Sermon Recap | Ephesus

This week we wrapped up our Lessons from Church Planting series by looking at the Church of Ephesus. We have more information about this church than any other in the Bible (Acts 19; 1 and 2 Timothy; Ephesians; Revelation 2) Kent Bateman, pastor of City Church in Knoxville, walked us through two particular passages of scripture to see what we might apply from the church of Ephesus to our own lives.

Acts 19:11-20

11 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 13 Then 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.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all[a] of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 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. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 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 it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

Following Jesus is necessarily disruptive.

The power of God is so evident through Paul that followers of Jesus bring everything that represents their former way of life, place them on an altar, and destroy them. Their way of life was disrupted in a major way by following Jesus.

When following Jesus disrupts someone’s life, it’s an absolutely beautiful thing to watch.  And when followers of Jesus allow Him to disrupt their lives, we begin to see what the church in Ephesus saw: the power of God prevailing mightily.

Acts 19:23-27

11 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 13 Then 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.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all[a] of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 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. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 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 it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

Following Jesus not only disrupts your individual life but the life of your city.

Following Jesus so impacted the lives of believers there that the very city felt the shock of men and women no longer worshipping idols in Ephesus.

But somewhere along the way, something happened. And when we see the church of Ephesus addressed in Revelation, it comes with an instruction of warning:

Revelation 2:1-5

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

The church in Ephesus had lost their preference for the things of God.

The word that the Bible uses for love in this passage means “to choose to show unconditional preference for something.”

Jesus warns the Ephesians (and us) to not follow the natural drift that will cause everything else to disrupt their love for Jesus. He encourages them to rediscover their love—their preference—for following Jesus that they had in the beginning.

Every time Jesus or what the Scriptures teach conflicts with how we like our lives to be, we have two choices. We can choose to view these moments as threats or as opportunities. And all of that depends on whether or not we’ve allowed Jesus to disrupt our lives.

When Jesus disrupts people, lives change and cities change. So let’s be a part of seeing God’s power prevail. Let’s be a part of the beautifully disruptive kingdom of God. And that all starts with Jesus disrupting us.

Sermon Recap | Athens

This week we learned from Paul in a city called Athens as he was asked to provide a reason for why anyone might trust Jesus and become a Christian. The following is one of the most studied and discussed passages in scripture on the topic of mission and engagement. What we see is Paul contextualize the gospel for the city of Athens. He meets people where they are and, using their own quotes and ways of thinking, presents the good news of Jesus. 

Acts 17:16-34
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

Paul is motivated by love and concern for these people who are misled, confused, and wrong. Everything that he says and does next flows out of his love, compassion, and concern. This is what drives mission in our lives. People are not projects. We love people because God loves people and we believe that Jesus is worthy of being worshipped by the people He loves. Like Paul, we believe that lives begin to fracture and break down the more that the one true God is pushed out and replaced. 

17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,[a] 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’;[b] as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’[c]

29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst.34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

What should we take and apply?

1. Observe the idols
What are our idols? What are the objects of our worship? Everyone is pouring out their lives for someone or something. The opposite of Christianity is not atheism but idolatry. We need to know our friends’ and neighbors’ beliefs and idols. 

2. Undermine the idols
Nothing created can bear the weight of providing us with identity and meaning—only God can do that. What do our friends and neighbors believe? What are their idols and how can we help them see disconnects?

3. Show how Jesus is better
We show this to our neighbors and friends in two ways: First, by showing them that Jesus is a transcendent treasure unto Himself and second that whatever it is that they are pursuing in life, Jesus offers a better version of it. Repent and believe is always the invitation. Jesus is the only God who won’t let them down, who laid down His life for them, and rose from the dead to prove that every word He ever said was true and right. 

4. Be provoked
And with all of this, we have to be provoked, like Paul was. We must be provoked by our city and the brokenness that we see. We must be heartbroken over the ways we see people trying to make their lives work apart from God. We must see our indifference as wickedness. If we love the people around us and we believe the gospel, we must figure out every possible way to communicate it effectively.
 

Sermon Recap | Every Group Around the Pool

Because of sin, we have three problems:

1. Broken Creation (death, disease)

2. Internal (Because we are sinners, we don’t trust God and we’ve built our lives around things other than Him)

3. External (We have set ourselves up against God; He is rightly offended and opposed to us. He cannot let sin go undealt with and remain just)

What we need is reconciliation. We need for creation to be restored to its original design and we need to be reconciled to God. God’s response is to provide a way for us to be reconciled to him—first through Abraham and the Law and then, ultimately, through Jesus. (Genesis 12:1-3)

Jesus’ life was about reconciling all things back to God. (Colossians 1:19-22)

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

-2 Corinthians 5:14-20

As new creations in Christ, we are given new minds that want to learn about God and know Him and new desires that draw us to God and the things of God. This is what propels the church of God forward.

Be sure to listen to the sermon for a broad summary of how the Gospel spread from Jesus’ closest friends all the way to us in Columbia, SC!

So how does our church go about the ministry of reconciliation?

Midtown’s Philosophy of Ministry:

Gatherings and LifeGroups are our primary programs

The Bible calls us into:

1. Knowledge

2. Care

3. Friendships

4. Mission

A healthy church culture will embody each of these things which is why that’s our aim for LifeGroups.

Elements of LifeGroup time:

1. Discuss the sermon

2. Engage the heart

3. Catch up on life

4. Review the mission

According to feedback from LifeGroups, the area that we are the weakest in is mission so we are starting an initiative called “Every Group Around the Pool.” We want every LifeGroup gathered around the baptistery as someone they led to Christ gets baptized.

We have been given the ministry of reconciliation, and we find ourselves in a long line of believers who have faithfully proclaimed and ministered and watch God bless it by saving and redeeming and reconciling men and women to himself.