The Effects of the Gospel Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Effects of the Gospel Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 19:21-41

Your first mission field is not out there, but is right in your home reaching your children with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we think about what the impact of that may be in the heritage of your family, that you would reach your own children with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders, and you are listening to Hopeworth Having radio program. And we are delighted to have you with us today, and we hope that God’s word is a blessing to you because our goal is to teach the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and to help reach the lost.

So we’re gonna be in Acts chapter 19 today, verse 21 through 41, and we want to share God’s word and learn about the effects of the gospel. What are the effects of the gospel? So I hope you’ll take your bibles and join me as we study together. If you have your bible this morning, I want you to join me in Acts chapter 19. We’re gonna talk about the effects of the gospel upon our lives.

When you think about the good news, that’s literally the definition of the gospel. But when you think about the good news of salvation and how wonderful it is, it’s really hard to understand why anyone would reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostle Peter preached in Acts 10 that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. We live in a world where people are still under the bondage of their sin. And they deal with the guilt of their sin every day.

They try different things to pacify that guilt, or subsided in their minds, in their hearts. But the real answer is the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we contemplate the thought that there are those who do not believe, that there are those who do not receive Christ as their lord, we wonder who would turn down eternal life for eternal punishment? Who would turn down heaven for hell? Who would refuse everlasting peace and joy for misery and pain?

Unfortunately, there are many that have. Jesus reminds us in Matthew seven fourteen, because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, there are few who find it. It’s not difficult in the sense that it requires a lot of labor on our part to receive Christ. It’s not difficult in the sense that it is an almost impossible situation. But rather it is difficult because we deal with the world and the flesh that is always calling us to live for self.

And to be a follower of Christ and to believe in Jesus, there are few who find it because they have to be willing to die to self and receive Jesus Christ as lord and savior. When we come to our text this morning in Acts chapter 19, we see the effects of the gospel. If you recall, the apostle Paul has been spending time in Ephesus. And in this section of passage of the scripture, he has been there nearly three years. He has established a local bible believing church.

Several people have come to Christ. The church is growing and thriving for the Lord. But his time in Ephesus is coming to an end. Remember the apostle was not so much a pastor as much as he was a church planter. And God had called him to be that pioneer to go into communities and into cities and to plow out a bible believing church.

And so it’s very unusual that Paul would spend so much time in one particular city and share the gospel so much. But what’s interesting as he comes to the end of his time in Ephesus, that it ends with a riot. It ends with the people becoming very upset with him. Not those who believe in Christ, but those who do not believe in Christ. You would think after three years of ministry that there would be many that would be grateful for the ministry of the apostle, but they are not.

And what we see in our passage today is the dramatic impact of God’s work, God’s truth, God’s gospel upon not only those who believe in him, but those who do not believe in him. The ministry of the gospel that the apostle Paul declared to the people at Ephesus had become very upsetting to those who had rejected it. And the total impact of this ministry upon the business world and the religious world in Ephesus had caused the city to demand that Paul be held accountable. Because he was impacting his message was literally impacting their livelihood. So as you are taking notes this morning, I want us to learn the effects of the gospel in our own lives, as we see it unfold in the life of the apostle Paul.

First of all, is that it always changes our plans. Look at verse 21 through 22. When these things were accomplished, the Apostle Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia Two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a time. Now the apostle was intending to return to the places where he had already been.

Remember that we’re in the third missionary journey of the apostle, That he has already established churches in many cities and communities. That there are many who have already believed in Christ and so he wants to go back, make sure they’re doing okay, and to assist them in any way that he can. Not long stays, but he’ll go back and encourage the believers. That is his goal, but he says to them, you’ll see there in verse 21 that after I have been there, I must also see Rome. The apostle realized that his plans needed to change because of the gospel.

That he could not stay in Ephesus, and he could not stay where he had already been for a long period of time. He needed to get to Rome. Now why would he need to get to Rome? Because it was a strategic city. It was the hub of the Roman Empire.

It was in Rome that the apostle would establish a church, and it would have a profound impact upon the Roman Empire, which then would take the gospel even farther and wider to more people in the world. He recognized that the church in Rome would have a worldwide impact. And so the apostle is grasping this, the spirit of God is giving him the wisdom and the leadership, the guidance, that in order for him to have a worldwide ministry, he needs to get the gospel to Rome. And I think about that in our own lives. I don’t want you to worry.

I’m not saying that you need to pack up and go to Rome. I don’t want you to think in any way. But if you need to go to Rome, I’m cool with that. As long as you’re going to take the gospel of Jesus Christ. But even in our own life, we recognize that we all have a course to run.

That we all have a course that is mapped out by God himself for each of our life. Your life is not a quinky dink, and your life is not just by accident or even luck or some kind of man made philosophical fate that you are somehow living out. But God has purpose in your life. And God has plans for your life. And God wants to use each and every one of us for his glory.

And that when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we recognize that God may change our plans day to day, hour by hour, literally moment by moment that we are open to the leadership of the spirit of God in our hearts, that we may be ready to share the gospel with one more person. D. L. Moody said this, if they will not come to us, we have to go to them because this is the spirit of the gospel. The gospel is not something we hold on to and say, man, we love it, we are enjoying it, we are grateful for it, but yet we do not share it.

We’re not doing well when we are just holding on to the gospel for ourselves, but we are called to recognize that God puts people in our life for a reason. The psalmist said this in Psalm 37 that the steps of a good man are ordered by the lord and he delights in his way. Have you thought about that? Have you thought about it? I know some of you already have your to do list for next week.

Maybe some of you not even sure what you’re gonna do after church, but a lot of people, they’re already organized what’s coming up for the next week. And that’s all good and wonderful, but you gotta make sure that you’re letting your steps be ordered by God and not by your selfish desires. And even as believers and followers of Christ, we can get so wrapped up in what we wanna do that we forget why God has us where he has us. And we forget why God puts us in positions of where we are. You might think, man I got this wonderful job and they pay me a wonderful salary and they do some wonderful things for me and God has me here to make money.

But I’m here to tell you as a believer, it’s totally different. The money is just a sideshow. It’s just the gravy on top of the mashed potatoes. It’s just the whipped cream on top of the ice cream. Amen?

You guys like whipped cream or am I the only one? We like a little cherry on top. Amen? But here’s the thing, why does God have you where he has you? To tell people about Jesus.

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 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 apostles 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. Do 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 them selves 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 sidetracks 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.

The gospel is powerful, and it is the power of God unto salvation the apostle taught in Romans, and we know its effects upon our hearts. But I think some people don’t realize that the gospel not only draws you, but it also can repel you. To some, it’s a scent unto life, an aroma unto life, but to others, it is a aroma unto death. Those who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ despite the evidence and the drawing of the spirit and the movement of God upon their heart through the word of God, and they still refuse to believe, only harden their heart. The gospel has an effect no matter what upon the heart.

It either draws you or you push it away. But either way, the effects of the gospel are real, and we see this in Acts chapter 19. And so we can’t lose confidence in the power of God’s word. We can’t lose confidence in the effect of God’s word, and we must be faithful to consistently share it with our family and with our friends. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.