118 lines
14 KiB
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118 lines
14 KiB
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<title>Blue Letter Bible - Chuck Smith Sermon Notes</title>
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Passage = 'Acts 19:23 ';
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SermonID = 2017;
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<div class="SSN_rnum">I. THE REFERENCE TO THE WAY.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">A. Jesus had said to His disciples, "I am the way, the truth and the life no man comes to the Father but by Me."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. The term "The Way" they came to believe that the only way to God was through Jesus Christ.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. It referred to those who were trusting in Jesus Christ as the way to God.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. In <a onClick="return mV('Act',9,2);">Acts 9:2</a>, we find that Paul was authorized to go to Damascus to find those of this way and bind them and bring them to Jerusalem to the tribunal.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">4. In <a onClick="return mV('Act',16,1);">Acts 16:1</a>, when Paul was in Philippi he was followed by a girl with an evil spirit that cried, "These men are the servants of the most high God, who show us the way of salvation.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">5. <a onClick="return mV('Act',18,25);">Acts 18:25</a>, speaking of Apollo it said that he was instructed in the way of the Lord.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">6. In <a onClick="return mV('Act',18,6);">Acts 18:6</a>, when Aquila and Priscilla heard him they took him aside and instructed him in the way of God more completely.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">7. In verse 9 when many were hardened to the message of Paul and believed not, they began to speak evil of that way.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">8. In <a onClick="return mV('Act',22,4);">Acts 22:4</a>, Paul speaks of persecuting this way.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">9. In <a onClick="return mV('Act',24,14);">Acts 24:14</a>, Paul confessed that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">10. In <a onClick="return mV('Act',24,22);">Acts 24:22</a>, we read that when Felix heard these things he had a more complete knowledge of that way.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">11. It was a word that was synonymous with the word Christian.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">B. The words no small stir was another way of saying a big commotion.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">C. This commotion was created by a man named Demetrius.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. He was a silversmith.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. He made small shrines of silver of the Temple of Diana, the goddess of the Ephesians that people would buy as souvenirs when they would visit the beautiful temple. Also idols and trinkets of silver that were representations of Diana.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. The Temple of Diana was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. It took 220 years to build.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. It was 425 feet long and 220 feet wide. Bigger than two football fields.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">c. It had 127 columns.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">4. Because the gospel had grown so much in Asia, his livelihood was being threatened, for people were forsaking the worship of Diana.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">5. Demetrius called a meeting of the silversmiths and warned them of the spread of the gospel and what it meant to their trade and their livelihood.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. He admitted that they had become wealthy by their trade.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level5">1. It is a terrible thing when people use a man's desire to know or to find God to enrich himself.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level5">2. Paul warned Timothy to beware of those who said that godliness was a way to make gain.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level5">3. Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the Temple.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level5">4. What people do today to make a profit off of people's desires to know and worship God is no less reprehensible.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level5">5. Whether they be evangelists or TV personalities, makes no difference in the eyes of God.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. He admitted that Paul had turned away many from worshipping Diana, not only there in Ephesus, but throughout all of Asia.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">c. He summarized Paul's teaching by saying that Paul taught that there were no gods made by man's hands.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level5">1. This was probably an accurate summary for back at Athens, Paul had declared to the philosophers gathered with him there on Mars hill,</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Act',17,24 );">ACS 17:24</a> God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Act',17,25 );">ACS 17:25</a> Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Act',17,29 );">ACS 17:29</a> Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">D. The real concern of Demetrius:</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. Sometimes a person's true motives are revealed as they talk.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. "Our craft is in danger of becoming worthless."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. That was the true motive of Demetrius.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">4. If people are exposed to the true gospel, their ministries will be in danger.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">5. This has been the motive behind much of the persecution of true believers throughout the years.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">6. Why are Moslems so worried about Christianity.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. Why do they seek to kill those who convert to Christianity?</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. Why do they have laws that condemn to death anyone that preaches the gospel in the Moslem controlled countries?</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">c. Can't their beliefs be held up to real scrutiny?</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">d. Why have the Catholics, in nations where they have had a strong influence over the government, persecuted the Christians so violently?</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">e. Why are the cults so afraid of people leaving that they intimate that to leave them is to leave your salvation?</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">f. Why do they strongly discourage their people from visiting other churches?</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">E. The expressed concern was: "But also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. True Christianity is a threat to the liquor industry. After Finney would conclude a revival crusade in a city, many of the bars would close for lack of patrons.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. True Christianity is a threat to crooked politicians, they will seek to enact laws to silence our voice.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. True Christianity is a threat to the homosexual community, they will seek to disrupt our services.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">4. True Christianity is a threat to the Hollywood movie industry, so they will produce films trying to portray Jesus as a homosexual, or in love romantically with Mary and Martha.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">5. These various groups will try to destroy the message of Jesus Christ, but usually try to do it so that they sound very noble.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">6. "Our great Diana will be despised." He cared nothing for Diana except the profit he was making off of the people that worshipped her.</div>
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<div class="SSN_rnum">II. WHEN THEY HEARD THESE SAYINGS THEY WERE FULL OF WRATH.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">A. He had accomplished his purpose. That was to get them all upset and concerned about their pocketbooks.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. When Jesus came to Gadera and cast the demons out of the man who was living in the tombs, how that the demons entered into the herd of swine which then ran down a steep place and were drowned in the sea.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. The people of village came to Jesus and asked Him to leave their coast.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. They were more concerned in their profit from their illegal raising of swine than the poor condition of this demented man.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">c. Paul had gotten into trouble in Philippi for casting the demon out of the young girl, for her powers of divination were gone. And those men who had enslaved her saw that the days of making money through her abilities were over, they stirred up the crowd against Paul.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">d. Again their concern for money was greater than the condition of that poor girl.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">B. They began to chant, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. They no doubt took to the streets and began a great tumult. A lot of emotional shouting, yelling that usually draws a crowd, but the people for the most part were confused as to what was going on.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. They evidently were going toward the great Amphitheater which is still in existence today.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. On they way they grabbed hold of a couple of men who were associates of Paul, who were from Macedonia, and they rushed into the theater.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">4. Paul who was always eager to address any crowd of people with the message of the gospel, was going to enter the theater, but wiser heads prevailed and they persuaded Paul not to try it.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. Paul seemed to be the catalyst that ignited the whole uproar, and with him out of the picture, it would be easier to calm things down.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. Perhaps Paul was referring to this experience when he wrote to the Corinthians:</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('1Cr',15,32);">1CO 15:32</a> If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('1Cr',16,8);">1CO 16:8</a> But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('1Cr',16,9);">1CO 16:9</a> For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and [there are] many adversaries.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('2Cr',1,8);">2CO 1:8</a> For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('2Cr',1,9);">2CO 1:9</a> But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('2Cr',1,10);">2CO 1:10</a> Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver [us];</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('2Th',3,1);">2TH 3:1</a> Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have [free] course, and be glorified, even as [it is] with you:</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('2Th',3,2);">2TH 3:2</a> And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all [men] have not faith.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">C. Mass confusion reigned inside of the theater.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. Some were crying one thing and others another.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. Most of the people did not even know why they were there.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">D. The Jews grabbed Alexander out of the crowd and put him in front to address the people.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. Probably not to defend Paul, but to defend the Jews.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. They wanted the crowd to know that this was not a Jewish thing.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">E. When the crowd realized that he was a Jew, they set up a chant "Great is Diana of the Ephesians."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. This chant went on for a couple of hours.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">F. Finally the town clerk was able to settle the people down enough to listen to him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">G. Cooler heads finally prevailed.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">H. He then gave his speech:</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Act',19,35 );">ACS 19:35</a> Men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the [image] which fell down from Jupiter?</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Act',19,36 );">ACS 19:36</a> Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Act',19,37 );">ACS 19:37</a> For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Act',19,38 );">ACS 19:38</a> Wherefore if Demetrius, and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies: let them implead one another.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Act',19,39 );">ACS 19:39</a> But if ye inquire any thing concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Act',19,40 );">ACS 19:40</a> For we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar, there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Act',19,41 );">ACS 19:41</a> And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.</div>
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