God can expand the ministry
Ephesus - Years 2 - 4
Acts 19:9-10; Acts 19:26-27; 1 Corinthians 16:8-9
Ephesus has had a strong start that defined their identity
• Competent church planters
• Personal discipleship
• Paul’s and Apollos’ dynamic work among them
Following this vital groundwork, a great repentance that purified the church expanded the spiritual landscape among them, a necessary first step. With a people who were ready and willing to follow God at any price, this is what developed:
Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.
Acts 19:8-10 (NIV)
In the next year, Paul planned to move on, but he was delaying slightly, waiting until spring to move. He wanted to solidify a work that was continuing to grow:
But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me. 1 Corinthians 16:8-9 (NIV)
In the mean time, the pagans were alarmed about their religion and profits:
And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man made gods are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”
Acts 19:26-27 (NIV)
Acts 19 and 1 Corinthians 15, which was written from Ephesus, show that Paul was facing growing ministry opportunities. The scale can barely be conceived, but it makes perfect sense.
What did Ephesus have?
They were in a strategic location
Ephesus was a port city, considered the capital of this region of Asia Minor, which we now call Turkey. It had a natural harbor created by the mouth of a river. The coast-line is closed off by a range of mountains, so the river is the easiest road to the inland. Traffic from Europe came to the entire province of Asia Minor through Ephesus. It was like the Delaware River in the 1700s. The mouth of the Delaware River provided a perfect easy route into Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and even further North.
The Church had powerful convictions
They took a stand. They had seen graphic examples of evil at work among them, and God demonstrated His power to overthrow it. A decisive step was made to reject the pagan ways of the past, and to purify their lives for God. They stood for the God of the Jews and His Messiah Jesus. No compromise could be tolerated. The bonfire in the town square was their rejection of evil and the forge of their conviction.
They were committed
When they moved their gathering from the synagogue to the school of Tyrannus, they met daily. In some ways, the situation was different, and we do not need to meet daily. But, in other ways, there is no doubt that the kingdom of God was a priority to them.
So what happened as a result?
The Bible describes the situation in several specific ways. Remember the quotes:
• All the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord
• a great door for effective work has opened to me
• Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia
This is a massive, locally-based movement that is spreading. Modern Turkey is our reference point, the kingdom gospel was going out effectively from Ephesus to an area roughly the size of Texas.
The movement was so complete that the people who worshiped Artemis were so worried about the effect it was having on their religion and business they rioted. This is no small thing. There were 7 wonders of the ancient world:
• The Great Pyramid of Giza (the only one left)
• The hanging gardens of Babylon
• The statue of Zeus at Olympus
• The mausoleum at Halicarnassus
• The lighthouse of Alexandria
• The colossus of Rhodes
• And the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
All of these structures were impressive. The greatest historians and wealthy travelers of the ancient world recorded their efforts to see all seven. Obviously, some of them had religious significance and were not just tourist attractions. Visiting them was a pilgrimage.
The Temple of Artemis was in Ephesus for centuries before Paul came along, and it stood for centuries after he left. It was unthinkable that this world-famous monument could fall into obscurity. It’s like saying that nobody would ever go to St. Peter’s in Rome again, or that the great wall of China would be torn down for gas stations. It just doesn’t seem realistic or likely.
But these people were worried. That is how influential the work of the Ephesian Church became.
Imagine the shift
What if God chose to reach all of Southern New Jersey, starting at Norma? What if, Norma, like Ephesus, became the catalyst for so much change that it was noticed all over the state? What if pagans and false teachers in our area could become worried that nobody was listening to them any more? What would it be like to be so central to the movement of the Kingdom of God that Pittsgrove could be described as a "great door for effective work"?
Can you imagine it?
How would it feel to be ground zero of a movement of the Gospel so massive, that people who had never heard, or people who had long since quit caring wanted nothing more than to know Jesus and His power to forgive and to give them hope? What if we could say that because of the work started here, every person in New Jersey heard the gospel?
• What would it be worth?
• What would it take?
It would take an awareness of our strategic location
Pittsgrove is becoming a bedroom community to the populations north and west of here. They move here and pay lots of money to do it. They want to get away from the hectic clutter and hear birds singing around them. But they deal with the struggle of affluence, the call of materialism, the temptation of high priced addictions. They are drawn by societal status and workaholism. They need to know there is more to life.
We also have the opposite end of the spectrum here. Poor folks live here who grapple to make ends meet on a limited income. They are held by the cycles of poverty and crime and cheap addictions to escape their pain. They need to hear that Jesus has the answers they seek.
We also stand between the centers of two major destinations of immigration: Vineland and Bridgeton. The Spanish speaking community is growing. These are people who have been steeped in Christian traditions tainted by the pagan. They need to hear the pure gospel, given without prejudice. This is our corporate place, our strategic location.
You have a personal strategic place too.
• You are a grandparent - a seat of great influence
• You are a child - a source of open hope
• You are a parent - the first teacher of your children
• You are an employee - a model of work ethics
A little reflection can show you whose eye is on you and what you have to show that eye, whose ear listens to you and what you can say to that ear.
Figure out where you are and it will become clear to you that God has placed you there for a reason.
We must maintain convictions
When I was a kid, my church talked about convictions that usually had something to do with the music you listened to, the clothes you wore, the length of your hair. That isn’t what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about knowing what it is that you ultimately stand for and standing firm, being able to talk about it.
We are Mennonite Christians:
• We stand for loving and obeying the One True God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with all the power and compassion that implies
• We stand for Jesus, His example, His teaching, His love, His passion, and His redemption
• We stand for the Bible and its authority to speak into our lives even thousands of years later
• We stand for the Kingdom of God, our allegiance is with that kingdom first and only after that, the United States or any other kingdom
• We stand for the peace of God in our spirits, in our relationships, in our friendships, and in our politics
• We are disciples of Christ
• no other gods
• no higher priority
If our loyalties are divided, we cannot give ourselves wholly to Him. Our rejection of evil must be the beginning of a firm and positive step.
• If you like sports and talk about it
• If you have favorite foods and people know it
• If you have a special favorite movie and it comes up in conversation
How much more should the One who died to save your eternal soul be important enough to mention to your friends and family?
You must be committed
I had a sad conversation with a man years ago. He said something that is still bearing bad fruit in his life. He said:
I want church to be a part of my life, but I don’t want my life to be dominated by it.
At this stage, church is on the periphery of his life and his life seems to be collapsing around him.
I understood his point, I don’t think "church activities" should demand so much time that we don’t have any left to maintain other relationships. What is worse though, is the association that is made. If we distance ourselves from our faith, then we distance ourselves from Christ. We cannot see a movement of the Spirit growing out from this church, if our faith is of peripheral importance to us.
Just like the disciples of Jesus’ day, if we are not willing to leave everything and follow Him, we cannot be His disciple.
• What does that mean?
• Well, what are you holding on to?
You must be willing to release it to God’s will.
In the last 6 months, our church has seen significant growth. God brought new faces into our gathering and it is beautiful to see. It can continue, and increase.
The increase will not happen by looking around in satisfaction at the change of the past year. It will only happen as we give God every facet of our being.
• Whether you are a long standing member of the church, straining to learn the new names.
• Or whether you are new among us trying to figure out who all these people are.
The most important relationship in your life is the one you have with Jesus. Cultivating that friendship is your highest priority. Committing yourself to Him is your highest goal.
This week, express your faith to someone
You don’t have to preach a sermon, or quote scripture to them, just express it somehow, on some level.
• It might mean explaining something you do regularly in light of your faith
• It might mean wearing a button and inviting someone to church with you
• It might mean eating lunch with someone new and getting to know one another, with your faith as part of your introduction
In doing this, you are doing several things:
• You are leveraging the strategic place God has put you for His service
• You are giving priority to your spiritual convictions
• You are disciplining yourself so that sin in your life around this person will make you a hypocrite
• You are making your faith public
• You are committing yourself to God for the sake of this person
You are doing all the things that we can see from these verses. Making them our lifestyle, God will use us to reach our area and the World in His name.
