Church Planting In Ephesus

Acts 19

I’d like us to spend a season in Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church with our weekly ‘Holding Fast’ devotions. The New Testament Scriptures provide us with a wonderful portrait of ‘body life’ in a local church through the first century Ephesian church. We probably have more information about this group of believers over a larger span of time than any other fellowship we encounter throughout the New Testament. First, there is the extended narrative in Acts 19 describing the Apostle Paul’s labors there during his third missionary journey. There is the very personal and tearful sermon delivered by Paul to the elders of the Ephesian church at the shore of Miletus, recorded by Luke in Acts 20:17-38. And of course we have Paul’s prison epistle to the Ephesians, written (depending upon whom you rely) between 58-63 AD. We also have the ‘Pastoral Epistles’ which were written at the end of Paul’s life to Timothy (1 and 2 Timothy), his young protégé whom he had left to shepherd the church in Ephesus, and to Titus, who pastored the church in Crete). Finally, there is a letter to the Ephesian church from the Lord himself, by the hand of John, in Revelation 2, part of the Lord’s letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor.

As I was preparing for our time in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians for our college retreat and for this weekly exposition, I was fascinated by the way in which Jesus planted churches through the Apostles. In the book of Acts we find a intriguingcombination of the Apostles exercising wisdom and strategy with a faithfulness to God’s Word and reliance upon supernatural intervention. We can learn a great deal from the birth of the Ephesian church in the book of Acts, as well as Paul’s exhortations to the church in his letter some years later. I pulled some of the rather interesting methods that the Lord used in starting this fellowship in Ephesus from Acts 19. We might do well to consider them.

1. Start with a ‘launch team’ of 12 men filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and prophesying (Acts 19:7).

2. Find a venue where you might have some influence (for Paul it was the synagogue) to boldly proclaim the gospel and reason with people daily about the kingdom of God. Do this every day for at least three months, or until people are thoroughly sick of you and begin persecuting you (Acts 19:8-9).

3. After you are kicked out of this venue, find a place to rent out and continue this business of preaching, teaching, reasoning and persuading daily. Do this for about three years (Acts 19:9-10).

4. Pray for wacky and miraculous things to happen. Cast out evil spirits and such (Acts 19:11-16).

5. Pray and preach in such a way that people are filled with fear and Jesus is praised (Acts 19:17).

6. Hold a prayer meeting that includes an extended time of public confession (Acts 19:18).

7. After your time of public confession, have a big bonfire party and burn a bunch of books (Acts 19:19).

8. After your time of public confession and book burning, collect massive amounts of money from the people for the mission of the gospel (Acts 19:19).

9. Hire a pastor who refuses to let you pay him, has absolutely ridiculous strategies and goals for his ministry and the mission of the church, and leaves young and inexperienced men to take over the ministries he begins (Acts 20:34; 19:21-23).

10. Stir up a city wide riot by preaching against idolatry and pagan worship (Acts 19:23-41).

11. Don’t be surprised by, and actually anticipate, encouraging and uplifting promises from God like, “Bonds and afflictions await you in every city!” (Acts 20:23)

12. Have another prayer meeting, encourage the folks, and leave (Acts 20:1).

It is interesting that there is nothing in Acts 19-20 about what kind of praise band you should have, how much parking should be available, whether or not you should serve Starbucks at coffee break (and spend more $ on that than you do on global missions), how casual your hip and cool pastor should dress, or getting up to speed on the latest philosophical trend. Rather, there is a strong emphasis upon the proclamation of the gospel (even above the ‘contextualization’ of the gospel, not that these need to be mutually exclusive); the need for repentance and transformation; a radical obedience amidst moral chaos; bold and courageous leadership; the confrontation of worldliness and satanic schemes with the truth and grace of God; and a clear,Christ-like love for the lost and a desire for their salvation at all costs.

We find in this narrative something of how God births a church and how he intends a church to be maintained and sustained. Do such things mark our efforts in planting and sustaining healthy churches today? Are your expectations for ‘church life’ in line with God’s Word, which plainly calls the mission of the church a cosmic struggle against “principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness of this world” (Eph. 6:12)? Perhaps you are more inclined toward the idols of American comfort, convenience and consumption? Let’s meet the challenge of Acts 19 and Paul’s letter to the Ephesians as we seek to honor his commission and calling upon our lives as his children and as the family of God.

Word Along the Way

Luke 24:13-35

What are the marks of a true church? What are the marks of a true Christian? The second question echoes the first. There have been many books with many lists and criteria that would get us close to some sort of answer. But the reformers have given us the simplest answer. The two marks of the Christian church are: the faithful preaching of the Word and the right administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. If our second question above is indeed like our first one, then it follows that the true Christian finds himself in some active and faithful relationship to God’s Word and in some active and obedient relationship to the sacraments. I’d like to look at the first part of this ‘reformed’ definition of the true church through the lens of the familiar and fascinating story of the risen Christ’s appearing to the two disciples along the Emmaus road in Luke’s gospel.

The Set-Up

Here in Luke 24 we find ‘two of them’ – presumably of the band of Jesus’ followers – walking away from Jerusalem on the first day of the week, the Lord’s resurrection day. We need to consider a subtle point from Luke’s story at the outset of this passage. In verse 13 we find these disciples walking away from Jerusalem. This story begins with two grieving and confused disciples turning their backs on Jerusalem. Luke tells us later in Acts 1:4 that somewhere in the midst of these meetings with the risen Christ, the disciples are commanded not to leave Jerusalem and wait for the promised baptism of the Holy Spirit. Of course these disciples have not yet received such a command, but I believe Luke intends for us to see in these wandering disciples that the human inclination in the midst of despair and frustration is to turn tail and run. The Scriptures are full of exhortations toward endurance and faithfulness amidst the struggles and trials of discipleship. There is no attempt in the New Testament to hide the reality that the early church faced its fair share of apostasy and desertions.

In verse 18 we discover that one of these disciples was named Cleopas, who is never mentioned again in the New Testament. The other is unnamed. Mark gives us a brief synopsis of this Emmaus road interaction with equal ambiguity in Mark 16:12-13. I believe that there is a sense in which Luke intended to obscure the identity of these two men, not only because their identity was just that- obscure- but so that we might be the more able to put ourselves in their sandals. In a sense these two represent the collective consciousness of the followers of Christ after the tumultuous events of the previous week. Their leader was delivered up to the Romans by the hand of his own people, denied by his closest friends and died the death of a common slave upon the cross. It was the third day and there has been no earth shattering epiphany of the resurrected Lord, except to some of the women (and who would believe that!) These two are confused, frustrated and, most of all, beset by a profound sadness over all that has transpired. As we dig into this passage there is a sense in which we should begin to see that perhaps that mysterious disciple is meant to be us. As such we find more than simply a narrative of one of Christ’s resurrection appearances. It becomes a call to those so prone to wander to endure and find strength in the Word of Christ.

The Word for Wandering Disciples

We discover along with these two disciples what is to be one of the marks of a true believer and a true believing community. The Christian and the Church are to be marked by a faithful commitment to abiding in God’s Word. Jesus said it plainly in John 8:31, “If you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples…” A true Christian church is a church that is built on God’s Word, preaches God’s Word and obeys God’s Word. The true Christian is one who feeds upon God’s Word, is sustained by His Word and embraces God’s Word. Of primary importance is the place of God’s Word in the life of a church and in the life of a believer. We see this demonstrated in the Apostle Paul’s urgent charge to his young protégé, Timothy: “Preach the Word!” (2 Timothy 4:2). Don’t tell interesting stories, don’t surf the web for helpful dramatic skits, don’t spend your time in this committee and that—just preach the Word. As a pastor I can tell you that every week is filled with Satanic, worldly and fleshly strategies to keep me from doing just that. And you can testify that the same goes for us in our personal commitments to Christ. God’s Word is called the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6: 17), it is living and active (Heb. 4:12), it is the very breath of God that gives life (2 Tim. 3:16). Yet, somehow we become consumed with a thousand other commitments throughout our day other than what should be our foundational and life giving commitment- to abide in God’s Word.

A Hidden Jesus

Let’s look at how we are taught by Christ to be disciples who abide faithfully in God’s Word in Luke 24. First, Luke makes sure that we understand that while it was Jesus himself who drew near to them along the road, we find that the eyes of these two disciples were prevented from recognizing him. Why would this be? It wasn’t that these men were dull, and I don’t think it was that Jesus was unrecognizable in resurrected form (this seems to be the inference from Mark’s gospel, but certainly isn’t the norm of Jesus’ resurrection appearances.) Luke indicates that there is a reason for this blindness to Jesus’ identity. It seems that Jesus was teaching them to be sustained by his Word rather than his physical presence. Jesus had promised his disciples that he would send his Spirit who, “will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:15). A season is coming when Jesus would go to the Father, but we are not to despair. He has given us his Word and his Spirit, “so that our joy may be complete” (John 15:11). Jesus taught these two disciples in a living picture what Peter would remind the struggling persecuted church, “though who have not seen him you love him; though you do not see him now – you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Peter 1:8). We long to see the Lord, ‘face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12), but until then he has given his Word to comfort and strengthen us.

The Lord’s Rebuke

Consider also the nature of Christ’s rebuke of these two disciples in verses 25-26. They confess themselves that they heard the report of the women- yet did not believe; that they heard the report of the empty tomb- yet did not believe. Yet, Jesus does not chide them for this. Jesus says they are foolish for being slow of heart in believing, “all that the prophets have spoken.” They are guilty of neglecting the Word of God, and so are despairing and turning from Jerusalem. Those who search and know the Word of God, from the Law to Prophets to the Epistles, will discover and treasure the Christ who is revealed and magnified in it from first to last. In the book of Acts we find Spirit-filled Apostles recounting all of history through the Scriptures and revealing how they reveal God’s redemptive plan. Through the Word of God, by the Spirit of God, a band of common fishermen went from despairing traitors and deserters to bold apologists armed with the whole counsel of God’s Word. Jesus intends such wisdom, boldness and joy to mark all those who are called by his name.

A Pattern of Teaching

I think Luke 24:27 is one of the most fascinating verses in the Bible. Wouldn’t you love to have an outline of this Bible lesson given by Jesus on that seven mile stretch from Jerusalem to Emmaus? If only we had an MP3 we could download! Jesus ‘interpreted,’ or as it says in the King James version, ‘expounded’ everything concerning himself in the Scriptures. The word used here is a derivative of the Greek word hermeneuo- where we get our word for the science of biblical interpretation, hermeneutics. It means exactly what is indicated in our English translations. Jesus ‘explained,’ he drew out all that God’s Word had to say regarding himself for these two disciples. Jesus preached the gospel to these two through the entire canon of Scripture!

But our longing to hear what was said on this very special Sunday night service so many years ago is to miss Luke’s point; even worse, it is to miss Jesus’ point! We need to rejoice that the same Word that was opened for these disciples has been opened for us. We should be filled with the same fire in our bellies, and compelled in the same way to make an about face in our sad walk away from Jerusalem. Not only has Christ given you his Word, but he has given you “a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…” (Eph. 1:17-18). Jesus gave his disciples a pattern for learning, growing and obeying him. Open the Word and let him teach you - from Moses to Revelation.

A Wonderful Transformation

Jeremiah said that if he tried to suppress or silence the Word of God it became “like a burning fire shut up in his bones” (Jeremiah 20:9). The Lord declared to the prophet, “Is not my Word like fire…like a hammer which shatters a rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29) In the passage before us we find our main characters echoing this same sentiment. For those who love God and bear his name, his Word has such a striking effect. We can testify to this sanctifying ‘heartburn.’ There are times when the Word seems to apply very personally and directly to my life and my specific circumstances. We must of course be wary of highly individualistic interpretation, yet we can never forget that all application must in some sense be very personal. For these two travelers, it wasn’t just that they had urgent news of the resurrected Christ that turned them back to Jerusalem. There had been an inward transformation through the preached Word that brought an immediate obedience. Luke brings us full circle in this story: from disillusionment and sadness with our backs to Jerusalem to an encounter with the risen Christ and his Word to a bold and urgent return (at night no less!) to Jerusalem to bring good news to the eleven apostles.

A healthy church is marked by such constant and ongoing transformations. One of the marks of the vibrant Christian life is not merely growth in obedience but ongoing encounters with the living Christ in his Word. Such encounters must bring forth obedience. As you walk the road, don’t be foolish or slow in believing. Pick up the Scriptures and meet with the risen Christ, letting his Word kindle a fire in your heart. As you travel, the Savior has a way of rerouting the journey for the sake of the gospel and his glory.