When the Gospel Disrupts the Culture | Acts 19:21–28 | Alex Sands

Welcome to the Kingdom Life Podcast.

Today, Pastor Alex Sands takes us into Acts 19, 21 through 28.

When the gospel begins to shake more than hearts.

It begins to shake the system, the culture, and the economy of ethics.

The method of Jesus creates power.

But when the truth of God begins to tear people away from idols, it creates conflict.

Idols are exposed.

False worship is challenged, and the world around us will feel the impact.

So leave in.

Open your heart.

And let's hear how the gospel confronted idolatry stirred our position and revealed that the kingdom of God cannot be stopped.

You ever set your alarm clock and you set it, but you did PM instead of AM?

That was me today.

That was me this morning.

I try to get up early.

You know, if I get to sleep, I try to get up early, 5 or something, 4 30, and I set my alarm clock and I set it and I get up and I get everything.

When I woke up this morning, I knew it was wrong.

I didn't even want to look at the clock.

I knew it was wrong because the alarm clock didn't go off.

And I gritted my teeth.

Oh Lord, what time is it?

See, a pastor's greatest fear is that he oversleeps.

It's a nightmare.

Sleep right through service.

So I didn't know.

I just so it was, it was, it was seven.

It was good.

Thank you, Jesus.

But has anybody else done that?

Even though when you do it correctly, right?

You set your time correctly, so you know, whatever you need to get up for and do, even when you set your alarm clock right, do you like your alarm clock when it goes off?

Do you feel sometimes harassed by your alarm clock?

Do you feel like your alarm clock is a disturbance?

Disturbing you from your rest.

You ever hit it?

Yes, you have.

You claim snooze.

Anybody hit snooze five times.

It is just a disturbance, and I don't, I don't, I don't like it.

I don't like it when it goes off.

And and you can vent towards the clock, get upset, it's a disturbance.

But then when you get up and you're going along in your day, such as today for me, I'm so glad I was able to get up and get to where I was going.

Thank you for the alarm clock, even though I didn't like it to begin with.

Thank you, Jesus, for being my alarm clock.

Alarm clock.

You can hate your alarm clock because it causes a disturbance.

Often that disturbance is exactly what you need.

It wakes you up.

We are called to be the world's alarm clock.

We are called to tell the world, wake up.

Because the king is coming.

We are called, church, to make a disturbance.

Not for the sake of making a disturbance, but to wake folks up.

And an alarm clock is useless if it doesn't make a sound.

If the alarm clock doesn't work, even if it's been, even if it's been set, if it doesn't work, what's the point?

It's meant to wake up.

It's meant to be a disturbance.

But as we will see today, people always don't like, don't always like disturbances.

But I'm gonna say it now, and I'm gonna say it again, I'm gonna keep on saying it.

Be a disturbance.

Even if folks don't act like they want it, they want it anyway.

They really do.

So be a disturbance.

Turn to your neighbor and say, neighbor, be a disturbance.

Be an agitator.

Oh, I wasn't saying y'all repeat that.

You didn't have to do that part, but we are called to wake up.

Amen.

That's our call, church.

We're gonna see it today as we go into the word.

Amen.

We're looking at today in Acts chapter 19, and we've been studying the book of Acts for almost a year and a half, and that and the book of Acts is the fulfillment of what Jesus had told the apostles.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

This gospel of the kingdom will go forth from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth.

He told the apostles that they would be his witnesses.

And we see the fulfillment of it, and and we've been studying Acts, and we're now, it's Acts is a book of history, the history of the church through the first 30-some years.

And we've been studying the Apostle Paul on his third missionary journey for the past couple of weeks.

We have studied his ministry in a city named Ephesus, which was the capital of a region called Asia, and it was a city that had great commerce, a city that was diverse, a city that had a whole lot of money, but a whole lot of idolatry.

It had a whole lot of superstition.

People like voodoo on steroids.

It was a city that was known for a huge temple to a goddess named Artemis, Roman named Diana, with its hundreds of temple prostitutes.

And there God is doing an amazing work.

So pulling up a little bit, verse 20, you see, so the word of the Lord continued to, what does it say?

Increase and prevail.

It increased and it prevailed mightily.

The word, the gospel expanded and went deeper.

Not just in the world, but in the church.

Oh, the Lord confronted the church because folks in the church, people who had given their lives to Jesus Christ, but still had scrolls in their closets, books of magic, how to make life work, in case God doesn't answer the way you want him to.

And I challenge you last week.

Do you have any scrolls in your closet?

Do you have any ways that in your mind of trying to make life work?

And you got something, a plan B, unless just in case God doesn't give you your plan A.

A way of trying to make yourself happy, fulfilled, and satisfied outside of God's plan and way.

Do you have any scrolls?

The church people had scrolls in their houses, and the move of God was so strong, Christians took their scrolls and had a bonfire.

Burned them up so no one else would get them.

And the value of the scrolls was over a million dollars in our currency.

That's a lot, y'all.

They burned it up.

Time to make a break from the past and burn those bridges.

As I said before, I'm gonna say again, there's some folks you need to call and tell them, I will never talk to you again.

I'm not talking to everybody in the room.

I'm just talking to somebody.

I'm not talking to everybody, you might be watching.

Call them.

You will never hear from me again until you are a brother or sister in the Lord.

You won't hear from me again because this relationship is evil.

Yeah, it's serious.

That's the kind of repentance God is looking for, and that's the kind of repentance that was happening in Ephesus.

The word of the Lord increased and prevailed, prevailed over darkness, prevailed and increased mightily.

Now we pick up from there and we find a predictable response.

We're gonna jump to verse twenty-three.

Read it for me.

Amen.

There arose no little disturbance concerning the way.

Now, Luke begins by saying about that time, and what he's doing there is letting everyone know: hey, listen, this was the same time period of all of uh this move, this mighty move of God and people uh surrendering and the word increasing and prevailing.

Right around this time, there arose no small minute disturbance concerning the way.

Concerning the way first, let's take a look at this word disturbance.

A disturbance is a commotion, a public uproar or agitation that disrupts the settled order of things.

A commotion, an uproar, agitation that disrupts the settled order of things.

It was inevitable, unpredictable.

Because when the kingdom of God invades a territory that the devil thought was his, there's going to be opposition.

And then as the kingdom continues to advance, the opposition increases, and there arises a disturbance.

We've seen it time and time and time again.

But again, here what we have in Ephesus is Paul is in Ephesus for two years, hanging out at a lecture hall.

For anyone who comes around between 11 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

and sharing Jesus and God doing miracles and bringing people to him, having lectures, proving Jesus is the Messiah, answering questions.

He's posted up for years.

Many say this is the height of his ministry.

This season and his influence and other churches being started because of people he led to Christ in Ephesus.

Oh, no wonder there was a disturbance.

He had the opportunity to teach and God moving and teaching people, hearing the word, believing the word, confessing Jesus, being saved, and being discipled.

It caused no little disturbance.

And just to understand the way, understand, way is just simply a road, a path, or street.

But in Acts, it's the disciple's name for the Christian movement.

People who followed Jesus as the only way to God and lived under his lordship.

They called themselves followers of the way.

Because that means they're followers of Jesus, who said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Just saying the way offends many people.

The gospel is inherently offensive.

If Jesus does not offend the world, it's because they haven't understood him.

That Jesus saying that in John 14, 6, that is a countercultural statement, folks.

Go jump off.

I mean, they will lose their minds if you say there is only one way.

But there is only one.

And if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are a follower of the way.

And if you are a follower of the way, living as a follower of the way, you are going to cause a disturbance.

You are that alarm clock.

You are that disturbance.

I think the devil has put put a wool over many believers' eyes and make and making them think that their faith is just a private, personal thing.

God never intended for your faith to be a personal, private thing.

That I just keep my relationship with God private and then I just show up on Sunday, but folks can't tell that I'm a Christian on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

No, God never called for your faith to be private.

If you believe in Jesus and you are a follower of the way, it is 247-365.

And you just said, don't even tell me to try to leave God out of whatever the workplace where I'm gonna live like a follower of the way.

And if somebody doesn't like it, it's on them.

I'm gonna keep loving you.

But followers of the way, not always that.

But again, it's kind of like this little uh the Satan pulling the wool over believers' eyes into thinking this is just a personal affirmation, a personal faith, as if I can have my own belief and someone can have their own opinion, and we all can be right.

Jesus is Lord or not, gotta decide.

We say that He is everything, everything changes.

Jesus came to change everything, gives us a new way to walk, a new way to talk, a new way of doing relationships, a new way to forgive, new aspirations, new goals.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, not a renovation.

God came to tear it all down.

You are not the same.

New thoughts, new aspirations, new mentality, new temperament, and a new allegiance.

Baptism symbolizes a new allegiance.

It is your pledge of allegiance to Jesus.

And just like you did in school, every day you would say the pledge of allegiance, every day we need to make our pledge of allegiance to Jesus.

On a daily basis, I pledge allegiance to you, my Lord, my Savior.

I surrender all.

That's what followers of the way do.

Followers of the way act different and upset things when their faith isn't just something that's private.

Satan would be comfortable if everyone just said, My faith is just a private thing.

But when you live it out everywhere in the public square, everywhere, oh, it causes a disturbance when you live the kingdom life.

It changes the way you spend your money, it changes the way you do entertainment, it changes how how you handle your body, and that has an effect.

That's what happened in Ephesus.

People hearing the word, believing the word, and lives being changed, and listen, lives being changed.

The word has to be heard and the word has to be believed.

When the word is believed and confessed, Jesus is made Savior, he is their king.

If Jesus is their king, then homes change.

If homes change, schools change.

If schools change, jail cells are closed.

Family court has an open schedule.

Little girls and little boys aren't trafficked.

When the word is transforming homes and transforming a society, going into everything, nothing is the same when the light invades.

And Satan does not want that.

It even affects the economy.

Do you know about how much of our economy is based on sin?

If everyone in America got saved and lived like it, the economy would just wreck devastated.

Capitalism needs sin.

To want more.

To want more and more and more, never be satisfied, and then be willing to do whatever you gotta do to get it, regardless of what someone else might think.

We're not out to protect our country.

We have a king.

We're not out to protect the world system.

We're here to lift up a king and to announce his kingship.

And let us never confuse Christian kindness with just approval, meaning you approve of the culture.

We are called to be kind.

But that doesn't mean we approve of everything that's done.

Looking at John chapter 15, verses 18 and 19.

John 15:18

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world will love you as its own.

But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world.

Therefore, the world hates you.

Understand that.

Jesus never promised the world would celebrate a faithful church.

The world won't celebrate it.

We are called to cause a disturbance.

So we don't echo every slogan.

We don't say that everything is okay.

We don't say you have your truth, I have my truth.

There is the way, the truth, and the life.

So we live in a way, as the believers in Ephesus, they had to live in a way in which they're saying Artemis is not the king, Caesar is not the king.

We in 2026, we say our idols are not king.

So lust is not king, pornography is not king, greed is not king, money is not king, career is not king, education is not king.

There's only room on the throne for one, only one.

And Jesus is king.

So saints, take this, uh take this and just let it make me sure you it marinates in you.

When the way is proclaimed, received, and followed in a family or community, there will be a disturbance.

Jesus said, I did not come to bring peace.

I came to bring A sword.

Matthew chapter 10, verse 34.

Matthew 10:34

Do not think that I've come to bring peace to the earth.

I have not come to bring peace but a sword.

Believers don't just just talk about being different.

They live differently.

Followers of the way just don't talk about holiness.

They live holy.

They live transformed.

And if that catches on and the followers of the way behave like followers of the way, which means that God is making other followers of the way through them, it will be a disturbance.

We live the good news.

KLC, are we causing a disturbance?

Yes and no.

And it's something to continue to chew on.

It's changing.

Don't get me wrong, it's changing.

80% of Greenville County is not in a church right now.

Or anytime this weekend.

So it's still a lot of cultural Christians, a lot of people to be reached.

So but generally speaking, people are nice and favorable until you become one of those radical Christians.

Holy rollers, they used to call them.

When we say being a disturbance, we're talking about that is we do things for the community, but we never leave that without sharing Jesus.

So for all of us, many of us do.

That's why we are causing a disturbance.

I think God's calling us to make more of a disturbance.

Which means being intentionally, intentionally subversive, trying to up-end things.

Everyone else is telling their truth.

We tell the truth.

We come back to scripture.

We just quote scripture.

Are you such and such?

You so no.

Oh no, I'm just telling you what Jesus said.

And and listen, there's going to be a choice we have to make.

Every one of us.

It might not be.

There'll be a future.

I'm just talking here.

Just there may be a future where being part of Kinglife is not cool.

Because that church keeps talking about Jesus.

And their pastor, he keeps throwing scriptures on the screen and giving away Bibles, and he just keeps, and he won't relent.

No small disturbance.

Paul was not trying to cause a disturbance.

He was just a disturbance because daily he taught the truth.

He didn't try to come up and oppose anybody, he just opposed sin.

But if we're not different, there will be no disturbance.

If we're not holy, there'll be no friction that we cause with the world.

So here's kingdom life.

Here's a something, a diagnostic, just something for believers.

Just in living the kingdom life, assess, ask yourself: has media conditioned you to fear cultural disapproval and reduce your faith to just a personal decision?

This the what the air, the atmosphere is look, you don't want to be canceled.

The atmosphere is, I don't, I don't want disapproval.

I don't want to be uh unliked.

I don't want, I want as many likes as possible.

Beware.

The culture is conditioning people to just go in line and go with the flow and never confront or say anything is wrong.

So we're we're in the culture, but don't allow the culture to squeeze you into its mold, its way of thinking.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

That understand there are worse things in the world than somebody not liking you, than someone not approving of you.

There are worse things in the world because you don't want Jesus to say, I never knew you.

In fact, man, we need to rejoice.

If somebody stops following you on some social media because you keep posting about Jesus, you are blessed.

Luke 6, 22, blessed are you when men, when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.

And I'm not saying being spiteful, don't be angry or anything like that, but just speak the truth in love and speak what is most important to you.

But the world wants just assimilation.

Don't cause a disturbance, just go along with the flow.

Being accepted by the Lord means more than being accepted by everyone else.

And you will either have the fear of man or the fear of God.

Proverbs 29, 25 says, the fear of man lays a snare.

But whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

So understand, we are called to be an alarm clock.

We are called to rustle up things, stir up the waters with truth.

In humility, not angry, not being one of those folks, just casting out everything, but in love, saying, No, this is the way.

I'm a follower of the way.

Not perfect, but now you're gonna go against the flow.

That means life is not gonna be easy.

There's gonna be challenges.

But God has created a way that as you cause a disturbance just by living your faith and the world opposes you, God has built in a way for you, me, to remain encouraged.

Let's go back to verse 21.

It says, now after these events, the events of you know the believers all burning up their scrolls and all that, the word continued to increase and prevail.

After all these events, Paul resolved in the spirit.

Resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia.

Now, understand when it says there that he resolved in the spirit, it means he's being led by the Holy Spirit.

Uh-oh.

Too far.

All right, I forgot uh resolved.

It is to set, place, or fix something firmly.

Paul has it fixed, fixed in his mind to pass through Macedonia and Achai and go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome.

Now understand this.

When it says that he's resolved, fixed, settled in his mind in the Spirit, he sent the Holy Spirit was leading him.

And it fixed it in his heart that after the years of being in Ephesus and seeing lives transformed and the word increasing and prevailing, even though it was doing all of that, it was time to go.

It was time to leave.

And he says, I must see Rome.

Not to sightsee, but I must get to Rome.

I must get to Rome.

And his heart was to get to Rome and proclaim Jesus, of course.

So he he knows he's going to leave, he's got to go, but he he must pass through where?

Macedonia and Achai.

And then go to Jerusalem.

The interesting thing about those two places is it's not on the way to Jerusalem.

In fact, it's going the other way.

Why, Paul, are you thinking about going?

That's not efficient.

Not about efficiency, it's about obedience.

There were churches in Macedonia.

Do you remember a church of churches that were in Macedonia?

Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea.

Those were churches that he had planted in Macedonia, but also experienced persecution.

Also experienced pushback.

Because as he taught the word and people believing, there was a disturbance.

And he had left, but believers were still in that environment.

They were still experiencing the rejection of society.

They were experiencing all of that.

And so Paul's heart was always to build up and strengthen.

Paul didn't fly in and just lead some folks to Christ and then fly off.

He is his heart was not just to share the good news, but to edify, to build up, even if it was going to cost him his life.

So the church was there, or churches were there.

He wants to build them up.

Verse 22, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faiths and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

But look at verse 22.

So we know that's one of his aspirations, his desires is to strengthen the believers.

But verse 22 says, and having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

Well, if he's so eager to be obedient and to go, why is he sending two of his assistants, two of his partners ahead of him?

This sets up the rest of what we'll read in the book of Acts.

Predominantly the rest of Acts is Paul's journey.

This journey and trying and aspiring to get to Rome and all that happened in between is pretty much going to take the bulk of it.

Why he's sending Timothy and Erastus first?

He sends them ahead.

Because he's going to come behind, but he sends them ahead to prepare an offering.

To prepare an offering for poor saints in Jerusalem.

The saints in Jerusalem were Jewish.

The Jewish believers were experiencing severe persecution and poverty.

Families rejected them.

Many of the synagogues rejected them, and synagogues were more than just places where they would worship.

It was their support system.

Widows got their support from the synagogue and all these other things, places of education.

They suffered the lack of having that support system.

And then overall, through famine and everything else, they were struggling.

They were doing worse than churches in Macedonia and Achai.

You have the Church of Corinth, obviously, the Church of Corinth, they had financial resources.

They had money, especially when you compare it to what the Jerusalem saints had.

Paul's desire is Timothy, Erastas, you go, and tell them about this offering I'm gonna collect when I come through.

And I'm gonna take it to Jerusalem.

I want them, and I'm just paraphrasing, to get it ready in their hearts because this isn't a tax or tithe.

Tithing ended in the Old Testament.

This isn't a tax.

I want this to be a free will offering.

To give freely, to help brothers and sisters they haven't met, to help Jewish believers from a different culture, different background, to tangibly display the oneness of the body of Christ.

That groups that had been totally opposed to one another, and Jews had called Gentiles dogs.

Well, in the church, it's different.

You're brothers and sisters, regardless of your background.

You're no longer enemies, you're now friends and brothers and sisters, children of God.

Jesus changes everything.

When you are away, a follower of the way, it changes how you perceive everyone.

And Paul wanted this collection as a visible demonstration to those impoverished saints in Jerusalem that you got brothers and sisters who are Gentiles who are thinking of you, praying for you, because you are one in Christ.

There is one body, and Jesus tore down the middle wall of partition.

And this is a tangible demonstration of it.

They're suffering, and you can meet their needs.

The apostles had caused a disturbance in Jerusalem 20 years ago, and the disturbance hadn't stopped.

And because the believers there had gone out and shared the word everywhere, these believers had a chance to hear the word and had an opportunity to be saved, Paul would say, you owe it to them.

But this again would be a way of showing unity in the body.

The believers in Jerusalem were suffering because they dared to cause a disturbance.

And the community uh uh oppressed them, but the body of Christ would rise to the occasion.

The body of Christ would be informed and come alongside and fill in the gaps, because that's what the body does.

The body heals the body, the body strengthens the body.

So you read in Romans 15, verses 26 and 27, for Macedonia and of Kai have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem, for they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them.

Romans 15:26

For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought to also be part or to be service to them in material blessings.

And talking about making this appeal, because the body of Christ needed strengthening.

When there is disturbance, Satan retaliates, but then God moves within the body to comfort the body and come alongside.

God, kingdom, truth, God strengthens his people through his people.

1 Corinthians 12, 26 and 27.

If one member suffers, all suffer together.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

We're not a crowd, we're a body.

We're not consumers sitting in the same room.

We're members joined in Christ.

And because we are members of the same body with the same goal and intention to see the kingdom advance, to see more people become followers of the way, we see each other the same way.

We step in to help and to assist.

We can't just view each other as individuals, we are one.

That's when the Spirit gets a hold to you.

He transforms how you view others, particularly in the family of God.

And can I encourage you in this?

Don't walk the way alone.

And don't let others walk the way alone either.

There are some burdens that we are not equipped to handle by ourselves.

And that's why the Lord, through Paul, told the Galatian believers, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

I fear that we have this, we we have this strong individualism in our culture.

But that can be a detriment.

It can build up a lot of strength and resilience, but you know what?

That can be a detriment when you decide, look, I can't let other people know I'm struggling.

When you have so much pride built up, you can't share, I'm sick.

When you have so much pride built up, but that you can't say, I don't know where my son is.

Because he's out on the streets.

And your pride won't let you say, I'm struggling with pornography.

We have to be willing to be vulnerable.

Because the church called the body to minister to the body, but if you're too proud to share with the body that what you need, you're depriving other saints.

Because we are gifted to bless one another.

We are we have been gifted.

Spiritual gifts are not for our consumption, it's for the body, it's for others.

If you're not sharing the gift and not receiving, man, you're blocking opportunities and you're stealing from others.

Blocking their opportunity to share and then keeping what belongs to them to yourself.

That's why just watching at home is not church.

It's not church.

It will fill in the gaps, but it is not church.

You're just sitting at home and watching.

That's not church.

Now there are seasons perhaps where that is all you can do.

But don't disconnect from the body and just start to say, I'm gonna watch and turn off and be done.

Somebody ought to be out there and can hold you accountable and fellowship and so on and so forth.

You can't just grow alone.

The enemy wants you to be alone and isolated and never sharing anything because that's when he's got you.

Alone sheep.

That's when he comes, that's when he takes you.

We are stronger together than we are apart.

So, saints, don't fall into that trap of just being comfortable.

Listen, fellowship, community take sacrifice.

You're gonna have to sacrifice time.

It's gonna mean that there are members of the church that want to gather and maybe with the intention of starting life groups and are gonna try to get things together, and no time is perfect for everyone.

But can you make a sacrifice?

Not just for others, but for yourself.

Can you make something a priority and move something else out of the schedule?

Like, yeah, I normally do this on Tuesdays, but I got a men's accountability group.

I got some brothers who who are there, they've been there for me, and I'm gonna be there for them.

There are five families I'm supposed to be meeting with.

And you know, we've tried multiple times to get things off the ground and and and hey, let's do community, do community together.

And sometimes it was life situations changed, kids doing this and that.

But then other times things just fizzled out because I don't want to let go of my hobby.

Body makes sacrifices for the body, the body sees a need and understands.

They have need, I have need.

I can't know your need unless I'm in relationship with you.

And I can't receive from others unless I'm in relationship.

Paul had a relationship with all these believers.

Think about all the names he names in Romans.

When you read the end of Romans, it's like he's like a call out.

Tell this person this, tell them this, tell them this.

Oh, I was so glad about this person.

He had relationships.

He lived among the people intentionally.

Y'all, we have to do that.

Don't allow the culture that says we got to be independent.

Don't let that infect you.

We are countercultural.

We say, I need the body, and the body needs me.

And therefore, this is important.

And just watching others do church is not church.

You can't practice forgiveness by yourself.

You can't share your spiritual gifts by yourself.

You can't show hospitality by yourself.

You can't do all the things, those things by self.

If you're hiding because you experience church hurt, church hurt is real.

But the call to assemble with the body is real too.

The call not to forsake the assembling of yourself, so sometimes you gotta step over that thing and say, I'm gonna offer my cheek this other side too.

You took my cloak, you can have my robe, or you know, you can have it all.

I will get you, it's gotta get to that.

Oh, I'm messing, I'm I'm I'm meddling.

Uh-uh.

Telling you as an introvert, I'm better in community.

I need brothers, I need families.

We all do.

We weren't made to do this as solo lone rangers.

Now, we understood the church by its nature, the way, creates a disturbance.

We understand that in creating disturbance, God doesn't leave us alone to face it alone.

He gives us the church, the body, other followers of the way to encourage us as we continue to sound the alarm.

Now, what we're gonna see in verses 24 through 28 is specifically the disturbance that happened in Ephesus.

Because it's so common.

You can see it in so many ways because it's spiritual.

And it's just it's something we need to be aware of and mindful of.

Here it is, verse 24.

For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis.

Silver shrines of Artemis.

Shrine is a small temple or a sacred replica that's connected to the worship of a false god.

Artemis, again, the great goddess of Ephesus.

The temple to Artemis is one of the seven wonders of the world.

The worship of Artemis or Diana was not just a religion.

It was Ephesus, it was its economy.

You had dudes like Demetrius.

He was a silver worker, he would make these little shrines, these little things, little trinkets, you know, and then he had suppliers.

And they had suppliers.

This is like supply chain stuff.

This is how deep it is.

And he makes them and he'd sell them because thousands upon thousands of people would come from all over the world to go visit this temple and worship Diana.

Diana had become, look, it wasn't just a religion, it was their economy.

Demetrius, the silversmith, brought no little business to the craftsmen.

These he gathered.

It's like he's like having like a guild, union meeting.

You know, I've got all of the folks from other groups that gave me.

He has a meeting.

These he gathered together with the workmen and similar trades and said, Men, listen to how he look at look at this.

Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth.

From this business, you mean this belief?

He didn't even call it a religion, he calls it business.

We have our wealth.

Oh, and wealth is prosperity, good income, comfortable living, or abundance.

It is by this business we have a comfortable life.

Men, all in the same trade, you know this.

Selling little trinkets, people will take to their home and believe that it represents the presence of Diana, and Diana will bless their home and give them uh uh make everything fertile and so this is Diana, little book figurine everywhere and carry it as a good luck charm.

This is our business.

They were profiting off of religion.

From this business, we have our wealth, and you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, almost all of Asia, this Paul, this Paul has persuaded Yeah, I'm I'm marking all of them, and turned away a what a great many people saying that gods made with hands are not gods, he said, not just in Ephesus, but all over in Asia.

But what you know what the word of the Lord increased and prevailed, and it even had said earlier in verse 10 of chapter 19 about how people from all over Asia heard it.

This is look uh uh confirmation from the world that this gospel, that this Paul is talking about.

You hear that disparaging, this Paul.

You know that this Paul, not only in Ephesus, but in all of Asia, has persuaded and turned away.

Persuaded, we've seen it a number of times, to convince, win over, or move someone by reasoning and truth and turned away.

To remove, shift, or turn someone from one position to another.

A great many people saying the gods made with hands are not gods.

There's the content.

That's where Paul will get to.

Those gods you are worshiping, they are not gods.

And there is danger, Demetrius says, not only that this trait 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 be even deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.

There is a two-prong attack to this speech.

Watch this.

Watch this.

It's brilliant.

First of all, he appeals to their greed.

This Paul, by teaching about the way and saying there's only one way to God, and that there's he's the monotheistic God, the way to him is Jesus, he is the Messiah.

Him preaching that is bad for the economy.

Because folks aren't buying our little shrines and trinkets anymore.

They're okay.

As long as it didn't change anything in the business, they're okay with whatever you believe.

As long as you don't change how you spend your money.

But when it affects a great many people, that's when it's a disturbance.

A great disturbance.

When the gospel is making so many inroads, and so many men and women stop looking at pornography, it'll cause a great disturbance in that multi-billion dollar industry.

When men and women say drunkenness is a sin, and I'm not going to party and party, that is not my idea of a good time.

An idea of my good time is worshiping the Lord.

When many people do that, Samuel Adams is mad.

Mad Dog 2020, all of them mad.

Look, I'm gonna number one way to save now.

The cheap stuff, the real cheap stuff.

Look, look, their business model, Demetrius and his partners, their business model was idolatry.

And how many businesses today thrive on idolatry, need people to sin.

If you as the church, as we as the church followers of the way, do what we do, and God responds, and many come to be and give their lives to Christ, watch out.

People don't have a problem with your faith unless you, as long as you keep it to yourself.

But when it starts infecting and bothering people's money, there'll be a problem.

There'll be backdoor meetings like this.

How can we upset things?

How can we plant people that cause issues and church splits?

And what do we need to do?

Because we don't need all these folks sinning like that.

It messed with the economy.

But the second thing that Demetrius is appealing to is their identity.

In Ephesus, their identity was wrapped around Artemis.

The great goddess Artemis.

Well, if she's so great, why are you worried about Paul?

You know what I mean?

The temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing.

If he continues to be successful, everyone's going to turn away from Artemis.

And she may be even deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.

He brings in Asia again.

But this Paul is advancing in Asia and all over.

The worship of Diana, it was part of their identity because listen to how these craftsmen respond.

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

And the city will become filled in confusion and an uproar and so on, a riot.

We're going to see that next time.

But the key here is the appeal first to greed, money, and second, identity.

Their identity was tied up to Diana because Diana chose Ephesus to be the host for her temple.

And all that people come here and they spend money, all that.

Everything is built around the worship of Artemis.

We are her guardians.

See, idols need people to defend them.

The God I serve doesn't need me to defend him.

But idols do.

These two things, identity, greed, kept slavery as an institution for centuries.

Greed, the money, and then this is our way of life, and that's just the way things are.

And even will counter contradict their own theology to keep the institution going.

That's what happened.

People wrapped up in greed and money and in their identity.

This is who we are.

And and they said this what this is going to happen, fall into disrepute.

It's going to subvert everything.

We want to see change.

We want to see people leaving sin behind, and whatever may be a result of that, let the chips fall where they may.

Subversive?

That doesn't mean picketing.

It means acting like yeast and turning things that are upside down right side up.

Telling men how to lead their families, to be a godly husband, and leaving vices behind, and no longer viewing their spouses as enemies, but partners.

No longer turning to alcohol or other women, family structures being established and schools getting established, strengthened.

That's all that's good until it messes with stuff.

But we, if we continue to do that, we'll turn things right side up, and there's going to be a reaction to it, but we are called to subvert because the world is broken.

We are the alarm clock.

We are to agitate.

We are to wake up.

We can't ask God to set people free while we help fund the systems that keep them enslaved.

Now, it's up to it's up to you what you're gonna do with that.

Because there's some things, maybe some subscriptions you need to cut off.

Maybe some things that, yeah, it doesn't entangle you, but it's entangling other people.

It's feeding, it's it's what is going to lead to.

And you say, I don't want to be a part of that system.

Last application.

Prayerfully, take an audit of what you support with your money, your time, your attention, and your affection.

If you find something that enslaves or profits from sin, cancel it.

Because what that thing will do, it only will feed.

It'll feed that feeling of individuality.

This is just my faith and so on, and you lose sight of the mission.

Now, it doesn't, I'm not saying, look, don't hear what I'm not saying.

I'm not saying not to be engaged in the world.

I'm telling you to assess and evaluate, pull out of things that are actively trying to shut down the gospel and trying to get folks wrapped up in sin.

And as I say, you know, uh uh, murder is anger, excuse me, anger is murder in seed form.

So, so listen, you tolerate or think it's okay that something is in a seed form, just look at what it becomes.

It enslaves, causes we all will cry out against murder, but are we willing to make changes beneath the surface so that certain industries don't ensnare people and that end up becoming y'all know what I'm talking about?

Assess.

And not just whether it's affecting you, but how is this affecting your brothers and sisters, and how is this affecting those in the world?

That's what the Lord wanted me to tell y'all.

That's what the Lord wanted to tell you.

Sure enough told me.

Oh, he got me.

I had to turn stuff off, unsubscribed.

He made me see things in a different way.

I'm preaching, I'm studying, all my heart, but but why in the world do I support something that's going against what I'm telling?

Alarm clock, y'all.

We are called to be an alarm clock, and what does an alarm clock cause?

A disturbance.

It's a necessary one, it's a good one.

But not it, not maybe not initially.

It may not initially be like, but but you know what?

Even if across the room the alarm clock is going off and the person doesn't get want to get up and is cursing the clock.

I hate you.

You're against everything I am.

I hate you.

You never have good for me.

I hate you.

Do you want to know what the alarm clock does?

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

Church, that's what we're to do.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

Don't stop, because that's what we're created for.

So, Lord, thank you for your grace to us.

Lord, thank you for saving us.

Thank you, Lord, for showing us who you are and showing us Jesus, how we could all be saved.

You saved us, you claimed us.

And Lord, you left us here to tell others.

You left us here to warn others.

You've called us here to encourage one another to continue on in the faith and living the way.

Help us to fulfill what you created us for and what you left us for, and not be disturbed by the reaction that we'll see in the culture.

You said this was going to happen.

You said it, so we're not surprised.

And while we pray, we recognize there are brothers and sisters of ours in the Lord around the world who are being persecuted, who are being beaten, homes split, burnt, houses burned down, some murdered just because they've professed the name of Jesus.

Lord, strengthen them, encourage them, and Lord, may there still be a spread, may the word continue to increase and prevail in spite of the enemy's tactics.

As your kingdom will not be stopped.

But bless the saints and help us to be a blessing to the body.

As we see, Lord, the time winding down.

We long to see you, Jesus.

And we long for others to call upon you as well.

In your name, Jesus, we pray.

Amen.