Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts 19.
So I want to take a little bit of credit for the bear song,
!
I want to take a little bit of credit for the bear song and dedication to that night or that morning.
But I only think the only person that was actually still here that was there was Daniel Swanson.
I don't remember looking for him.
But he was there.
But I promise, he'll tell you that he did, but he slept through the whole incident.
So I was like, you probably would be eaten if we didn't wake you up.
But the bear stole my backpack and ran up a hill.
And me and Daniel Gentry and another guy chased it up the hill and threw things at it.
And it eventually left.
So there's a nice little hole, like claw hole, in the back of my military backpack downstairs.
That bear's like trying to dig around.
I forgot that I left a little candy bar or something on the bottom of that because it was covered up.
So don't do that when you go camping.
But take some credit for that song.
We're going to be in Acts 19, kind of finishing up our time in Ephesus together.
So before we do, though, just join me in a word of prayer.
Lord, we still ourselves before you this morning.
coming from busy weeks where stress and the approval of others and the seeking after the world.
We have come this morning with your people hoping to have our spirits refreshed and renewed.
And that is something that we cannot do naturally.
And it's something that only you, through your word and by the power of the Spirit, can do.
So we ask you to work in our hearts and our minds, Lord, to renew our faith.
To strengthen us, Lord, to leave here later and to go into weeks for.
To live for your glory and wherever we go, Father.
So give us eyes to see and ears to hear this morning.
And use this as you see fit.
In Christ's name, amen.
Amen.
So, if you recall, we started in chapter 19.
And this is when Paul first came into Ephesus.
And Ephesus, just a tad review and then plus a little more.
But the biggest city in Asia Minor is on the east side of the Aegean Sea.
And it was the capital of the Roman province of Asia.
Fifth largest city in the entire empire.
And so a big, big place for the gospel to go to be exported into Asia.
Kind of the launch pad into Asia.
And so there is a lot in Ephesus that is really still there today that you can go and see.
But most of all, I would say there was the Temple of Artemis.
Which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
And a lot of it still remains today.
I tried to find some cool pictures to get into.
So, for whatever those.
That's what it looked like during the time of Paul.
And it was built definitely several centuries before, like B.C.
But it was a huge structure that was the boast of the ancient world.
And it was bigger than all the temples and stuff in Athens and Rome.
It was really a huge deal.
And so all this was dedicated to Artemis.
So you can flip to the next slide.
And that's what remains of it today.
So there's the glory of Artemis kind of destroyed over the centuries, right?
But I have a friend, one of my best friends over in Ireland, Mark, who actually was there.
And he was telling me he was just getting his mind in the narrative while he was walking around all that.
Just thinking about how the gospel changed that culture and changed that city.
And so I think it would be helpful, not just for the sake of blather, but to actually know who Artemis mythically was because it had an impact on the ancient world.
And so Artemis was the Greek name of the goddess.
Diana was the Roman name.
She was the mythical daughter of Zeus.
And her name kind of comes from a combination of meaning safe and sound.
So she was the goddess who brought help and brought aid to people.
And she was depicted carrying a bow.
She was a huntress.
She had a hunting dog with her.
And she was really known for protection, but particularly for women and for women in childbirth and protector of the virginity of young girls.
And she had a lot of masculine type characteristics about her.
And so even today, she's kind of seen as like a goddess of feminism in a lot of ways.
And she's also known as like the goddess of wild animals and nature.
Like, you know, just that wild, rugged, you know, woman that we all see depicted in movies today that really isn't real, but it's on TV anyway.
So that's kind of where a lot of that comes from.
And so that was Artemis.
And that's who these people cling to, who they worshiped.
And it was a cult that lasted for thousands of years.
And so that's where the controversy is over, like a lot of this.
But it also spills into the amphitheater that's also in Ephesus, which is another picture.
It's still there today.
A huge amphitheater.
It could hold around 20,000 people, which is pretty remarkable in that time.
It had an emperor's box when the emperor actually came and visited.
And like most amphitheaters in the Roman world, they were used for musical concerts, for plays, for gladiatorial combat, and dramas, whatever.
But also, it was a place where religious, political, and philosophical things could be discussed.
And that's a lot of what we see in our text today.
But this is where the riot kind of happened.
This is all where it kind of went down.
And so I'm not like really big on doing this, but I actually thought about showing a video clip from a movie
where it actually shows like mob hysteria and how scary it actually can be.
It's a terrifying thing to encounter.
And in our text today, that's kind of what we're coming up with was this riot that was in Ephesus.
But it was time for, in God's providence, for the evangelism of Asia to begin.
And it started here in Ephesus.
It was, again, the launching pad for the gospel.
It's also where Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.
So that's a big deal.
And I don't know if a lot of you know this, but the Colossian church wasn't really planted by Paul.
It was planted by people who came to know Christ in Ephesus, and they took it to Colossae, which is pretty cool.
And so that's why Paul's like, wow, this church was planted, and I've heard about them.
So he writes to them.
And so a lot of unique things about his time in Ephesus.
He spent a little over two years there probably, and then came back, I think, another time.
But thus far in chapter 19, we see that Paul came in, and he encounters some disciples of John the Baptist.
That's in verses 1 through 7.
And he basically tells them Jesus was the one that John was pointing to.
And they were like, great, let's follow Jesus.
So the quick summary of that.
Then afterwards, he went into the synagogue, 8 through 10, and he taught about Christ in the synagogue and in the hall of Tyrannus.
And then finally, well, not finally, but 11 through 12, God used Paul to heal many people and do miraculous acts to give testimony to the gospel.
And then kind of a scary but also comical story of following that of some Jewish exorcists who really were willing to kind of lash on to, they saw Paul casting out demons in the name of Jesus.
And they thought, we should try that.
So they tried to invoke the name of Jesus without really knowing Jesus.
And the demon beat the tar out of them and humiliated them.
So that's what's kind of happened.
But connecting to last week is the last segment that we went through.
And this is where we see in 17 through 20, I think, after that, that many people renounced their sorcery and their magic and burned their spell books because of the miraculous acts that were happening in the name of Christ.
That's, let's see.
Sorry, I'm just picking this up right here.
Let's just start reading in verse 17 today and we'll read through the rest of the chapter and we'll just start walking through it together.
So it says,
And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.
And also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.
And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.
And they counted the value of them and found that it came to 50,000 pieces of silver.
So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
That is a lot of money in the ancient world.
And so that's kind of what launched this next part.
So people were coming to know Christ and now there's going to be a backlash to the believers becoming too salty for some of the people in Ephesus.
So it goes into the next section, verse 21.
Now after these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem saying,
After I have been there, I must also see Rome.
And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Eratos, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
So this is kind of an outline of the rest of the book of Acts, sort of, where he wants to go.
Rome eventually ends up in Rome.
About that time, there arose no little disturbance concerning the way.
For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.
There he gathered together with the workmen and similar trades and said,
Men, you know that this business, we have our wealth.
And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but also, but in almost all of Asia,
this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people saying that the gods made with hands are not gods.
And there is danger, not only in that this trade of ours may come into disrepute,
but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing,
and that she may even be disposed from her magnificence, she whom all of Asia and the world worship.
When they heard this, they were enraged and were crying out,
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
So the city was filled with confusion,
and they rushed together into the theater,
dragging with them Gaius and Atreus,
Macedonians who were with Paul's companions and travel.
But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd,
the disciples would not let him.
And even some of the Erastic,
Erastic, I can't remember this word right, sorry,
who were his friends,
said to him and urging him not to venture into the theater.
Now some cried one thing,
some another,
for the assembly was in confusion,
and most of them did not know why they had come together.
That sounds like a typical riot,
like why are we here?
I'm just yelling again.
So 33,
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,
but when they recognized that he was a Jew,
for about two hours,
they all cried out in one voice,
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd,
he said,
Men of Ephesus,
who is there who 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?
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 neither are sacrilegious nor blasphemous of our goddess.
If, therefore, Demetrius and the craftsmen with him
have a complaint against anyone,
the courts are open,
and there are proconsuls.
Let them bring charges against one another.
But if you seek anything further,
it shall be settled in a regular assembly,
for we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today,
since there is no cause that we can give
to justify this commotion.
And when he has said these things,
he dismissed the assembly.
All right?
So that's kind of the background.
That's the story.
So we're just going to walk through this
just through a series of questions
and then draw out some application.
Question number one,
real simple,
but what caused the riot?
Let's kind of break the narrative down.
Like, what caused the riot?
Can you see this really clearly
in verses 23 through 27?
And a man named Demetrius,
who built these,
he was a silversmith,
and built these little tiny goddess idols of Artemis
that could be placed in the homes of people,
so they could kind of worship an image of Artemis
in their own homes
and ask for protection inside their homes.
He's furious because he's basically
seeing what Paul's preaching
as a threat to his welfare
and the welfare of the other tradesmen in Ephesus.
And so he thought,
this has got to stop.
I'm hearing my pocketbook is,
you know,
is getting really bad right now,
and I have to cause a commotion.
So that's what this is about.
It's about the gospel is bringing down idolatry.
Right?
He's angry
because even a lot of these other people
have been converted,
renouncing their idolatry,
burning their spell books,
and the gospel is taking over.
And so just note that
when real change happens in the culture,
there can be a lot of backlash from people
because it's going to seem as a threat
to how many of them are making their living.
And so that's the most simple one we have.
What caused it?
Well, that was the threat to his money making,
at least the great civic pride
and religious pride
that the city had as a whole of Artemis
was being threatened.
So this is sort of what caused the riot.
We're going to spend most of the time
in the next two questions, though.
What are,
question number two,
what are the characteristics of the riot?
Verse 28 through 34.
Kind of see this.
So what are some things you can kind of draw out?
What characterizes this mob hysteria?
All right, well,
you see very clearly in verse 28,
they were,
the mob was enraged.
Okay?
So this word means like anger boiling up
and soon overflowing.
You can kind of picture like anger building up
and then coming out of a,
like a pot on the stove.
A picture of that,
but also the rage that a drunkard feels
that eventually leads him to destroy himself.
So it's almost like blind.
They've lost all sense.
They're being controlled by the rage they feel.
Mindless fury characterizes riots.
And they're indiscriminate about violence.
That's why a lot of innocent bystanders
are always either hurt or killed in riots.
They're just,
they're just sort of in the wake of it all.
But just understand that,
learning this myself,
the anger blinds us from reason.
We can't think.
We can't stop and say,
let me step back and assess a situation
and then solve it.
It's allowing sin to overcome us
or we can't actually reason with one another.
So we become unreasonable.
Scripture says in Proverbs 29, 10,
bloodthirsty men hate one who is blameless
and seek the life of the upright.
And so this is a great example of that.
Mob hysteria that is characterized by anger.
So secondly, under this,
another characteristic is confusion.
Verse 29 is very clear.
Immense confusion.
So if you can just kind of picture,
you know, in the ancient world,
there's no social media.
No one can kind of actually explain what's going on.
And people are rushing to the theater in anger
and they grab their buddies and say,
hey, this is happening.
Come join us.
And he's like, all right,
let's go yell and let's go,
you know, get crazy.
But they don't really know
why they're even there.
That's what it kind of says.
Like a lot of them are like,
what are we doing here again?
And they're just yelling,
yelling and yelling.
And so confusion.
And they even dragged two of Paul's friends violently
into there without any kind of trial
or asking them what they were about.
They didn't actually sit down and ask.
It was just, again, confusion.
And then another thing you can note
is they were also pretty close-minded.
See that in 33 and 34.
Alexander, who was a Jew,
he came out to kind of,
he motioned his hand.
They kind of wanted to get the attention of the crowd.
But they recognized he was a Jew
and just sort of pushed him aside
and didn't want to even hear what he had to say.
So it's very unclear what Alexander's motive was.
Maybe he wanted to be like,
look, we're not, you know,
we're monotheistic,
but we're not Christians.
So don't put us in the same boat as these guys,
like we really quite don't know yet.
But this is really interesting.
Some of the word I have a hard time pronouncing.
Azerarchs?
Yeah, I think that's the right way to say it.
That's pretty bad for a history major.
I'm pretty embarrassed by that.
I need to go look that up.
But they were the keepers and promoters
of the imperial cult throughout the empire.
They were very wealthy.
They were very prestigious.
If they spoke, people listened.
And isn't that interesting
that they actually came and protected Paul?
It kind of is mind-boggling.
But even in my own life,
as I know personally,
some of you that I've had conversations with,
you've won this kind of favor
through your life
with unbelievers
that they would almost come to your defense
if you were attacked.
And it's kind of like
the president of an atheist group
who you befriended
and gained their trust
and had conversations with
kind of rushing to your aid
and protecting you
from like an atheist group
who's trying to mob you.
And be like, look,
we may disagree with this guy,
but let me tell you,
he's a good guy.
Like, stay away from him.
Chill out.
And that's kind of what
these men were doing.
They were protecting Paul
from this riot.
And even knowing
that he was a Roman citizen,
like we can't have
this kind of reflect on us
as a city either.
So, very close-minded.
They're just sort of blinded again
by sin and by pride.
Then, finally,
question number three,
what is the outcome
of the riot?
35 through 41.
Of all people,
right?
Isn't it interesting
that the people
you least expect
can stand up
and actually change the situation,
but was the town clerk.
He was the chief administrative
officer of the city.
He was kind of like
the liaison
between the Roman officials
and the city officials.
They were there.
And he was really worried.
Like,
if we make a ruckus,
if we are accused of rioting,
this could get back
to Claudius.
Claudius could get angry.
That could come back on us.
Let's stop.
You know,
calm down.
Take a deep breath, guys.
He's like,
we all know Artemis is real.
We all know she's the stuff.
Okay?
Like,
and then we got the meteor
to even prove
that she's the stuff.
It was like a sacred meteor
that had kind of fallen there.
So,
I mean,
if we believe that's not to be true,
then why are we scared?
Just calm down.
Like,
we're all together here,
but it's not okay for us
to be rash.
Like,
let's be reasonable.
And he kind of gets everybody
to kind of just
chill out and listen.
And then he says,
look,
the courts are open.
If Demetrius and his homies
really have a problem,
they can go to the court
and take Paul
and whoever else
and they can go deal with this
in a peaceful manner.
There's pro-consuls there
who are basically
sort of like the judges
and they'll hear the complaint.
But if there's a problem,
like,
we're going to deal with this
like lawful Roman citizens
and y'all are going to stop
rioting
and they just go,
all right.
And everything sort of subsides.
But it's very interesting,
though,
that Luke gives a long account here
to show how there's like
careful reasoning
on the part of the court
to show that the Christian gospel
wasn't contrary to Roman law.
Like,
look,
they can go make a defense.
They haven't,
they even says
they haven't done anything
blasphemous.
Right?
Go and deal with them
in the right way.
So,
that was the outcome.
It subsided.
So,
in closing,
not really in closing,
but,
now like,
to really draw out
some application
because you're reading this
and a lot of commentators
are like,
just like,
yep,
there was a riot.
Great.
So,
how are we supposed to apply this
unless we actually encounter a riot?
So,
which I have one time
in my life
and I wasn't the,
I wasn't the one being attacked.
It was in Belfast
and it was when Protestants
and Catholics were,
like,
seriously beating the snot
out of each other
and we had three girls
stuck in a car
in the middle of it
trying to go home.
So,
being the brave men we are,
me and my friend Mark
went up there
and got them out of the car
and we ran.
So,
but yeah,
mob violence.
Very scary
to be a part of.
So,
I have some application
and I was lost.
I was like,
Lord,
what do I do here?
And finally,
I think,
through the words of Alistair Begg
and some others,
I began to kind of form,
this is what we can learn about this
as a church,
as believers
and as citizens of America.
All right?
But,
think about how the church in America,
I should say the West,
but especially America,
has tried
politically
to change our culture.
It's failing.
Right?
There is a huge failure
of conservative,
religious,
right
in a lot of ways.
So,
I'm going to suggest to you,
kind of as a premise here,
that Christians in America today
seek to change culture
more like
the rioting Ephesians
than the gospel,
peace-loving,
truthful,
but wise,
shrewd,
humility,
preachers of the gospel
nephesis.
And it's true.
It's just true.
We're more like
the rioting Ephesians
than the humble gospel servants.
And we've failed
as a church
probably over the last
two generations
to really bring about
real change
in our culture.
And so many
in the U.S.
who identify as
evangelical Christians,
they really,
if you really look close
and watch their life,
watch how they think,
watch their worldview,
you'll see that
they're more
trying to follow
traditional
American culture
rather than
what God's Word
says
a lot of the time.
And they identify
themselves more
with
the red,
white,
and blue
than
the cross.
And they're more
concerned with,
and this isn't a pun
on any candidate,
okay?
I just stole his slogan
because that's what
we're trying to do.
But
more Christians
seem to be more
concerned about
making America
great again
than making
Christ great
again in America.
And that isn't
a pun on Trump.
If you've ever
Trump,
no problem.
That's not what
I'm trying to say.
But like,
that cannot be
our focus
as the church.
You are not
citizens of this
world.
You are citizens
of the kingdom
of God.
people.
And a
professor at
Southern Seminary
named Russell Moore,
he kind of
wrote this
about some
evangelical
movements
in America.
And he said,
politically,
it was about
getting back
to the real
America.
the times
before the
sexual
revolution.
The order
they had in
mind,
at least for
America,
wasn't the
sort of new
order envisioned
by the Sermon on
the Mount,
or in the
Revelation of
Patmos,
it was about
getting back
to the
vaguely
Protestant
civil religion
of our
Judeo-Christian
values.
Alright?
So he's saying
that this
really isn't
about following
the gospel.
It's really
not about
the word
of God
or living
out as
the church,
the Sermon
on the Mount.
It's more
about we've
got to get
back to
America.
Right?
And as a
Southerner,
and as a
guy who grew
up in the
South,
and a
guy who
was very
patriotic,
like that's
me,
I was that
guy,
I've learned
in a lot
of ways
just how
flawed a
lot of my
thinking was.
Like this
is the
filter,
right?
Not what we
see in here,
out here.
And the
conservative
religious right
activism really
reveals that it's
not a theological
or gospel
movement,
it's the
political one,
one that really
even includes
people who
don't believe
what we
believe at
all,
like
Orthodox
Jews,
and Roman
Catholics,
and Latter-day
Saints,
they're all
part of that
conservative
movement,
and we
don't serve
the same
savior.
So it's just
good to show
you that it's
not a
theological,
led by God's
word kind
of movement.
It's not about
the kingdom
of God.
It's just a
conservative
movement.
movement,
and it's
about getting
back to
traditional
American
religious life
rather than
transformed
lives by
the gospel.
Another
cultural
commentator
wrote this
about the
conservative
religious
groups in
America
saying that
they're basically
failing to
change culture.
This is kind
of like what
he says.
he says,
their inability
to use their
political power
to lower the
abortion rates,
install a
sense of
obedience and
respect for
authority among
teenagers,
and urge the
courts and
legislatures to
give special
recognition to
Christianity's
power role in
America creates
among them a
perpetual outrage
machine.
Because we
failed.
And what do we
do?
We get angry.
We turn to
the mob at
Ephesus.
That's what
happens.
And that's why
there's a lot
of negative
thinking towards
the church
today.
Some of it
is right.
We're being
persecuted for
Christ's sake
in some cases,
right?
The way it
should be.
But some of
it is just
because we
refuse to
identify or
talk to anybody
who doesn't
share our
political view.
Right?
So forget
all that.
Stop.
We need to
look to the
example of our
brothers and
sisters and
Paul and
even our
Lord, like
how he
handled this
stuff in
Ephesus.
So what we
don't see,
let's kind of
replay the
tape.
What we
don't see in
Ephesus is
Paul gathering
a mob crowd
to go and
boycott and
picket the
temple of
Artemis.
Right?
doesn't do
that.
He allows the
gospel to
bring down the
idolatry, the
sin of Ephesus
as well as
anywhere.
So you don't
hear him saying
so, forget
preaching the
gospel.
That takes too
long.
It's too
difficult.
We don't have
any power to
make it work.
Let's forget
that and let's
get a group of
people to go and
picket the
temple and we'll
shout and
chant and let
them know we're
opposed to what
we stand for and
we'll shout them
down.
We'll show
them just how
stupid it is to
worship an image
made of marble
or stone.
Paul for
mayor.
You know,
like, that's
not how they're
dealing with
this.
Right?
They, it
sounds more
like, we
sound more like
the sinful
idolaters and
how we handle
this stuff.
So, not by
political rallies
or boycotts or
denunciations,
carrying signs,
living in a
very self-righteous
manner like the
Pharisees would
be.
We don't
attack people.
Rather, we
see Paul and
other Christians
speaking the
truth in love
and persuading
others by the
power of God.
That's like what
we see.
That's what
caused all this
to happen.
Right?
So, one
place to turn,
look at 1
Peter 3 and
3.15.
Very familiar,
but here's the
question I want
you to ask.
do I do this
in my life?
And does the
church do this?
1 Peter 3.15.
But in your
hearts, honor
Christ the
Lord as
holy,
always being
prepared to make
a defense to
anyone who
asks you for
the reason for
the hope that
is in you.
Amen.
We're all ready
to do that.
We're all ready
to fight,
right?
Yet, do this
with gentleness
and respect,
having a good
conscience,
so that when
you are slandered,
those who
revile you,
your good
behavior in
Christ may be
put to shame,
for it is
better to suffer
for doing good
if that should
be God's will
than for doing
evil.
And that's
what was
happening.
They spoke
the truth.
They didn't
back down from
the truth,
but they
spoke it in
a way that
won their
hearers.
They were
persuasive in
how they
spoke,
right?
And I
could read,
I'll read
Philippians 2.13
through 15 to
you,
very similar.
Do all
things without
grumbling or
disputing,
that you may be
blameless and
innocent,
all right?
Children of
God without
blemish in the
midst of a
crooked and
twisted generation
among whom
you shine as
lights,
in the world.
So please
hear me say,
I'm not saying
this isn't a
sermon about
this,
okay?
This isn't a
sermon about
should Christians
be involved in
politics.
That's not what
the sermon's
about.
I'm just saying
that like if
you want to
see a culture
and a nation
and a world
change,
it comes by
the power of
the gospel.
It's not
going to come
by a lot
of the stuff
that's associated
with contemporary
evangelicalism.
And so you
look and you
see that these
believers here
in Ephesus,
they were
blameless.
In verse 37,
look what he
says,
for you have
brought these
men here who
are neither
sacrilegious nor
blasphemous about
our God.
So they were
able to talk
about Christ in
a way that
wasn't personally
insulting to
them.
Now did they
preach against
idolatry?
Yes they did.
But they did it
in a manner that
was respectful,
right?
so they
could walk
away with a
clear conscience.
So they
could not
really accuse
them of the
crimes committed.
So they
allowed the
gospel to
bring down
the sinful
system.
Very similar,
very similar.
Why did
Jesus not come
as a political
activist to
end slavery
and to end
a lot of
other bad
things that
were happening
in the ancient
world?
Well he knew
that his
word,
his message
through the
gospel,
that if that
was unleashed
that would
transform culture
and slavery
would naturally
die.
So he treated
the problem
like the real
disease and
not just the
symptoms.
He knew that
if sin was
dealt with,
men would
treat each
other with
love and
respect and
kindness and
not with
hatred.
So he allowed
the gospel to
bring it down.
And we've
got to change
how we think.
We know that
homosexuality
could be another
example of
this.
Most people
who I know
and I've
encountered
who are
homosexual,
they have
very closed
views of
the church
because all
they've received
is the bad
news and not
the good
news.
You guys are
terrible,
you guys are
going to
hell,
your lifestyle
is terrible,
a very
self-righteous
condemning
approach,
more like the
Pharisees of
old.
And Paul
followed the
pattern of
Christ.
He spoke
the truth
with loving
tenderness
and a
sincere
invitation to
come and be
transformed by
the gospel.
Right?
Yesterday,
Kathleen and
I were on
the way up
to Blairsville
and we
picked a
woman up
on the
off-ramp
who was
running.
And she
had nothing
but one
shirt in
her hand.
And she
looked pretty
desperate,
so we
stopped.
and she
said she
didn't have
any signs
of drugs
or alcohol.
She said
she was
running from
a man who
was beating
her and
she wanted
to go home
to Bryson
City.
And so we
sat and
listened to
a very
sad,
dark story
and she
said she
wanted to
get home
to her
wife back
in Bryson
City.
And I
was kind
of weighing
sometimes
it's a
discredit for
me to
say I'm
a pastor.
Sometimes I
just rather
them not
know because
then they'll
begin to
carry a lot
of negative
thinking.
But at
least in
the situation
I judged
that she
might actually
respect that
so I'm
just going
to say
it.
So I
said that's
what I
did.
And she
goes,
oh really?
Well, I'm
dying to
know.
Like what
do you
think?
Like is
God okay
with
homosexuality?
And I'm
like,
here we
go.
And Kathleen
will tell
you that I
didn't back
down from
saying God
is not
okay with
it.
It's sin.
It's against
what he
says.
But I
also want
you to
know that
I'm just
as sinful
as you
are.
And that
anything I
do is
my sin
is no
cleaner or
better than
yours.
My
heterosexual
lust or
idolatry is
no better in
God's eyes
than your
homosexuality.
And she
said she
was going
to a church
that loved
her and
welcomed
her.
I don't
know what
that really
means.
If they're
like approving
or if
they're
saying come
and be
with us
anyway even
though we
don't agree
with you.
But she
said that
for the
most part
she and
her partner
have only
received
condemnation
from believers
and not
like you
need a
savior.
And I
told her
you need
Jesus.
Like you
need,
we need
the savior.
And it
was kind
of a
spence
she hadn't
heard before
obviously.
She just
hears
you're
okay in
your sin
or you're
condemned.
She doesn't
hear the
good news.
And it's
easier for
us to be
outraged and
try to change
a culture
through rioting
and picketing
and political
whatever.
but it's
harder to
sit down
and talk
through the
gospel of
somebody.
Something that
you have no
control over.
Something that
God has to
change a
sinner's
heart.
And if
we're not
careful we're
going to
produce a
generation of
angry men
and women
who try to
advance
man-made
cultural
Christianity
through
outrage,
picketing,
and rioting
rather than
the tenderness,
wisdom,
boldness,
and persuasive
words of
Jesus of
Nazareth.
Okay?
So we have to
stop and ask
ourselves,
what's going to
ultimately change
culture in the
world?
And it is
Christ and
the gospel.
So let's not
be like the
angry Ephesians.
Let's be
heralds of
the good news.
I think I'll
stop there
before I get
in more trouble.
Come and talk
later.
Let's pray
together.