Awakening the Spirit: The Transformative Power of the Gospel

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

We are in the book of Acts.

If you have your Bibles, turn there.

Acts, chapter 19.

And we're going to be picking up where we left off.

Last time we were here, Paul was doing these wonderful works as an apostle.

People were getting healed, people were getting saved.

And in so doing we see that there was this individual who was possessed and there were these seven sons who came to try to cast out the demon and, or demons, as we see here, is actually evil spirits.

And their response was, hey, we know Paul, we know Jesus, but we don't know you.

And the truth was, is that there were some individuals who wanted to understand the power of God.

They wanted to exercise the power of God, but they did not have a relationship with God.

They didn't know Jesus as their personal Savior.

They were counterfeits.

And, and the Bible says that there are a lot of people who want the benefits and the blessings of walking with God, but they don't want to walk with God.

And the truth is, is that we cannot understand the power of God, the provisions of God, the protection of God, without having a relationship with him.

And we find a relationship with him through Jesus Christ.

And so we know that through all that, Jesus was magnified.

That's the end of verse 17.

The Lord Jesus was magnified and a bunch of people changed their ways.

Verse 19.

Many of them also, which were curious arts, which used curious arts, brought their books together and burned them before all men.

And they counted the price of them and founded 50,000 pieces of silver.

And so what happens here is that there's these people who are exercising in paganism, in idolatry, in what we would call the mystic arts, the dark magic, so to speak, and they come and they're saved and they get rid of those things.

They turn away from their idols, they turn away from their evil ways and they turn to Christ.

And, and that's an amazing thing.

It's an amazing thing when we see individuals turn away from those things that held a grip on them.

Now for us, it's not usually an idol, so to speak, when it comes to like a gold or silver statue, but many times when we see people come to Christ now we see Them get rid of those things that held them back from their.

In their past.

Maybe it's an addiction or maybe it was, you know, a habit or a sin or an action that they did that was contrary to the word of God.

And so the Bible clearly says that when people come to Christ, they turn away from their wicked, they turn away from idolatry, they turn away from that old way of living.

We even know, as we've been studying Second Corinthians, that the Bible says that we are new creations, new creatures in Christ.

And so true salvation brings true change.

A true salvation brings a true transformation.

People are changed.

And when people are changed, culture is impacted, our community is impacted.

And that's what we're going to be talking about here this evening.

So remember what came before this.

Paul preaches the gospel in Ephesus, and also other people are preaching the gospel.

Many people are getting saved.

And what's happening is people are turning away from their idolatry.

And we get to this really interesting story here where the individuals who were the idol makers are getting upset because they're basically saying all these people are getting saved and all of our income is going away.

And we're seeing that the Christians, they're not called Christians here, they're called the people that are in the way.

And so by the way, Christianity at that point, they, they called it the way.

And they said these people that are going this way, the way, they're ruining our economy, they're ruining our jobs, they're ruining all these things because they're changing from what they desired before.

And that's what we're going to talk about here this evening.

So let's look at verse number 23.

And it says in the same time as, as all these things are happening, as, as there's this revival happening in the city of Ephesus, it says, and in the same time, there arose no small stir about that way.

So.

So if you don't understand what it's saying there, it says that there was commotion there, there was chaos because of the way, or it says that way there.

So basically, Christianity following Christ was changing Ephesus.

It was changing the economy, it was changing the culture, it was changing what people were doing, it was changing even what people were spending their money on.

And I think that's an important lesson to see, because as we see Christ coming into this city, which was a very, very pagan city, we're going to talk about that as we go along here tonight.

There was this goddess named Diana that they worshiped and People from all over the world came to worship in Ephesus.

So Ephesus was not known as a place that was a holy place.

It was not known as a place that was going to follow the law of God.

It was not known as a place that was going to glorify the true God.

But as we see people changing, we see that there is an impact on their society, there's an impact on their culture.

And I want to pause there, and I want to say this.

I believe the Bible teaches that if we as Christians are living publicly for the Gospel, if we are living the way, so to speak, we should, and we will impact our community.

We will show a difference.

We will make people either uncomfortable because they are not part of the way, or we will draw people to the way when it comes to the love of Christ, the truth of Christ.

And that's what was happening here in Ephesus.

Many people were coming to Christ because of the Gospel witness.

Others were upset.

And we're going to study what happens when people get upset, what's going to go about.

And that's what happens here.

So there's a guy named Demetrius, verse 24, for a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith.

Now, the reason why he's mad is because he's.

He's a silversmith and he makes the idols.

And so all the people, not just in Ephesus, but from all over the world, when they come to Ephesus, they get their idols from Demetrius and the other guys that are silver smiths.

And so it says there was a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana.

Now who is Diana?

I already mentioned it.

She's the goddess there, the goddess of fertility, that there was a temple there in Ephesus that everyone would come to and worship.

And it says, and it brought no small gain unto the craftsman whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation.

So he calls all the silversmiths in, all the idol makers in and says, sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.

He appeals to their pocket, right?

He appeals to money.

He appeals to that filthy lucre, right?

We know that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

It doesn't say money is the root of all evil, right?

We know that God can use money, but the love of money is.

Is the root of.

Of evil.

And so what we can see here is he comes before his co workers here and he says, guys, we know that we make a lot of money from making idols.

We know that this is the way that we have become wealthy.

And so he appeals to money here and he appeals to their income.

And, and so he says, moreover, ye see in here that not alone in Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods which are made with hands.

So he's upset because he's losing money, because there's a guy named Paul who's preaching that gods cannot be made by hands, that, that anything outside of the true God of Israel found in Jesus Christ is idolatry.

It's emptiness, it's worthlessness.

And so what we can see is it's impacting their business and they're upset.

And if we look at what Paul is preaching, Paul is not preaching against Diana, by the way.

He's not preaching against these false gods.

Paul is preaching the truth of Jesus Christ.

In so doing, he's preaching against these false gods.

And so what we're going to see here is that Paul is not guilty of preaching against Diana as much as he's guilty of preaching for Jesus.

And the more people turn to Jesus, the more they turn away from their idolatry.

And I think that's important to note too, as, as we profess the word of God to those around us.

And so there was this temple in Ephesus to Diana.

I.

I did a little bit of research on it, and it says it was supported by 127 pillars.

Those pillars were 60ft high.

They were decorated with sculptures.

And ultimately what happens is that people are coming from all over to.

To worship Diana here.

And what we can see is that Paul is not just impacting the city of Ephesus, but it says that he was going throughout all of Asia, almost throughout all Asia.

And so there's a spread of the gospel that's happening here.

And so the opposition from Demetrius and these other idol makers, I would say, was.

It was a compliment to Paul's work.

Right?

But Paul is doing his job.

If the idol makers are upset and, and I would say this, the church is doing its job.

When people against the cause of the gospel are upset, when the world is upset, we're doing the right thing.

When people that live in the flesh and appeal to the flesh and talk about lifting up self and you are enough, and, hey, just go after what feels right.

If the people that preach that message are upset, the church is doing the right thing.

And what we can see is that Paul is doing the right thing by preaching Jesus.

And so therefore, I would say that these guys Getting upset, it would be a compliment to the work of Paul in his Gospel ministry.

And so people came to Jesus, and in so doing, as they come to Jesus, they naturally are turning away from those things which held them and grip them in their sin.

And so I would say that Christianity, true biblical Christianity, and the gospel work of the church should impact our community.

And, and I think that so many times we're afraid to get out there.

We're afraid to be bold.

Why?

Because the other side of the coin, people that are fighting for the ways of this world are very bold about what they're about.

And, and so many times I think that there's a fear on our side that we're going to either fail or there's going to be persecution or, or we don't want to mix those sides of the aisle.

And what I would say is this.

If we are a church that's living for Christ, we will make change in our community.

We should.

We should live differently.

And I think a lot of times what happens is this.

We.

We.

We hear, hey, live a testimony out around you.

There was a.

There was a great theologian a while ago that said this.

He said, preach the gospel, speak if necessary.

And, and I get what he's saying is like, we need to live the gospel and not just talk the gospel.

But sometimes what happens is that we live the gospel but we're afraid to speak why we're doing what we're doing.

So, like, say, for example, if I show love to my neighbor, I can show love to my neighbor.

And that neighbor might say, well, that person's really loving.

But if I don't explain why I'm being loving to my neighbor and connect the dots between the love of Christ, I'm not doing enough.

If I live with integrity in business, okay?

It's not because I just want to have a good business and I want to have good reviews on my website.

I want to have integrity because God, the one who's changed my heart, has told me to be different.

And therefore, that's why I'm different.

That's why I'm treating people this way.

And so there's.

There's a connection between how we live to what we preach.

And so don't be afraid to tell people, hey, the reason I'm different.

And the Bible actually says if we live boldly for the cause of the gospel, people will ask us why we have this hope that's in us.

That's 1 Peter, chapter three.

First Peter, chapter three says there's gonna be people who ask Us, why we are different.

And it says to give an answer for the hope that's within us, with meekness and fear, with gentleness and respect.

So we're able to live differently, change the culture around us by telling them that it's Jesus who makes the difference in our life.

And that was.

That was what was happening there in the time of Paul, there in.

In Acts.

So it says here, verse 27.

So that not only this, our craft is in danger to be set at not, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised.

And.

And so if you see here, he.

He actually appeals.

He's clever in what he's doing here.

He appeals to this crowd in the basis of their financial interest, which he knows that they're going to be interested in.

So he, like, he's like, guys, our money's going to be taken away if we keep letting Paul do this.

And these people that are Christians do this, they're going to hurt our economy.

And then what's the next thing that he says?

He appeals here to their civic pride.

He says, so we're going to lose our money, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia in the world worship it.

So he says, guys, we need to keep our identity.

We need to keep our culture.

So what is Demetrius doing?

He's fighting to keep the worldly culture.

He's fighting to keep that Ephesian culture.

He doesn't want the Christian culture to infiltrate and change what is the status quo.

And the very reason that Demetrius is upset here is the same reason why the people back in Jerusalem were upset.

With what?

With what Jesus was doing, right?

Jesus was preaching a message that turned status quo on its head.

The Pharisees, the Sadducees, were upset with Jesus because Jesus was preaching something that was opposing their income, their finances.

He was preaching something that was opposing their civic pride.

Like, hey, we are better than these people because we believe a certain way, we do a certain thing.

I was even talking in my Bible study this morning.

You have two groups of people at the time of Jesus.

There was these guys named the Pharisees and the guys named the Sadducees.

Two different people, right?

They were part of something called the Sanhedrin, which was a bigger religious leadership group.

But you had the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

They had very different views.

The Pharisees were by the book.

The Pharisees believed in moral integrity.

The Pharisees believed in the afterlife.

The Pharisees believed in the supernatural.

The Sadducees didn't believe in that.

They were much different.

Sadducees didn't believe in angels.

The Sadducees didn't believe in, in an afterlife, in, in eternity.

And so how could the Sadducees and the Pharisees come together to fight against Jesus?

Well, they had a common enemy, right?

It was Jesus preaching against both of things that they were doing.

And he was saying, all of you people that are focusing on man made religion are empty and you're missing it and you're abusing people.

And so what happens is, is that these people who are totally opposite of each other in many ways come together and fight against Jesus.

And so that's what we're going to see.

We're going to see people in this world uniting against the cause of the gospel.

Whether they're like minded or not, they're going to fight against the truth of the gospel.

And so that's what's happening here.

He appeals to their financial need and he appeals to their civic pride.

And he says, guys, if this message of the gospel continues on, we're going to lose our identity as the place of Diana.

We're going to lose our magnificence.

We're going to lose all of the influence that we have with the people around us and all the people that come in and when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath.

And so this causes them anger.

This is verse 28 and cried out saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians.

So what?

Basically, if you didn't catch what happens here, Demetrius uses the excuse that maybe someone has used with you.

Well, everyone's doing this.

Everyone in Asia is worshiping Diana.

Why do we want to go off of that?

And we got to be very careful with that theology out there, right?

Because that is a type of theology.

Everyone's doing it, so it must be right.

Hey, if, if these people over here are doing it and these people over here are doing it, hey, I don't really know what the Bible says about it, but I'm sure we're okay.

The truth is there's going to be some times as Christians that we have to go against the grain.

Sometimes the majority is not right when it comes to the idea of what we are to believe and how we are to practice things.

And so Demetrius says, hey everybody, everyone's doing this and, and he's appealing to their fleshly desires.

And so ultimately they get upset.

Ultimately they begin to chant this chant.

Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

And so what, what comes through this?

Well, let's see what happens.

And it says, and the whole city was filled with confusion.

When, when Satan is at work, confusion reigns.

We know that God is not the author of confusion.

So.

So God is a God of clarity.

God is a God of purpose.

God is a God of order.

When Satan is at work, it's chaos and confusion.

And that's what we see happening here in Ephesus.

As these doctrines of Satan come out into the midst of the Ephesians, it causes confusion.

And it says here, in having caught Gaius and aristocracy, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions and travel, they rushed with one accord into the theater.

So, so they're in this public arena and there's these chants going on.

And it says, and when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not.

They did not allow him to go.

They said, paul, you can't go in there.

And a certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he would not adventure himself into the theater.

Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused and more part knew not wherefore they were come together.

So some people are there chanting and yelling, and they don't even know why they're there.

That's.

That's kind of how it goes.

The, the way that Satan works is the mob mentality.

You get some people going and that's how it keeps going.

And so there's.

There's no clarity.

It's all about just the mob mentality.

And then what happens is this, and this is really interesting.

And they drew Alexander out of the multitude and the Jews, putting him forward.

And Alexander beckoned with his hand and would have made his defense unto the people.

But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours, cried out, great is Diana of the Ephesians.

So there's this guy named Alexander who is Jewish.

And basically he comes out to say, hey, Paul doesn't speak for us.

Paul is a different thing than what we are.

And they basically just hear that he's a Jew and liken him to Paul.

And they, it says here they, they cried out with one voice in the space of two hours, greatest Diana of the Ephesians.

Now this doesn't make sense to you.

You know, some of you have gone to a stadium and heard them chant, you know, go eagles or whatever.

And, and that's exactly what's happening here.

They're chanting this Chant great is Diana of the Ephesians over and over again for two hours.

Now, this is interesting.

This is.

This is interesting.

Why are they doing this?

Well, they're doing this to try to change the narrative.

This.

This repeated chant, it probably was really chilling to hear for the Christians, but it was there for two hours and.

And think of how this is sounding to the Christians.

Basically, we are opposing you, and we're willing to say this for two hours and think about how much of a waste this was.

And I think that's sometimes what the world is trying to do.

The world is trying to get us as a culture to chant things that don't mean anything for a long time, like to get ourselves so entranced with the things of this world that we get distracted from what really matters.

And that's exactly what was happening here.

They were chanting.

They were.

They were so distracted.

And for us, it's not chanting great as Diana of the Ephesians.

But there are some things in our life that we can do that can cause us to be so distracted from the truth that we've allowed ourselves to tell.

Have culture tell us what to believe and what to celebrate.

And I would tell you, as a church, we have to be so careful about what we celebrate, because it might sound good, it might sound attractive, it might be what everybody is saying, but we have to stand on guard and say, no, that is not in accordance to what God tells us to believe.

No, that is not what's in the word of God.

And for.

For us in our culture today, it's this.

You know, and.

And I don't want to be careful about picking out specific things, but, you know, watch this on the Internet.

It's okay.

Everyone does it.

Okay?

Entertain yourself with this.

Everyone does it.

Treat this person this way because everyone does it.

Be dishonest with this person because everyone does it.

And over and over again, we hear from culture that it's okay.

Why?

Because they can justify it through means of, hey, it's benefiting you.

You are the centerpiece of this.

And that's been the lie from the very beginning.

The lie from the very beginning is that you are God.

That's humanism.

You are God.

Do what's best for you.

And that's what we see here in Ephesus.

They don't love Diana, by the way.

They don't look at Diana as someone who is.

Maybe some of them were deceived, but I think a lot of these people remember back.

Why is Demetrius upset?

It's not because Diane is being Blasphemed.

Demetrius is upset because he's losing money, he's losing his way of getting the income.

So it's all about him.

So Demetrius is upset just because it's not good for him.

And so what does he have to do?

He has to try to get everyone else on board.

And so it's not a matter of them being so upset with the religion of Paul.

It's more about the idea that this Christian way is all about dying to self and not lifting up them themselves as God.

And so instead of chanting out great is the Lord God, Jesus Christ, they're chanting this total opposite thing.

And you know, I think in our culture today, you know, every, every, you know, we have freedom of speech.

And so everyone wants to, you know, say that, oh, you can say anything you want in America and everyone's okay with that.

The truth is, is that you start talking about Jesus.

Try getting on live television and talk about Jesus and the gospel, they start getting very uncomfortable with that.

You know, everything else is, is totally fine.

Everyone just embraces it.

And, you know, that's wonderful.

That's your truth.

And we're going to embrace that.

You start talking about our truth as Christians, which is the truth.

The way problem comes is that a lot of people get upset.

Now why is that the case?

Because that is the one truth that contradicts the lies of this world.

And we're preaching something different.

We're biblical Christians.

We are preaching something different.

It's not about self, it's about him.

It's not about our ways, it's about his ways.

It's not about the almighty dollar.

It's about ultimately God's economy.

And God's economy is much different than the economy of this world.

And so he goes on to say more here.

He says, but let's look at verse number 35.

And when the town clerk had appeased the people, he said, ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how, that the city of Ephesus is a worshiper of the great goddess Diana, of the image which fell down from Jupiter?

Seeing then that these cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet and to do nothing rashly.

So this guy, he's like the town mayor, basically, he comes out and says, hey, you know, don't be so rash about this.

Don't be so violent about this.

You know what, you should just be quiet because Paul is not preaching against Diana.

He's preaching the truth of, of Jesus.

For, for ye have brought hither these men which are neither robbers of churches nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.

He says, paul has not blasphemed, Diana.

Paul has not done anything wrong to you.

You're just upset because these people are different than you.

That's what he's saying here.

So he says, wherefore if Demetrius and the craftsmen which are with him have a matter against any man, the law is open.

He says, bring it before the law, bring it as a legal thing.

And there are deputies that can deal with this.

Let them and plead one another, but if ye inquire anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly.

So he basically says, hey, instead of making this a mob, instead of being chaotic about this, instead of being vigilantes, that's going to basically kill all these Christians, how about you just go and make it all a legal process?

So it's amazing that this unbeliever brings some sanity to the situation, for we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar.

This gives us the reason why he's upset with their uproar.

He's not fighting for the cause of the gospel.

He says, if Rome finds out that we are chaotic like this, if you know anything about history, Rome would come in and with an iron fist and basically take care of business if there was any chaos, any mob mentality.

So he says, before we bring any attention to ourselves, we need to stop this.

Again, a very selfish way to.

To go about it, but it was helpful for the cause of Christianity.

Says there there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse.

And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.

He dismisses this fellowship and actually that word assembly, fellowship is the same word that we get our fellowship, koinonia.

And so this is an ungodly fellowship that that's coming together.

And by the way, we can have that in our society.

There can be ungodly fellowships.

And so in contrast to the church, which is a godly fellowship, this assembly of people who were stirred up with their fleshly desires and ultimately the message of the enemy was an assembly themselves.

And so this city clerk comes out, he basically says, hey, have some rationale, be careful, because Rome could come and wipe us out.

So let's be careful about how we fight against the enemy.

And this is God using this is God, I believe this is God using someone who's unsaved for the cause of the furtherance of the gospel.

And we see that actually happening quite frequently in scripture.

And so God is sovereign Enough God is powerful enough not to allow this to stop his plans.

But what we can know that as Christians, we could be the same way.

We should be influencing our society just as those Christians did in Ephesus.

And so God worked mightily here in Ephesus, in revival.

But so was the enemy just as much as God was working in Ephesus.

So the enemy was fighting against the message of the gospel.

And just as much as the gospel is being worked out in our country today, in our world today.

So the enemy is at work.

And it's very clear if you study the book of Ephesians and if you study the book of Acts and see the stories there in Ephesus that there was spiritual warfare going on.

If you read the book of Ephesians, Paul writes about the armor of God, which is all about fighting against the enemy, fighting against the evil works of Satan.

And I would encourage you to read that Ephesians, chapter six.

Because the very same church that's founded here is the very same church that that book is, is written to.

And so anytime God is at work, Satan is going to try to thwart that.

Satan is going to try to fight against that.

And so Satan is at work in America, let's be honest.

I mean, all you got to do is look out there.

Satan is at work, but God is at work too.

And God is far more powerful than the enemy.

Therefore, as a church, we can be bold.

As Christians, we can be bold.

And, and I think that's one of the areas that, that we have failed in as a church for many years is that we're afraid to go into our society to try to impact our society, because, hey, society's too far gone.

But the Bible says very clearly that we are called to impact our society.

And naturally, and I would say supernaturally speaking, if we just live as Christians publicly, we will affect our society.

And the Bible says that the gospel message can be a stumbling block to people.

So Jesus is actually the stumbling block.

And what we can see in the case of preaching the gospel message is that some will believe and some will fight against that.

Some will be indifferent.

But that's not our job to figure it out.

Our job was not to say, well, you know what, everyone's just been indifferent to the gospel, so we're done preaching the gospel.

It's our job to preach the gospel even if nobody believes, because the Bible doesn't say, preach the gospel and make sure that everyone gets saved.

The Bible just tells us to preach the gospel.

We're not the ones that are bearing the fruit.

All we are doing is presenting the gospel to those around us.

And I believe that the gospel is powerful, and I believe that our culture can be changed.

And so this, this chapter here teaches us a very important lesson, that when there is true revival in the midst of the church, society will change.

It'll either change for the good towards the truth of the gospel, or it will fight harder against the gospel message.

But there will be some impact to Christians living boldly within their community.

And so I think that that's something for us to learn and say, you know, have I, in the way that I live my life, publicly display Christ so much to say that it has impacted my society?

And, and I would say that if you look through history and if you look through scripture, Christianity, for the most part, has benefited society over the years.

Now you will hear some arguments that, well, Christians have brought a lot of evil to the world.

There's been wars and there's been killings.

Yes.

People in the name of the institution of church, without having Christ in the mix have done that.

Yes.

But the truth is, is that anytime the gospel is present, anytime Jesus is the head, anytime there's a church that's following after his command of making disciples and, and, and training people to go out and make more disciples, anytime that's happening, there's been a positive impact on society.

And I think that we can do the same.

And I don't think America's too far gone.

I don't think this world is too far gone.

There's a lot of people that live defeatist mindsets.

And the concept of, well, you know what, the world is so evil already, so they're already going, and so let's just go ahead and focus on what we have right here.

I don't feel like that is what God would like us to do.

I don't think, according to scripture, that we should just give up and say, you know what?

Satan has won.

Evil is better than good.

We have to go back and say, you know what?

Even though it's dark, even though it's a struggle, even though that sometimes we're going to face opposition, we have to try to impact our society.

Now.

Sometimes we think about it in too big of a scale.

Sometimes we think, well, how can I impact this world?

Well, the way that you impact this world is by impacting those around you.

The way that you impact people for the gospel of Jesus Christ is by impacting those that you have influence with.

Okay, so where is the most natural place for me to preach the Gospel.

The easiest place for me to preach the gospel is literally in my home.

Okay?

So the way that I see it is that my wife and my children are my number one people, that I am to lead to Christ, that I am to show the truth of Jesus Christ.

Now I have the benefit of being a pastor of a church.

And so I have a little bit more of an extended sphere of influence and the concept that on Sunday mornings I have a captive audience for the most part.

Okay, they're here, they might not agree with what I'm saying, but I have an opportunity to preach the gospel to them.

But that doesn't mean that I'm the only person who is to do that.

The Bible actually says that all of us have a sphere of influence that we are to influence.

So I can't be in your home, but you're in your home.

So there's a gospel mission right there.

I don't go to the same places that you go every single day.

Some of you might have a place that you go every single day.

Maybe you have a routine, hey, that's your gospel message.

That's your mission.

That's your impact.

So impact your community.

Some of you have opportunities to maybe even interact with people in your community.

Maybe you know, a business owner or a politician or a teacher or a first responder.

You have an opportunity to impact people around you, your neighborhood.

And, and that's what we can see in the early church.

One of, we're looking at the Book of Acts, authentic church through scripture.

And one of the things that's very clear in the Book of Acts is that the church impacted people on a day to day basis.

It wasn't like a Sunday morning.

Okay, everyone, we're going to put out a really good product in Ephesus, okay?

We're going to get all the right music, we're going to make sure our houses are adorned just properly.

We're going to make sure the candlelight in the window is just perfect.

And we're going to put together the best entertainment we've ever had.

And people in Ephesus are going to come to Christ.

That wasn't the main way that people reach people for the cause of the gospel.

The main way that people reached people for the cause of the gospel was they lived out Jesus Christ in the marketplace.

They went to the temple, they went to the synagogue and appealed to people who were hungry for the gospel and said, hey, you know what?

You're looking for hope somewhere.

Paul used this as an example.

You guys are looking for the unknown.

God, I know the unknown God.

Come and know him in the truth.

And so it's a going.

And what has happened in our society today?

Why has this happened?

I don't know, other than the fact that it makes a lot of sense for a lot of people that we create a product and the product is, hey, we're going to have church.

And it's going to be this one day a week thing, and we are going to try to impact our world through church, the worship service itself.

But what's happened is this.

So much of this has become.

Well, we're going to try to fabricate a situation that looks like worship, that sounds like worship, that.

That smells like worship, that that feels like worship.

But really just doing this to bring people in and then we get them here, and then we.

We set our hooks in and we got the Christian hooks in.

I'm.

I'm not against having a very organized, powerful worship service, but if our outreach ministry is the worship service, we are missing the point because it's called a worship service.

Now, is the gospel presented on a worship service?

Yes, because that's why we're worshiping.

But if, if someone came up to our church and they said, what's your outreach ministry?

Well, we have a Sunday morning service at 10:30.

No, no, that's not the outreach ministry.

The outreach ministry must be just that, outreach.

We have in reach ministries, and we should have inreach ministries.

Right?

We should have ministries that fortify and encourage fellow believers here in our midst.

But there has to be.

There has to be a ministry that we go, how can we go reach our community for the gospel?

And just as we saw Paul and the Christians there in Ephesus impacting people for the good, people were changing.

People were getting rid of their idols.

So we can impact Middletown, Delaware, we can impact New Castle county, we can impact the state of Delaware.

You know what I mean?

I.

I transparently will sometimes look at our culture and say, wow, it's gotten so bad.

How could we make an impact?

I'm going to tell you, and I'm.

Some of you historians out there, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Delaware is as bad as Ephesus and Corinth yet.

Okay?

And you might say, well, it gets progressively worse.

I think, folks, it's cyclical.

If you look at ancient Rome, there was some pretty crazy debauchery that was going on back then, but there was enough power in the gospel to change people for the cause of the gospel.

And just the same power that changed people from Corinth and Ephesus to come to a place where they trusted in Jesus and they lived that life and saw others come to Christ is the same power that we use today for the cause of the gospel.

And so I encourage you to think about how you can impact your society by living and teaching and preaching and proclaiming the gospel to those around you.

Some might say, I can't preach a message.

I can't get up and talk.

That's okay.

That's not the only way to preach.

That's one way to preach.

There's other ways to preach, though.

There's other ways that we can impact people by living boldly for the cause of the gospel, by living differently.

And I would encourage you to take the messages that we have at Middletown Baptist Church and share that and proclaim that.

And, man, I love the creativity.

Put out stuff for the delivery people, right?

Find creative ways that you can impact people.

Because the Bible doesn't say, hey, you know what?

There's one way to get the gospel out.

The Bible gives us the gospel and gives us the freedom to proclaim the gospel in many different ways.

You know, we have social media, right?

And some people say that's the.

That's the problem with this world, social media.

I agree to many degrees.

Social media can be used for wrong things.

Internet can be used for wrong things.

But God has also given it to us so that we can use it and redeem it for the cause of the gospel.

That might not be you.

You might say, pastor, you don't want me anywhere near a social media account.

Okay, I understand that.

But God has given you your talents and your gifts and your opportunities to get your message out.

Because people that you can get the message out to might not listen to me, but because of your influence with them, you can get the gospel to them.

And so let's think about how we can impact our society.

Wouldn't it be great if, you know, if you drive around, there are different places that are propagating messages and actions that are completely against the gospel.

Wouldn't it be amazing that if there was a revival in our country that all those places would go out of business?

Wouldn't that be awesome?

Wouldn't it be awesome that all these places that are preaching and teaching the opposite of what Jesus preaches said, you know what?

No one's even showing up anymore because we have all these Christians who are living differently.

The problem is, is that instead of the church impacting the world around us, we've allowed the world around us to impact the church.

So much so that the people in the church are so comfortable with the things of this world that we don't even see anything needs to change.

And I'm not here to say that we have to live in a monastery and live away from culture, because that's not what these people did back at this time.

They lived in the marketplace.

They.

They walked by the temple of Diana.

They understood what was around them, but yet they still impacted people for the cause of the gospel.

So live differently, as First Peter, chapter three says, live in such a way that people will see a difference in you.

And they ask the reason that you have hope.

And you give them that answer.

And the answer is Jesus Christ.

The reason why I can be this way is because, Jesus Christ, the reason why I'm coming out of my way to bring you cookies and a letter is not because, you know what?

I just want you to make sure you take care of my house more than the other houses.

It's so that you can know that Jesus is the only way to salvation.

And that is the exciting thing that we have, is the Gospel message.

And so Paul and the other Christians there in Ephesus were impacting their society.

So can we.

We're going to continue on in the Book of Acts next week, and we're going to see Paul visits Macedonia and Greece, and we're going to see that there's an individual raised from the dead.

And there's going to be a lot of really interesting stuff happening here in the Book of Acts.

I hope that the Book of Acts has been an interesting study for you.

You know, more.

The more I read the Book of Acts, the more I see.

And again, by the way, the church at Acts didn't have it all right, by the way.

There were still problems with them.

They were still trying to figure things out.

But the more and more I read, this is what's interesting.

The more and more I read what the Bible has to say about church in the Book of Acts, in the pastoral, epistles, in all the New Testament.

The more you read about the church in the Bible, the more you see how far we have drifted as an American church when it comes to the things that God sees as important.

It's so shocking when you read what's in the Bible about the church, not what culture says about the church, not what tradition says about the church.

But the more you read the Bible, the more you see that we have drifted away from what matters.

And.

And so we have to get back to that.

So what does The Bible say about church.

And you know what?

For some people, they say church is not, church is not church unless I have this.

I understand that.

But if, if, if we are so caught up in the things of the Bible actually warns against being so caught up with man's traditions that we miss out on what the gospel has to say.

There are a lot of things that we do that are good.

Traditions are a good thing.

I love tradition.

Actually, my wife would argue that I'm too much of a person that's in tradition and having to do things the same way.

She's like, hey, you know, break out of that.

You don't have.

We don't have to do the same thing every year on the same day.

I'm a creature of habit.

So if anyone understands feeling comfortable with doing the same thing over and over again, I get that.

I like that.

That's my comfort zone.

I would like to do the same thing over and over every single day for the rest of my life.

But the truth is, is that I can't.

Because what happens is, is that if I put tradition before the gospel, well, I can't do that because that's not something that I've ever done before.

I have now put my tradition, which might be a good tradition, before what Jesus has called me to do.

And if Jesus calls me to change, I have to change.

I don't care if it's uncomfortable.

And the more I think as Christians we should feel, I think we should embrace being uncomfortable for the gospel, comfortable in Christ, but uncomfortable with how we profess ourselves to those around us.

And so be praying about that, be praying about how we as a church can do that.

And one of the things that I've been working through recently, and it's something that I wasn't planning on talking about tonight, but we have a minute or two, so I want to share this.

If you go back and read about the church and you go back to read about the body, we have made a mistake over the years by making a distinction between what people call laity laypeople and ministers, full time Christian workers.

And there's been this distinction that there's some big difference.

There are qualifications for pastors and deacons, but God did not intend for it to be that pastors and deacons are the ones doing all the work.

And, and everyone else just comes and says, okay, we're beneficiaries of that, or vice versa.

The Bible didn't say that pastors sit back and don't do anything.

And so what the Bible says Very clearly is that we are all parts of the body.

Recently people said, well, you know, as pastors are, this way they don't have to deal with the things in the real world.

I'm gonna speak for a pastor.

Some of the other pastors might vouch for me.

We still have to deal with all the things of the real world.

Real too.

Okay.

I, I thought when I became a pastor, all those temptations are just going to go away because I'm going to be living in a.

No, that doesn't happen.

So.

So as a pastor, I understand your struggle.

Now I don't.

I get the blessing of not having to go into a workplace and having to deal with all the things of this world.

But the truth is, is that if we see, well, that's pastor and he's different, or that's, that's the deacons and that's the church leadership.

And we're just, just.

I heard someone say a long time ago, I'm just a church member, folks.

There's no just a church member.

Every member is a minister.

Not every member is a pastor, but every member is a minister, a servant of Jesus Christ.

How did Paul introduce himself?

I'm a servant of Jesus Christ.

That's what we are.

That's we all servants of Jesus Christ.

And so the moment we start to make distinctions that this ministry over here is more important or this ministry over here is less important, that's the point where we start losing sight of what really matters.

Because what has happened is it's become institutionalized.

What's the pastor gonna bring us this week?

What's what.

What product is this church putting forward?

And, and I get that, I understand that.

But if we are looking at it from the perspective of the early church, you know, where the early church used to meet, where do they meet their houses.

Okay, so I'm not saying that we're gonna go back to that, okay?

Because we couldn't fit all of you guys in our house.

And you probably don't wanna go to our house either for church.

That would be weird.

But.

But there wasn't an expectation of grandeur.

The grandeur was not found in the building that they were meeting in.

The grandeur was found in who they were worshiping in Christ.

And so if we get our eyes off of that, we get our eyes off of the true message of the church.

And so I will digress in that area, but I will say this.

The more I've been studying the book of Acts, the more challenged I am to allow ourselves as a church to get to a place where we can be that way.

And so the more the church is a 24, 7, 365 life.

I mentioned this morning, we are an organism, not an institution.

Okay?

We are living, breathing.

We have a purpose and that each one of you are valuable in that peace that God has instilled into our lives.

And so I'm thankful for this church.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to serve here.

I'm thankful for the willingness of people to see the message of the need for the gospel.

And I'm excited to see what God's going to do in Middletown.

And the beauty is that there's other churches doing the same thing.

And we're going to have opportunities to impact Middletown.

We're going to have opportunities to impact Maryland.

We're going to have opportunities to impact New Jersey.

Who knows?

We're going to have in the future have impact all over the world.

Maybe Middletown Baptist Church will send out a missionary that goes to a foreign land and we can support them and we can, we can plant a church in another continent and we can see God's work happening.

So, so let's think about it that way.

Let's, let's, let's be entrepreneurial with the gospel.

Like, I know we want to be business minded when it comes to the church.

And we've been, there's, there's importance to that.

We do things decently in an order, but I think we should take that even to the gospel.

How can we be creative in the gospel?

How can we see something started?

How can we see something growing?

How can we see more people hear the truth of Jesus Christ?

And so that's, that's our goal here for the church.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You, you could also email me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.

Com.

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Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.