When the Plan Changes but the Mission Does Not

Introduction

Read Acts 19:21-41

Sometimes, if you are like me, you think wistfully about the glory days in church.

For some of us, we think about the little country church we grew up attending.

For some of us, we consider the time our church experienced revival and souls were saved.

For some of us, we remember church camp or youth ministry in the 1990’s and 2000’s. Youth ministry in the early 2000’s was a I’m using it as an excuse to see why she hasn’t emailed me about my check since I sent it on Friday.

For others of us, we remember a time that we sang this song or that.

For others of us, we remember when we went on a mission trip.

But for all of us who have been in the church for a long time, whether here or elsewhere, we are a little wistful about the prominence that the church had in the community.

Everyone went to church somewhere.

Everyone went to youth group.

Everyone was in the gym on Friday night.

Have the glory days passed? What happens when the culture and people you are influencing turn on you at a moment’s notice? What happens when we face resistance to our message?

Moreover, what do we do with a pro-Christian message in a post-Christian world? How do we live and what do we say when most of the people around us don’t believe the same things that we believe?

Every day in the life of the church is the glory days. Thomas Manton once said that grace is but future glory. If grace is still proclaimed in your church, then God is still at work.

In this passage, we see a community that has been so transformed by the gospel that it causes a riot.

Such a momentous movement took place that the silversmith guild stirred up the entirety of the city to end the work of the Christians.

I pray that we have such a movement in Pearl that it rocks the core of our city. I pray that the Spirit of God moves in such a way that people who profit from evil feel threatened that what they do/have done will no longer be a viable way to make a living.

The revival was so huge that the silversmiths who made idols to the goddess Artemis were going out of business. What a revival!

However, any great movement of God will also have great opposition.

This movement happened because they followed Paul’s example. Paul jumped right in the middle of the city. He healed the sick. He preached the message in the synagogue and the Hall of Tyrannus.

CIT: The world in which we live despises the gospel, but the gospel that we proclaim saves the world one person at a time.

Explanation

Acts 19:20-21 “So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.””

Paul had spent two years of his life in Ephesus, and God had richly blessed the ministry. It would have been easy for him to stay there and retire. He was loved by the church in Ephesus.

God was not finished with him, and God didn’t call him to be comfortable.

Paul believed that Rome, as the imperial city, would be strategic location to launch further churches, especially into Spain and Roman Europe.

From this point forward in the book of Acts, Paul would be heading to Rome.

Going to Rome would probably mean death for him. In hindsight, it did mean death for him. But he still went to Rome. He actually finally arrived in Rome years later as a prisoner.

What can we learn from Paul’s drive?

We go where God leads.

We do not rest upon the laurels of our prior obedience.

May we be consumed by a driving need to listen and obey.

Acts 19:22-24 “And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.”

Demetrius was a silversmith, and he used his relationships with other craftsmen to stir up trouble for Paul.

His reasons are in v25-27:

“Paul’s teaching is going to effect our business.”” // Underlying // What you are doing is effecting my life. You are causing me to become uncomfortable.

If you take the gospel to the people around you,

“He says that our gods are not actually gods. Our God, Artemis, is going to be deposed. // Underlying // He has said some thing that offends/angers/stirs us.

The gospel means confronting the false gods around us. False gods can be Buddha or baseball. Confronting someone’s gods is often going to make someone angry.

I believe that religious freedom is a wonderful freedom. However, just because we have the right to worship whoever and whatever we want does not mean that all religions are created equally.

What is a greater good? To allow someone to continue to worship their false god, or to share the gospel that they might know the real God.

Some Christians today would choose the former.

Christ is better.

Acts 19:28-32

Summary: The craftsmen get angry and stir up a crowd. The crowd gathered at the theatre after taking some of Paul’s traveling companions. Paul wanted to go to the theatre, but the apostles and Asiarchs (provincial rulers in Asia) told him that not to go.

Competing religious factions that were not Christian. Jews and Cult of Artemis worshippers were fighting against one another.

The hostility seen in this text comes from a loss what the Ephesians thought was a good way of life.

The Cult of Artemis. Their way of worship was being undermined.

Worship and Economics. Christianity was going to effect their economics.

Festivals and Culture. They thought Christianity was stealing vital elements of their culture.

Christianity has the unique ability to change culture for the better without removing the culture.

In fact, missionary methods where that focused on conformity of the culture

Patriotism. They worried that their city-state of Ephesus was going to be undermined.

The truth is that all of these things happened. The Cult of Artemis lost power. Some people lost their jobs. Their festivals changes (for some). The presence of Ephesus changed. BUT, they were better for the change.

Acts 19:35-41

I read this passage several times, and if I just thought to myself, “God, what in the world are you doing in this passage?”

The head clerk calmed the situation down.

He said, “You think the Christians are a threat to your cult? Just want until the Roman government hears you guys have been rioting.”

If nothing else, know that yes, God can even use governmental bureaucracy for his glory.

Application

May we never hesitate to go into the hard places - to love others and to share the message of salvation with others.

Our message has always been despised, and that fact makes our message no less powerful.

The message of the cross is not powerful because it is palatable. The message of the cross is powerful, because it is the literal power of God.

What would happen if we stopped apologizing for the cross? What would happen if we quit apologizing for holiness and our belief about sin and the destruction that it brings? What if, instead, we simply held up the word of God as our comfort and our peace and the only truth that never has to be proven.

We HAVE to get outside of these four walls.

Invitation

Give your life to Jesus.

Repent of sins.

Engage the people around you.

Share the gospel.