In his sermon 'Culture Shock - Making a Kingdom Impact on Your Culture,' Steve Grutzius discusses the definition of evangelism and its effects on culture through the example of Acts chapter 19. He emphasizes that evangelism should be defined as a long-term commitment to clearly, accurately, and powerfully proclaiming God's word to people, both publicly and privately. Grutzius explains the role of a New Testament evangelist as an assistant to the apostles, and he refers to three words associated with evangelism in the New Testament: Euangelion (good news), Euangelizo (the act of proclaiming the good news), and Euangelistes (the person who proclaims the good news). The speaker also highlights the problem with defining evangelism as the effect produced in the hearers, as it can lead to a pragmatic and calculating approach to evangelism instead of focusing on the message being preached. Acts chapter 19 demonstrates that evangelism can cause a culture shock when the gospel message impacts a culture, as seen in Paul's ministry in Ephesus.

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Steve Grazias with the following message entitled Culture Shock, making a kingdom impact on your culture. I want to talk about culture shock. You know, what happens when the gospel message impacts a culture. And we're going to look at Acts chapter 19. I'm actually going to read through most of that chapter and then go back and just touch on some areas of impact and what I want to key in on are really three things.

One is a definition of evangelism. Now if you've been to some of the workshops as I have you've heard it divine very clearly by some of the other speakers but I'm gonna give it my best shot as well. And when you define evangelism how you want to do it is the pattern you see in the scriptures, the words that are used to describe evangelism, and then an historic account of what evangelism is. So I'm going to try to do that. And also, we see in Acts chapter 19, and also in Acts chapter 20, Paul coming into a city, into Ephesus, and evangelizing it, and preaching the gospel.

And We see the culture being shocked we see opposition to the gawk To the gospel which we're going to talk about and look at and then we see the culture shock What happens to that culture after it's impacted with the kingdom? With the kingdom of God through the preaching of the gospel. Our church was planted almost exactly six years ago. It was in October of 2006. And when the leaders of the church got together and said, you know, we believe in exegetical preaching, which book of the Bible are we going to go through first and there were three of us and it was unanimous I mean we almost all said it at the same time in unison it says we got to go through the book of Acts and so We spent the first four years of our church going through the book of Acts, and it had a dramatic effect on the church.

How we did church on day one is so much different than how we did church in year four. Because What we were doing, we were just humbling ourselves under the Word of God and saying, this is what a New Testament church looks like, let's act like them. You know, let's act like them. And we just started seeing ministries develop in the home and hospitality and sharing meals together and breaking bread together and just a community being built. And it was nothing more than consistently every Sunday just preaching through a book of the Bible and letting God's word affect people.

And so when we first started out, the first few people that came to the church, it was just a handful of mostly homeschool families, you know, who believed in home discipleship, and they were coming to that church because they wanted to be with very like-minded people. You've probably heard that story before. And that's how we were when we started out. And evangelism in our homes was dynamic. Everybody was having family worship and evangelizing their children.

But what starts in the home needs to go outside of the home. But it wasn't until we went through the book of Acts and pretty much finished four years later the transformation in these families. Families that were more concerned about sheltering their kids and just discipling and training and being kind of an inward focus. By the end of that four years, families were just starting ministries. Now, the elders directed none of this.

The elders of the church directed none of this. We just preached the word publicly, privately. We preached the word to people. And what happened is families just started transforming. They started reaching out to their unsaved neighbors, inviting them over.

They started reaching out into their community. One of the families took some other families with them. They now run a Friday night service once a month at Pacific Guard Mission. Other families are going into nursing homes and singing and ministering to the residents of the nursing homes. One family lives in a very poor neighborhood and just started handing out food and stuff to the community and the church was supporting them in that their front door you know next to their front door is just a wall of you know Bible tracts and New Testaments and stuff for people when they come to their door for food they just hand it out and and share the gospel with them and we directed none of this The leadership had nothing to do with this other than preaching God's Word consistently, ministering the Word of God to the people, and God just gave each family a vision.

So we're, as a church, as church leaders, trying to run behind these families and support them in any way we can. But that's what the gospel does. That's the impact that the gospel is intended to have. So I'm going to read through Acts chapter 19, verses 8 to 41. And it's a rather long passage.

If you want, you can stand and read along with me. The words will be up on the screen. Or read along in your own Bible, in your own translation. But I'm going to go ahead and read it, starting at verse 8. And Paul entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick and the diseases left them and evil spirits went out but also some of the Jewish exorcists who went from place to place attempted to name over those who had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, I recognize Jesus.

And I know about Paul, but who are you? And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing, and disclosing their practices.

Many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone, And they counted up the price of them and found it 50, 000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. And having sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. About that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the way.

For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together with the workmen of similar trades and said, Men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business. You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made with hands are no gods at all. Not only is there a danger that this trait of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be regarded as worthless, and that she, whom all of Asia and the world worship, will even be dethroned from her magnificence. When they heard this and were filled with rage they began crying out saying great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

The city was filled with confusion and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia. And when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let him. Also some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater. So then, some who were shouting one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together. Some of the crowd concluded it was Alexander since the Jews had put him forward and having motioned with his hand Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly but when they recognized that he was a Jew a single outcry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours, great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

After quieting the crowd, the town clerk said, men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell down from heaven. So since these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and to do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess. So then if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against any man, the courts are in session and pro-councils are available. Let them bring charges against one another.

But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the lawful assembly. For indeed we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection with today's events since there is no real cause for it and in this connection we will be unable to account for this disorderly gathering. After saying this he dismissed the assembly. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, We just ask that your Holy Spirit would attend the preaching of your word That you would open your eyes our eyes and our hearts to hear what your spirit is saying to the church today We ask this in Jesus name Amen, you can have a seat But when we define evangelism again, I said we want to do it first of all from the scriptures We what the scriptures say about evangelism Next what the patterns we see in the scriptures and then finally what church history had to say about that.

So we want to take a little time and do that before we go on. Volumes of books have been written on it, thousands of seminary courses have been taught on it, and churches have devoted countless dollars and resources to this one thing called evangelism. But what is it? I mean it's a big buzzword today. Every church I've ever been in has talked about evangelism.

If you look in the concordance and try to find the word evangelism, you won't find it in the Bible. The English word evangelism is not used in the Bible at all. The word evangelist is used, but it's only used three times, so we don't have a whole lot to go on. It's used in Acts chapter 21 8 where it talks about Philip the evangelist who was one of the seven. It's used in 2 Timothy 4 5 where Paul tells Timothy to fulfill his ministry and to do the work of an evangelist.

Then it's also used in Ephesians 4 where Jesus is giving gifts to the church and one of those gifts was an evangelist. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers were all gifts to the church. So the definition of evangelism is really derived more from how we see the apostles ministering in the book of Acts, more from how it's been viewed in church history, than it is really from the role of the New Testament evangelist. Even in Ephesians, it says the role of the evangelist is not what we consider the role of the evangelist today. If we go on in verse 12 of Ephesians 4, it says the reason God gave evangelists was to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

So when we think of evangelists we think of like Billy Graham, right? We think of somebody coming into a town, holding a big meeting, preaching the gospel, and a bunch of people coming forward. I mean that's how we view an evangelist today. But that's not the view of an evangelist or a New Testament evangelist or how they were viewed in the New Testament. They were viewed as associates of the apostles chosen by the apostles to go and water the churches that the apostles had planted, sometimes go ahead of them, sometimes stay behind them and oversee the church until elders or pastors could be established in those churches.

That was the New Testament role of the elders. In 1500s, John Calvin said this, he's commenting on these verses. In the 1500s, this was the view, predominantly. It deserves attention also that of the five offices which are here enumerated, not more than the last two are intended to be perpetual. Apostles, evangelists, prophets were bestowed on the church for a limited time only.

The reason they believed this is because the evangelist in the New Testament was tied to an apostle. So when the apostolic age ended, they felt that office ended. Another reason they believed it is because the only two offices mentioned with qualifications and talked about in the epistles and in the New Testament are the offices of elders and deacons. So that was the view in 1500. 1600, Matthew Poole commenting on this said this, evangelists, these were likewise extraordinary offices, for the most part chosen by the apostles as their companions and assistants in preaching the word and planting churches.

Such were Mark, Luke, Timothy, Titus, Apollos, Apaphras, Trophimus, and Silas. So again, they're linking the New Testament evangelists to the apostles. In the 1700s, this is Matthew Henry, It says, the office of the evangelist was as the apostles' deputies to water the churches that they planted. They were not settled pastors, but for some time resided in and presided over the churches that the apostles had planted till they were settled under a standing ministry. So again, the view was they were deputies of the apostles, deputized by the apostles.

They would oversee a church until elders could be established in that church. In the 1800s, This is Philip Schaff's history of the church. And he said, apostles, prophets, and evangelists were those offices that were not limited to any one location, but extended over the whole church. Paul mentions them together in this order. All three are usually regarded as extraordinary offices and confined to the apostolic age.

So this has been the view 1600, 1700, 1850. It really wasn't until the 20th century that evangelism became this big buzzword. It was at the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century, that it started getting redefined. But that was the common view of what the evangelist was. He was the assistant to the Apostle in the New Testament.

There are three words associated with evangelism in the New Testament. Euangelion, Euangelizo, and Euangelistes. The evangel, evangelism, and the evangelist. All three words have something in common. Euangelion just simply means good news and it's almost always translated the gospel.

Sometimes it's translated good tidings. Euangelizo is the act of proclaiming the good news, of proclaiming that message. And then Euangelistes is translated as evangelist and this is the person who proclaims or heralds or trumpets these good tidings or this good news. But all three words associated with evangelism are connected primarily to the message, to a message delivered. It's either the message, it's the act of delivering the message, or it's the person who delivers the message.

So message is primary, or should be primary, in our definition of what evangelism is. So according to the New Testament, to the patterns that I see in the book of Acts, evangelism could be defined as a long-term commitment to clearly, accurately, and powerfully proclaiming God's word to people, both publicly and privately. That's the act of evangelism. It's the act of proclaiming this message. Now there's a lot of confusion in the church today.

There's a great problem in the church today over how we define evangelism. Usually evangelism is defined as an event that happens. As an outreach event or something special outside of the normal disciple making process. It's usually how it's defined today, But I don't believe that's the way the New Testament would define it. J.I.

Packer had this to say about how we define it today. He says, it is our widespread and persistent habit to define evangelism, not in terms, not of a message delivered, but of an effect produced in our hearers. And that's a problem. We define it not as the clarity and the purity of a message delivered, we define it by the effect it has on our hearers. And how we define it really makes us look at evangelism differently.

For example, if we define evangelism as an effect produced in the hearers, then we're going to measure our results a certain way. In other words, we're going to ask certain questions if that's our definition. Are we attracting people to our church? Are the outreach events we hold well attended? Are we getting people to make decisions for the Lord Jesus Christ?

These are the questions we ask. Do our methods achieve these desired results? And if we can answer yes to those questions then we say yes, we're an evangelistic church because that's how we define it. But if we define evangelism differently, For example, if we define it by the message preached, then we measure it differently. We ask different questions.

We ask are we faithfully preaching God's message? Are we teaching the full counsel of God? Are we relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to preach this message? Are we living what we preach? These are the different questions we ask.

And if we answer yes to those questions, then we say yes, we're an evangelistic church by the way we define it. Now we have in the book of Acts Peter right off the beginning in Acts chapter 2 when the Holy Spirit falls, Peter preaches a message in Acts chapter 2. And you can go in there and read the message. It's a great message. It's not for spiritual laws.

It talks about a lot of things. Who God is, repentance, judgment. It talks about many things. But he preaches God's Word clearly, powerfully, accurately, and 3, 000 people get saved. Now you read a little farther in Acts chapter 7, and Stephen preaches almost an identical message.

Go read these two sermons. Very similar messages. Stephen also preached it clearly, powerfully, accurately, but he got a different result. He was stoned to death. Different result.

So which event was successful evangelism? It depends on how you define it. If you define it as the effect produced, only Peter was successful in evangelism. If you define it by the message taught or the message proclaimed, they were both successful in evangelism. Both of them had successful evangelistic efforts.

So it all depends on your definition. J.I. Packer in his book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God had this to say. He said, if we forget that it is God's prerogative to give results when the Gospel is preached, we shall start to think that it is our responsibility to secure them. And if we forget that only God can give faith, we shall start to think that the making of converts depends, in the final analysis, not on God, but on us, and that the decisive factor is the way we evangelize.

This line of thought consistently followed out will lead us astray. Let us work this out. If we consider it our job not simply to present Christ but to actually produce converts, our approach to evangelism would become pragmatic and calculating. We should conclude that our basic equipment, both for personal interaction and public preaching, must be twofold. We must not only have a clear grasp of the message, but an irresistible technique for inducing a response.

We should therefore make it our business to try and develop such a technique. And we should evaluate all evangelism by the criterion, not only of the message preached, but also of visible results. If our efforts were not bearing fruit, we should conclude that our techniques still needed improving. If they were bearing fruit, we should conclude that this justified the technique we'd been using. Now, how is the modern church defining evangelism today?

It's by the effect produced. And so what's happening is we're doing all kinds of different things to get the effect. And so almost any event, Any ministry, anything that takes place can be justified because somebody made a decision, right? So it doesn't matter if you have the rock and roll band and the lights and the fog and everything going on, somebody made a decision. It justifies what we did.

It justifies the technique. And that's the point that J.I. Packer's getting at. I think we forget about what God's commanded us to do, and this has been mentioned again and again at this conference. We're told to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe everything that Jesus has commanded them.

Making disciples is evangelism. Evangelism is making disciples. There's a false dichotomy today between the two. We think evangelism is different than discipleship. Well, it is in a sense, and I think Kevin Swanson alluded to this evangelism is start becoming a disciple discipleship is keep on becoming a disciple it's it's the same process it's the same message repent and believe it's the same message again and again What we see in Acts chapter 19 is not a campaign that Paul put on, it's not an outreach event that he sponsored, but it's evangelism taking place during a consistent long-term teaching ministry and Ephesus.

Paul was in Ephesus for a little over three years. That's not a three-hour campaign, a three-day weekend event. He was there for three years, and he was doing the same thing the whole time he was there, reasoning and persuading from the scriptures. That's what he did. In verses 8 and 9, which I just read, it says Paul entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months.

So he's going in the synagogue and he was speaking out boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. This was not the four spiritual laws. He was proclaiming the kingdom of God consistently for a period of three months. Now he got some opposition. It says, but when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples.

Reasoning daily, now listen again, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus, this took place for two years. So he took the believers that he got in the first three months and he brought him to the school of Tyrannus for two years and it says so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord both Jews and Greek. So I don't know if people from Asia were coming to the school of Tyrannus and Paul was reasoning and persuading with them about the kingdom of God, or if he trained these disciples and sent them out. I don't know. I wish I knew what happened in the school of Tyrannus.

It doesn't tell us. But something happened there over a period of two years and all of Asia heard the word of God all of Asia heard the word of God all those churches in Revelation were started here another thing about evangelism is that evangelism is confrontational you have to understand that it really is says that Paul was speaking out boldly and that he was reasoning and he was persuading. When you try to persuade someone of something that's confrontational. It's confrontational. It is.

Paul told Timothy the evangelist, he said, Preach the word. Be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. Now, are those neutral words? Reprove, rebuke, exhort. No.

These are confrontational words. If you reprove someone, you have to speak to them in a confrontational way. If you exhort someone, if you rebuke someone, evangelism is confrontational. Now today, confrontation is taboo. In our society, you're not to confront anyone, are you?

If you don't confront anyone, you won't evangelize. You won't. It's confrontational. You have to confront the culture. Today all types of lifestyles and life choices are acceptable.

And we're told that we should not express an opposing viewpoint because it might offend someone and that's equal to a hate crime, you know, them being offended. This is the new tolerance. We're told not to confront. We're told not to oppose. We're told not to persuade, not to rebuke, not to exhort.

We're told not to do these things. That's the new tolerance of today. But the way we're to evangelize is not the way the world wants it. It's the way the Bible prescribes it. It's the way Bible tells us to do it.

That's how we're to evangelize. Now we're to be confrontational but we're not to be abrasive, we're not to be quarrelsome. There's a difference between being confrontational and being quarrelsome. And Paul writes to the evangelist Timothy and he tells him this very same thing in 2nd Timothy chapter 2. He says, the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting.

There's that confrontational word again, correcting. With gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading them to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will." So Paul's telling Timothy the evangelist to gently confront people. He told Timothy the evangelist to reprove, rebuke, exhort. I don't know if maybe Timothy was going overboard with the rebuke and the exhort and Paul had to tone him down, I don't know.

But he's still telling him, you have to confront the culture. You have to gently correct. Why? Because maybe, perhaps, God will set him free. Perhaps God will use what you say to set somebody free from the devil.

This is why you do it. This is why we're supposed to do it. Another thing about evangelism, it's preaching a full and consistent message of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Paul was in Ephesus for three years. Chapter 20 is him departing from Ephesus to move on.

And he gathers the elders of Ephesus together to talk to them. And in his talking with them, he sums up his entire three year ministry at Ephesus. And he does this in chapter 20, verses 20 and 21. This is what he says. I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable.

So evangelism is preaching a full and consistent message. Paul said, I didn't hold anything back that was profitable. In other words, everything that is profitable, I told you. The full counsel of God. He did not hold back.

And he was teaching publicly and from house to house. So evangelism is both public and private, consistent teaching. And then he was solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks, repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the message. It's expanded upon.

It encompasses the whole kingdom of God. And it's many, many, many long conversations with people. But when you're talking about that, when you're confronting them with that, guess what? They get set free. It's the power of God to salvation.

And that's what people need to hear. There's a growing movement in the church today to change the gospel message in order to make it more relevant to the people of the 21st century. You know, there's a big movement here saying, you know, the first century, they were all fishermen, they were all agriculture, we're so much different, so much different in the 21st century, that we need to make the message more relevant. So what happens is, they try to alter the message, they try to change the message, they try to change the methodology that the first century church used in order to make it more appealing, to make it more contemporary, to make it more relevant to the culture. Well, I want you to know something, and I want you to remember this forever.

You cannot make the Bible relevant. It is relevant. It's the most relevant book in the world. Because whether in the first century or the 21st century, you're a sinner. Whether in the first century or the 21st century, you need a savior.

It's the most relevant book in the world. You don't make it relevant. We only make it irrelevant by distorting it in an effort to make it more relevant. That's how we make it irrelevant. We change it.

We distort it. Paul calls it adulterating the Word of God. We don't do that. We just preach it. We preach it and it changes people.

There's five volumes of books I have at home. It's called the Puritan Papers. They may come out with more of them. But what it is, it's Reformed theologian type people get together. J.I.

Packer, Martin Lloyd-Jones, C.S. Lewis, Ian Murray, Ephron Evans. Guys like this get together. And what they do is they write position papers on what the Puritans believed about repentance, what the Puritans believed about... They just picked different tappits and they write papers on them So they call it the Puritan Papers.

Well, this is out of volume one and it's about evangelism. And it says this, the Puritan position was that only God by his Spirit through his word can bring sinners to faith. And that He does this not to our order but according to His own free purpose. Our evangelistic practice, the Puritans would say, must be in accord with this truth. This implies that all devices for exerting psychological pressure in order to precipitate decisions must be avoided as being presumptuous attempts to intrude into the province of the Holy Ghost.

It means further that to reject such devices is no loss, since their use can contribute nothing whatever to the effectiveness of evangelistic preaching. In the long run it will detract from it, for while psychological pressure may produce the outward form of decision, they cannot bring about regeneration. When the decisions wear off, those who profess them will be hardened. Such tactics can only do damage, perhaps incalculable damage, to men's souls. It follows, therefore, that high-speed evangelism is not a valid option.

Evangelism must rather be conceived as a long-term enterprise of patient teaching and instruction in which the servants seek simply to be faithful in delivering the gospel message and applying it to human lives and Leave it to God's Spirit to draw men to faith through this message in his own way and at his own pace. That's biblical evangelism. I quote people because they can say it better than I can. But that is biblical evangelism right there. It's being faithful with the message, you know, consistently preaching it, applying it to men's lives, and leaving it up the Holy Spirit to do what he wants with that.

Evangelism doesn't just happen. There needs to be a commitment to evangelism. We see in this passage in verse 21, it says Paul purposed or Paul was committed to something. He purposed in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem after he passed through Macedonia and a kayah saying after I've been there I must also go to Rome does that sound like Paul has a plan? He's gonna go to Macedonia.

Then I'm going to go to Jerusalem, then I'm going to go to Rome. Paul had planned out who he was gonna see next, what people he was gonna bring the message to next. He had a plan for it, he was committed to it. And I often ask myself, you know, who am I committed to bringing to the gospel next? Who should I bring the gospel to next?

Is it my cousin? Is it some neighbors down the street that we're good friends with that don't know Christ? Is it somebody at work? Do I have a plan? Paul had it mapped out.

Paul was committed to it. He said I'm going here and then I'm going there and then I'm going there and I'm going to Rome. When he gets to Rome he says I'm going to Spain. You know he is committed to evangelism and he has a plan of who he's going to see next. This commitment is not only where to go but also equipping others for the work.

In verse 21 it says having sent it to Macedonia two of those who ministered to him Timothy and Erastus He himself stayed in Asia for a while. So Paul had his plan. Macedonia, Achaia, Jerusalem, Rome. He sent Timothy and Erastus forward ahead of him into Macedonia. So not only was he setting out his plan of who he's going to reach next, he's equipping fellow workers to go along with them.

That's something that's so true of Paul. If you read the epistles, if you read the book of Acts, he's always got somebody with him. He's always got somebody with him that he's mentoring to help continue in the work. Paul was constantly including others in the ministry, Barnabas, Silas, John Mark, Timothy, Titus, Aristarchus, Gaius, Apaphras, Luke, Secundus, Trophimus, Aquila, Priscilla, and there's more. But I ran out of room on the slide.

So he was always taking, these new names are popping up. Paul's going somewhere. Who's Trophimus? Where'd he come from? There's all these new people popping up because Paul was not only committing to go to new places, he was taking people with him and showing them how to proclaim the message, how to deliver the message, how to teach about the kingdom of God, how to preach about the kingdom of God, how to teach repentance and faith.

Not only was there a commitment by Paul to reaching new people, mentoring and equipping others for the work, but at the same time Paul maintained redemptive friendships with unbelievers. And this is so key. A lot of times we don't want the heathen in our home. You know, we're protecting our home. And we don't want the heathen over for dinner.

But Paul maintained friendships with unbelievers. He did it for redemptive purposes. He wanted to win everybody to Christ. We see this in verses 30 and 31. When Gaius and Aristarchus are dragged into the theater, Paul wants to follow and it says some of the disciples would not let him go.

But it goes on, it says, also some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and repeatedly urgent urged him not to venture into the theater Well asiarchs were most likely not Christians since the asiarchs were were leaders in the province of of Asia that were in charge of the worship of the Emperor. And they were charged the festivals and the religious rites and the religious rituals of the day. Most likely they were not Christians. But yet they were friends of Paul's. And they were concerned friends of Paul's that they sent to him several times saying please Paul don't go into that theater it's gonna be trouble for you if you do so he maintained redemptive friendships with non-believers and I think sometimes we get confused about this sometimes we we we We think we need to keep the unbelievers out of our home, out of our, you know, maybe we're having a church picnic or something, we don't want to invite the unbeliever there.

But that's not what Paul said. As a matter of fact, he wrote to the Corinthian church to try and clear up this issue. And this is 1 Corinthians chapter 5. He's clearing up an issue. He says, I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people.

I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world or with the covetous and swindlers or the idolaters, for then you would have to go out to the world, out of the world. See, we're in the world, we're not of the world, but we're to be in the world. We're not to go out of the world. We need to contact the world. We need to confront the world.

We need to impact the culture. And so Paul writes this letter, he says, you guys misunderstood me when I said don't associate with immoral people. I wasn't talking about immoral people of the world. He goes on to say, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or a swindler not even to eat with such a one. So what he's saying is if they say they're a Christian and they're immoral those are the people you don't eat with.

But if they're the immoral people of the world, you need to meet with them. You need to confront them and you need to proclaim Christ to them. So what happens to a culture when we make a long-term commitment to confront it with clear, powerful, accurate preaching of God's Word. What happens when we're committed to reaching new people and mentoring other people for Christ? What happens when we maintain redemptive friendships with unbelievers?

What happens when biblical evangelism collides with a pagan culture? Now Ephesus was one of the most pagan cultures you'll ever come into. I mean there was temple prostitution, this was a way of life. Not much difference from the United States of America today, but it was a pagan culture. And the Gospel collided with it.

There was a clash. There was a culture clash with this. What happens when that happens? Well, the first thing that happens is opposition. Wherever the Gospel is clearly, accurately, powerfully preached and taught, publicly or privately, you'll get opposition.

So whether you're doing it in the public square, you get opposition. If you do it at your office, you get opposition. Sometimes you do it in your home, you get opposition. But wherever it's preached, there's going to be opposition. If you're doing it clearly and accurately powerfully and if you're living it out before people see a watered down message are people who don't live out the faith there no threat at all to Satan and his kingdom there no threat at all to the culture doesn't bother the culture at all if you're watered down message, watered down lifestyle, it doesn't matter.

Where you'll get persecuted is if you desire to live godly in Christ Jesus and you confront the culture with the gospel, then you're gonna experience persecution. That's why the first century church experienced persecution, and we don't. We don't, we water it down and we don't live it. So we have to beware if we're not being persecuted. It means that we're not a threat to Satan we're not a threat to our culture it means we're not living out the gospel it means we're not preaching clearly enough accurately enough powerfully enough how many messages have been watered down to kick you know to cater to political norms in our churches today That's no threat to the culture or to Satan.

There's a huge difference between the modern church and the New Testament church. They're like almost completely different animals. The modern church is concerned with decisions. The New Testament church was concerned with disciples. Modern church is accepted by the culture.

Most modern churches, they're not a threat to the culture. But that New Testament church was persecuted by the culture. Their leaders were all put to death. It was a threat to the culture. The modern church preaches faith.

The New Testament church preached faith and repentance. The modern church has little to no cultural impact, does it? Not anymore. The New Testament Church turned the world upside down. Huge difference.

What did they do differently? See, we don't need to adapt the church to the 21st century what we need is the first century Church in the 21st century so we need we need to go back to the book of Acts and we need to act like they acted so what type of opposition does the enemy bring Well the first thing we see in this and Satan I just want you know I'm going through this because what he did in Ephesus the enemy he does today. Satan you know what's amazing about him he doesn't try anything new. That's why Paul says we're not unaware of his devices because he uses the same thing in Ephesus that he uses today. The first thing he did, he turned public opinion against the church.

We see this in verses 9 and 10. It says, when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way before the people." So they spoke evil of the way before the people. They were trying to turn public opinion against the church. Does that happen today? Yeah.

And Satan's got a great tool. It's called the unbiased view of the media. You know, their objective, unbiased reporting that they so kindly give. He still uses the same tactic today. Here's another one.

He incites special interest groups. This has, remember Demetrius and the silversmiths. It says, about that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the way. Demetrius the silversmith said, Men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business. There's no danger.

There is danger that this trade of ours will fall into disrepute. They're going to be have a disreputable business. Why? Because idols are false. There's a true and living God.

You know the Apostles didn't go go on the Artemis Idol boycott, you know They didn't petition Caesar to change the law so we couldn't have temple prostitution They just stopped going to the temple. They stopped buying the idols and Demetrius got all bent out of shape about it so he incites a special interest group the silversmiths to come down on the way and it says he called caused no small disturbance that means it was a big disturbance It's just how the Bible says that, I don't know why, but big disturbance. Satan still does that today. He incites special interest groups. There's certain things that if Christianity prevails, you know Christianity's pro-life, pro-family, So what happens?

The special interest groups come against you. You hate us. You know, you're mean. And it comes against Christianity. They take illegal action.

We see this in verse 29. It says, The city was filled with confusion and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia. So they rushed on these two men, dragged them into the theater. It was an illegal assembly. Remember at the end of the chapter, the civil magistrate has to come out and says, hey you guys, if you have a problem, the courts are open, the pro councils are here, take it up legally.

This is an illegal gathering. But that's what happens. The enemy takes illegal action against the church. This still happens today. I mean, you could have some godly Christians out there just passing out tracks at a gay pride parade the people in the parade pushed them over and knocked them down and what happens the police come in arrest the Christians and charge them with a crimes illegal action it's the same tactic I'm just I'm saying this because Satan doesn't change his tactics.

He does the exact same thing. But we have to be aware. If we're going to do this, if we're going to preach the Gospel, if we're going to use biblical evangelism, If we're going to impact our culture, we have to be ready for this. Get good lawyers, you know. Be ready for it.

Cause confusion about the issues. It says, when they came into theater, it says, so then some were shouting one thing and some another for the assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together they didn't know why they were there but they were sure mad at the Christians you know now does the general public ever get confused about issues today They get an attitude they get rage like these people But do they understand the issues they don't even understand the issues Satan loves it that way he loves confusion God is not the author of confusion, but Satan is and he loves it and he thrives on so confusion will come in Another thing that happens is proof by assertion. Proof by assertion means that if you say something enough, people will start to believe it. They'll consider it to be true. In verse 34, it says, a single outcry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours." Now, can you imagine this?

For two hours, a whole theater full of raging people going, great is Artemis of the Ephesians, great is Artemis of the Ephesians, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. For two hours. That was only two seconds. Imagine two hours of that. Joseph Goebbels, who was Hitler's propaganda minister, said, a lie told often enough becomes the truth.

And is that prevalent today? Absolutely. Separation of church and state, that's the First Amendment. You know, it's right there in the Constitution. Millions of years, global warming, gender identity, Christians are intolerant and hateful.

These are all things that get repeated again and again and again and people start to believe them. So that's the opposition that comes against us if we're going to take this seriously. But that's not all that happens. Here's the good news. Not only does biblical evangelism draw opposition, it clashes with the cultural norms.

It just, it collides with, it's like a head-on collision. It clashes with the cultural norms and it makes a kingdom impact on the culture and it does this in many ways. One way is the impact of true repentance. We see this in verse 18. It says, many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing, and disclosing their practices.

When you confront people with the Word of God, teaching faith and repentance and judgment, teaching the full counsel, Perhaps God will bring them to repentance, but if God grants them repentance it will be true repentance and they will come and they will confess and they will disclose their practices in bitter tears and that's what happened in Ephesus because Paul was daily reasoning and persuading about the kingdom of God. Another impact is an impact on value and lifestyles. We read this in verse 19. It says, many of those who practiced magic, this was witchcraft, many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone and they counted up the price of them and found it 50, 000 pieces of silver. You know in today's money that's about 1.6 million dollars worth of books that they just brought together and burned.

Why? They didn't value them anymore. Their lifestyle had changed. That's what true repentance does. It changes your life.

They're not buying the Artemis idols anymore. They're putting Demetrius out of business. They're impacting the culture. Another impact is an impact on the dominant worldview. It says in verse 20 that the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.

When the Word of God is prevailing that means it's prevailing against the ideas of the age. So it's prevailing against the worldview that they had. There was a time in our country, in the United States of America, when the Christian worldview was dominant. That means even unbelievers saw things from a biblical perspective, because that was the dominant world, where God's Word was prevailing at one time in our country. Now, that's not the case today.

Today, Christians see things from a materialistic, humanistic point of view, because we've been indoctrinated. We've been the ones that have changed. But in Ephesus the word of the Lord was prevailing mightily and it was impacting how people saw things. They started doing things differently. Another impact is an impact on the economy.

We see this again with Demetrius. Men, you know that our prosperity depends on this business. They were upset about it because people aren't buying the idols anymore. It's gonna put them out of business. What would happen in our economy today if Christians acted like Christians?

What would happen to our economy? It would impact it tremendously. The problem is Christians aren't acting like Christians. I mean what would happen to a hundred and fifty-five billion dollar a year gambling industry? What would happen to a hundred billion dollar a year pornography industry?

It would put them out of business. But Christians play with that as much as unbelievers and that's why it's not impacting the culture. What happened to Abercrombie and Fitch? You know, gender neutral attire would disappear. It would be the same thing that happened in Ephesus, and it wouldn't be because we're boycotting these stores.

It's because people aren't buying them anymore. People aren't interested in that anymore. They're interested in the things of God. They have new affections. It's changed their lives.

That's what does it. Counterfeit ministries are exposed. Remember Paul was doing miracles and casting out demons so what happens these Jewish exorcists these seven sons of Sceva come along and said we're gonna use that magic word you know we're gonna say in the name of Jesus you come out of him and so they confront this demon in a guy and what happens here's what the demon said he says I recognize Jesus I know about Paul but who are you and this man with one demon leaps on seven guys they go running out of the house naked and bruised So counterfeit ministries get exposed when you're preaching and when you're evangelizing the way God wants you to evangelize. False gods are exposed. Verse 26, Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people saying that God's made with hands are no gods at all.

Do you think he exposed the false God? How did he do it? He said, look, if you make it with your hands, you're the God. They're not the God. You made it.

So false gods become exposed. False gods become worthless. We see this in verse 27. Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be regarded as worthless. This God whom all of Asia trusted in is losing value.

Losing value rapidly. Why? Because God's word is prevailing mightily. False gods are dethroned. We see this in verse 27.

She, whom all Asia and the world worship, will even be dethroned from her magnificence. This is what happens when biblical evangelism collides with the culture. It has a kingdom impact effect. And the ultimate result of that is, it's a great dethroning of what the culture most trusts in. What the culture most trusted in in Asia was Artemis, great as Artemis of the Ephesians.

Our culture trusts in different things today. But when the Word of God mightily prevails in a culture, it dethrones the false gods. It dethrones those false things that we trust in. This is the temple of Artemis today. It's a couple pillars in the middle of a field.

No one worships Artemis today. Artemis is gone. She whom all of Asia trusted in is gone. Why is she gone? The Gospel prevailed.

The Gospel impacted Ephesus. The Gospel planted churches in Ephesus. And it leveled the culture of that day. That's culture shock. That's a kingdom impact on the culture.

This is what we've been called to do, brothers and sisters, in our own ways, in our own communities. But it involves having friends with unbelievers it involves confrontation in a gentle way with unbelievers it's it's it's reasoning and persuading it's long conversations it's publicly it's privately and if we consistently do that over time it will change our culture for the glory of God let's pray Heavenly Father we just thank you for your word and Lord may may what we see in the book of Acts, may what we see in your scriptures be so in our lives for your glory. Amen. The National Center for Family Integrated Churches is dedicated to proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life and to the establishment of biblically ordered churches. For more information, resources, and products, please visit our website at www.ncfic.org.

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