The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E52 - The Church in Ephesus

Episode Date: July 8, 2020

Hey, church family. It's time for Devo, Acts Shabber 19. We're going to pick up where we left off. Like I said yesterday, I want to look at the beginning of the Church of Ephesus. Okay, so again, I think you've got to pay attention to this. Again, it starts with people operating not in the Holy Spirit, but operating in their own power, and that'll get you whipped, beaten down, naked, and wounded. And now, the gospel begins to go out. Okay, so if we pick it up, uh, I don't know, 17, okay, we'll pick it up in 17. It says this. And this became known that this is the seven sons of Sceva getting whipped. 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. So people are in awe

of what's happening as the gospel advances in Ephesus. And people, they ain't talking about Paul. They're not talking about Apollos. They ain't talking about the seven sons of Sisgiva. They're talking about the name of Jesus. Jesus' name is extolled. Also, many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. In other words, in the beginning of this church, they understood the fake use doing just fine,

but real people began to really confess their sins. And when you confess your sins, you bring what is dark into the light and the darkness flees. So this isn't a bunch of fake Christians at church, just saying, I'm blessed and highly favored, when really their life's on fire, they're confessing and divulging their practices. 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. In other words, people are giving sacrificially. They are not putting up with demonic sins in their life. They are exposing these things and they are making significant lifestyle changes to be to be pure in following after Jesus. So you see all this going on here. They're making much of Jesus. They're being honest. They're confessing. They're making significant sacrifice and generosity. And then here's the result. Verse 20, so the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily in Ephesus. This place is going gangbusters. And now, if you get the gospel right on the inside of the building,

then the gospel should impact what's going on on the outside of the building. That this thing is a movement. 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. And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. And about that time, there arose no little disturbance concerning the way. In other words, it was a big disturbance because of the Christians. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis,

brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said, men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger, not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing,

and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship. And when they heard this, they were enraged and were crying out, great as Artemis of the Ephesians. And so the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them, Gaeus and Aristicus and the Macedonians, who were Paul's companions in travel.

So here's what happens. The gospel gets preached in Ephesus, and the place goes gangbusters. Again, they're real, there's authenticity, the name of Jesus is extolled, the word of the Lord increases mightily, there's great sacrifice, and people's lives get changed so,

much that it changes the socioeconomic situation in Ephesus. In Ephesus, there's this huge temple to this pagan goddess Artemis, and people would go and they would buy these little like trinkets there. And as the church begins to grow, people quit buying these false idols to the point where it's about to shut down the industry of these idol makers. Church of 1122, God has blessed us like crazy. I mean, from opening day in 2012 until today, we may be the fastest growing church in the history of the United States of America. That's just true. We've got campuses, five physical campuses, six one coming online. At the end of this year, we've got plans for number seven and number eight.

Two of our campuses are in prisons. Praise God for that. All of our services can be accessed by every inmate in the state of Florida. and so God has done an incredible thing. Something like over 8,000 people have surrendered their life to Christ through the ministry of the Church of 1122 by the preaching of the gospel.

But can you imagine? Can you imagine if the folks, the Christians here in Jacksonville, were so on fire for Jesus, and can you imagine if so many people in Jacksonville were filled with the spirit, were walking with the Lord, that the dark, um, idolatrous industries in Jacksonville begin to shut down.

I mean, imagine what if every strip club shut down in Jacksonville simply because nobody was attending anymore because those men were loving their wives like Christ loved the church and they were treating every woman as a daughter of the creator, an image bearer of God instead of as a piece of meat? What if, what if the, the, the illegitimate, drug industry in Jacksonville just dried up because there was no one to consume it anymore and there was no one to sell it anymore because the people in Jacksonville were consumed with

the Spirit of God instead of trying to escape this world by getting high. What if there is no sex trafficking in Jacksonville because the believers, I mean, can you imagine this is what is happening at the Church of Ephesus? When I read this, I do. I think about our church and all the good things that we are doing, but God shows up and blows up in Ephesus through the Declaration of the Word, through extolling the name of Jesus, through confession, like real authentic fellowship and confession of sins, through sacrificial giving and putting to death those sins that are trying to kill us. God is doing an enormous.

enormous work, enormous work in the city of Ephesus. So Ephesians gets started as a church. And not only that, we found out later that the Apostle Paul appoints Timothy to be the pastor at the Church of Ephesus. That's pretty cool. So they've got a rock star pastor. And not only that, the Apostle John is one of the elders. So how great must your church be if miracles are happening, the gospel's being preached, the socioeconomic construct of the city, the pagan places are being shut down, not from the top down,

not because they're trying to pass some laws that you can't make idols to Artemis anymore, but from the bottom up because the gospel is so transforming the lives that people don't want to buy into that idolatry anymore. Seems like a great church, right? There's only one problem. And I say this as the biggest warning, I could ever give to our church, the Church of 1122.

By the time you get over to the book of Revelation, the apostle John is quarantined on the Isle of Patmos, and he writes, he gets this vision, and Jesus tells John to write this down because he has a word to the church at Ephesus that was born in Acts chapter 19, to the church that was going so well.

And he writes these words, to the angel of the church in Ephesus write the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lamp stands. And here's what Jesus says about the Church of Ephesus. I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who called themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake and you have not grown weary. Now, up to this point, this sounds like the kind of church I want a pastor. Definitely the kind of church I want to attend.

They've got good doctrine. They've got good works. It's not just a flash in the pan that they have been patiently enduring. They call out false teachers. This church seems to be great, right? such a strong beginning, blew up like crazy. Outreach magazines talking about up. They got their bumper stickers all over Ephesus. But I have this against you. That you have abandoned the love you had it first. But I have this against you that you have abandoned the love that you had at first. Remember,

therefore, from where you have fallen. Repent and do the work you did it first. Remember what they did first and foremost, Acts 19, they extolled the name of Jesus. He says, repent and get back to that. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from his place unless you repent. Yet this you have. You hate the work of the Nicolations, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in paradise of God. Church of 1122. We are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. The movement is moving.

We're literally reaching hundreds of thousands of people around the world with the gospel. We've got disciple groups all over the place. We partner with local partners in our city to try to change things. We have tens of thousands of people show up on the weekends to our services. Lives are changed one after another. Addictions are broken. Marriages are put back together. We're opening new campuses every year, and they fill.

up with thousands of people and all of that may be okay and we preach the gospel we stand on the word of god we will not falter just to try to be popular but we want to be resilient and be faithful to what god has called us to do but if you miss the last few words of why we exist you're going to miss it all do yes we're a movement for all people and yes we want people to discover and deepen but the whole point is in those last few words, a relationship with Jesus Christ. The church at Ephesus became an expert at being a church, and they lost their first love. Let me ask you this. The only way this happens, this doesn't happen corporately if it doesn't happen individually. So let me just ask you, have you abandoned the love for Jesus that you had at first?

Is your heart for Jesus as being? and on fire and exciting as it was the day you surrendered your life to Jesus. And every single one of us, honestly, individually and corporately, corporately the church has a tendency as it gets older and more mature and bigger. It has a tendency to look inward, to get super doctrinal and lose its relationship with Jesus. And as long as I have breath in my lungs, we will war against that. we will stand on the rock of the gospel, gazing at the beauty and the splendor of the one true God

through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Individually, this can happen to. You can get so used to Bible study and you can get so used to the truth of the Word of God that your heart can grow cold to what matters most. Like Paul says, in 1st Corinthians 13, Paul says, man, if I can prophesy with the tongues of angels, and if I can move mountains, but I have not love, I am useless and worthless.

And this is what happens to the church at Ephesus. It's doing everything right on the outside, but it's rotting from the inside. You know, there's this term called tree rot. And when I go out into the woods to hang a tree stand, you don't see this very often, but sometimes you'll see a tree, and it looks big and healthy and all of that. But when you begin to hang a tree stand on it, you're like, wait a minute, something's wrong here.

And what's crazy, it's alive on the outside, but something happened when this tree was growing up and it's dead on the inside. And if you put a tree stand on it, it will not support your weight, and eventually you will fall out and die. Please don't let that be your testimony. So what were the things that you did at first?

that nurtured and stirred your affections for Jesus. Do those. Go back and listen to all the divos. Go back and listen to your favorite sermon series. Dive into the Word. Get around some people that stir your affections for Christ and put away those things like the Church of Ephesus did at first. Burn those things that try to dampen your fire for Jesus.

Church of 1122, God has breathed upon us. God is blessing us like crazy. And may we always be a church that extols Jesus, that lives with sacrifice because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we are open and authentic, confessing, and repenting, and that the word of the Lord increases in our midst. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, I thank you for the blessing that is your church.

And God, I thank you in particular for the church that you have birthed. here, the Church of 1122, God, may we never, ever, ever abandon our first love. As the pastors and the elders and the staff and all the served staff and the disciple group leaders and every covenant member and deacon and everyone who attends here, God, may we always and forever have our eyes fixed on you. And whenever we drift, because Lord, we are prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. God, may we consistently bring our hearts to you and say, here, God, take and seal it.

Seal it for that course above. God, we love you and we want to love you. And the only way that we can love you is to constantly be reminded that you love this first and gave your son as a propitiation for our sins. May we never lose our awe of your love for us. I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.