How does God grow a courageous church? How did he do it in the early church? I ran into this somewhat humorous fictional illustration on this subject of church growth. A group of believers called a meeting to order – they decided they wanted to discuss with Jesus over some of His methods. The meeting and the discussion went something like this.

Pete: This meeting has been called at the request of Matt, John, Tom, and Little Jim. Bart, will you please open with prayer? Bart: Almighty God, we ask Your blessing on all we do and say and earnestly pray that You will see our side as Your side. Amen. Pete: Jesus, we have been following you around for some time, and we are getting concerned about the attendance figures. Tom, how many were on the hill yesterday? Tom: Thirty-seven. Pete: It’s getting to be ridiculous, Jesus. You’re going to have to pep things up. We expect things to happen. John: I’d like to suggest you pull off more miracles. That walking on the water bit was the most exciting thing I have ever seen, but only a few of us saw it. If a thousand or so had a chance to witness it, we would have more than we could handle on the hill. Little Jim: I agree. The healing miracles are terrific, but only a limited number really get to see what has happened. Let’s have more water to wine, more fish and chips (it never hurts to fill their stomachs), still more storms, give more signs. This is what the people need. Pete: Right. And another thing, publicity is essential, and you tell half the people you cure to keep it quiet. Let the word get around. Matt: I’m for miracles, but I want to hear a few stories I can understand. This “those who have ears to hear, let them hear” business just clouds the issue. You have to make it clear Jesus or most of us aren’t going to be able to take anything home. Big Jim: I’d like to offer an order of service. First a story, then a big miracle followed by an offering, then maybe a saying or something, followed by a small miracle to bring them back next time. Oh yes, and a prayer if you’d like. Tom: We have to do something. Little Jim: That’s for sure. Attendance has been awful. Judas: I’d like to say that if we continue to meet in this upper room, we ought to do something about the carpet.¹ You know, this funny story is a little bit of a concern because even though this story has humorous points, it’s actually close in some respects to how the church world generally thinks about building the Kingdom — building the church of God. The question we need to ask ourselves is this: How Did God Build the Early Church, and Why Does it Matter? Answering that question is our focus on this week’s Light On Life.

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Why God Wants You to Have Spiritual Revelation Flowing In Your Life

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You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This weeks call is:

Commit to reading the book of Ephesians this week. Soak in it. Meditate on it. Study to show yourself approved. Ask the Holy Spirit questions about what you read.

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Question: What have you learned by reading and studying the Book of Ephesians? Would you please leave your comments in the comments section below?

Episode Resources

You can find more information on the subject of Ephesians by clicking on the links above.

1. #S8-032: The Powerful Authority Resident in Being Seated with Christ [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 37 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

Bible Background on the Courageous Church in Ephesus

Acts 18:18–21 (ESV) — 18 After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. 19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. 21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.

• Acts 18:19 is the very first time that Ephesus is mentioned in the book of Acts.
• Ephesus was a seaport city.
• Seaport cities were financial conduits in the ancient world.
• Where there was water, there were ships.
• And where there were ships, there was commerce, there was trade, and there was tourism.
• Where you have all of that, you have money – we’re talking lots of money here.
• But, there was a problem in Ephesus.
• Because of the erosion of the landscape, the harbor was filling up with dirt.
• This dirt was choking off the very life of this city.
• That’s the way of dirt — dirt clogs.
• It bogs down.
• You know, we are forever trying to get rid of dirt.
• You always have to clean — you always have to stay on top of it.
• And with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

The Illustration of the Day

A dog fell into a farmer’s well. After assessing the situation, the farmer decided that neither the dog nor the well was worth the bother of saving. He’d bury the old dog in the well and put him out of his misery. When the farmer began shoveling dirt down the well, initially the old dog was hysterical. But as the dirt hit his back, the dog realized every time dirt landed on his back, he could shake it off and step up. “Shake it off and step up; shake it off and step up!” he repeated to himself. No matter how painful the blows were, the old dog kept shaking the dirt off and stepping up. It wasn’t long before the dog, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well.

• There are two points to this story: I want you to get them both.
• The first is that what seemed as though it would bury the dog actually benefited him—all because of the way he handled his adversity. He got on top of it.²
• Sin is a dirty business.
• The only way to get on top of the dirt is to accept what God has done in Christ at the cross.
• Only by the Blood that Jesus shed can we ever really be clean.
• Here is the second point as it relates to the harbor in Ephesus.
• The well is no longer of use: it’s clogged — it’s full of dirt.
• The man in this illustration decided that.
• You can’t draw water out of a well that’s clogged, and you can’t run ships through a harbor that’s filled.

How Rain Eroded the City of Ephesus

• Thus, through dirt, physical mud, and sand, Ephesus was slowly wasting away.
• Think about the normal cycle of life for a moment.
• Rain is supposed to bring a blessing to mankind.
• Planet earth needs rain.

Rain brings a multitude of benefits to the earth, including watering wild plants and crops, humidifying the air, creating streams and rivers, replenishing the water table. Water that cannot be stored in the water table becomes runoff, which feeds streams and rivers and ultimately the ocean. In short, rain delivers water in massive quantities to where it is needed to support life. Perhaps the most important benefit of rain is its redistribution of fresh water in the water cycle.³

• Rain falls on planet earth despite man’s rebellion — that’s a Bible fact.
• That’s what Jesus said.

Matthew 5:45 (ESV) — 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

• But, every time the blessing would come, every time God sent rain on the just and the unjust, in Ephesus, a little more silt, a little more dirt would make its way into the harbor.
• In one sense, what was supposed to be a blessing was suffocating the harbor and diminishing trade.
• Now, that wasn’t the Lord’s fault.
• God sets things up in perfect balance — man screws stuff up.

The Courageous Church and the Temple of Diana

• So, we talk about the harbor choking off because of the wash-off of dirt, another parallel area of choking in Ephesus was the sin of idolatry.
• Idolatry was another huge source of commerce, of money, in Ephesus.
• Lots of money flowed through the city because of the activities surrounding the Temple of Diana, a female false god.
• Silversmiths and artisans made their living selling images of Diana.
• In Acts, you will read of a riot that broke out because of the impact of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Ephesus.
• God was building a courageous church and lighting the fires of renewal to such an extent that it tanked the economy.
• The economy needed to be tanked: it was built on a wrong foundation.
• Not all money is good money — not all money is clean money — not all money is righteous money.
• There is such a thing as unrighteous gain.

Sinful Foundations Lead to Broken Foundations

• Sinful money is one of the worst foundations you can build on.

Leviticus 18:20–25 (ESV) — 20 And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her. 21 You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. 22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. 23 And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion. 24 “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, 25 and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.

• It’s a bad thing when you are trying to build a life, put down roots, establish a foundation for your home, and because of sin, the land itself vomits you out.
• So, Ephesus was a city in great need of the gospel of Jesus of Christ.

Paul Begins Ministry in Ephesus

Ephesians 1:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Now, Paul wrote a letter to the saints at Ephesus.
• Scholars think that it was meant to be a circular letter.
• There is only one personal reference made, Tychicus, who acted as a messenger for Paul.
• As Paul would often write, there is no say ‘Say Hi to so and so’ for me.
• There are no greetings to a single individual or group. The scripture simply says Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus – period.
• Ephesians is broken down basically into two sections.
• The first section, in chapters one through three, covers the believer’s position in Christ.
• The second part, chapters 4–6, speak of how we take our position in Christ and walk that out in our everyday life.
• Seven times the Apostle Paul speaks of the believer’s walk in the book of Ephesians.
• So that’s important to look at in this letter.
• This walk refers to how the Christian conducts himself before a holy God and a Godless world.

The Courageous Church and A Courageous Leader

• One thing to note is that when Paul wrote this letter, he was in prison.
• It was one of two times that Paul suffered the poor conditions of prison life in the ancient world.
• So, Paul is in prison — when you think of prison, it’s not a prison as we know it in the 21st century.
• No, this is a first-century prison — there are no prisoner rights — it is just a hole in the ground.
• You weren’t fed in prison — you had to depend on people you knew to bring you food and necessities.
• So, under horrid conditions, Paul is writing a letter to believers in Ephesus.
• What does that show?
• It shows that he is thinking about other people, not just his bad state.
• He has other people on his mind.
• Paul is a Kingdom man.
• He is building the Kingdom — he has the Kingdom of God on his heart.
• Now, put yourself in Paul’s place and ask yourself this question.
• What would you do if you walked in Paul’s sandals?
• Would you be building the church while you were suffering deplorable conditions?
• Would the Kingdom of God be your main focus, or would self-preservation be more important to you?
• What would your thinking be?
• Even more so, what would your praying be like?
• Would you be wondering why this happened to you and accusing God of being a poor protector?
• That’s not what Paul did.
• Paul was thinking about Paul.
• He was thinking about the saints at Ephesus.
• And not only those particular saints, but Paul also wrote several other letters: one to the Philippians, one to the Colossians, and one to Philemon.

The Believer’s Walk: How The Saints Became the Courageous Church in Ephesus

• So, the next question we want to ask is how did the saints get to be saints in Ephesus?
• How did God build a body of believers there?
• If we could see and understand His workings, maybe we could learn to move and work more closely with Him.
• Not like the four men in the opening illustration.
• So in Acts nineteen, we find the following.

Acts 19:1 (ESV) — 1 And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples.

• How did these get disciples get to be disciples in Ephesus?
• If you remember, we started this podcast reading Acts 18:18–21.
• Let’s look again at verse nineteen.

And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.

• This passage in Ephesus details Paul’s first visit to that city.
• What did he do when he got there?
• He did what he normally did anytime he came into a new region, he went to the local synagogue.
• The synagogue was the center of life for Jews who didn’t have daily access to the Temple in Jerusalem.
• They didn’t just have a ‘church service’ as you would think of it.
• The synagogue functioned as a community center, housing the activities of school, court, hostel, charity fund, and meeting place for the local Jewish community.⁴
• That’s why Paul headed there first — there was a ready audience.

The Courageous Church Was Started by Reasoning

• Notice the word ‘reasoning’ in verse nineteen.
• Paul went to the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
• What does that mean, reasoned?
• And with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
• The Greek word ‘reasoned’ means to engage in discourse.
• It means to consider or examine a topic in speech with others.
• Paul didn’t preach a message in the synagogue.
• He didn’t teach a point-by-point Bible lesson.
• He sat with the Jews and talked to them, maybe like you would when on break at work or sitting with friends for lunch.
• It was more casual, not so ministerially formal.
• That’s how the church got started in Ephesus.
• How does that speak to you?
• Your conversations with people about Jesus, about the spiritual things of the Kingdom of God, are vital.
• God can use them to start something great.
• And start something he did in Ephesus.
• Notice in verse twenty that the Jews asked him to stay a longer period.
• They wanted to talk more.
• The Jews in Ephesus were hungry to know more about this Jesus that Paul spoke of.
• They hadn’t been to Jerusalem — they hadn’t seen the events surrounding the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
• They are just hearing about it, and God opened their hearts — and so they wanted to hear more.
• And so consequently, ‘they asked him to stay longer.’
• This was a different kind of phenomenon for Paul.
• Most of the time, Paul got kicked out of town by the Jews.
• But here, they ask to stay longer, implying a hunger for God in this city.

Hunger for God Builds the Courageous Church

• There is a Bible principle here that you need to know and recognize.

Matthew 5:6 (KJV) — 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

• The Greek word ‘filled’ here means to be satisfied, to be satiated.
• It is conceived of as having eaten or drunk one’s fill of food. 
• If there is a hunger to know the things of God will make sure you know.
• That’s a Bible fact that you can stand on and one that you can build your life on.
• So, Paul is asked by the Ephesians to stay, but he can’t — he has to leave – so what does the Lord do next about those who are hungry and yet behind in Ephesus?
• His Word is on the line – those that hunger and thirst must be filled.
• So, what does the Lord do?
• He sends another man.
• The Lord above all knows that when you start a fire, you have to tend to it, or it will just go out.
• The Lord is not going to allow all that labor and effort and money that was put into getting Paul to Ephesus so that His Word can build a courageous church there to just goes down the drain.
• So understand and know the ways of the Spirit.
• After Paul leaves, God sends another man to Ephesus.
• He sends Apollos.

Meet Apollos: Another Man Used of God to Build A Courageous Church

Acts 18:24–28 (ESV) — 24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 27 And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

• Apollos was Jewish and a native of Alexandria.

The City of Alexandria: Home of Apollos

• Alexandria was also a seaport city of 1 million people.
• Now, that doesn’t sound like much until you realize that there were only 170 million people on planet earth at this time – one million of them located right here in Alexandria.
• Out of this 1 million people, 400,000 of them were Jewish.
• Great things happened in Alexandria.
• The Septuagint – the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament – was produced in Alexandria.
• Because of the Hellenization of the region due to the conquests of Alexander the Great, many Jewish people drifted away from the Hebrew language.
• So, a team of 70 scholars — by the way, that’s why it’s called the Septuagint, which is Latin for seventy — translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek.
• We still have that translation today.
• Alexandria was also home to the world’s largest library.
• Some estimates put the number of scrolls housed there at 700,00.
• Compare that to the Library at Ephesus, built-in 117 AD, which held 12,000 scrolls.
• There was a lot of knowledge floating around Alexandria.
• There was magnificent architecture in Alexandria.
• The Lighthouse at Alexandria was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World and was a technological marvel for that day.
• To this very day, it is the pattern for all lighthouses.
• This is the hometown of Apollos, and this background is part of his story and part of how God built a courageous church in Ephesus.

Apollos: Competent and Eloquent in the Scriptures

• Now, the word of God states that Apollos was an eloquent man.
• What does that mean?
• The Greek word ‘eloquent’ means speaking with precision, force, and persuasion, especially as the result of study.
• That ties in with the knowledge that was floating around Alexandria: Apollos was a studious man.
• That’s who God sent to Ephesus.
• He was also competent in the scriptures.
• Competent means having the skills and qualifications to do something well.
• What else was Apollos?
• He was instructed in the way of the Lord.
• The word ‘instructed’ means verbally informed.
• Do you remember how Paul ministered in the synagogue? — he reasoned.
• That’s part of Apollos’ development: he sat listening at the feet of others and learned.
• What else was Apollos?
• The scripture says that he was fervent.
• The word ‘fervent’ means to be inflamed or boil emotionally; it’s conceived of as water boiling.
• I don’t know if you know this, but this is a prayer that you can pray for yourself.
• If you feel that you’re dragging in the things of God — that maybe you are spiritually low or off, You can ask the Lord to turn up the fire inside of you.
• But, be prepared when you do.
• His fire inside of you is all-consuming.
• You can be hard to live with when your heart is burning.
• You remember that Jeremiah experienced this burning.

Jeremiah 20:9 (ESV) — 9 If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.

• Jeremiah couldn’t hold it back — the Word burning in Him was consuming.
• It will do you that way, also if you pray.
• Now, we didn’t quite finish, so we will continue in another podcast: How God Grows A Courageous Church and Why It Matters.
• You guys have a great ‘God-week .’ We will see you next time for another edition of Light On Life.

Why the Holy Spirit is the Great Helper of Our Prayer Life

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