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The Effects of the Gospel Part 2
Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Effects of the Gospel Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 19:21-41
We need to get back to the gospel message because the gospel is not a moral code. The gospel is not a set of ethics. The gospel is not even religion, and the gospel is not some philosophy. The gospel is not a social program. Crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended into heaven.
Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders. Welcome to Hope Worth Having radio program. We’re looking forward to being able to share the word of God with you today, and And we’re gonna be in Acts chapter 19 continuing our study in the effects of the gospel, verse 21 through 41. And we’re grateful that God has not left us to ourselves or that he has become silent, but rather that he speaks, and he speaks directly to us through his word.
And so I want us to get our Bible and some pen and a paper, and let’s study together. You You say, well, pastor, I’m a stay at home mom, or I just stay home and work from the house or listen to me. God, we were talking about this in Sunday school, God has raised you up, moms, to reach those children with the gospel. God raises you up that your first mission field is not out there to the ends of the earth, but your first mission field is right in your home, reaching your children with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we think about what that might mean and what the impact of that may be in the heritage of your family, and the ripple effect upon your family that you would reach your own children with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are called not to fight god’s plans and even his changes in our life, but we are called to fulfill them, and we are to finish the course that god has us on, that we may bring glory to his name. God is calling us to be alert to the changes of those plans. The apostle’s working in Ephesus, and he is sensing by the spirit, he needs to start journeying back to Rome. He needs to get back to Rome because God is calling him to reach somebody new. And I don’t know what changes are going on in your life.
And I don’t know all the details, but I know someone who does. His name is Jesus. And maybe you don’t like closing chapters, and maybe you don’t like starting new chapters and new seasons in your life, but if God is closing one door, you be assured that he is opening another door for you to make impact upon the world for Jesus Christ. I’m telling you church that the only thing that’s gonna save this country is Jesus. You might as well come to grips with it.
And the only way that we’re gonna get this gospel message out is one by one telling people about the lord Jesus Christ. Now as we see the effects of the gospel, it not only changes our plans, but it changes our priorities. So we come to verse 23, and I want you to read along with me as we see this text. So the Bible says, so he sent into Macedonia. And about that time, there arose a great commotion about the way.
Remember that we’ve talked about the way in several passages of scripture because Jesus said, I am the way. Referring to himself, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father. Listen, you don’t get to heaven by religion, and you don’t get to heaven by baptism, and you don’t get to heaven by church membership, and you don’t get to heaven because you read your bible. All those things by the way are great and good. And they’re good disciplines to help you to grow in your faith, but in the initiation of you coming to God, it must be by faith through Jesus Christ.
You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I had this young man tell me one time that he was going to heaven because he went to church. And no matter how many times I tried to explain to him that you don’t go to heaven by going to church, because the bible says for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. He could not digest it.
He could not comprehend it, and I hate that. I hate that to this day, most likely, he still believes that he is working his way to heaven. You’re not gonna work your way to heaven, friends. You must come to the Lord Jesus Christ and you must give your life to him. You must surrender to him.
You must acknowledge that you’re a sinner and you must believe upon the lord Jesus Christ as your savior and you must call upon his name. And apart from this, my friends, you’ll split hell wide open. And that may bother you that pastor Mike would say that. But I want you to note in this text here that in verse 23 that there was a commotion about the way. You think anybody’s gonna get upset if the pastor got up and said or the apostle Paul said there’s many roads that lead to heaven?
Do you think if the apostle taught that, hey. It’s okay. You be you and you’ll get to heaven eventually doing it your way. Well, that wouldn’t cause any commotion. I mean, why are the people so upset?
Because the apostle stood up and said there’s only one way, and that is through Jesus Christ. Do you understand that, church? There’s only one way and you must teach it to your children, you must teach it to your grandchildren, you must teach it to every person that you come into contact with. And the reason these people were all so upset is because of this message about the way being Jesus. Verse 24.
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Diana. This was the temple goddess Diana brought no small profit to the craftsmen. Meaning, they made these little idols that pointed people to the big idol, which was Diana and the big temple where they worship the false god of Diana. And so this made them a lot of money, these silversmiths, these individuals who put these little idols together. Verse 25, he called them together with the workers of similar occupation.
And he said, men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that there are not gods which are made with hands. I love this. I mean, the apostle is guilty of attacking the false idols of this world, and he is guilty of proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ. He is guilty of lifting up the one and only true god that supersedes any idol in this world.
People are responding and coming to Christ and they’re throwing away their idols. And it’s such a big impact. Are you hearing me? It’s such a big impact that it’s affecting the business, the money. Now hang in there with me.
Verse 27. So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed whom all Asia and the world worship. Wow. I love this. Here’s what the gospel does.
It changes your priorities. When you’re an unbeliever and a sinner and you come to the lord Jesus Christ and you give your life fully and freely to him and you receive him as your lord and savior, your priorities change. All those idols in your life, you say, well, pastor, we don’t have any metal idols in our homes. Listen to me. We may not have metal idols, but we may have mental idols.
Are you with me? Things that are more important to us than Jesus. Things that are more important to us than our love for God. And it could be sports. It could be friends.
It could be money making. It could be our careers. It can be whatever you wanna make it to be. Listen, anything can be an idol in your life, but when you come to Christ, you set aside those idols and you make Jesus number one in your life. In the Roman world, idol worship was always connected to the local economy, and it was a big business that people used to profit off of.
And Ephesus was the home of the great goddess Diana, and the temple of Diana resided there, and it was the very foundation of the economic system of Ephesus. And so here’s what’s happening. Paul’s preaching is messing that up. Paul’s preaching is messing that up. Wouldn’t you love it that if the gospel would spread so much that all the bars in Chambersburg would shut down?
Wouldn’t you love it that all the idolatry of people living for themselves and all the idolatry that is used in this world to make money and to profit off people would be shut down and people would love God, live for Christ, and they would wanna honor God every day in their life? Now do you think that even in America that wouldn’t upset people? Because when you start hitting the pocketbook, they’ll tolerate Christians as long as you don’t hit the pocketbook, as long as you don’t start affecting how we make our money. What I wanna say to you this morning, church, is we have to make sure that first of all, in our own lives, the gospel is changing our priorities. And that every day, we are in this battle with the flesh, the world, and the devil that wants us to put other things, other stuff, even other people, other politicians ahead of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There is nothing more important to you than your relationship with Christ. Your life is about relationships. You can’t get relationships right, you can’t get anything right in your life. And that’s why it begins with your relationship with Jesus. That is the priority relationship in your life.
And then we are called to not only love God, but we’re called to love people. And that’s the effect of the gospel on us is that we’re no longer living for self, but we live for Christ, and it influences us to love others even though they are unlovable sometimes and even though they are difficult sometimes and even though they sometimes misunderstand us, we are called to make the gospel of Jesus Christ a priority in our own life and it affects the way we live our lives. The people in Ephesus want nothing to do with the gospel. They have rejected it because it’s messing up their idolatry. Now church, we have to be careful that we don’t let other messages take over the gospel message.
Sometimes as believers, we wanna get on these side tracks and we wanna follow these other messages thinking that they’re wholesome and they’re good, and yet we forget that the one message that changes lives is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our message is not social reform. Our message is not that somehow we can change the world politically. Our message is the message of spiritual reconciliation that is found in Jesus Christ, And that the true change that’s gonna come in your life is not gonna be through some step program, but it’s gonna come through a relationship with our lord and savior Jesus Christ. You see, our message is not even behavior modification.
We’re not trying to get you to act better on the outside. What we’re trying to do is to change your life on the inside, that you would become a person that is truly surrendered to Jesus Christ. We talked about the effects of the gospel. It affects our plans on what we’re gonna do because it’s all about Jesus. It affects our priorities because it’s all about Jesus.
But I want you to see, thirdly, that it changes our purpose. It changes our purpose. Look at verse 28. We pick up now. They’re they’re all upset.
And the bible says in verse 28, now when they heard this, they were full of wrath, and they cried out saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. So the whole city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with one accord. According to archaeologists, this theater held over 12,000 people, so we can assume that certainly 10 to 12,000 people were in this theater. They were all united together and having seized Gaius and Aristocris, Macedonians, Paul’s travel companions. And when Paul wanted to go into the people, the disciples would not allow him because they’re upset.
The riot has happened. They’re all upset and they’re yelling and screaming in this theater. And Paul’s like, hey. I’ll go in there and I’ll tell them the truth. And they’re like, Paul, you go in there, buddy.
You’re not coming out alive. And so verse 31 says, then some of the officials of Asia who were his friends sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater. Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused and most of them did not know why they had come together. They didn’t even know what their purpose was. They just got caught up in the the rally.
They just got caught up in the riot. They just got caught up in the protest. They just got caught up in the emotion of what’s going on. They don’t even know what’s really going on, but here they go all riled up, all worked up emotionally, like they’re gonna do something. Verse 33, the Bible says they drew Alexander out of a multitude, the Jews putting him forward.
And Alexander motioned with his hand and wanted to make his defense to the people. But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours. How long is this rally? Two hours. How long is this riot?
Two hours. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Two hours repetitively crying out, great is Diana of the Ephesians. And when the city clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian and of the great goddess Diana and of the image which fell down from Zeus? Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly.
For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess. Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, the courts are open and there are procouncils. Councils. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you have any other inquiry, to make it shall be determined in the lawful assembly.
For we are in danger of being called into question for today’s uproar. There’s being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering. And when he had said these things, he dismissed he dismissed the assembly. Now friends, what I want you to see here is that through emotion and through what I would call a patriotic appeal of Ephesus and their money making machine, the crowd was stirred up. But the Bible tells us in verse 36 and all the way through 41 that finally someone in the midst of this chaos, in the midst of this confusion, stood up and said, from a secular viewpoint, what are you doing?
If you guys keep this mess up, you’re gonna cause us to lose our own ability to govern ourselves. And so we persuaded them to calm down, and if you’ve got an issue with somebody, take it through the courts. Take it through the court system rather than taking matters into your own hand. Now here’s what I want you to understand. These people didn’t even know half the time what they were rallying about.
They didn’t understand what the riot was about. They didn’t even know what their purpose was. And I wanna say to you, church, this morning that you need to be careful getting caught up into these riots and getting caught up into these rallies and getting caught up into these protests that are constantly being put before us, and we need to understand that as believers, this is not our purpose. That our purpose is to reach people with the gospel, that politicians are not our enemies, they are our mission field. And I understand it upsets you, and I understand you don’t like that, but the apostle Paul was not interested in being a part of some rally or some riot or some protest.
He was interested in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. His purpose was not that he could get somebody elected, or his purpose was not that he could accomplish some kind of a protest, but rather his purpose was to spread the gospel of the lord Jesus Christ. And you gotta keep your eye on the ball. You gotta stay on mission for Jesus Christ. And friends, I want you to be careful that you do not get worked up.
We know this week there’s gonna be a lot of political turmoil. And some of you already know, some of you don’t know. You might wanna check it out. But whatever it is, our message is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don’t wanna get worked up.
I remember I remember back then when they were saying, hey, let’s all go down to DC, Pastor Mike. Get us a bus and let’s all go down there, pastor Mike. And I said, listen. I don’t do riots, and I don’t do protests. We’re not doing that.
I remember during COVID, people were calling me up and saying, pastor Mike, would you speak at our protest? And I said, I don’t do protests. I mean, I’m not honestly, I’m not your guy. I mean, if you were smarter, you’d get somebody else. I’d wanna get up there and I’m just gonna tell everybody how to get saved.
And I’m gonna really mess them up because I’m gonna teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ and people got upset at me. How come you won’t get a bus and how come you won’t join the riot or the rally downtown? Because I’m not gonna let some foolish politician lead me down a rabbit hole that has nothing to do with my purpose on why I came to Chambersburg. Amen? Yeah.
Alright. Work it out. Work it out. Now you may have a different reason that you’re here. Alright?
And you have to settle that with God. But I did not give my life at the age of 16 to the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Stillwater, Oklahoma at a small altar to come and protest. I gave my life to share Jesus and the gospel with every person. I have full confidence that God is sovereign. Some of the reasons we have bad political leaders is because God is judging this nation, and you need to acknowledge that.
The world’s in a mess because people are not following Christ, and we need to get back to the gospel message because the gospel is not a moral code, set of ethics, the gospel is not even religion, and the gospel is not some philosophy, the gospel is not a social program, the gospel is not a new law, the gospel is Jesus crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended into heaven. That is the gospel message. You say, where do you get this, pastor Mike? First Corinthians 15, we’re taught what the gospel is. And I wanna challenge you, church, remember your purpose because the gospel changes your purpose.
The gospel changes why you are here. The apostle Paul would later say to this church that he would establish in Romans one verse 16, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The gospel is universal in its outreach, and we are called to take this gospel. We cannot be confused.
We cannot get off message. There is only one message on the planet that has the power to change lives and to defy death. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is that Jesus died on a cross and that he rose again three days, and for every person who believes in him, they can be set free from the bondage of their sin. It is this message that not only defies the bondage of sin upon us, but defies the grip of death upon us.
In that one day, we know that when we die and leave this world, that we have a heavenly home with Jesus Christ because Jesus rose again, not only to affirm that God had accepted his sacrifice for the sins of the world, but that Jesus Christ reminds us that there is life for every believer beyond the gray. Our hope is not in the White House, in politics, and your favorite politician. You are not called to protest, church. You are called to share the gospel. You are to understand the effects of the gospel.
The world riots. The world protests. But God’s people live peaceful and quiet lives and share the gospel with every person that they can because we understand the impact and influence. There are over 300 people groups just in our nation. Just in our own nation, different ethnicities and people groups.
And how many of those need to hear the gospel? The gospel transcends all boundaries. Jesus taught us this. Hang on to this, church. Before you jump on your phone and start checking out on me, I want you to hear what I gotta say.
I specifically want you to hear what Jesus says. Matthew twenty four fourteen, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then and then shall the end come. Is it the end tomorrow? Is it the end Tuesday? The end will not come until the gospel is preached to every people group.
The word nation means ethnicity. Until every ethnic group hears the gospel in America as well as the world. You say, I would like the end to come. I would like for Jesus to come and establish his kingdom on this world. It is not coming until the gospel is preached to the end.
I didn’t say it, Jesus did. If you got a bone to pick, if it messes up your eschatology and if it messes up how you see your theology, I want you to go have a fuss with Jesus this afternoon. But this is what Jesus says and you say, I would like to see the world changed. Let me tell you something, church. The world will only be changed through the gospel And it is our job to make sure that we are witnesses unto all nations and then the end will come.
As believers, we must be faithful. We must be faithful in our witness and our proclamation of the gospel. We must be faithful and determined in our allegiance to Jesus Christ. Even if we face conflict, even if we face opposition, and hear me, church, even if we face injustice in this world, it’s shocking to me that the world hasn’t already done more injustice than already we see. We do not deny that there are injustices.
We do not deny that things are not always unfolding as they should, but we don’t see the solution in a protest. We see the solution in sharing the gospel one person at a time. The effects of the gospel will change people’s lives. The effects of the gospel will upset those who reject it. The effects of the gospel, why it’ll bring the end of this world.
And the transition to the kingdom of Christ physically on this world. You wanna see true justice? You wanna see righteousness reigning through the world? You wanna see life to be fair? Let me tell you the answer.
Go tell more people about Jesus Christ. Because when the gospel goes to every person, that’s when the end will come. The gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful, and it’s just amazing how the Lord can turn someone’s life around so dramatically. And so we hope that you realize the effects of the gospel on your own heart. And I wanna remind you that we need to keep teaching and preaching ourselves the gospel.
And the reason is is because it’s easy for us to slip into that moralism or that legalism where we think by what we do, we’re marrying favor with God. But know as we remind ourselves of the good gospel that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That is what impacts our life, and that’s where we find grace and forgiveness and the joy that is found as we walk with the Lord. Well, I wanna encourage you to make sure that you are keeping up with the Hopeworth Having ministry, and you can always do that by checking us out on YouTube. And you can get some daily devotions, sermons, as well as little clips of us just teaching the word of God.
So as little or as much as you need for your walk with the Lord in helping you to grow in your faith. So take advantage of that and check us out on YouTube, hope worth having. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is is hope worth having.
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Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Effects of the Gospel Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 19:21-41
We need to get back to the gospel message because the gospel is not a moral code. The gospel is not a set of ethics. The gospel is not even religion, and the gospel is not some philosophy. The gospel is not a social program. Crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended into heaven.
Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders. Welcome to Hope Worth Having radio program. We’re looking forward to being able to share the word of God with you today, and And we’re gonna be in Acts chapter 19 continuing our study in the effects of the gospel, verse 21 through 41. And we’re grateful that God has not left us to ourselves or that he has become silent, but rather that he speaks, and he speaks directly to us through his word.
And so I want us to get our Bible and some pen and a paper, and let’s study together. You You say, well, pastor, I’m a stay at home mom, or I just stay home and work from the house or listen to me. God, we were talking about this in Sunday school, God has raised you up, moms, to reach those children with the gospel. God raises you up that your first mission field is not out there to the ends of the earth, but your first mission field is right in your home, reaching your children with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we think about what that might mean and what the impact of that may be in the heritage of your family, and the ripple effect upon your family that you would reach your own children with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are called not to fight god’s plans and even his changes in our life, but we are called to fulfill them, and we are to finish the course that god has us on, that we may bring glory to his name. God is calling us to be alert to the changes of those plans. The apostle’s working in Ephesus, and he is sensing by the spirit, he needs to start journeying back to Rome. He needs to get back to Rome because God is calling him to reach somebody new. And I don’t know what changes are going on in your life.
And I don’t know all the details, but I know someone who does. His name is Jesus. And maybe you don’t like closing chapters, and maybe you don’t like starting new chapters and new seasons in your life, but if God is closing one door, you be assured that he is opening another door for you to make impact upon the world for Jesus Christ. I’m telling you church that the only thing that’s gonna save this country is Jesus. You might as well come to grips with it.
And the only way that we’re gonna get this gospel message out is one by one telling people about the lord Jesus Christ. Now as we see the effects of the gospel, it not only changes our plans, but it changes our priorities. So we come to verse 23, and I want you to read along with me as we see this text. So the Bible says, so he sent into Macedonia. And about that time, there arose a great commotion about the way.
Remember that we’ve talked about the way in several passages of scripture because Jesus said, I am the way. Referring to himself, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father. Listen, you don’t get to heaven by religion, and you don’t get to heaven by baptism, and you don’t get to heaven by church membership, and you don’t get to heaven because you read your bible. All those things by the way are great and good. And they’re good disciplines to help you to grow in your faith, but in the initiation of you coming to God, it must be by faith through Jesus Christ.
You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I had this young man tell me one time that he was going to heaven because he went to church. And no matter how many times I tried to explain to him that you don’t go to heaven by going to church, because the bible says for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. He could not digest it.
He could not comprehend it, and I hate that. I hate that to this day, most likely, he still believes that he is working his way to heaven. You’re not gonna work your way to heaven, friends. You must come to the Lord Jesus Christ and you must give your life to him. You must surrender to him.
You must acknowledge that you’re a sinner and you must believe upon the lord Jesus Christ as your savior and you must call upon his name. And apart from this, my friends, you’ll split hell wide open. And that may bother you that pastor Mike would say that. But I want you to note in this text here that in verse 23 that there was a commotion about the way. You think anybody’s gonna get upset if the pastor got up and said or the apostle Paul said there’s many roads that lead to heaven?
Do you think if the apostle taught that, hey. It’s okay. You be you and you’ll get to heaven eventually doing it your way. Well, that wouldn’t cause any commotion. I mean, why are the people so upset?
Because the apostle stood up and said there’s only one way, and that is through Jesus Christ. Do you understand that, church? There’s only one way and you must teach it to your children, you must teach it to your grandchildren, you must teach it to every person that you come into contact with. And the reason these people were all so upset is because of this message about the way being Jesus. Verse 24.
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Diana. This was the temple goddess Diana brought no small profit to the craftsmen. Meaning, they made these little idols that pointed people to the big idol, which was Diana and the big temple where they worship the false god of Diana. And so this made them a lot of money, these silversmiths, these individuals who put these little idols together. Verse 25, he called them together with the workers of similar occupation.
And he said, men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that there are not gods which are made with hands. I love this. I mean, the apostle is guilty of attacking the false idols of this world, and he is guilty of proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ. He is guilty of lifting up the one and only true god that supersedes any idol in this world.
People are responding and coming to Christ and they’re throwing away their idols. And it’s such a big impact. Are you hearing me? It’s such a big impact that it’s affecting the business, the money. Now hang in there with me.
Verse 27. So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed whom all Asia and the world worship. Wow. I love this. Here’s what the gospel does.
It changes your priorities. When you’re an unbeliever and a sinner and you come to the lord Jesus Christ and you give your life fully and freely to him and you receive him as your lord and savior, your priorities change. All those idols in your life, you say, well, pastor, we don’t have any metal idols in our homes. Listen to me. We may not have metal idols, but we may have mental idols.
Are you with me? Things that are more important to us than Jesus. Things that are more important to us than our love for God. And it could be sports. It could be friends.
It could be money making. It could be our careers. It can be whatever you wanna make it to be. Listen, anything can be an idol in your life, but when you come to Christ, you set aside those idols and you make Jesus number one in your life. In the Roman world, idol worship was always connected to the local economy, and it was a big business that people used to profit off of.
And Ephesus was the home of the great goddess Diana, and the temple of Diana resided there, and it was the very foundation of the economic system of Ephesus. And so here’s what’s happening. Paul’s preaching is messing that up. Paul’s preaching is messing that up. Wouldn’t you love it that if the gospel would spread so much that all the bars in Chambersburg would shut down?
Wouldn’t you love it that all the idolatry of people living for themselves and all the idolatry that is used in this world to make money and to profit off people would be shut down and people would love God, live for Christ, and they would wanna honor God every day in their life? Now do you think that even in America that wouldn’t upset people? Because when you start hitting the pocketbook, they’ll tolerate Christians as long as you don’t hit the pocketbook, as long as you don’t start affecting how we make our money. What I wanna say to you this morning, church, is we have to make sure that first of all, in our own lives, the gospel is changing our priorities. And that every day, we are in this battle with the flesh, the world, and the devil that wants us to put other things, other stuff, even other people, other politicians ahead of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There is nothing more important to you than your relationship with Christ. Your life is about relationships. You can’t get relationships right, you can’t get anything right in your life. And that’s why it begins with your relationship with Jesus. That is the priority relationship in your life.
And then we are called to not only love God, but we’re called to love people. And that’s the effect of the gospel on us is that we’re no longer living for self, but we live for Christ, and it influences us to love others even though they are unlovable sometimes and even though they are difficult sometimes and even though they sometimes misunderstand us, we are called to make the gospel of Jesus Christ a priority in our own life and it affects the way we live our lives. The people in Ephesus want nothing to do with the gospel. They have rejected it because it’s messing up their idolatry. Now church, we have to be careful that we don’t let other messages take over the gospel message.
Sometimes as believers, we wanna get on these side tracks and we wanna follow these other messages thinking that they’re wholesome and they’re good, and yet we forget that the one message that changes lives is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our message is not social reform. Our message is not that somehow we can change the world politically. Our message is the message of spiritual reconciliation that is found in Jesus Christ, And that the true change that’s gonna come in your life is not gonna be through some step program, but it’s gonna come through a relationship with our lord and savior Jesus Christ. You see, our message is not even behavior modification.
We’re not trying to get you to act better on the outside. What we’re trying to do is to change your life on the inside, that you would become a person that is truly surrendered to Jesus Christ. We talked about the effects of the gospel. It affects our plans on what we’re gonna do because it’s all about Jesus. It affects our priorities because it’s all about Jesus.
But I want you to see, thirdly, that it changes our purpose. It changes our purpose. Look at verse 28. We pick up now. They’re they’re all upset.
And the bible says in verse 28, now when they heard this, they were full of wrath, and they cried out saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. So the whole city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with one accord. According to archaeologists, this theater held over 12,000 people, so we can assume that certainly 10 to 12,000 people were in this theater. They were all united together and having seized Gaius and Aristocris, Macedonians, Paul’s travel companions. And when Paul wanted to go into the people, the disciples would not allow him because they’re upset.
The riot has happened. They’re all upset and they’re yelling and screaming in this theater. And Paul’s like, hey. I’ll go in there and I’ll tell them the truth. And they’re like, Paul, you go in there, buddy.
You’re not coming out alive. And so verse 31 says, then some of the officials of Asia who were his friends sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater. Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused and most of them did not know why they had come together. They didn’t even know what their purpose was. They just got caught up in the the rally.
They just got caught up in the riot. They just got caught up in the protest. They just got caught up in the emotion of what’s going on. They don’t even know what’s really going on, but here they go all riled up, all worked up emotionally, like they’re gonna do something. Verse 33, the Bible says they drew Alexander out of a multitude, the Jews putting him forward.
And Alexander motioned with his hand and wanted to make his defense to the people. But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours. How long is this rally? Two hours. How long is this riot?
Two hours. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Two hours repetitively crying out, great is Diana of the Ephesians. And when the city clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian and of the great goddess Diana and of the image which fell down from Zeus? Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly.
For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess. Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, the courts are open and there are procouncils. Councils. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you have any other inquiry, to make it shall be determined in the lawful assembly.
For we are in danger of being called into question for today’s uproar. There’s being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering. And when he had said these things, he dismissed he dismissed the assembly. Now friends, what I want you to see here is that through emotion and through what I would call a patriotic appeal of Ephesus and their money making machine, the crowd was stirred up. But the Bible tells us in verse 36 and all the way through 41 that finally someone in the midst of this chaos, in the midst of this confusion, stood up and said, from a secular viewpoint, what are you doing?
If you guys keep this mess up, you’re gonna cause us to lose our own ability to govern ourselves. And so we persuaded them to calm down, and if you’ve got an issue with somebody, take it through the courts. Take it through the court system rather than taking matters into your own hand. Now here’s what I want you to understand. These people didn’t even know half the time what they were rallying about.
They didn’t understand what the riot was about. They didn’t even know what their purpose was. And I wanna say to you, church, this morning that you need to be careful getting caught up into these riots and getting caught up into these rallies and getting caught up into these protests that are constantly being put before us, and we need to understand that as believers, this is not our purpose. That our purpose is to reach people with the gospel, that politicians are not our enemies, they are our mission field. And I understand it upsets you, and I understand you don’t like that, but the apostle Paul was not interested in being a part of some rally or some riot or some protest.
He was interested in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. His purpose was not that he could get somebody elected, or his purpose was not that he could accomplish some kind of a protest, but rather his purpose was to spread the gospel of the lord Jesus Christ. And you gotta keep your eye on the ball. You gotta stay on mission for Jesus Christ. And friends, I want you to be careful that you do not get worked up.
We know this week there’s gonna be a lot of political turmoil. And some of you already know, some of you don’t know. You might wanna check it out. But whatever it is, our message is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don’t wanna get worked up.
I remember I remember back then when they were saying, hey, let’s all go down to DC, Pastor Mike. Get us a bus and let’s all go down there, pastor Mike. And I said, listen. I don’t do riots, and I don’t do protests. We’re not doing that.
I remember during COVID, people were calling me up and saying, pastor Mike, would you speak at our protest? And I said, I don’t do protests. I mean, I’m not honestly, I’m not your guy. I mean, if you were smarter, you’d get somebody else. I’d wanna get up there and I’m just gonna tell everybody how to get saved.
And I’m gonna really mess them up because I’m gonna teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ and people got upset at me. How come you won’t get a bus and how come you won’t join the riot or the rally downtown? Because I’m not gonna let some foolish politician lead me down a rabbit hole that has nothing to do with my purpose on why I came to Chambersburg. Amen? Yeah.
Alright. Work it out. Work it out. Now you may have a different reason that you’re here. Alright?
And you have to settle that with God. But I did not give my life at the age of 16 to the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Stillwater, Oklahoma at a small altar to come and protest. I gave my life to share Jesus and the gospel with every person. I have full confidence that God is sovereign. Some of the reasons we have bad political leaders is because God is judging this nation, and you need to acknowledge that.
The world’s in a mess because people are not following Christ, and we need to get back to the gospel message because the gospel is not a moral code, set of ethics, the gospel is not even religion, and the gospel is not some philosophy, the gospel is not a social program, the gospel is not a new law, the gospel is Jesus crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended into heaven. That is the gospel message. You say, where do you get this, pastor Mike? First Corinthians 15, we’re taught what the gospel is. And I wanna challenge you, church, remember your purpose because the gospel changes your purpose.
The gospel changes why you are here. The apostle Paul would later say to this church that he would establish in Romans one verse 16, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The gospel is universal in its outreach, and we are called to take this gospel. We cannot be confused.
We cannot get off message. There is only one message on the planet that has the power to change lives and to defy death. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is that Jesus died on a cross and that he rose again three days, and for every person who believes in him, they can be set free from the bondage of their sin. It is this message that not only defies the bondage of sin upon us, but defies the grip of death upon us.
In that one day, we know that when we die and leave this world, that we have a heavenly home with Jesus Christ because Jesus rose again, not only to affirm that God had accepted his sacrifice for the sins of the world, but that Jesus Christ reminds us that there is life for every believer beyond the gray. Our hope is not in the White House, in politics, and your favorite politician. You are not called to protest, church. You are called to share the gospel. You are to understand the effects of the gospel.
The world riots. The world protests. But God’s people live peaceful and quiet lives and share the gospel with every person that they can because we understand the impact and influence. There are over 300 people groups just in our nation. Just in our own nation, different ethnicities and people groups.
And how many of those need to hear the gospel? The gospel transcends all boundaries. Jesus taught us this. Hang on to this, church. Before you jump on your phone and start checking out on me, I want you to hear what I gotta say.
I specifically want you to hear what Jesus says. Matthew twenty four fourteen, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then and then shall the end come. Is it the end tomorrow? Is it the end Tuesday? The end will not come until the gospel is preached to every people group.
The word nation means ethnicity. Until every ethnic group hears the gospel in America as well as the world. You say, I would like the end to come. I would like for Jesus to come and establish his kingdom on this world. It is not coming until the gospel is preached to the end.
I didn’t say it, Jesus did. If you got a bone to pick, if it messes up your eschatology and if it messes up how you see your theology, I want you to go have a fuss with Jesus this afternoon. But this is what Jesus says and you say, I would like to see the world changed. Let me tell you something, church. The world will only be changed through the gospel And it is our job to make sure that we are witnesses unto all nations and then the end will come.
As believers, we must be faithful. We must be faithful in our witness and our proclamation of the gospel. We must be faithful and determined in our allegiance to Jesus Christ. Even if we face conflict, even if we face opposition, and hear me, church, even if we face injustice in this world, it’s shocking to me that the world hasn’t already done more injustice than already we see. We do not deny that there are injustices.
We do not deny that things are not always unfolding as they should, but we don’t see the solution in a protest. We see the solution in sharing the gospel one person at a time. The effects of the gospel will change people’s lives. The effects of the gospel will upset those who reject it. The effects of the gospel, why it’ll bring the end of this world.
And the transition to the kingdom of Christ physically on this world. You wanna see true justice? You wanna see righteousness reigning through the world? You wanna see life to be fair? Let me tell you the answer.
Go tell more people about Jesus Christ. Because when the gospel goes to every person, that’s when the end will come. The gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful, and it’s just amazing how the Lord can turn someone’s life around so dramatically. And so we hope that you realize the effects of the gospel on your own heart. And I wanna remind you that we need to keep teaching and preaching ourselves the gospel.
And the reason is is because it’s easy for us to slip into that moralism or that legalism where we think by what we do, we’re marrying favor with God. But know as we remind ourselves of the good gospel that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That is what impacts our life, and that’s where we find grace and forgiveness and the joy that is found as we walk with the Lord. Well, I wanna encourage you to make sure that you are keeping up with the Hopeworth Having ministry, and you can always do that by checking us out on YouTube. And you can get some daily devotions, sermons, as well as little clips of us just teaching the word of God.
So as little or as much as you need for your walk with the Lord in helping you to grow in your faith. So take advantage of that and check us out on YouTube, hope worth having. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is is hope worth having.
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