Acts 18:24-19:41 - Godoy

Peace be with you, friends. It's a good morning to be together. Are we feeling a little tired and dreary?! It's raining and dark and...! Wow! Okay.

But we have a long passage. Thank you, Deacon Eric Saul, for reading our very long passage today. This is a weird and wild passage. So, buckle up.

We're preaching through the book of Acts. We're into chapter 18, the end of chapter 18, all of chapter 19. This is a long passage united by its narrative setting, the city of Ephesus, during Paul's third missionary journey.

And I was thinking this could be the next Netflix miniseries. Got a rising gospel influencer, rioting contractors, would-be heretics, book burnings, exorcisms gone bad, streakers in the street.

It's wild stuff. In only 35 minutes, we need God's help. Let's pray once more as we come to this text. Father, we do need your help. It's a dreary and tired day, but your word is open before us, and we pray that our ears would be open, and that we would listen to you speak.

May your word increase and prevail. We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen. Every week, we practice a stunning declaration.

We just did it a moment ago. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. The declaration that grows sweeter to me every time that we say it, and I hope also for you, it's training us to love what is precious and unshakable in this world, the word of the Lord, the very gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In contrast to that declaration, you might have heard of a phrase that captures, I think, some of the anxieties of the present moment. The phrase I'm thinking of is AI slop.

Have you heard of AI slop? AI slop is what you get when you ask ChatGPT to draft a complicated technical email to your boss or to draft a sales presentation in PowerPoint.

These mathematical models perform millions of matrix multiplications. It's just math, and they spit out hundreds of words, sound and fury, often signifying nothing.

Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of cheap, vapid words. Maybe you feel the same way. For Luke's original readers of the book of Acts, they may have had a similar anxiety about words.

The apostles who walked and talked with Jesus are dwindling in number as they die or imprisoned, persecution cropping up for the early church, and a believer might wonder, how will God's word prevail?

How will God's word increase? For us today, we might wonder, how will God's word prevail in a world of AI slop or even genuine hostility to the gospel?

The book of Acts is a book of assurance that God's word stands forever. This has been a theme throughout the book up till now, that God's word increases, it prevails mightily through human activity, and even in spite of human opposition.

Look at verse 20 in our text in chapter 19. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. Let me offer that as a theological handhold as we prepare for a weird and wild ride through Acts chapter 19.

Okay, last Sunday night at college gathering at our house, the college students rose up in riot and asked that I would please give some clear order and structure to this sermon.

Because if you were here four weeks ago, you might remember in Acts chapter 16, I declined to do that for fussy interpretive reasons. I'm sorry about that. So let me invite you back into the world of order and structure and give you a clear idea of where we're going.

Here's the organizing declaration for this morning. Be assured God's word prevails. You can write that at the top of your notebook if you'd like. Be assured God's word prevails.

And then we're going to take a ride through this passage and along the way, I want to pull out four assurances, four points. Here they are. Number one, God's word prevails through bold proclamation.

Number two, God's word prevails through tireless teaching. Number three, God's word prevails. Are you sensing a theme?

God's word prevails over spiritual hostility. And number four, though the nations rage, God's word prevails.

So that's where we're going. But before we get to point one, let's do a little recap and scene setting. You'll remember from last week, the apostle Paul was in the city of Corinth doing ministry there for two years, which was a remarkable event for our apostle, our traveling missionary.

He settled for two years in the city of Corinth, which was something new for him. But after that long season of ministry, he left Corinth with Priscilla and Aquila, sailing for Jerusalem.

But along the way, he stopped in this city in Ephesus. He preaches briefly in the synagogues. The Jewish community invites him to stay, but he says, sorry guys, I've got to go. I've got all this hair burning a hole in my pocket.

You remember the hair from last week, fulfilling a vow. So got to go, got to get to Jerusalem, but I will come back. I will find you. I've had Daniel Day-Lewis running through my mind this week.

You know, last of the Mohicans, I will find you. No matter how long. Okay. Look it up. 1992, for those of you who weren't alive yet. Anyways, Paul leaves Ephesus.

He sails to Caesarea, then to Jerusalem, then to Antioch, then to the churches in Galatia and Phrygia, back in Asia, and then finally back to Ephesus. So a circuit, but it will take him several months, maybe almost over a year, to make that circuit back to Ephesus.

And so our passage, verse 24, begins during that year while Paul is traveling. And Luke is keeping the camera trained on the city of Ephesus in Paul's absence, which leaves room for the question, what will happen while he's gone?

Will God's word increase? Or is this whole gospel to the Gentiles thing just a house of cards built on a personality? Will God's word prevail? Especially in a place like Ephesus.

Okay, Ephesus was a prosperous port city on the shores of the Mediterranean in modern day Turkey. In Ephesus, there was a theater that stands to this day, actually, the Ephesian amphitheater.

Has anyone seen in person? Okay, a few of you have been there. Is it an amazing structure? Seats 25,000 people. There in Ephesus, this amazing theater, a little bit further inland, not still standing, was the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

A marvelous, massive structure to this Greek fertility goddess, Artemis. A temple to Artemis stood on that site for a thousand years.

It was the centerpiece of Ephesian civic life and pride, maybe like the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. today. In the fourth century, that temple, sorry, the fourth century B.C. actually, 400 years before the events of Acts, that temple suffered a very destructive fire.

And it is said that Alexander the Great wrote a letter to the inhabitants of Ephesus and offered to help them rebuild the temple, offered to financial support. And the citizens of Ephesus fired back a letter saying, hey, Alex, it'd be kind of weird if a god like you financially supported another god like Artemis, which was a very diplomatic way of telling Alexander the Great, back off.

She's our goddess. She's ours. Stay away. Very possessive of their Greek fertility goddess. The Artemis cult was synonymous with Greek Ephesian civic life and pride.

And it's into that city that the gospel arrives, calling all people to turn from their idols and turn to the one true God. How will that message prevail in Paul's absence?

And so we enter our text, point number one, assurance number one, God's word prevails. Through bold proclamation. Apollos arrives in Ephesus.

He begins preaching an accurate but incomplete version of the gospel. Priscilla and Aquila pull him aside to instruct him. And then he goes on boldly and now more accurately and completely proclaiming the gospel in Ephesus and in Corinth.

Corinth. There's so much we want to know about this. Apollos has to be up there with Melchizedek and Balaam and some of these characters of the Bible who leave us with more questions than answers.

What exactly was he teaching? How could it be accurate but incomplete? What does that mean? Is Apollos the undisclosed author of the book of Hebrews as Martin Luther thought? What happened in Corinth a little bit later that would cause some of the believers to say, I follow Paul.

I follow Apollos said others. So much we don't know. Christians have been working on these questions for thousands of years and will continue to do so. But for now, two observations for us from this brief story.

Number one, Priscilla and Aquila graciously instruct Apollos and he graciously receives their correction. Okay, when Luke says that Apollos is from Alexandria, that's like saying he grew up in Oxford.

Or I don't know, in Wheaton. Okay. Alexandria was one of the two or three intellectual powerhouses in the ancient Mediterranean world. They had a library in Alexandria that aspired to hold a copy of every text ever written.

The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, was produced in Alexandria. Philo of Alexandria, if you've heard of him, was from Alexandria. When Luke says Apollo is from Alexandria, he's indicating that he comes with skill and training and the pedigree of the bright center of the intellectual world.

He's an impressive person. But his proclamation is somehow incomplete. He only knows the baptism of John. Whatever it is that he's preaching, it's not the fullness of Christ, which means it's not the fullness of the gospel.

And Priscilla and Aquila won't settle for that. So they pull him aside. Now Priscilla and Aquila are not from Alexandria. They are from, well, Aquila is from Pontus, which is basically nowhere.

Like, I don't know, Kankakee. Is anyone from Kankakee? Oh, really? I would have picked a different place.

I wasn't trying to make a point there, Tad. So pick your city. It's the middle of nowhere. God in his providence places these two tent makers from nowhere in this city for such a time as this.

And what they do takes grace, humility, patience. They take him aside. They explain to him the way of God more accurately. That takes incredible humility and maturity.

And it's a model for us believers. If you need to pull someone aside and explain to them the way of God more accurately, this is the way to do it. Not a fiery email. Not a social media post.

Not a public broadside. But gently. More honey than vinegar, as they say. Pulled aside.

So that the gospel may be proclaimed more boldly and accurately and God's word may prevail. Now, I'll just briefly mention, as many commentators have done through the years, that Priscilla is a woman.

And Priscilla and Aquila give doctrinal instruction to this preacher, Apollos. And Luke affirms that and celebrates that. Paul, throughout his letters, mentions Priscilla and Aquila as co-laborers in the ministry of the word.

And so we want to affirm that. Here at Holy Covenant Church, we say in our documents that we desire the full participation of biblically qualified men and women throughout the ministries of the church, with exceptions for the office of elder and preaching.

So, ladies of Holy Covenant Church, there is wide scope for word ministry in this church. Be encouraged by this example of Priscilla. Okay, observation number two from this little section.

Apollos is an elite public speaker. And the church is greatly helped by him. Notice how Luke gushes about his eloquence.

He's an eloquent man, competent. He's fervent in spirit. He speaks boldly. He powerfully refutes the Jews in public. Apollos, I think, is one of the great preachers of Christian history.

Right there with, I don't know, John Chrysostom and George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon. Apollos is one of these.

Apollos is one of those rare speakers who opens his mouth and a hush falls on the audience. Even the squirming children freeze in their seats.

Not many people have this thing. Paul, I think, didn't have it. Most preachers I know don't have it. Apollos did. And God uses that gift as an instrument for his will.

See verse 28. He powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus, the very heart of the gospel. That's the effect of this powerful preaching.

There's a role for singularly gifted communicators in the ministry of the word, in the church. Here at Holy Covenant Church, we are, I would say, structurally inclined against cults of personality.

Okay, team preaching is exactly not the way to build a platform for a singularly gifted public speaker. And maybe that leaves us a little bit suspicious about these gifted orators to whom people come by hundreds to hear the gospel proclaimed.

And I just want to say, let's celebrate with Luke the giftings of powerful proclamation of the gospel. Yeah, let's be guarded up against cults of personality, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians.

But let's pray that the believers in this day would be greatly helped through the powerful proclamation of the gospel. Let's pray that God would raise up more like Apollos in our day, so that God's word may prevail.

Move on in our passage, point number two, assurance number two, that God's word prevails through tireless teaching. This is verses 1 through 10 of chapter 19.

Apollos ships off for Corinth. Paul arrives in Ephesus, and he comes across some disciples, 12 of them, who again have some defect in their understanding of the gospel. We don't understand exactly what it is.

We can only infer. They don't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In fact, they haven't even heard of him. They haven't received Christian baptism. They evidently weren't there on the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached the full gospel.

Are they Christians at all? Commentators have wondered. I think no. They have a sub-Christian Christianity. Something less than the whole gospel. And again, Paul won't settle for this.

So we find him doing what he always does, teaching and teaching, so that God's word may prevail. We get a sketch in verse 4 of what it was that he was teaching. He's saying John was maybe the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, but only a pointer to the one who fulfills all the law and the prophets.

We can imagine he has much more to teach them. About Jesus, the son of David, the offspring of Abraham, about his crucifixion at the hands of those he came to save, about his victory over sin and death and the devil, and his resurrection and the forgiveness of sins and the sending of the Holy Spirit and the inclusion of the nations and the hope for that day of his return.

And as Paul teaches and teaches, the gospel, the full gospel begins to shine like the sun compared to the feeble candle of what they previously knew.

And they believe and are baptized and the Holy Spirit comes on them. Listen, without sound teaching of the full gospel, the church is like a boat adrift at sea.

That's what Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians, tossed to and fro by the waves. But Paul says, That's what we want.

And so church, let us never settle for a sub-Christian Christianity, but let us be committed to teaching the whole gospel so that God's word may prevail. In verse 8 next, Paul enters the synagogue for three months.

He's speaking there until they kick him out. And then he rents the local lecture hall and begins teaching there for two years. Teaching and teaching and teaching. It's the same pattern we saw in Corinth.

He begins to settle down for ministry in a way he hadn't done up to that point. What Luke describes in one verse, in verse 10, we begin to understand is a sweet period for Paul of persistent, faithful ministry in the gospel.

It's during this time that he writes the letter we call 1 Corinthians. And he tells the Corinthian church, I want to come to you, but I'm going to stay in Ephesus for now because there's a wide door for effective work that's open to me.

This work. Teaching. Teaching. Some scholars think, and I find it compelling, that Paul was in prison during this time and that during that prison stay, these two years, he wrote the prison letters.

Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians. And shortly after his prison release, he wrote 2 Corinthians. And one year later, Romans. This is an incredible literary output in a short period of time.

Paul is teaching and teaching. Eventually, Paul leaves Ephesus to collect money for the Jerusalem church. And on his way back, he'll swing past a beach near Ephesus and summon the elders.

This is in our text next week. And he'll tell the elders that during these two years, he did not shrink from declaring to them the whole counsel of God, the full gospel, teaching and teaching.

I remember our launch service of this church on May 22nd, 2022. Some of you were there. And Tad preached our opening sermon, our inaugural sermon from Luke chapter 1, the Benedictus, the song of Zechariah, from which we draw the name of this church.

And Tad, I remember in that sermon, challenged every preacher who will come into the pulpit of this church that we never stray from proclaiming what Zechariah sings about, the knowledge of salvation, the forgiveness of sins.

And I look back over four and a half years of ministry and I rejoice that we have not only been faithful to that challenge, but I think have grown in it as a church and as preachers.

And it's a challenge that I'll renew this morning, that every preacher today, my fellow pastors, and in the future, those who will come alongside or after us, that we never stray from preaching the whole gospel of Christ so that God's word may prevail.

All right, assurance number three. This is verses 11 through 20. God's word prevails amid spiritual hostility. And there is so much going on in this little part that we're just gonna anchor ourselves around the handkerchiefs, the exorcists, and the book burnings, okay?

So first, the handkerchiefs. Paul evidently would sneeze into a handkerchief or wipe his dirty hands on an apron and people would take these pieces of cloth and carry them away to the sick and the demon-possessed and they would be healed and freed.

And this is weird. In fact, Luke agrees. You see, in verse one, God was doing extraordinary miracles. All miracles are extraordinary. That's kind of the thing.

They're not ordinary. And Luke wants to say, no, but these were really extraordinary. This was really weird. What do we do with the handkerchiefs? A couple of things, I think.

Number one, notice that what happens here sounds like the life of Jesus in his ministry on earth. The sick, you remember, would long just to get near him and touch the hem of his robe so that they might be healed.

It sounds just like that, which I think is a way of understanding that what's happening here is the same spirit at work here in Ephesus, the spirit of Christ. It's not some magical power of these cloths, but the Holy Spirit is working here in Ephesus, just as he did then in the life of Jesus.

And second, whenever we see these sorts of miracles in the New Testament, healings and demons being cast out, we need to understand them not only as a mercy on those who receive those miracles, but as theological signposts pointing to the new creation.

It's like that coming kingdom of heaven that is not yet here is already breaking in to this reality. The coming new creation is like bubbling beneath the surface as Paul goes through Ephesus teaching and teaching.

God's word is prevailing. And people are taking notice, including the exorcists. So let's talk about the exorcists. Things are getting even weirder. And I can't narrate this part better than Luke, so I'm just going to read it and make some comments as we go.

Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists, okay, I think these are probably con artists casting out demons for money. Some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.

Okay, if you're an itinerant con artist, you know a valuable brand name when you see one. And they're grabbing onto that. So seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Siva were doing this.

Okay, we have no historical record of a Jewish high priest named Siva. I think this is part of the fraud. And the evil spirits answered them, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I recognize, but who are you?

And the man in whom was the evil spirit leapt on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. Okay, I think this story was an instant hit among the Ephesian middle school crowd.

Like, bro, it was seven on one and they went out naked, bro. The story gets around town fast. And when the laughter dies down, the fear of the Lord sets in.

Because even the demons know the power of the name of Jesus and his servant Paul. Because when you finally realize that the evil is real, you run to the Savior.

And so the repenting begins. First privately, confessing and divulging their practices. Then publicly, disowning their idols and their magic books and arts and God's word is prevailing.

And then the book burnings begin. Verse 19, a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all and it turns out these were very, very valuable books. 50,000 pieces of silver.

And book burnings are a complicated thing, so let's talk about book burnings for a minute. I think most people these days still read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 at some point in their educational journey.

Am I right? Are people still reading that? Hasn't been banned yet, has it? That would be ironic. Fahrenheit 451 is said to be the temperature at which paper spontaneously ignites.

And the evil oppression of book burning is the central conflict in this Ray Bradbury novel. And we learn that books are good and burning them is bad.

Right? Right. Right? Book burning smells like censorship and anti-intellectualism.

Right? And surely the Bible isn't commanding us to burn books. Right? Right. Right. But what if there are man-made things that hold power over people, even spiritual power that enslaves them?

That's how these Ephesian believers understood their magic books. And they took them to the streets to burn them. And they are not alone in history. You all remember what happened in 1497 in the Italian city of Florence, right?

1497 in Florence. Only one person seems to be nodding here. Oh, a few. Okay. In 1497 in the Italian city of Florence, a fiery preacher named Savonarola, who was preaching some of the same things that one Martin Luther would preach 20 years later.

Savonarola collected the things from the local residents of Florence that would lead them away from God. Their cosmetics and mirrors and artwork and books.

And he collected them into the public square and set them there and set them ablaze. A public act of confession and repentance. Now, ironically, the Pope excommunicated Savonarola and burned him in that same place one year later.

And the Reformation would have to wait another 20 years. But that book burning, the bonfire of vanities, as it is called, stands as a symbol of public confession and repentance in Florence, just like this day in Ephesus.

Look, at the end of the day, the book burning in Ephesus is not mainly about burning books. It's about radical confession that Jesus is Lord and the evil spirits are not.

It's about radical repentance from the things that hold people captive to the spiritual forces. in our lives. So we might ask, is there a time and place for this kind of radical confession and repentance in our lives?

If our conflict is not flesh and blood but spiritual forces of evil, what things need to go? Do you have books on your bookshelf that would be better off in a bonfire?

Or maybe in the recycle bin, that would be fine. Are there apps on your phone that would be better off in the digital abyss? Are there circles of friends leading you away from the Lord?

These are not easy questions. There are not easy answers to these things. May the Holy Spirit convict and guide us as we read this text and may the name of the Lord Jesus be extolled in our lives.

By the way, I've heard that the HCC women are getting together for a bonfire this Saturday at my house. So ladies, bring your vanities. Whatever those may be.

Okay, verse 20 concludes this section and it brings us back to our central declaration. The word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily, even over spiritual hostility.

Okay, assurance number four, the last section of our passage, very long passage, though the nation's rage, God's word prevails. Verses 21 through 41. This is one of Luke's exquisite set piece narratives.

What begins as a financial grievance from a disenfranchised silversmith explodes into an epic political rally in a spiritual register.

An onslaught of words from the enraged mob of Artemis. And against human expectations, it is God's word left standing, not the cries of the mobs.

Let's just briefly unpack this final story through the three scenes, the speech of Demetrius, the mob chaos, and the clerk's speech. So first, Demetrius.

Demetrius is a silversmith. If you want your own silver Artemis shrine in your home in first century Ephesus, Demetrius is your guy. He is the premier Artemis shrine contractor.

I got it into my head yesterday that Demetrius is the pagan version of our own pastor, Tad Williams, who if you did not know has become the premier church building contractor in the Wheaton area.

I hope you're okay with me saying that, Tad. Demetrius is the premier Artemis shrine contractor. And he brings a lot of business to his subcontractors. Look at verse 24. He brought no little business to the craftsmen.

So in my vivid imagination, I imagine Tad summoning a meeting in front of the center of American evangelicalism, the Billy Graham Hall down the street.

And he summons his subcontractors, his electricians, and painters, and roofers, and they invite their friends, and they invite their friends, and all the tradesmen in DuPage County turn out for this little rally in front of Billy Graham Hall.

And Tad ascends the steps in front of that great building and says, Friends, I fear that church attendance is going to dry up because of all the AI slop. And our business, you know, depends on all this church building that I do.

And it's not just our livelihoods at stake, but this great institution of American evangelicalism stands to fall into disrepute, and the sky is falling. Oh my. And this is what Demetrius is doing in Ephesus.

Except unlike Tad in my crazy imagination, Demetrius is not exactly wrong. Because the victory of Christ truly does signify the end of the cult of Artemis.

Because the victory of Christ really does challenge human civil religion, the objects of human worship in every human culture, yeah, even in our culture.

And these Ephesian tradesmen can't abide the victory of Christ. And so, Demetrius' speech turns into mob chaos, verses 28 through 34. Luke just wants to highlight the chaos of the scene.

They're enraged and rushing and crying out, confused and frenzied and dragging people around. And Paul wants to get up, but they're pulling him back. And somebody pushes Alexander into the center. We really don't know who he is.

And then they pull him back. And I love the line toward the middle of the passage. And most of them did not know why they were there. Just brilliant storytelling. But if there's one thing everybody in Ephesus can agree on, it's a slogan.

I think it starts with Demetrius and the tradesmen in one corner of this great 25,000-person theater. Mega le he Artemis aphesion. Mega le he Artemis aphesion.

It doesn't have the same ring in English. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians, guys. She's great. For two hours, the whole crowd chanting mega le he Artemis aphesion.

Can you imagine how intimidating that might be? Paul wants to get up and speak. He's a little bit crazy, I think. Luke, I think, intends an echo of that day in Jerusalem when another mob found one thing they could agree on.

Crucify him. Crucify him. And Luke, I think, intends an echo or a preview of another day in Jerusalem a few chapters from now when the mob will drag Paul from the temple and say, away with him, away with him.

How will God's word prevail when the nations rage, when the mob shouts down the word of the Lord? a nice tidy ending of this story would be the Apostle Paul getting up to preach the gospel to 25,000 people and they all come to faith.

But this day, I think, a greater thing happens because God uses as his instrument a pagan bureaucrat, the town clerk, who, whether he knows it or not, becomes the instrument of God's will for the furtherance of the gospel.

The resolution of the conflict is the speech of the clerk, verses 35 through 40, one of the longest and most polished speeches by a pagan in the book of Luke. And it's a brilliant speech, a brilliant piece of rhetoric.

He wins over the mob very quickly. Yeah, Artemis is great. Nobody's arguing with that. And then he engages with their reason. Stop and think about this for a minute. And he offers resolution.

Take it to the courts. And he concludes with a bit of an incentive. Think about what you're doing because the last thing we need is more Roman troops. We don't want to be accused of rioting.

That's good leadership. That's good governance. And he doesn't know it, but that's the will of the Lord to allow the word of God to continue being proclaimed in Ephesus and all around Asia.

The mob disperses with a whimper. The apostolic mission goes on and God's word prevails. Now, before we leave this final scene, let's take a moment to apply what we see here to the anxieties of our current moment because what we're looking at is an overtly political moment in first century Ephesus where the gospel of the Lord collides with the political mob in this Greek city.

And I think it's fair to say that Christians of any political persuasion have some certain anxieties about politics, especially approaching the fall in an election year. Some Christians fear the MAGA mob and the way certain flavors of conservative politics steal the language and images of the gospel for political means.

And they do. And some Christians fear the woke mob and the way certain flavors of liberal politics creep into the preaching and witness of the church.

And they do. And I ask, as we see this collision of the gospel in first century Ephesus, do you think God's word will succumb to any political mob?

Need we fear that God's word will fail? this morning we have considered the sweet assurance that the word of the Lord continues to increase and prevail mightily.

Then in first century Ephesus and now today, that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Brothers and sisters, be assured God's word prevails.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.