The Prevailing World

Heavenly Father, you know that we are hard pressed in all kinds of ways. Thank you that you are with us. Thank you that you speak to us in your living word. Give us your Holy Spirit, we pray, so that we might understand, believe and obey. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

‘The Prevailing Word’ is my title this evening, and it comes from where we left off in the book of Acts last Sunday evening – Acts 19.20, which is a verse of what you might call sober celebration. It says:

So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

Why do we celebrate? Because something good has happened, or is happening, or will happen. So it’s right that we should celebrate the life that God has given to this church. We can celebrate the past, the present and the future of JPC, because the life of this church is bound up with Jesus, crucified, risen, ascended, ruling, present with us by his outpoured Spirit, and one day coming again. Christ is the head of this church. He bought it with his blood. He is at work in it by his Holy Spirit. And he will complete his purpose for it, no matter what obstacles and opposition it faces now or in the future. That really is cause of celebration. And so it is with our own individual lives too. If we have faith in Jesus, then our lives are bound up with his. We can trust him for our future, whatever the present looks like. So we can celebrate the work of God in our lives, no matter how hard things look for us now.

Sometimes on the surface things do look very bleak – but under the surface something else is going on. And so it is with our passage this evening – the last in this series on Acts 16–19. We’ve got to Acts 19.21-41. That’s on page 928 in the Bibles. What’s front and centre here is a riot against the new Christian church in Ephesus that threatens to destroy it. But under the surface the word of God is increasing and prevailing. There are three things in this account of the apostle Paul’s ministry and all that surrounds it that I want us to see. They are: the Spirit-led outworking of Paul’s lifetime purpose, the ineffectual noise of the opposition to the growth of Christ’s kingdom, and the widespread effectiveness of the apostle Paul’s peaceful persuasive ministry. So:

1. The spirit-led outworking of Paul’s lifetime purpose

There are a couple of verses here that link the account of the sons of Sceva that we looked at last week, and the account of the riot that we’re coming on to. They are Acts 19.21-22, and I don’t want us just to pass over them like a bridge into the next story, because they are actually rather revealing of Paul’s life and ministry, and helpful for our own. Here they are. From Acts 19.21-22:

Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

What is it that’s driving Paul’s decisions about his travels here? The answer can be found towards the end of Paul’s Letter to the Romans. In Romans 15 he talks about the purpose, mission and goals of his life. We can’t look at all of it, but Romans 15.13-29 gives a fascinating insight into the astonishing ministry drive that Paul had. You might like to look at it later, but let me pick out one or two highlights. If you want to, you can keep a finger in Acts 19, and you’ll find Romans 15 starting on page 949. In Romans 15.16 Paul talks about his work for God. He says he is:

…a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

He is the apostle to the Gentiles, by divine appointment. That’s the fundamental purpose of his life. What then is his mission – the long-term, permanent direction of his ministry, by which he is going to fulfil that purpose? We can see that mission there in Romans 15.20, where he says:

…I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation…

In other words, pioneering evangelism and church planting where the gospel has never been taken before is his mission. So what are his goals as he lives out that mission? They’re there in Romans 15.24-26 – and this is where Romans 15 dovetails with Acts 19.21-22. So, Romans 15.24-26:

I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.

So Rome is a stepping stone to pioneer evangelism in Spain, in the far west of the Roman Empire. That’s his long term goal. His medium term goal is to get to Macedonia (that is, Philippi) and Achaia (that is, Corinth) and then Jerusalem, before he goes to Rome. His short term goal is clear if we return to Acts 19.22, where Luke says:

And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus [so, ahead of him, with the intention that he’ll follow on later], he himself stayed in Asia [that is, Ephesus] for a while.

Why did he stay? Because first of all he had to deal with what is in front of him. He could see that God still had work for him to do there, before he continued to pursue his God-given mission elsewhere. So Paul had a clear purpose for his life in Christ, a mission aimed at fulfilling that purpose, and then short-term, medium-term and long-term goals in pursuit of his mission. And he knew that all of it was under the sovereignty of God. For years, earlier in his life, he had completely missed out on God’s purpose for him – in fact he’d been living in rebellion against it, persecuting the church. But now things had become clear for him. We’re not apostles, but there is much for us to learn from that. It’s good to be praying that in his own time the Lord will make clear to us what he wants to do with our lives, and when that does come clear, we can work on what our goals are for the future. Inevitably, though, like Paul, we have to start by dealing with what the Lord has put in front of us. As for this church – the Lord made clear our purpose through those who were led to found it over 160 years ago. They said our purpose was to be:

a central point for the maintenance and promulgation of sound, Scriptural and evangelical truth in a large and populous town.

How do we go about that? Our mission in the service of that God-given purpose is Godly Living, Church Growth, and Changing Britain. And we work for church growth both through the growth of JPC and through church planting as the Holy Spirit leads. And we celebrate all that God has already done in and through us up to now, all he’s doing today, and all he will do in the future. So as we see here in Acts 19 the Spirit-led outworking of Paul’s lifetime purpose, we rejoice in the Spirit-led outworking of our lifetime purpose, and pray that the Lord will bring it to completion. What then is the next thing for us to see here, as we move on to think about this riot that broke out in Ephesus? It is this – so:

2. The ineffectual noise of the opposition to the growth of Christ’s kingdom

Because it is ineffectual noise, even if it doesn’t feel like that or look like that at the time you’re in the thick of it. I imagine to the Christians in Ephesus when this riot was in full swing, it would be have been terrifying – not to mention ear-splitting. And this Ephesian riot is just part of a pattern that’s been very clear as we’ve worked our way through Acts 16-19 over the last few weeks. There’s almost been a rhythm. Preaching the gospel followed by violent opposition followed by preaching the gospel followed by more violent opposition. The word prevails – then violence. The word prevails – then violence. Not a chapter has gone by without more of that violent opposition. And here it is again. So Luke has this lovely understatement in Acts 19.23:

About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way.

The Way was an early label for this new Christian faith. Seeing the impact of the faith, Demetrius, this silversmith who made a tidy profit from selling souvenirs shrines to the goddess Artemis, said to his fellow business leaders (this is Acts 19.27):

And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”

The result? Acts 19.28-29:

When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theatre, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel.

So there was opposition to the gospel from the beneficiaries of that pagan culture. The gospel was challenging their power, reputation, religion and prosperity. And it was their bank balances they were most concerned about. There was rage. There was violence. Violence against the faith is one of Satan’s two main weapons: violence and deception. There’s a number of things to notice about this situation:

i). Paul’s courage. Acts 19.30:

But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him.

His friends decided that discretion was the better part of valour – but Paul’s valour was not in doubt. And that’s a challenging example for us.

ii). The incoherent and contradictory nature of the opposition. In Acts 19.32 Luke records – maybe even with a hint of humour:

Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

We can’t expect that opposition to the gospel will always be rational. It often isn’t.

iii). The noise. The Jewish community put up their man Alexander to speak for them. Acts 19.34:

But when [the crowd] recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

iv). The temptation to be afraid and to give up speaking the gospel. Imagine what it must have been like being on the receiving end of all this. There’s a window onto that back in Acts 18.9-10. Let me remind us of that from earlier in this series:

And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”

Why did the Lord say that to Paul? Because he was understandably tempted to be afraid. He was no Marvel superhero. He was human. And he was tempted to be silent. And he needed the Lord’s reassurance. The Lord encouraged him to persevere through the pain. We too need to listen to this reassuring word when we face opposition. Clearly Paul listened. Hence his courage here in Acts 19 as yet again he found himself face to face with violence. And wonderfully, protection comes for God’s people from an unlikely quarter, as the town clerk skilfully gets a grip on the situation, and manages to quieten things down, and disperse the crowd before it gets totally out of hand. Such is God’s providence at work. In our context, Satan tends to deploy deception rather than violence. But we still need courage to face up to this more subtle opposition. And that courage comes from hearing the voice of Jesus, who says to us I am with you.

For our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, the violence is all too common. At our Zoom Connect meeting last week, Victor Ogbummor movingly outlined for us the situation of the church in Nigeria. So for instance Victor said that since 2009 18,000 churches have been set on fire by Islamist extremists. This year alone over 1000 Christians have been killed. The sound and fury of opposition to the Christian gospel are very real. And yet, amazingly and wonderfully, in that tough, tough context, the church keeps on growing. Even when it has done its worst, the noise of opposition to the growth of Christ’s kingdom is ineffectual against the power of the prevailing word of God. Which brings us to the final thing I want us to see here in Acts 19. So:

3. The widespread effectiveness of the apostle Paul’s peaceful persuasive ministry

Last week we saw how the testimony of an evil spirit was used by God to spark the growth of the church in Ephesus. Here in Acts 19.26, the testimony of another opponent of the gospel makes clear how unstoppable is the word of God. So Demetrius the riot-fomenting silversmith says to his co-belligerents:

And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods.

Paul did not meet violence with violence. He did not meet incoherent and irrational shouting with even louder shouting. He was not aggressively coercive. He was persistently and peacefully persuasive. He trusted in the truth and power of the message Jesus had given him to preach. We are to do likewise, in the face of all the noise from our culture. We are to keep our ears open to the voice of God. Then all the other noise fades into the background. And we are to keep on speaking the truth, and in the end, when the febrile crowds have been quieted and dismissed from the heaving amphitheatre, the word prevails.

As this series on Acts 16-19 draws to a close it’s worth us taking a moment to review how we have seen the word prevailing through these chapters. Let me take you through it. Acts 16.5 – in and around Derbe and Lystra:

So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.

Acts 16.14 focussed on an individual woman in Philippi:

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

Then there was more violence, which saw Paul and Silas beaten and thrown in to prison. The Lord rescued them miraculously. And what was the result? The word prevailed. Acts 16.32-33:

And they spoke the word of the Lord to [the jailer] and to all who were in his house…and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.

Then Acts 17.11-12, in Berea:

…they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

On then to Athens. Acts 17.34:

But some men joined [Paul] and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Then again in Corinth, after Paul had again been opposed and reviled. Acts 18.8:

Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.

Through Paul’s persistent, peaceful and persuasive preaching, souls have been saved. And churches have been planted. Which brings us back to the summary in Acts 19.20:

So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

So it will be among us and through the life of this church if we follow Paul’s example. We’ve already seen it. We have much to celebrate. And we will see more of it. We just have to remain faithful in pursuing the purpose to which the Lord has called us, both together as a church, and individually as disciples. For all the noise of the voices that oppose the gospel, the word will prevail, and prevail mightily. Let’s pray:

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this amazing window onto the ministry of your servant Paul, and onto the growth of the church through the power of your prevailing word. Thank you for calling us into your service. In face of whatever form of opposition we encounter, please give us courage, as you did your servant Paul. Help us as a church to continue to communicate our faith persistently, peacefully and persuasively in a noisy world. And grow the church, we pray, to your glory. In Jesus name, Amen.