Our Element: Ephesians 1:1-2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The book of Ephesians overflows with the message of our marvelous inheritance in Christ. Today, Pastor Rich continues a new series from Ephesians titled, In Christ, the Riches of His Grace.

As we dig into this study, we will go behind the scenes to get a glimpse into the world of ancient Ephesus. Knowing the backstory will give us a strong framework through which we can read and interpret Paul's letter. Through Paul's journey, people's lives were changed, not through politics or a cultural shift, but from the transforming power of the gospel, one life at a time. And so with these disciples, then Paul takes them to the synagogue and he's reasoning with the Jews and he's persuading them for three months he's in the synagogue. But as a result of that, some who had hardened hearts started speaking evil of the way. They were speaking slanderously. They were spreading rumors about the way.

They're accusing him of teaching falsehood, of worshiping a false god. And so because of that, as a result of this, Paul left the synagogue with these disciples. He left the synagogue and he then took his ministry to the school of Tyrannus. This was a lecture hall in the city of Ephesus. And this is where the Ephesian church mushroomed.

Why? Because Paul was teaching in the school of Tyrannus for two years. A lecture hall, school of Tyrannus. I don't know who Tyrannus was. Consider the name, though. What does Tyrannus mean? Tyrant. You wonder why his parents gave him that name. I don't know.

Just a thought. But anyway, Paul was in the school. It's possible that Tyrannus was a lecturer. And when he wasn't giving lectures, he would let Paul come in and bring people in to give them the apostolic doctrine, the truths of Jesus Christ and the gospel of grace and Jesus Christ, showing them from the Old Testament and the things that Jesus had done, that Jesus indeed was the Messiah and he had come to redeem and to reconcile mankind to himself. So here he was.

He did this for two years. And look what it says in verse 10. And this continued for two years so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

That's quite a spread, isn't it? The word of God was multiplying. It was transforming lives. And even beyond that, it says in verse 11, now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul. All miracles are unusual, but here particularly, it says God did unusual miracles by the hands of Paul.

This is very unusual. Things like Paul has a handkerchief. It's hot in the lecture hall of Tyrannus and it's full of people. And it's a hot day in Palestine.

It's a hot day in Ephesus in that part of the country. And Paul is wiping his brow, right? And they take this handkerchief and because it's touched him, the apostle, they take this handkerchief and take it to sick people. And these people are healed from their diseases.

Wow. You see, Rich, why don't we see that today? That's a whole different sermon, okay? Namely because we have the word of God, okay? We have the word of God with us. We don't need those kinds of things today. That's not to say that God can't do stuff like that, but we have the word of God before us.

And that's what we're considering right now. He did unusual miracles and Christ was glorified in the word of God spread. These miracles were authentication of the message. It was the distinction of the apostle's teaching.

In other words, this is not just another itinerant preacher coming along trying to gain a following. This is truth that needs to be dealt with. This is truth that needs to be brought to bear upon your lives. It is true.

It is trustworthy. It is from God. This is the work of the Holy Spirit of God. That was the authentication and this is why the purpose of these miracles that were done. But another important part about this is that there was a uniqueness about this also. There was a uniqueness about these unusual miracles that Paul did. They're not listed here. They are not presented here as a prescription.

It is simply described. It is not prescribed for us that we should seek this to happen among us today. In fact, it is unique in the sense that it is not to be duplicated because there were those as we see in the text, particularly verses 13 to 16, who were trying to duplicate what Paul did. And it didn't go so well for them.

Right. And the whole region knew about it. So the whole point here is that the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified and the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. The word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. In other words, the power of the word of God to transform was overcoming the influences of the worship of Diana, the superstitious persuasions of this false god idolatrous worship. It was diminishing the businesses associated with the shrine makers. Diana was a huge image that ostensibly had fallen out of the sky. So the silversmith, these shrine makers would make these little images or maybe they were little images like that, but little in comparison to the one that was in the temple.

And people would buy these and they would take them and put them in their home and count on that to be their protection. But the gospel of Christ was diminishing the influence of this. And as Demetrius said, one of the silversmiths who made the shrine, he says, we have our prosperity by this trade. His bottom line was hurting.

Why? Because the gospel of Jesus Christ was changing the culture. Get the order of this, OK? We have something to learn from this. The gospel of Jesus Christ was changing what first? Lives. And as lives were changed, then the culture was being changed. Christians, we need to get back to this because the culture was not impacted by the gospel impacted by the gospel through any political means, was it? It wasn't done through petitions and demonstrations. It was done by the transforming power of the gospel one life at a time. That's the mission of the church.

This is what we need to get back to. Now, Demetrius recognized this and his bottom line, the bottom line of his business was hurting because people weren't buying these shrines anymore. And he recognized that. So he started a riot.

He aroused the people. He says, these guys, this Paul is saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. He's saying these shrines that you all are buying from us that you buy, you put them in your home and you worship them. He's telling you those aren't gods.

Now, think about what he's saying there for a minute. We created these. We built them. We sold them to you. You bought them and he's telling us they're not gods. Do you see the deception of the human heart there? How prone we are to put our trust in things that we create ourselves, things that we can see and manipulate.

That's the human heart. This is what the gospel of Christ counters. And Demetrius was recognizing that. And so he was afraid that his trade was coming into disrepute, not only his trade, but the temple of Diana itself. Look with me at verses 28 and 29. Now, when they heard this, they were full of wrath and 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 having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's travel companions.

You can just see the image there. It's a riot going on. It's a mob scene.

You know what's interesting about it? Two of Paul's companions were seized, but Paul was held back by the other believers. Paul wanted to go out there and talk to the people.

He said, no, Paul, you can't go out there. They will tear you to shreds if you go out there. But look what it says here about the mob. It says most of them did not know why they had come together. And all they did was that they chanted for two hours, great is Diana of the Ephesians. So you have a whole mob of people. Everyone thinks something different as to why they're coming together. And the only thing they can do is just shout down the opposition.

Things haven't changed much, have they? Christians, listen to me. You are not called to that tactic.

Don't do it. That's not how God operates. He doesn't operate by demonstrations and shouting down the opposition. That's not what we're called to. We are called to present the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ one to one, one life at a time, so that lives and hearts are transformed. And when they are transformed, then the culture becomes transformed. That is the mission of the church. That's what we need to get back to.

I want you to join me on that. There's a reason why we say we are a community of grace with a culture of discipleship. This is how the first church transformed the first century Roman Empire.

It can be done again, but there's something there for you to think about. Now, as they were chanting for two hours, great is Diana of the Ephesians, the town clerk says, the town clerk comes out. Says, clerk, this man is a scribe. We think, you know, town clerk, oh, he's just a low guy. This little peon gets everybody quiet.

How does that happen? He's not just a little peon, okay? This town clerk, he is the executive officer of the town assembly, right? So it would be like, you know, town manager, city manager, something like that, kind of like the mayor. He is the highest ranking official of the natives of that land.

Now, it was, there was Roman rule there, so you had, you know, the governor and all that kind of stuff, and those were all Roman, but this is the highest ranking native official in the city of Ephesus. And he quiets the crowd, and he dismisses what he calls a disorderly gathering, and he told them, if there are any charges to be brought, they need to be determined in a lawful assembly. So there are many in our world today that could learn from Acts chapter 19, aren't there? Including some Christians. Here's the reason why they rioted, because Paul had turned away many people. It was the power of the gospel. He is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. So we have now a growing church.

The church is mushroomed for two years. Paul has been teaching, and it says all of that region of Asia had heard about this. So the church is growing, and now Paul needs to write to the church.

And so this takes us now to about five years later. Paul writes to the church at Ephesus. Where does he write from? He writes from prison.

Paul had a tremendous jail ministry as an inmate. He's in prison. It's about five years later, after the events of Acts 19. It's about 8 AD 62. He's in prison, probably in Rome.

But while he's in prison, he's allowed visitors. You've been listening to Delighting Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, lead pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Visit our church website to see upcoming events or to listen to more messages at gbcwinston.com. To discover how to live by grace, tune in with us on weekdays at 10 AM.