"A Study of the book of Acts" by Neal Pollard - Part 11

Good morning.

We are in the class Challenges the Early Church Faced

that are revealed to us in the book of Acts and how that

we can learn from that as we face challenges.

When you think about the challenges that the church faces,

they're going to probably either be categorized as external challenges

or internal challenges. What we're looking at today,

all Hiram has to cover in the last class is the last fourth of

the book of Acts and the challenges that the church faced. We're going to look

at the challenges that the church faced at the end of the third missionary journey.

So we're going to be looking in Acts 19-21. If you want

to be turning your Bible there, that's where we're going to spend our time this

morning. The Apostle Paul is on a very ambitious

journey. Each one of these journeys has characteristics that

separate them from one another. The first journey is on

the eastern side of the empire and is Paul's— our

first look at Paul's preaching. And you get an idea very early

on of how bold Paul is and how relentless and

how a lot more of his work in the first journey is going to center

around the Jews first and then the Gentiles.

And the Jews seem to play a lot more prominent part in hearing

the preaching that Paul does. And something else that happens on the first journey is

you really begin to see the resistance that the Jews have

to Paul. He was one of them. And sometimes when you are walking

lockstep with somebody and then you change, those that

would've felt you to be very close can hold you

in greater contempt and with greater hostility than they would somebody

they did not ever align themselves with. And that happens with Paul

in the first journey. When you get to that second journey, the Apostle Paul is

going to— it's going to take more time. It's going to cover more area.

He is going to take the gospel to a new continent. To Europe, and some

of the churches that we have the letters written to in our New

Testament are the result of Paul's work on that second journey. When you get to

this last journey, although Paul is going back

to some places and Paul is establishing new congregations,

we're going to see that especially in Ephesus, as this

journey gets deeper, Paul's mind,

it's remarkable, Paul's going to say

in 1 Corinthians 11:1, follow me or be imitators of me as I

1 Corinthians 11:1

am of Christ. Do you find it interesting that as Jesus is getting near the

end of His mission, what does He say? After He asked

the apostles, who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? What do

the gospel writers say began to happen from that moment forward?

What does He begin to tell the disciples from that point?

And what's coming? He says, the Son of Man

must do what? Die. Go to Jerusalem and

there suffer many things of the chief priests and the scribes and the elders,

and there be crucified and be raised the 3rd day. Paul's message isn't

exactly that, but what do you find Paul doing increasingly as the

3rd journey progresses? What does he begin to tell everybody

every place he goes? Where does he have to go?

Jerusalem. He says, I've got to go, and we'll look at

that. And so his mind is certainly on what he's doing.

We're going to see that, but he's also determined to go to Jerusalem,

and he knows what's going to happen to him in Jerusalem. And if he didn't

know, there are several people who are going to tell him and remind him and

warn him of what's going to happen if he goes to Jerusalem. And sure enough,

that's what's going to happen. In this 3rd journey, especially in the

part we're going to look at today, there is a great part of this that

is revolves around the challenge of

people's disobedience. And the fact of the matter is

that if we are going to be true to the Lord's Great Commission to us,

at some point, probably very early on, we are going to meet

with the disobedience of other people. Now,

if you think about that in a more nebulous term, why are people disobedient

to the Word of God?

Today? Okay, it may be an ignorance. Sometimes people have—

want nothing to do with Christianity, don't want to follow God,

and have prejudices against the Bible that they've not even opened. Okay, I think

that's right. What— okay,

so their minds have been prejudiced because of other things they've been taught.

So folks are disobedient because of ignorance,

It doesn't align with what they want to do. Okay.

Very fundamentally, people want to do what people want to do.

And the gospel has a way of really challenging that and forcing

you to live in a way that's contrary to your nature or how you would

like to or prefer to live. Anything else? Change is hard.

Change is hard. It's very difficult.

And when somebody is challenging us with the convicting

message of God's Word, which is all about change, it's all about self-denial,

taking up our cross? What is it that we have to crucify in our

lives and follow after him, follow a standard outside

of us? I think you'll find all of that when we are looking at Paul's

work in Ephesus. How long does Paul spend in Ephesus?

3 years. It's the longest that he spends in any place in his

ministry. So in the middle of this long journey,

he pauses to stay and to work in

Ephesus. And it seems like that this work begins with what

we saw at the end of class last week. You remember, that Paul comes

and he encounters these disciples who had been preaching

the baptism of John, who had embraced that. And what a

great way for us to emphasize how even though

we may have known some of what God's Word says,

it's not sufficient if there's more to be obeyed and to be processed

and to do as a part of God's will. And so that kicks off

Paul's work with the Ephesians. Now, if you have your Bibles turned there,

We're going to be looking at verse 8 and 9 because Hiram dealt with Ephesians

19:1-7 at the end of class last week. Now, some of us

who are in this room went to Cusadasi in

October of 2023. That's the site where the ancient

city of Ephesus is nearby. That's really the city, the modern city.

And what's remarkable about the city of Ephesus is that most

of it is still in the dirt. They have only been

able to excavate a little bit of it. But in what has been

excavated or what was above ground already, you have the Great Theater.

The Great Theater could house 20,000 people,

and it did. And then there's the Library of Celsus, which is

the 2nd century. It would not have been there when Paul was

doing his 3rd missionary journey there. And then there are terraced

houses that are on the hillside in Ephesus that are

a testament to how people lived at that particular time. But what is uncovered,

And again, much of it is still to be excavated.

Gives us some idea how grand and how important this city

was. So here's Paul in the midst of this place,

a typical flourishing city in

the Roman Empire. Paul is doing his work there.

Look at verse 8 and verse 9. Now, this is Paul teaching

for 3 months in the synagogue of Ephesus. It says, he entered the

synagogue and for 3 months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about

the kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief,

speaking evil of the way before the congregation, that is,

those who were coming into the synagogue, he withdrew from them and

took his disciples, or the disciples, with him, reasoning daily

in the Hall of Tyrannus. Here's the first challenge to obedience

in Paul's work in Ephesus. And what

is it? How would you describe this first challenge to obedience?

That we see in verse 8 and verse 9 in the synagogue?

They're stubborn-hearted. I would have said it very close to that. I would

have said it's a hard heart in verse 8 and verse 9. Now,

what evidence do we have that they're hard-hearted when Paul is there 3

months? How many— how long did he have in Thessalonica?

That was back in chapter 17. I know it was a few weeks ago.

You slept a little bit. 3 weeks.

And a lot was done. The church is established in that period of time.

So this isn't some small period of time. Think about that. 3 months

worth of Sundays— of Saturdays, or going into the synagogue

and teaching there of whatever frequency. He's there in the synagogue

and He's teaching and He's had an opportunity

to really get the message planted, but they have

a hard heart. What evidence do we have?

Okay, they didn't believe. They spoke evil

of the way. And then what else? Some of them,

they were stubborn. All right, so as we

think about that, what does Paul do prior to this?

What does it say was his part?

He does 2 things. Okay.

What version is that? Is that New King James? The American

Standard. Okay. The 1901. All right. So he spoke out boldly.

What other version? What else do you have?

He reasoned. What did you say?

Spoke boldly and persuaded.

All right. So here are the 2 pieces of what

Paul does when he goes into the synagogue. He's trying to do 2 things.

He is reasoning with them and he is persuading them with regard to the things

pertaining to the kingdom of God. What's the difference?

What's reasoning? Or speaking boldly, I like that,

that maybe that tells us how he did that, but I think reasoning gets to

the heart of what Paul is actually doing here. What are you doing when

you reason with somebody? Okay, certainly it's

going to involve teaching, but when you think about sometimes

people will teach things out of the realm of experience and out of the realm

of emotion, or I think and I believe, We got to know

that that's not what Paul is doing here.

Well, there's got to be listening.

There's an interchange. Okay. All right. I think that's right.

Tried to meet them where they were. Sure. And by the way,

you're going to see that throughout the book of Acts. And so you have preachers

starting at different points. They started a different place on Pentecost

than they do up on Mars Hill. It depends on your audience. Now, where do

you think that Paul is going to begin in a synagogue when

he starts reasoning? The Old Testament, in the Word.

Why? It's common ground. They believe in

that. All right, so he's reasoning. So it involves,

wouldn't you say, reason? So I would think evidence

that we're going to lay out logically. This is what the Word of

God says. And you know, you think about in the different types

of literature of the Old Testament where he would go to that and he would

appeal to different different things that it was pointing ahead to with regard to the

coming kingdom and the Messiah and his work and

his people. And so here's Paul laying that out moment

after moment, time after time in the synagogues. He's reasoning

with them, laying out the facts.

Discussion. All right, so that goes back to what Miller is saying is there's

an interchange kind of like our Bible class, right? As we're the back

and forth. Yes, ma'am. Mine says, arguing about the kingdom. All right, so that's the

second part, arguing persuasively, persuading them.

So based on laying out arbitrary

facts of the gospel, truths, we might say

axiomatic statements. If this is so, then this is so,

then it follows that what he's going to be doing is trying to say,

I don't want you just to be processing information. I don't want you just to

be taking notes. I want this to go into your heart. And I want you

to do something about it. Every time the

gospel is proclaimed or taught, it ought

to involve this. It ought to involve us reasoning.

Isaiah 1:18, come now, let us reason together. Though your sins

Isaiah 1:18

be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be as red

as crimson, they shall be as wool. Well, what happens? How does that happen?

God's not doing it all. I've got to be persuaded of a response

that's to take place. And so Paul, is convicting them. He's trying to get the

message to live down inside of them.

And what happens when he does that?

Some folks just put up the wall.

Aren't you glad that doesn't happen today? That you just

lay it out there. If I can just lay out the facts of the gospel,

people are just going to embrace it. Isn't that our world?

Not the world I live in. I don't know where you're living. But that's

going to happen. And does it surprise you that it happens?

I mean, it makes a lot of sense. And depending on how long you've been

studying it and you're more and more convicted about the truth of it,

this is what could happen. You know, I noticed something.

We were in a school of preaching environment when we were in Denver and

it was a 2-year school. And so what would happen is guys would come to

the school And it was kind of interesting to notice that the guys

who were in their first year— I'm not criticizing preacher

training. I'm a big believer in it. But they had just— a lot of them

had only been a Christian about a year. They would come and they would start

classes. They hadn't been taught all the stuff all the instructors wanted to teach them.

And they would go out on campaign just about 6 or 8 weeks after they

started school. You had the first-year students and the second-year students who had a head

full of knowledge. And I'm not— I am not I'm not denigrating

that. I'm not running that down. You know who had the most success

statistically? It was

those first-year guys. They were fired up. They were convicted.

They had just obeyed the gospel. I'm not saying that the knowledge ruined

them. A lot of those guys have gone on to be very evangelistic,

but it's interesting that that core passion that takes

you to go and try to convict people of the truth of a gospel message

that you have just heard. You think of Paul. Paul had been resisting.

The truth, and now he's been obedient to the truth, and he's going out.

He's been a Christian for a while, but he's going out and he's sharing

the gospel. And some people hear that and they don't share his

passion, his belief in the gospel. And that's going to be

the rest of the book of Acts. Paul's going to run up against people.

He believes the truth of the resurrection and the afterlife, and they

don't. So they resist. So what's Paul's

Paul's— that was their response. We just mentioned that. What's Paul's solution?

What does he do? Does he give up? He goes somewhere else. Okay. And where

does he go? All right. He went, he withdrew,

took the disciples, and he went into the school of Tyrannus. Tyrannus,

a common name in the first century. We know nothing else about this school.

We don't know what type of school it was.

Was it a I don't know. I've been places on mission

trips where they had actual schools that were established

for the congregation to go and to build and to supplement their

knowledge. We've had that here in the past when

you could come on an evening and you could, or I guess it was multiple

evenings and you could study. I think when Mike Green was here and what

was it called? The Kentucky something. Some of y'all

took classes in that. Southern Kentucky

Biblical Institute, where you could sit. So perhaps if

you were a part of that or you remember that, maybe that's what's taking place

here, but he's grounding them and he's teaching them.

So the first impediment to obedience that he encounters is in that 3-month

period where he's reasoning with them.

He is trying to persuade them. They throw up a wall.

They want nothing to do with that. So instead of giving up,

Paul says, well, I'm going to take these folks that want to learn more and

want to know more. We're going to pull them aside and we're going to concentrate

on them. And in 2 years' time, man, I wonder.

And by the way, there's a 4th or 5th century

manuscript called the Bezae Manuscript, one of the older

witnesses to the New Testament. And it's got

all the— most all of the Gospels and the book of Acts and a little

bit of, I think, 1 John. And Revelation may have been a part of that,

but it says that Paul from 11:00 AM

to 4:00 PM would go out and would teach.

He would work his trade in the morning. And if you've ever been

to the Middle East in the summertime especially, you got to get an early start

because it gets pretty hot and you wouldn't want to be out in the sun

or out working or exerting. And so perhaps this is what Paul is doing

during this 3-year period, verse 10 and verse 26.

Maybe he's going throughout Asia and he's establishing congregations congregations.

But my point is, when he encounters resistance and disobedience,

he doesn't stop. He focuses on more fertile ground.

Now, here's my question with regard to that.

When do you know when to move on?

You're studying the gospel with somebody. You're trying to

share with them. Maybe you're even just trying to get them to come to church.

Maybe you're just trying to talk the Bible. With them,

when do you know when it's

time to shake the dust? Okay?

When you've exhausted all your resources. So what resources are we talking about?

Okay. All right. So if we look at

this, maybe on a group level, maybe in a place,

maybe where you're a member of the congregation and you run into these

kind of impediments, or if you're trying to reach a group and you

make it to the point where you go, nobody's listening anymore. When they tell you.

Okay. Does that always have to be the end?

Okay. Okay. So when they don't want to

hear anymore. Okay.

Okay, so what Joe is saying is they're not even only neutral. You're not only

just hitting that wall as it is here. They're speaking evil of the

way. They're undermining the work that you are trying to accomplish.

Okay, any other answers to that?

Yeah. Okay.

Okay.

So in my mind, when you're plowing the same ground over and over again,

you keep coming back to the same thing, and it's a hurdle that they're

not willing to get over.

Right. That's a great observation. And here's the thing.

Dolores, did you have a comment? Sure. That's a

great strategy. So this— Dolores is talking about before we get to the give-up point

there is to try to build common ground. And you think that's what Paul is

doing because he chooses the synagogue. That's where he's He's trying to meet them

at the Old Testament, something that they both agree comes from God

and is the inspired Word of God. And with all of that in hand,

you got to give Paul credit. It doesn't— it's not even 3 weeks,

it's 3 months, and he's trying. But now the tide,

you can kind of see it turning. And my point in all of this,

and we could probably spend the whole class coming up with other scenarios,

in all that you've said, it involves necessarily some judgment.

You've got to discern, and hopefully you're praying about this and

you're saying at some point, maybe there's a more fertile place.

That's what's happening with Paul is I'm beating my head against the wall here.

And meanwhile, there's folks over here that want the Word. And so I'm

going to go and I'm going to focus on them. I'm going to deepen their

faith. And maybe as I deepen their faith, they're able to go out and they're

able to teach and reproduce disciples themselves.

And so So you've got to use wisdom, but the

thing is there's going to be resistance if you're sharing the Word. I've got

a couple of comments and then we need to move on. Yeah. You mentioned shake

off the dust. That's in Matthew 10:14. It says,

Matthew 10:14

uh, and whoever will not hear words.

There you go. So they should be willing to be around them.

Yep, that's right. And maybe you find yourself in a situation like that.

Where you just are sure, no, they're not listening. The word

that they, they may even be nodding their head, but what are they doing?

They're, they're, they're loaded for the thing they want to say in response to that

and they're not even hearing. Russell? For sure.

Uh-huh. That's right.

That's right.

That's right. And when we get to the end of Acts 19, before we go

to fellowship and all the rest of what I have,

I'm going to look at Mark's account of the parable of the soils as he

explains that. And that's just a realization. Yes,

sir. It also does not imply— just because he left

them, it doesn't imply that they couldn't have come to him. For sure. Yeah.

Because he went someplace they— we would assume they would all know where that was.

If they wanted to hear him, Here I am. You can

come. That's a good point. It's a good point. I'm just going to get out

of your way. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And that part's not shared with us.

We don't know that, but certainly within the realm of possibility.

And that goes with somebody, what somebody said, they may be not receptive now,

but they may be later. And so we keep that in mind. A second

very different kind of a challenge pops up right after this that

Luke records for us. And I've called that competing beliefs. Look in your Bible

there starting in verse 11. God was doing extraordinary miracles by

the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched

his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them, and the

evil spirits came out of them. And then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists

undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil

spirits, saying, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.

7 sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.

But the evil spirits answered them, Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, But who

are you? And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them,

mastered all of them, and overpowered them so that they fled out of the house

naked and wounded. And I imagine this would have been a very

traumatic thing to see, but I don't know why I find it just a little

bit humorous. Here they are, they're messing with things

they don't understand, and they find out very quickly they're

in over their heads. I think it was Wayne Jackson that says, here's an instance

where one spirit cast out 7 men. And you know, usually it's going

the other way around. And I thought, what a great way to put that.

Now, here's the thing. We talked about the differences on Paul's journeys, but I want

to pull a core sample out of each of the journeys.

Paul is beginning his work, as we've already established over and over

again, among the Jews, but very quickly because Paul, his commission

is to go where? Acts 9:16, the Gentiles.

Acts 9:16

And so as he goes out among the Gentile population, he is being exposed.

Now, he's a man, a cosmopolitan man. I'm sure he's been exposed to

this. Of Cilicia. So he's seen

the world outside of Palestine. First missionary

journey, he goes to Lystra. What happens with the— religiously with the people?

What does he encounter? Do you remember? What do they say about Barnabas and Saul

in Lystra? They're what? Okay.

Hermes and— so Hermes,

I wasn't even planning to go there, but you know, one's the messenger, one's the

chief of the gods. Okay? So you got Barnabas and you got Saul.

Saul's doing most of the speaking, and they worship them.

What does that tell us about the folks in Lystra?

They're idolatrous. I mean, they do not attach their

mind, their thinking to the God of the Old Testament, the God of Scripture.

And they are just— they're wildly superstitious.

They are driven by idolatry and

mythology. In fact, it says that even after Paul passionately

says, we're men just like you are, even with that, they hardly

restrained them from worshiping. And so— and then, by the way, what happens 5

minutes later when the Jews kind of stir them up? They stone Paul

and leave him for dead. But that's what he encounters there.

Second missionary journey. We'll pull that chorus sample out. Can you

think of something that's not very Jerusalem-like on the second journey?

Where's Paul find himself where he says, I know I'm not in Jerusalem anymore?

Some of us on that trip, we were there. Remember?

Athens, up on Mars Hill. What does he encounter when he comes into the city?

An altar. And who is it devoted to?

Maybe the one we forgot. We were worshiping all these other gods, but we got

the temple I mean, the altar with the inscription to the unknown God.

All right, so you've got this idolatry that vexes Paul in

his spirit. And then on this 3rd journey, we could certainly pull

out other examples, including in Ephesus about what's going to happen next in that 3rd

impediment. But you've got these Jews.

Now, most of what Paul has encountered are Judaizers, Judaizers who

have a reverence for the Old Testament that blinds them, as somebody's already mentioned this

morning, to who the Messiah is, that Jesus is the Messiah. These guys

aren't those guys. These are mysticists. They're mystics,

if you will. They're exorcists. They're superstitious,

and they see Paul— I

mean, isn't it incredible the power that God imparts for

him to be able to create belief even on the handkerchiefs that are passed out

to those that are sick and have evil spirits? They're being healed.

And so you got these 7 sons of this high priest, Sceva, they see

that and they're like, man, that's incredible. Makes me think of Simon the Sorcerer back

in Acts chapter 8. And they go out and they try to duplicate that.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

There's competing beliefs. And really we don't see— the

Holy Spirit handles that one. It overpowers them, overwhelms them. They go out naked

and wounded. But another impediment is competing

Beliefs. When we were out west,

it wasn't uncommon to see folks who were Buddhists,

who were Wiccans, who were— they called themselves pagans. The percentage

of those who considered themselves unaffiliated

is 39%, and those

who consider themselves Christian 53%.

I mean, that's— that gap outside of that are those who would belong

to those other religions. That, I mean, 10% who would be scattered

through different world religions. Now, what do you

think that— how does that compare to Kentucky? I looked at the Pew Center,

a massive study that was done in 2024,

and it does it state by state. In the state of Kentucky, what do you

think is the percentage of those who profess themselves to

be Christian? Just throw a wild guess out there. I mean,

72. How about unaffiliated?

I mean, you got a little hint. I mean, it's not— there are some others.

23%. Now that's interesting to

take notice of, but do you think Bowling Green reflects

the state averages? Spoiler alert, it doesn't.

I mean, to some degree, it's not Denver by any stretch of the imagination,

but the Census Bureau 2024 breaks that down

for us. It breaks it down in some interesting ways. There are a little over

12,000 people in Bowling Green counted in the census

that are non-US-born residents.

And the percentage of non-naturalized is much higher than the naturalized citizens.

According to that same census,

79,083 was the population of Bowling Green, not Warren County, but Bowling Green

in 2024. So you do the math on that. 18% of

those in that overall number aren't from

here. I'm not like, we're not from here. I mean, but not from this country.

And in that number, a percentage of them because of where

they come from would consider themselves Christian,

but more than not do not consider themselves

Christian. You, just out of your anecdotal experience,

what have you encountered that folks are in this immediate area

in the realm of world religion? There's Muslims,

right? We have the— I think, is it— we have a mosque and an

education center, or is it 2 mosques? I don't Is it 2 mosques?

Okay. What else?

Buddhists. Okay. Hindu.

And those would be the major 3. And so we've—

here in our Jerusalem, more Jerusalem-like,

we got a little Athens. We got a little Ephesus here.

And you're much more apt to encounter that here than you would in most other

places in the state of Kentucky. It's pretty neat that the

high school class right now, and I'm so thankful for that, whoever's responsible for driving

the curriculum, I guess it'd be the vision group, the education vision group,

thought that the high school class needed a class on world

religions. I'd say I think we do on the adult level as well. It would

be very helpful to us, comparative religion. That's always helpful.

Is Christianity just one among many? My point in all of

that is you probably will be more likely to encounter

somebody who's not professing to be a Christian in this area

than you would in most other places that you might

have come from to be here. But when

you encounter those under the umbrella of Christendom who would profess

to be Christians, don't you still have competing beliefs and you

still have to work through all of that. And that's how Paul

finds himself here. So here's the question.

More than likely, what you're going to encounter is going to be somebody who says,

I believe in Christ. I believe He is the Savior.

How do you settle those conflicting beliefs?

We'll let Hiram and Travis and Landon tell us how

to deal with some of the religions we mentioned at the front end of this.

How do you settle the differences?

Right. It's not, we've got spirit. Yes, we do. We got spirit. How about you?

You know, ours is better or bigger or whatever. It's not— that's not how it

goes. We have got to be able to acknowledge that there is a

standard and the standard's not me. The standard's not

us. The standard's not you. Y'all, the standard

is the Word, and we appeal to it. And that means we've got—

that means some other things. But certainly, we're not— it's

the whole measuring stick illustration. You've got to appeal to a

standard that everyone can agree to. And once you dig into that, you've got to

be able to be able to use that tool. And that's what's incumbent on

us. How else do you settle these conflicting beliefs?

All right. All right. So there's the challenge

to us. We've got to grow in our reasoning abilities. Now,

I think that some folks more naturally are geared as

reasoners. Um, and you know, even in,

we've talked about this before in different relationships, husbands and wives,

uh, some are lawyers and some are defendants, you know, or they don't,

you don't argue with the same degree of of reasoning

ability on the spot especially, you know. And in other relationships

you find the same thing. But we have got to be able— how are you

going to grow your reasoning ability? You've got to be in the Word.

Here's some others. Be willing to talk about it and not

let it go by when there's an opportunity. We pray for them all the time.

Do we capitalize on them? It's the whole— it's not who's

right, it's what's right. And then to what Joey said,

1 Peter 3:15, we've got to be ready to give an answer.

1 Peter 3:15

And we've got to grow our ability and practice doing

that. So, here's Paul who is faced with these conflicting beliefs.

Holy Spirit solves that for him. You go back to that first one where they

weren't listening. He's reasoning and explaining, and that's certainly a part of that. And I'll

just mention this very quickly. The 3rd challenge is money and profession.

You want to get people upset? 2 things to talk about are religion and money.

And that's what Paul does here, and they're kind

of bound together. There are these little silver statues, First of all, the Word of

God is flourishing and they're convicting the people in Ephesus

so that they burn their books and they renounce their arts and they repent.

And as a result of this, they put a valuation on what was

thrown into the fire. It was 50,000 pieces of silver and

it's just changing that city. I want you to think about the fact that this

is the establishment of the church in Ephesus. And I want

you to see how Ephesus, more than any other congregation, we have a longer timeline

of that church because you have the establishing

that's done on the missionary journeys. And then you've got the book

of Ephesians where we're going to be reading about

Paul's writing to this mature congregation. You've got Paul writing to

the preacher at Ephesus in 1 and 2 Timothy. And then you've got the book

of Revelation, which we commonly believe to be at the end of the 1st century,

the latest of the books of the New Testament. And it's one of the 7

churches of Asia that Jesus addresses. And he speaks

to the church at Ephesus first. And he says, you've left your first love.

They had been in Christ long enough that they had slipped away, but now

here's the beginning of it. And so much is powerfully

being done by the gospel that it is upsetting the

people. And the response led by a guy named Demetrius is,

we got to get even with these guys. If we embrace what Paul

is teaching, it's going to collapse our economy. It's going to change our way of

life. It's going to change our look at God as they saw it and

who we are, who he is, and what we're supposed to do by

way of thinking and acting and speaking.

Is this still a challenge to obedience? Money and profession.

If we come to Christ, there's a conflict.

Between what's first. You know that, that statement where Jesus says,

but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. You know, the context of

that, Matthew 6:24-34, is you can't serve God

Matthew 6:24–34

and money. And it's so hard because we need money

to, to make it in this life and to interchange. And I don't think any

of us in this room hate it, but we've got to make sure we don't

love it more than God. And sometimes profession

can get in the way. I find myself pouring more of my purpose and my

drive and my passion and my devotion and who I am

and my sense of identity into that and pay no

attention to my relationship in Christ and why I'm here and

even why I have that job. I saw a hand somewhere.

Yeah, for sure.

For sure. I'm going to have to give up something.

No doubt. And really, I appreciate that.

And this is just the way the chapter lays out.

But at the end of the day, this is the one that was the problem

in Ephesus, but there's always going to be one. It might be a relationship

that the Lord says I have to give up and I don't want to give

that up. And so I'm going to choose that over Christ.

It could be literally anything that competes with God.

Yes, ma'am. I know that there are people, I mean,

that believe they're like a salvation. For sure. For sure.

Um, we may have this difference, not a salvation

matter. Yeah. So at that point, so let's let that be.

We won't, we won't fill in the blank with anything specific. Let's just take what

you said. The key to that is it's not a matter of salvation.

Okay. So let's focus on that. That's, that was very important in your statement.

If it's not a matter of salvation, we defer to Romans chapter 14,

Romans 14 · chapter mention

and it should not stand in the way of our having fellowship.

Fellowship is breached when one

of the parties is wanting to hold onto something that is a

matter of truth and is not a matter of judgment. We can't have fellowship with

those who, with what they do, rebel against the will

of God or are disobedient to the Word of God. Because in doing that,

passages like 2 John 9 through 11 brings us into a relationship

we can't be in. Is that okay? A follow-up.

So you're asking actually not one follow-up, you're asking 2 questions there.

If I could, or at least I'm pulling out a second one if that's okay.

So one question has to do with, can someone

in a group that teaches error

on salvation, can someone

obey the gospel according to truth though

being among individuals like that?

And I would have to say if they're taught the truth,

and they obey the truth, God adds

them, Acts 2:47, to His church. Now, that's the first question.

Acts 2:47

Stay with me on that one. The second question is, can they stay where they

are and be right with God where they're teaching

things that are erroneous? I would say

no, because the New Testament church has— it

looks a certain way, it teaches a certain thing. And if

we are not with those individuals who are

following New Testament Christianity, then we are— we're

not in fellowship with God because we have got to be in fellowship with him.

Now, I appreciate you asking that with like 2 minutes left in the class.

Does that maybe bring up any other questions or thoughts or comments?

That was not in my planned response. But if

an individual's taught the truth, and obeys the truth on salvation,

then they have done what the Lord tells them to do.

But that's a different matter from where are they worshiping

and what are they doing in those regards. Okay. Well, that creates

a good place for us to stop. I was so looking forward to the challenges

of fellowship, completely different. And it may be developed a different way than I was

going to do that. But what's neat is this is

not— this was not to be a challenge. This was what helps

us overcome the challenge that we face when God

wants us to be fellowshipping with one another in the body of Christ.

And so often there are things that keep us from wanting to do that or

being willing to do that. And what we see with Paul and the others in

Acts 20 and Acts 21 is an awesome apology.

For the power of fellowship. And you see it from the very beginning in Acts

Acts 2:42

2:42, and it works its way all the way through to where

we don't see the church interacting as a whole

like we do here on the Third Missionary Journey. All right, any thoughts or comments?

'Cause I'm not even going to touch it in Acts 20. All right,

you get a minute back. Thank you.