The Book of Acts - Hype or Hope (Acts 19:21-41)

Hey, if you've got your Bibles, and I hope you do, Acts chapter 19, Acts 19. If you didn't bring a Bible, there's one in the seat back right in front of you. Reach out and grab it. If you don't own a Bible, that's yours. That's our gift to you. We're so glad you're here. If you're a guest with us, welcome. If the person that brought you and invited you, they wanna take you out to lunch today and pay for it and explain to you why they invited you today. So make them do that. If they don't, tell me, and I'll make them take you next time. All right, Acts 19. We're in week two of a four-week series. We're looking at the Church of Ephesus. Ephesus is a big deal. The Church of Ephesus is a really big deal. It gets planted in Acts chapter 19. It explodes. That's what we're gonna talk about today, the explosive growth of this church. It's got a book dedicated to it called Ephesians. The pastor of this church has two books dedicated to him called 1 and 2 Timothy, and one of the elders in the church, John, wrote four books of the Bible, 1, 2, 3 John, and the Gospel of John. So it's kind of a big deal.

And so that's what we're looking at for four weeks, and it's gonna be an amazing sermon, not really because of the part I do, but really because of the part you're gonna play in the sermon. Jesus teaches us in the parable of the sower that it's the condition of the soil, not the delivery of the seed, that determines growth. And many of us have been fasting and praying in anticipation of what God's gonna do and saturated. And so I know as we've been seeking out through the face of God in prayer and fasting, then you are ready to hear better. Your heart is even softer than normal. So at the end, when you think, God bless you, Carrie, at the end, when you think, wow, what an amazing sermon, really what it is is what God has been doing in here through you, and that's what that's all about. So Acts chapter 19, beginning in verse 21. Now after these events, now these events were awesome. You should have been here last week. There was violence, there was nudity, there was an MMA fight, dude got his pants beat off. You'll have to listen to it on podcast. Now after these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and to go to Jerusalem saying, after I've been there, I must also see Rome. So from this point on, for the next several chapters, we're gonna watch Paul set his heart and really his spirit

by the power of the Holy Spirit on going to Jerusalem and Rome, two major centers for the expanse of the gospel into the world. In fact, Rome is a totally pagan society at this point, and within 100 years, the majority of its citizens will surrender their life to Jesus. In fact, 300 years from this point, Christianity will be the national religion of all of Rome. So don't ever think one man can't make a big impact on a city, Paul does in Jerusalem and Rome. Verse 22, and having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. One of the things that we've seen in Paul's life is he wasn't just about getting big crowds to show up. Now wherever he went, large crowds would show up, he would preach the gospel. At the end of the service, they would raise their hands, surrender their life to the lordship of Jesus. They would go to the Connect Center, they would get a surrender packet, they would go to the origins class, they did all of that. But it wasn't just about drawing big crowds, it was about making disciples. And at the Church of 1122, we wanna be committed to what Paul was committed to, which is the Great Commission and the Great Commission didn't just go, it's as you're on the go, make disciples. And so we wanna be a place that makes disciple,

making disciples, and that's what Paul does. So he's been raising up Timothy and Erastus so that when he leaves, then these guys can continue the disciple-making process. One of the things I'm excited about is this month, our pastor residency program started here at the Church of 1122. We have seven men, young men, in their 20s and 30s who have come here for two years. They've either quit their jobs or went part-time or made whatever lifestyle adjustments they must to be trained up to be pastors. They're pastors in residence. It's under Pastor Ryan Stone's leadership, and these guys, for two years, will be trained to be either, we'll either launch them as pastors of their own churches or they'll be campus pastors for the Church of 1122 or they'll be ministry area pastors. And just as I'm excited about the 4,000-plus people that will be here at all of our services this weekend, I'm just as excited about the seven young men that are being full-time vocational pastors, disciple-making disciples, because we wanna be about disciple-making disciples. Now, it shifts gears, amen. One person's excited for you at residence. That's awesome. I would track that one down, by the way, at residence. Woo, a lot of ramen noodles in your future, my brothers. All right, here we go.

Verse 23, and about that time, there arose no little disturbance concerning the way. What we're gonna see in the next several verses is the impact of the gospel, this church at Ephesus that rises up, we're gonna see the impact of this gospel on this entire city. And so it says, there arose no little disturbance, in other words, a big disturbance. concerning the way. We've talked about this before in the book of Acts and all through the New Testament. The word Christianity is not used. The word Christian is only used a few times and it was outsiders calling insiders Christians. That followers of Jesus actually called themselves people of the way. They were quoting Jesus. He said, I am the way. And so when people would say, who are you with? You'd be like, I'm with this guy, I'm with the way. Now the whole thing that was John 14, six, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. That gets a little wordy so they shorten it to just the way. So that's what it was originally called. Now, the gospel's gonna begin to take root in Ephesus and you're gonna see the kind of impact it makes throughout the entire city. And what I need you to know is that Ephesus

was a major metropolitan city. It was a port city. There were thousands and thousands and thousands of people there. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world was in Ephesus right here. So people would come from all over the region to come tour Ephesus because it was on the sea. And not only that, they had this temple to Artemis so people would come in. It was like a tourist kind of trap. They had a stadium with over 20,000 people could fit in this stadium. I mean, this city, I need you to understand, it's a major city. So when the gospel impacts this entire city, this ain't Palatka. This ain't six people outside the Piggly Wiggly and people pull up and go, what's happening? Is this a movement? No, no, settle down. This is Ephesus. I mean, it's every bit, it's probably bigger and more important, but it would be like Jacksonville. It is a big, major city. There's a million people that live in our city, okay? This is a big, big deal. So here we go, verse 24. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis

brought no little business to the craftsmen. So Demetrius is an actual first century guy. Archeological digs have found a silversmith shop with the name Demetrius engraved in it. And this god at the temple, her name is Artemis, and she's the god of the moon, god of wild animals, and get this, she's the god of hunting. Praise God, all right? Not that God, my God. Hunting season opened yesterday. Who went deer hunting yesterday? Can I just see who's in the place? All right, I see that hand. Did you? Okay, all right. That's all? All right, that's what's wrong with you people. Okay, that's the problem. So I got all dressed up in my camo, descended, sat in a tree stand for 11 hours, saw nothing, got in the car, saw 43 deer on I-95 driving home. Okay, so that's how it happens. So Demetrius is a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen, verse 25. And these, the craftsmen, he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades, and he said, men, you know that from this business

we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded, literally in Greek, has seduced and turned away a great many people saying that gods made with hands are not gods. So Demetrius says, okay, time out. It's great that you guys have church and you can get together and sing your songs and put the fish on the back of your minivan and a couple of little fish behind it to represent your children, that's fine, and you guys can have your prayer meetings and I don't really care. But since Paul has been going around saying that there's only one true God and his name is Jesus and that we shouldn't worship any other gods other than one true God, then my idol business is in the toilet. And you can believe what you wanna believe, I don't care, but this is affecting my wallet now, so we've got to do something. So he gets all the silversmiths and all the craftsmen together and says, folks, this is a problem because what happens if the whole world finds out, or at least the people in our city, what if they found out that gods made with hands are not gods? Sounds kind of obvious, doesn't it?

Doesn't it seem kind of obvious that gods made by human hands can't be gods? Isaiah makes fun of idol makers in the Old Testament. Isaiah, basically he says, you know, it takes a real gift to figure out which end of the log is a god and which end you build a fire to cook your s'mores over. That takes a real gift to figure that out. He's basically making fun of idol makers. And I don't know if you realize this, but if you back away from an idol that's not your idol, it's easy to identify, hey, you're worshiping an idol. But if it's your idol, if you get real close to the idol, it's hard for you to begin to see that you may be worshiping an idol. And so what Demetrius and these other silversmiths would do is they would take silver and they would craft it into this little statue of Artemis, and then people would bow down to the little silver statue of Artemis. Now, that seems quite silly, doesn't it? Can you imagine that people used to actually worship and bow down to things made by human hands? Can you believe that people would actually do that? You see, we don't. bow down to little silver idols anymore, we get in them and drive them, right? Now, what I'm gonna do is start picking on some of the idols and here's what you'll be tempted to do. If it's your idol, if you start getting defensive,

it's the red flag that that may be an idol for you. And if you think, whew, I don't worship idols because he didn't mention mine, I just didn't mention yours, okay? So the ones I'm gonna pick on are gonna be the ones I don't struggle with either, okay? So, isn't that what we do at church? So, some of you do, you worship a car, you worship a sports car. It's the silliest thing I've ever seen. And here's the thing, do you realize you can't even see what you look like in it? It doesn't matter what it looks like, you can't even see you. And I've got really bad news for you, okay? If you drive an awesome car, God bless you, but listen, it's a lose-lose proposition because here are the options. If you're a young man driving a sports car and you look awesome in it, everybody knows you can't afford it and you're driving your mom's car, so you're kind of a tool, all right? It's just nobody pulls up to a 19-year-old in a Porsche and goes, that must be an industrious young man. No, no, no. And if you do work hard and by the time you can afford it, you're too old to drive it anyway and everybody feels sorry for you a little bit and they're like, aw, look at him.

That poor fella. He doesn't know he's gonna die too, does he? Oh man, it's really a shame. Now here's the thing with idols. Is a sports car an idol? I don't know, it could be. Could be. Or it could be that thing that stirs in you affections for Jesus. I don't know, maybe you just do work hard and maybe you do tithe and give offerings and support the Restore Project and sponsor Compassion Kids and with the leftovers, you were like, hey, I'm gonna buy a sports car and you drive around in it and it stirs in you some affection for Jesus. Okay, praise God. Or maybe it's become the most important thing in your life and it's an idol. You see, here's the thing about idols. We were all created to worship. John Calvin said, you and I are idol factories, that we were created to worship, that God made us to worship him and so we're always looking for something bigger than ourselves. Something will sit on the throne of our hearts and we were created to worship God and God alone and yet in our pursuit of us, we put other things on that throne

instead of the Almighty God. And so anytime we take the temporary things of this world and treat them as ultimate, it's idolatry and the crazy thing is, is that it's not like God doesn't want us to have cool stuff, that God is a good dad. He wants to give good gifts to his kids but when you begin to worship the temporary instead of the eternal, then it becomes idolatry. And so many times, those good gifts that the father gives his kids, we can actually set them on the throne of our heart and worship the gift instead of the giver of the gift. For instance, food. God has given us the gift of food and maybe I've been thinking about that more so lately because of the Daniel fast but man, I think about going to Three Forks, and getting a bone-in ribeye and ordering that thing medium rare. Why? Because I'm a follower of Jesus and if you cook it anything above medium rare, then you need to be disciplined by the church and discipled, okay? You need all of that. That's a different subject. But when they bring it to you and they sit it down and they say, be careful, sir, the plate is hot

and you have to touch it and go, ow. Yep, you're right, it's hot. And then you dig into that bone-in ribeye and when you eat it, what is supposed to happen when you do things the way God created you to do, it should stir in you worship. And worship does not terminate on the ribeye but it flows up into worshiping the God, the good God that gave us the gift of the ribeye, amen? That's what it's supposed to do. Man, if we could get them to serve Angie sweet tea at Three Forks with a bone-in ribeye, son of a gun, all right, we'd be on to something. Another example is God has given us the gift of wine and when we drink good wine, I'm not talking about that junk from the box, I'm talking about good wine like a cab from Napa. All right, I went to Napa once, so I'm the expert now. All right, I think I've told you this, I told my daddy, daddy, I'm going to Napa. He said, what's wrong with your truck? No, that's not, it's going to, but God has given us the gift of wine and when you drink a good wine, you swirl it around like this, I learned this is what you do. When I got back from Napa, the following days, I'd be standing in my kitchen with a glass of milk just swirly. Gretchen's going, what are you doing?

I'm opening it up, what is this? Is that a skim or a 2%, I don't know. It should stir and you worship to the giver of the good wine but what happens, the enemy comes in there and twists that, it becomes an eye. idol, it becomes an idol so that you can't even have one, or you got to get your head under the faucet of it and begin to worship at it and it controls you instead of it stirring worship in you. Here, you really want me to blow you away about about who our God is? Is it God has given us the gift of sex? Do you realize that sex was God's idea? And God is pro-sex. In the confines of marriage between a husband and a wife till death do they part, it is a good gift from a good God. Do we serve a good God? Yes. Yes. I'm not exactly sure how it went, but God's in heaven speaking into existence everything and he gets to Adam and Eve, he makes man and woman, I mean he's spoken into existence, right? The dolphin and the waterfall and stars and the Sun and the moon and he goes, I have an idea. And I think an angel is like, is it another bird? No, it's much better than a bird. All right, this is awesome. And God gives us sex for procreation and recreation. Amen. Praise God. Think about this, God could have decided to make babies in any number of ways. Your toes could just all swell up one day and one of them pop off and be like, oh look, we have a, it's a boy. Well there you go. Right? But no. And then what begins to happen though is in our sex-saturated culture, we begin to worship the gift instead of the giver of the gift. And we begin to try to do things with it that we was not, it wasn't intended to do. And so like in our society, 30 years ago, everybody says the problem is we don't have enough sex. So the whole society goes, okay we'll do more of that. And that's why every Cosmo magazine is about technique, because it's still not fulfilling. And so it terminates on itself instead of experiencing what the Bible or what God intended as described in the Bible, when a husband loves his wife and they know one another. The Hebrew word is dode. It means mingling of souls. See, that's

different. In Song of Solomon, God says, he speaks one time in the book of Song of Solomon. He says, drink your fill, O lovers. In other words, enjoy. It's a good gift from a good dad, because he loves his kids. But you and I are idol factories. Tim Keller writes a book called Counterfeit Gods. It's a great book. And he says the big three American idols are money, sex, and power. So true. So true. Nobody ever says they're greedy. It's because they worship but they idol the money. Jesus said, no one can serve two masters. That money would be the number one competitor for your heart. But nobody thinks they're greedy. They say things like, I just like nice things. Who doesn't think they like nice things? And yet we worship. We make decisions. We think, if I can just buy that golf club, all things will be made whole. Really? You realize the problem with your golf game is not your clubs. It's you, golfer. All right? Now, is golf for you an idol? Honestly, I don't know. You might go out there with three friends and play golf and it stirs your affections for the Lord and you want to worship him. Or you might spend all of your time, effort, money, energy while your kids don't know you and your wife wants you to come home. It could be the idol. But that golf club that you think is gonna do something for you. Here's what idols always do. Idols promise what only our one true God can provide. Okay? So even if you do shoot a 59 and they talk about your own Sports Center, it won't be enough. You know what's gonna happen one day to those golf clubs that you just couldn't live without? Some other cat is gonna be playing with them. Because your kids won't want them because they're gonna invent the Gigantor Bertha where it just hits the ball for you and you just watch it. And they're gonna take your precious golf club and some dude is gonna just buy it at Goodwill. Or ladies, the clothes that you wear, for some of you it's an idol. Because I know, I mean, you put them on and you're like, dang, look at this. It's gonna be awesome. One day your kids are gonna be pilfering through your clothes going, look what mama used to wear. I ain't wearing this nasty. That's what's gonna happen. That's what's gonna happen. And if you're rich, they'll get all of your stuff and they'll sell it in an estate sale. And if you're like me, same

stuff in a garage sale. It's the same sale. And that stuff that you were just laboring for, they'll buy for a dollar. That's it. That's it. Power is another one. Power is another one. That it is an idol in our world. That we think, man, I'm gonna climb and I'm gonna scratch and I'm gonna study and I'm gonna do whatever it takes to be. to the top and then you get to the top of the ladder and you go, oh crap, wrong wall. There's nothing up here. There's nothing up here. I mean, we could just go around the room, person by person by person, and that's their story. They just pursue the things of this world and get them and then realize that it's just nothing. Realize that it's nothing. Or you think, or an idol could be another person. Can I tell you, Jerry Maguire is a liar. He will not complete you. He will not complete you. He is a terrible God. He will let you down. He will promise you things he cannot provide. And you put your hope in him or you put your hope in her. You worship them as God and they will betray you and then you will curse them for it. You see, every single one of us are idol factories. So Keller says money, sex, power, and you know, we could go on and on and on and on about that, but I wanna add a few. One is, I think that we, especially Christians, we worship at the idol of comfort,

which is really just worshiping ourself. We worship the idol of comfort, that it's about me and it's about mine. And in fact, because we worship at the idol of comfort, it's why we even have phrases like, I'm church shopping right now. I'm gonna go find the place where I'm most comfortable. You know, you have a real hard time reading through the Bible and finding a lot of commands on be comfortable. Taking up your cross daily, being crucified with Christ, not comfortable. The majority of the letters written in the New Testament by the Apostle Paul were written from jail. He was in prison for the sake of the gospel. And they were written about our Lord and Savior who died a sinner's death on the cross. Not comfortable. So we worship at the idol of comfort. I've heard people even say, hey, look, I believe in Jesus, but I can't take the gospel to the nations, because if I go on one of your mission trips, I heard we can't take our hair dryer. Jesus might not be your Lord. Your bangs are, and that's really sad, okay? It's really sad. The pursuit of happiness, I know this is gonna rub some of you the wrong way, but the pursuit of happiness is an idol. I mean, God saved the nation where the pursuit of happiness

is in our top three core values. Life, praise God. Liberty, amen. The pursuit of happiness, you've got to be kidding me. Because let your team lose. What happened to your happiness? And then have a bye week right after. You're just soaking it for two weeks. That's not fun, is it? It just all goes away. Let somebody do you wrong. See, the problem with the pursuit of happiness is it's rooted in your happenings. And when your happenings change, then your happiness changes. Bible calls us to a higher value, that of joy. Joy's rooted in Jesus, because he's unchanging. He's absolutely unchanging. Here's another one, instant gratification. Man, we have a culture of instant gratification, don't we? And you know how many church planners have called me, young pastors, that say, I want to do what you do. I want to just pastor a mega church overnight. That's what I want to do. I go, okay, well, let me tell you my overnight story. It started when I was 19 years old as an intern at First Baptist Richmond. And then I became the youth pastor at Mount Olivet Baptist Church, and we had three students in the entire student ministry.

It was me and three. We could get the whole youth group in my car and go to Dairy Queen. We're doing a youth event. What are you doing? I don't know, they're all in the car, so it's a youth event. All right, that was it. It was 21 years of just trying to be obedient to whatever God had called me to be obedient to. Man, and so I'm 40, so I can, you know, things have changed a lot. I remember doing things different ways, like remember when it took all day to cook a potato? Do you remember that? Remember when you'd put that thing in the oven? What are you doing today? I'm waiting on this potato, okay? It takes like a day for a potato. I don't know how we got anything done just standing around waiting on a potato all day. And then now I take a potato, and I've got a button. I don't even have to put, I put it in the microwave and hit the potato button. Potato, one minute. And you're like, one minute? What am I gonna do for a minute? I don't have a minute. I know, I'll check Facebook. No, no, no, I'll take a picture of it, put it online.

There you go, there's my one-minute potato. Can I just tell you something? Perseverance, perseverance is a mark that you have received the gospel. That it might take a minute to be progressively sanctified, but we so often worship at the author of instant gratification, and then another one is safety. I mean, I'm for safety, but we worship at the idol of safety. I mean, seriously, have you seen a kid on a bicycle lately? Good gracious, got a helmet and knee pads and elbow pads and a mouth guard and a plastic wrap around him. And I think. What, are you like in a BMX competition? No, just riding on the flat sidewalk in my neighborhood. You know what, Timmy, maybe you do need to fall over and skin your knee a little bit so you don't quit crying so much when you're 25 years old, all right? Maybe that's what needs to happen. A few weeks ago, we were at the pool in my neighborhood, and we, I mean, we're just, we're in the neighborhood, it's the speed limit's like 20 miles an hour, and so when we get out and the kids are all wet, and I don't want to put them in my seats, so I was like, y'all just get in the back of the truck. Because when I was growing up, we spent a lot of time in the back of truck. Anybody spend a lot of time in the back of the truck with me? Praise God, right? Look at you, you all made it. So that's why men started parting their hair, because you're in the truck. It just went that way anyway. I put them in the back of the truck, and I'm riding just, I mean, a block to my house in the neighborhood, and you should have seen the mamas out in the front yards. They were panicking because they saw children in the back of the truck. I'm telling you, we would ride from Dillon to Marion in the back of the truck, and it

would rain. I'd knock on the little window. Daddy would slide that little slide went over. What's wrong? Daddy, it's raining. We all better lay down. We lay down or lay? Now, I'm for safety that makes it, I'm not kicking kids over in my neighborhood going, toughen up, Timmy. That's not what I'm saying. But the most dangerous things you could do for your little one might be to keep them that safe. They might need to skin their knee a little bit and learn how to be tough. So when the skit knee of this world comes along, they're ready to handle it. So, I mean, there's all kind of idols. These guys, back in Ephesus, you see, they start going, Demetrius goes, all right, time out. See, these idols, if they figure out that we're actually worshiping an idol, that these gods we worship aren't actually gods, because we're just fashioning them with our hands, then it could hit us in the pocketbook. And so, verse 27, it says, and there's danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great God Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she who all Asia and the world worship. Verse 28, and when they heard this, they were enraged, and they were crying out, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. And so, the city was filled with confusion. See that? The entire city, the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel. I need you to try to get your mind around the fact that the gospel had so impacted the church at Ephesus that the Christians didn't just gather together on Sunday and sing songs to Jesus, but then they took their finances and didn't go and fuel the idol worshiping activities in Ephesus. And so, the people that made the idols were feeling it in the pocketbook, and so the businesses began to swirl around and go, wait, time out, there's a problem here. That we think, I know we think our church is awesome, okay? I know we think it's awesome. My mama was here last weekend, and she was like, baby, I just, I can't believe y'all went to whole Walmart. And I'm like, I know, mama, we went to Walmart, right? We spent a lot of time at

Walmart growing up. Where I was from, we called it the mall, but still. So, I know we think we're awesome, that we opened the doors in September a year ago, and now it's like 4,000 people here this weekend. Well, woo-hoo, there's a million people in the city. The entire city of Ephesus is turned upside down. The entire socioeconomic construct of this major metropolitan city is out of whack. Why? Because the Christians don't just say they believe, they actually are doing something about it. It would be like, try to try to illustrate it in a few ways. What if the gospel so impacted the people in the city of Jacksonville, that all the drug dealers came here and said, hey, we got a problem. All of our clients have been saved, and we don't have, we can't sell our drugs anymore. And half our drug dealers got saved, so they love Jesus now, and says we can't, we can't sell this stuff, and so we've got a real problem here. That, it would be like that, or what if every strip club in the city had to shut down because nobody would go, and all the strippers met Jesus, because they had been so valued here and understood that they were too valuable for that. And so, all of them, or I'll put it this way, you know what the biggest worship center in the city is, right? Everbank Field. So, what if, now, don't hear me say that going to a ball game is an idol, all right? Go, please go, and pray a lot. Okay, go. I'm gonna go. I hope we win today. Praise God. But, just imagine this. Imagine if God so impacted the city of Jacksonville with the gospel that I get a phone call, and it's, and it's Roger Goodell and Shad Khan. And I answered the phone, hello, it's Pastor Joby, how may I help you? And this is Shad Khan. This is Shad Khan. And I go, oh, well, how can I help? You want me to play quarterback? Because I can. Give me a shot. So, I'm telling you, we gotta pray for our boys,

all right, we gotta help, we need help. And so what if he were to say to me, hey, what do you have against the Jags? Like, I don't have anything against the Jags, what do you mean? I'm a Jags fan, I hope we win every game. What are you talking about? He goes, well, nobody's getting to the game until the third quarter. I'm like, oh, well, see, I preach kind of long, okay? So we're not done yet. And the majority of the city now loves Jesus and has surrendered to Jesus. And so if we have an opportunity to gather together and join our voices together and worship our king, and then when that gets done with our free time, we wanna go and watch some boys play with the ball, then that's what we're gonna do. But how can I help you? What do you wanna do? And he goes, well, I don't know, we gotta do something. I go, I tell you what. I got a couple of options. One, why don't you make all the Jags games on Monday night? And then we'll all be there. I'll bring all our people and we'll pray and fast and maybe you can win, all right, maybe. Or how about this? I tell you, I got another option. Why don't you just give us the stadium

and we'll have our worship services there on Sunday morning and then as soon as we get finished, then you guys can play. And we'll all stay and the Holy Spirit will be there and maybe he can help. I mean, you know, somebody's gotta be able to quarterback. Right? Now, I know that's kind of silly, but that's the kind of socioeconomic impact the gospel is having in Ephesus. The entire city is in a state of confusion, why? Because the Christians aren't bowing down to the idols anymore. They're not purchasing the silver idols, verse 29. So the city was filled with confusion and they rushed together into the theater and they dragged those two guys in. They can't find the silver idols. And they dragged those two guys in. They can't find the president or CEO, Paul, so they're kind of getting his two VPs. They're gonna wear them out. Verse 30, skip down to that. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples wouldn't let him. So he's like, oh great, a crowd, I can go preach. They're like, nah, stay out here, they'll kill you. Verse 31. And even some of the Asiarchs, these are guys that, they're friends of Paul, you'll see.

And their job in Rome is just to make sure riots don't break out and one's breaking out. So even some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. I love this, verse 32. Now, this is the crowd. Now some cried out one thing and some another for the assembly was in confusion. And most of them did not know why they had come together. So the crowd is together. We're gonna find out in just a second that they're chanting, they're chanting great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. They're chanting for two hours and it's citywide. And some of them are saying one thing, some of them are crying out another and most of them don't even know what they're doing there. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Ted, what are we doing? I don't know, just keep chanting. And they just keep chanting. Have you ever been a part of that kind of crowd and mob mentality? If you've been to a football game, you have. I know we're talking about football a lot but praise God, it's football season. We've been waiting all year. So I remember, I think it was in 06,

me and Cliff Long, one of the guys on staff, we took Pastor Wayne Barclay, pastor from Jamaica. We took him to a Jaguars game because they mostly play kickball down there so we wanted to sell him real football. So we take him to a Jags game. Now, he doesn't even really know what the Jags are. He's seen a couple of NFL games. He has no interest whatsoever. But when we walk in, kind of the anti-terrible towel, they gave out these little styrofoam things that you're supposed to bang together or something. Okay, so we get those and he's looking at me like, why would grown men play with silly toys? And I go, you just wait, it's gonna get cool, okay? And so we go in, we find our seats. We had great seats and we go sit down and it's Cliff and me, Pastor Wayne, and on the other side of him is this woman who is hammered drunk, hammered. It's an 8.30 nighttime game. She started getting ready Saturday morning, I think, for it, okay? So she is, oh, I knew it was gonna be awesome. And so you know how when you get into your section at every game, you begin to identify, you kind of see who you're with because for the next four hours of your life, this is like your family. And like any family, you're like,

these two are gonna be okay, I think I'm gonna have a problem for this one. Oh, leave me alone, you. Okay, that's that kind of deal. Well, the leave me alone lady is the redneck drunk lady next to Pastor Wayne. He kind of wanted to switch seats, but I wasn't gonna switch with him, all right? I know the first will be last in heaven, but hey, I'll be last in heaven, that's fine, I hear it's nice. And then as soon as he drops his little Jamaican accent, you know, come on, she's like, she loved it. She's, hey, big boy. I mean, it was awesome. So, we dominated the Steelers. Not so much an offensive domination, but the score of the game was nine to zero, all right? So we kicked three field goals the whole game, it was the whole thing. But all three. All three field goals were right down there in our end. And towards the end of the game, we thought that the Steelers might score and it'd be nine, six, you know, that kind of deal. But we hold them in the fourth quarter, their fourth and whatever, and we hold them, and I'm just gonna tell you, this guy, Pastor Wayne, who didn't even care about the game

or even care about football or the Jaguars or any of that, by the end of the game, I'm arm-in-arm with Cliff Long, which is the first time that's ever happened, and we're jumping up and down, we won, we won! And I look over, and Pastor Wayne is with the hammer-drag-neck lady, just, we won, we won! So we should go, no, no, they won, you're drunk. That's what happens. Basically, that's what's going on here. People are just getting together, great, it's Artemis! What are we cheering for? I don't know, but ain't it fun? And they're just cheering and cheering and cheering. And you can see that it's all hype because of what happens next. It says, some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward, and Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours, they all cried out with one voice, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Again, what are we doing here? I don't know, but we're gonna do something. Verse 35, and when the town clerk, he's kind of a big deal, when he quieted the crowd, he said, men of Ephesus, who is there that does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis

and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky? Now, if the crowd would stop just for a second and evaluate even why they're screaming this, they would realize the silliness. So a rock fell out of the sky, uh-huh. And we're worshiping that, uh-huh. It seems kind of silly, doesn't it? I don't know. Great is, they're just caught up in the mentality, verse 36. Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and there are parole councils. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in a regular assembly. For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion, verse 41. Now, just think, the entire city, the entire city is in this uproar. For two hours, they've been chanting this, great is Artemis. And then the town clerk says, hey, hey, everybody settle down. I understand, if you wanna get something done,

the courts will be open on Monday morning, need you to fill out a little paperwork, verse 41. And when he said these things, he dismissed the assembly, and everybody went home. That's it, it was all hype, it was all hype. There was nothing to it at all. Now, let me tell you why I love what God has been doing. It just seems like we're always on time in acts. Do you know what's starting Wednesday? Is our revival, saturated. And I pray to God that we're not just full of hype, that we don't just all get together and scream and shout stuff, but it doesn't have just deep, abiding convictions in our soul and the depths of who we are. You see, here's the point, is that in order for the gospel to transform our entire community, it must first transform our own lives. Because I wanna have the kind of impact in Jacksonville that the church had in Ephesus. I believe that, yes and amen, God has been doing extraordinarily more than we could ever hope and imagine in this place. Praise God that 4,000 people will show up this weekend. Praise God that we've got seven people called into ministry, they're gonna be pastors that we get to train. Praise God that almost 800 people have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ.

But I believe it's just the beginning. I believe that God could use the Church of 1122 to be the conduit of the, or be the messenger to send the gospel all throughout our city. And I want our church to be a light in this city that loves this city because we love Jesus. And just like we love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, I think our church can have a heart, soul, mind, and strength kind of impact on our city. I believe it can have a heart impact that families and marriages and relationships could be mended because of the sake of the gospel. And I believe that we could have a soul impact on this city that people could be more forgiving and more loving because they know the Savior, Jesus Christ. And mind, I believe we could have an academic educational impact in this city that the dropout rate would begin to drop because men and women in this place would be mentoring students that don't have moms and dads for the sake of the gospel. And strength, I think we could have an economic impact in this city in a positive way that the government wouldn't have to come to you and say, hey, I'm gonna redistribute your wealth, but it would be the Holy Spirit in you helping people, helping you be generous with your finances to help people in need and disciple lazy people

that need to work, right? That we could make that kind of impact in our city. I believe that what. God's been doing, it's just the beginning, but in order for us to have that community-wide, city-wide transformation, our hearts individually have to be transformed first. And so next week at the revival, a lot of people, I mean, we're gonna pack the place out, okay? I know you're coming. And you're gonna hear amazing worship bands, and you're gonna hear very, very gifted speakers. And if it's just hype, we might gather together and just say stuff and then walk out of here and not do anything about it. As soon as I read about this crowd, I was reminded of another crowd. Matthew chapter 21, verses eight through 10. If you grew up in church, you'll remember this story. Matthew 21, eight through 10 says, and most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up.

Sound familiar? If you grew up in church, what's that Sunday called? Palm Sunday. All right, let's just confess. Any of you been to a church service where they handed you a palm branch and said, all right, when the children's choir says Hosanna, everybody hold up their palm branch and say Hosanna. Anybody been there? I have, about a million of them, okay? We're never handing out palm branches on Palm Sunday at the church, 1122. You know why? Hosanna means Lord save us. And essentially, what happened in Jerusalem was the idol of religion. All right, I'll do my part, I'll wave my branch, and I'll quote the Old Testament. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And then God, you have to do your part. You owe me. So you have to come in and kick Rome out of Jerusalem and put us, the children of Israel, in charge. Hosanna, Lord save me. This is about me, not you. I'm not here to worship you, but you're here to serve me. And they're waving their palm branches. And then look what it says, the whole city. It says, the whole city was stirred up, saying, now who is this?

That's not worship. Jesus, the almighty suffering servant, son of God, is riding in on a donkey, and they go, they're saying all the right words with their mouth, but they don't even know who he is. You see the danger of hype? We're not gonna be the hype church, we're not. Do we want to get excited and extol the name of Jesus? Yes, and amen. But I'm just warning us, as we move into revival next week, this is not to just come in here and say stuff that you don't really mean. But it's about the deep and abiding convictions of our heart because you know what happened with that same crowd when they did not get what they wanted? You see, they wanted Jesus to come in and take over and be King Jesus and then make all his followers in charge and kick the Romans out and put them in charge. They were asking, what's in it for me? And when they did not get what they wanted, because what they wanted was an earthly king, but what they got was a savior, an eternal savior, and when they didn't get what they wanted, on Friday, that same crowd gathered together again. In Matthew 27, 22, and 23, and Pilate said to the crowd, then what shall I do with this Jesus who is called the Christ? And the crowd all said, let him be crucified. And Pilate said, why, what evil has he done?

But the crowd shouted all the more, let him be crucified. So the crowd gathers on Sunday and it's full of hype. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and the same crowd gets together back on Friday and says, crucify him, kill him. See the problem with the mob mentality? See the difference? The difference between the hype of a crowd and the hope for a city lies in the deep, personal convictions of the church. It was just the idol of religion. And the idol of religion is really the idol of self with just an amen on the end. It's just like all those other things. You just attach a Bible verse and an amen to it and then somehow you think it's okay. Can I tell you the interesting thing about an idol? It cannot be removed, it can only be replaced. Something will sit on the throne of your life. Something will sit on the throne of your life. It could be a good thing, it sits on the throne of your life. You make it a God thing, that's a bad thing. Or it could be your savior and your king, Jesus Christ. Now what I'm hoping happens, what I'm praying happens, the reason we're doing saturated, the reason we're getting together Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, so that we can be saturated, immersed, just full to the brim of the presence of God

and the love of God and the truth of God, so that God begins to do things deep in our hearts, personally, your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You have personal deep convictions that somebody can't just sway the crowd one way or the other and then by the power of the Holy Spirit, God joins us together as a church and God joins us as a church to do something good for the world. So we're gonna do that. joins our churches together, We're gonna do that. We're gonna do that. every gospel-centered, Bible-believing church And then we're gonna do that. We're gonna do that. all throughout Jacksonville, We're gonna do that. and that God does an amazing work in our city We're gonna do that. We're gonna do that. We're gonna do that. for the glory of his name, not our church, for the glory of his name. But you know where that starts? It starts with you. What idol are you worshiping? Who sits on the throne of your heart? Because when it's Jesus, when it's Jesus, then all those other things just begin to fade away. And the good gifts that he gives us

aren't worshiped, but they stir in us worship of the giver of the gifts. That you can look at your children and not worship them and let them rule your world, but you can look at your children and say, God, thank you, and I praise you. I praise you for these kids. You can look at your wife and say, a wife finds what is good. Instead of worshiping her, you can worship the one that gave her to you. You can even come to church and not worship religion, but you can worship Jesus Christ. And then when he does that in here, in a supernatural way, he begins to link us together, not just our church, but other churches for the sake of the gospel, that we could have a city-wide impact, a city-wide impact, that this entire city of Jacksonville could be different, and it all started because of what Christ did in your individual heart. Let's pray. Dear Father in heaven, Lord, I love you so much. God, I'm always amazed that Palm Sunday obviously was a Sunday where people gathered and said all the right things with their mouth, and then on Friday, they screamed out, crucify. God, may we be not a church that gathers on Sunday and says the right things, and then Friday crucifies you by the way we live, but God, may we be fully devoted to you.

God, may you do a deep work deep in our heart. God, may this city see us not as an enemy, God, but as servants. Lord, may we're not trying to take over a city, we're trying to serve and love a city. God, may every person in Jacksonville know that you love them enough to dial a cross for them, that we're not against them, Lord, that we wanna be conduits of your mercy and conduits of your grace and conduits of your message of love and repentance and confession and acceptance and reconciliation with the Almighty God. So Lord, we pray, we pray by the power of the Holy Spirit through the truth of the gospel, by the blood of Jesus, God, we pray, God, for a city-wide revival. Lord, we pray that this entire community would be turned upside down for the name and the renown of Jesus, and that we all would not worship the things of this world, God, but you, the one true God, the only one that can give us what we need. God, we confess, we confess so many times we chase after what we want, and Lord, we pray by the power of the Holy Spirit, would you help us to lean into what we need? God, all we need is you, we pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Hey, would you please stand as we close? Every week we respond to the gospel. Many of you need to come to the altar and you need to lay those idols at the altar.

Many of us, if you call this church your home, we bring our tithes and offerings to the giving boxes around the side or the giving kiosk in the back, and let us all join our voices in one voice to worship the one true God as we respond.