worship.” When they had heard this, they were filled with rage and began to cry out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” So the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed all together into the amphitheater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s traveling companions. Although Paul wanted to go in before the people, the disciples did not let him. Even some of the provincial officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent word to him, pleading with him not to venture into the amphitheater. Some were shouting one thing and some another, because the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

The Riot

Here’s what’s happening:

Day in and day out for two whole years, Paul is sharing the Gospel and people are being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Not just parts of their lives are different, but their whole lives are different.

One really clear way that we see the life change of these Ephesians is that their spending habits change.

If you show me your credit card statement, I’ll show you what your life looks like.

You spend your money on what matters to you.

So all these people coming to Jesus are changing what they spend their money on. When they start following Jesus they stop buying idols, and crystals, and fortunes.

The people who make idols, and crystals, and fortunes? They’re big mad. Mad enough to LITERALLY riot.

So here’s my big question for you tonight:

TRANSITION: What is it in your life that is so big of a deal that you’ll LITERALLY riot about it.

Are you willing to LITERALLY riot over the use of the word literally?

Are you willing to riot over pineapple on pizza?

The answer is obviously no. They’re insignificant. In the grand scheme, those things don’t really matter.

But what about big things? Theological things?

What do you believe about God that is worth rioting over? What do you believe about God that is worth splitting the church over? Or leaving one church for another church over?

Triage

Olivia works in the Emergency room. Her job is make decisions about which patients get seen first.

My buddy Dan once got his fingers chopped off in a snowblower. true story. So imagine he walks up to the emergency room at the hospital Olivia is working at, his hand is all bandaged up and bloody. But 30 seconds before Dan walks through the door, someone elswe walks through the door ahead of him. He’s got a bandaged up hand too. Olivia asks them both what happened, Dan is like “my fingers are LITERALLY missing!” The other guy is like “I smashed my thumb with a hammer, i think it’s broken.” Olivia says, hey, we’ve only got one doctor free right now, and guy with the broken thumb, you were here first, so I’ll let you go get seen by the doctor. Dan, you got sit over there until we call.

That would be ridiculous and you’d be totally right in telling Olivia that she’s not doing her job right.

It’s clear from the nature of the injury that Dan needs medical attention right away.

This is a medical concept called TRIAGE

you have to make a decision about which order to treat the patients based on the urgency of the situation.

Remember the house is on fire game? That’s you making a triage decision.

We can apply this concept of Triage to our beliefs about God too.

A pastor named Albert Mohler came up with this diagram. He called it the “theological triage”.

The purpose of this tool is to help you and me decide what is worth rioting over.

Level One: Die For (LITERALLY)

Level one beliefs are the things about our faith in Jesus that we must be willing to die for. Without these level one beliefs Christianity is not Christianity, the Gospel is not the Gospel.

I preached 1 Cor 15 to our Junior Highers last week, and Paul says:

1 Corinthians 15:3 CSB

For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

There are things about our faith that are MOST important.

That’s not to say other theological positions aren’t also important, but they aren’t most important.

The stuff that you put in level one, you better be willing to riot over this stuff.

Let me give you what I believe goes in Level One:

The full humanity and the full divinity of Jesus Christ.

If Jesus is not 100% human, and 100% God then all of this falls apart.

If Jesus isn’t 100% human, then his death doesn’t count for you.

If Jesus isn’t 100% God, then he’s not powerful enough to secure your salvation by bearing the full brunt of God’s wrath.

Die for that. Riot for that.

Trinitarian Theology

It is absolutely vital to the faith that we believe that God is Three in One. One God, yet three distinct persons: Father, Son, Spirit.

Die for that. Riot for that.

Justification by Grace Through Faith

Your legal standing (that’s what justification means) is changed before God by His Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ. Not anything you can do yourself.

That’s a Level One issue.

The Authority and Truthfulness of the Scriptures

If you don’t believe that this book is true and holds authority in your life, you are not a Christian.

You can’t say you love God and then ignore what he has said to us.

Level One issue.

I’m not gonna keep going with that list because I don’t think it keeps going. I think that’s it.

Level One, Die For, Riot For, theological beliefs, the most important stuff, ends there. There is other important stuff! It’s just not level one.

Level Two: Defend (Find a New Church)

On to the next! Level Two.

This is the stuff you should defend. I’m calling it the “Find a New Church level”

There is a reason denominations split.

They have views on important theological issues that make it hard or impossible to go to the same local church.

I’m not gonna give an exhaustive list of these issues, because this is where you need to start making these calls for yourself as you read the Word and talk to God about it.

One good example here is baptism.

Should we baptize infants or should we only baptize those who make a personal decision to follow Jesus?

I can support both of those views from scripture. But I land pretty heavy on one side. So I wouldn’t become a member at a church that believed differently than me.

But i have lots of friends who believe differently than me on this. I think they’re still saved, they’re still followers of Jesus, I would call them my brothers and sisters.

Level Three Discuss (Disagree but Stay in Unity)

Then we get to level three. This is the discussion level. I’m calling it the agree to disagree level.

I could still go to church with other Christians who believe differently on these level three issues.

Again, not gonna give a full list, but here’s an example:

End Times stuff.

Mikey, Henry, James, Ethan, Aaron, Carson - this is what we’ve been talking about as we study Revelation.

You can disagree with me about the timing of the events, how to interpret the symbols, all of that. And we can still worship together in there on Sundays.

Here’s the thing about this Theological Triage tool. It doesn’t apply to every situation in your life. We’re only applying this to theological beliefs.

There’s an old saying, “If you only have a hammer, it’s tempting to treat everything like a nail.”

We’re not gonna apply the theological triage to politics, we’re not gonna apply it to matters of wisdom, or matters of culture.

Emotional Triage

So then all this talk of riots becomes a maturity question.

It's a sign of immaturity to make everything a life or death issue. Putting things in their proper place is a sign of maturity. Not everything is a Level One issue.

You are free in Christ to not freak out about every single thing someone tells you to freak out about.

So I think that wisdom would say that with a Theological Triage, we should also apply an Emotional Triage. You emotional response to someone disagreeing with you on a theological believe should correspond to the Level of the belief.

Acts 19:32 CSB

Some were shouting one thing and some another, because the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

I swear there are some people who just love being mad about stuff. They love the emotional high that comes from freaking out about everything.

Be ready to riot over Level One.

Don’t get heated over Level Three.

If you keep reading in Acts 19 from where I left off, you actually see this principle play out. The crowd has to calm down for a sec before they can see that they’re being destructive.

Conclusion: Die Well

So let me wrap this up.

I’ve got some breaking news for you. Being a Christian is hard. Following Jesus means you will not be liked by everyone. Following Jesus means you will be at odds with the culture on a lot of stuff - maybe even most stuff.

It’s not worth rioting over pineapple on pizza.

But there are some things that are worth the riot.

There are hills that you will absolutely have to die on.

One of my favorite pastors said this on a podcast this summer:

"Choose the hill you die on. You're going to die somewhere if you're following Jesus. So die well in the right spot. Don't die too early on something that doesn't matter as much." - Jon Tyson