I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter 19, verse 18. Acts 19:18 is where we will continue our study. And somebody's going to ask you maybe this week, what did you do this weekend? What did you do on Halloween? And you can tell them, I'll tell you what I did on Halloween, I studied the book of Acts. That's what I did. That's what I did! Then, in fact, if you told people, hey, our church has been studying the book of Acts for a long time, this is our thirty-ninth time we've invited everybody to open up to the book of Acts, maybe somebody would say, well, what is that book? What is the book of Acts? What are the acts of? What is it all about? I wonder what we would say to them at this point on chapter 19. If somebody asked you, hey, can you explain to me the book of Acts? What would you say? This book is about someone. I think actually that answer could be right here in Acts 19:20, this line, this verse could summarize all that we've been seeing. It says, “So the Word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.” What is the book of Acts about? it's about the Word of the Lord spreading out over planet earth, that's what it's about. And as the Word goes out, God does great things.
And so, you've got a handout there inside your bulletin, there's a handout if you want to take some notes, and let's just review what we've seen from the book of Acts so far because I believe that Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, he uses these statements about the “Word of the Lord” to give us progress reports. I think that verse there in Acts 19:20 is helping give us an outline of what's happening in the book of Acts. So, if we go back to Acts 1:8, Jesus said to the apostles, “you will be my…” What did he say? “Witnesses.”
Let's get that down for our first blank there: He said, you're going to be my witnesses. And he sent the apostles out, he said, the Holy Spirit will come with power from on high, and you are going to witness of me; when the Holy Spirit came in Acts there on the day of Pentecost, Peter started preaching and revival broke out in the city of Jerusalem; people were getting saved in the streets. And for chapters, we saw thousands of people getting saved in the city of Jerusalem. And eventually, in Acts 6:7, it says, “And the Word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.”
So, let's get that down for our second blank there, Acts6:7 says, yes, they've been witnesses in Jerusalem. That ends the first part of the book, where we saw a city get filled with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We saw thousands of people get saved, the church gets started. And as soon as it's done, saying that the Word of the Lord increased. In Acts 6:7, the persecution begins. And assault rises up, they stone Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and persecution scatters them out of the city into the rest of the country. And so, then we're in a section where the Word of the Lord goes out into Judea, and Samaria, the surrounding area, not just the city now, but the country of Israel is being filled up with the Word of God.
So, let's get that for our third blank there: Judea and Samaria. And it says in Acts 12:24, but the Word of God increased and multiplied. So, from Acts 6:7 to Acts 12:24, it's the story of the persecution spreading; it’s scattering them out into the whole country, the area known as Judea around Jerusalem in the south, and then Samaria, moving up into the north. So, we've seen the Word spread in a city, then we see the Word spread in the country. And then in chapter 13, the Holy Spirit sent out Barnabas and Paul, and we began the missionary journeys. And we've gone on three different journeys with Paul, and we've seen them go to so many cities; right now we're in the city of Ephesus in Acts 19. We have seen them take the Word of the Lord to the ends of the earth.
Let's get that down for our fourth one there: The ends of the earth. That's what Acts 19:20 is letting us know, hey, we're out here in Ephesus now and “the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.” And if you've been coming to our church, we've seen Paul go into so many different cities and start preaching that Jesus is the Christ, and getting people into the Word, and as the Word increases, people are believing, the church is being built up, and in some of these cities revival has broken out. It has been awesome to see what the Word of the Lord can do. As the Word increases, the Church of Jesus Christ is taking over on planet earth. That's what is happening in the Book of Acts right there. And he even says, if you look at Acts 19:20, when he gives this update of the Word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily, almost like the Word of the Lord is a character that's on the move throughout the book. Then he says this, look at 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,” He knows where he's going to go, so he sends ahead “Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia.” He's still in Ephesus for a while.
So, the Holy Spirit gives Paul this resolve, he knows what's next. And the fourth section now of the book of Acts, we've seen Jerusalem, we've seen Judea and Samaria, we've seen the journeys to the ends of the earth. But now this fourth section from here, all the way to the end of the book, we're going to go along with Paul as he's on a personal quest to Jerusalem, and then he will appeal to Caesar and go to Rome. So that's going to be the fourth quarter. The fourth section of Acts. It's already started, the Spirit puts it on Paul's heart, he's ready to go. But now, we're still in Ephesus. And we're going to spend some time, some quality time still in Ephesus. Paul's even going to speak to the elders of the church in Ephesus in chapter 20, and that speech that he gives, that's like the most detailed instruction we get about church in the entire book of Acts. So, we're going to really spend a lot of time and acts 20, as Paul teaches these men in Ephesus how they should lead that church. So, we're going to spend some time in this city.
But the main idea of the book of Acts is right there in verse 20, the Word of the Lord continued to increase, and I put the Greek word there on your handout, auxano. Let's get the definition for that word down. It means to increase or grow. And it is the word that is used in Acts 6, 7, 12:24, and 19:20. All these progress reports that Luke gives us through the book of Acts are all about the Word, or the message of Jesus growing or increasing. And so, this is something we already studied back in Acts 6, we saw that “as the Word goes, the church grows.”
So, let's get that down. That's a review of something we've already learned in one of our previous sermons, hey, if the Word goes out, that's how the church is going to grow. And that's our whole strategy of how we're trying to grow here at Compass HB. How are we going to grow? We're going to grow by preaching this Word right here, everybody. That's what we're going to do. If somebody asked you, well, what's your church's strategy? Do they have small groups? Do they have a program you can go to? Oh, yeah, we've got fellowship groups. You know, what we do with those groups? We talk about this book right here. That's what we do. Well, do you have something for people every day? Is there something people can do like on a daily basis? Oh, sure, totally. They could read the book of Job along with the rest of us. That's what they could do. Right? We're trusting so much that the Word is going to increase, and that is what is going to grow our church. Can I get an Amen from the congregation on that? We believe that God is working through his Word.
In fact, go back to Acts chapter 6, and let's just remember what was happening at that time as we saw the revival in Jerusalem. And remember, they started getting persecuted because they were filling the city of Jerusalem with the name of Jesus Christ. And so, it says in Acts 6:1, “Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.” So, I don't know what comes to your mind when you think about the early church in Jerusalem, but they grew so big so fast, that some of the widows weren't even getting the food that they were supposed to be getting, as they were meeting everybody's needs. In fact, it seems like they might have even had a problem with partiality because the Hebrew, the Jewish widows, they were getting the food, but the Hellenist widows, the Greeks, they weren't getting the food. And so, they addressed this problem. They appointed some leaders there to serve in this way to make sure everybody gets what they need. And then there's the summary statement in Acts 6:7, “And the Word of God continued to increase.” That's auxano right there, it's growing. And “the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” So, when you think about church growing, what a lot of people might think of is more people coming to church. Well, it talks about that, as the Word goes, yes, the number of the disciples was multiplied greatly. But notice what it also says, “a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”
So, as we spread the Word are more people going to believe and get baptized in the name of Jesus? Yes, that's what happens when the Word spreads. But also, as the Word spreads, we want to see the people who have believed in Jesus, we want to see them be obedient in their faith. See, we want to see the people who are the church, all of us, we want us to increase or to grow up, just like we would want our kids to grow up, to mature. That's the idea of auxano, that we want to mature in our faith. We want to present every single person here complete in Christ, mature in Christ. We don't want people just to be baby Christians, or even immature Christians that are tossed to and fro. We want people to be mature, where they're becoming like Jesus. We call it sanctification, that they're set apart from their old life of sin, and they're set apart for the purpose of Jesus Christ. And so that's something we should all be praying. What happened right here is that the Word will continue to increase, and you will increase in your maturity, in your obedience of the faith.
Turn with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 4, where we're going to study what happens in the city of Ephesus, but let's just jump straight ahead to Ephesians chapter 4, where Paul writes back to the church in this city, the famous book of Ephesians, and he uses this Word, auxano. He talks about how the Word should increase in the church in Ephesians 4:15, he says, hey, don't stay immature in your faith, don't keep letting the world knock you around the waves. Don't go from fear to faith, don't go back to your old life of sin and struggle, no, hey, let's grow up, let's mature. So he says in Ephesians 4:15-16, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body,” that’s of us “joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” We’re saying, hey, the body of Christ, the church, it's not just one man preaching the Word on Sunday morning. It's all of us. As the Word gets in our heart, as you hear the Word, as you receive the Word, as you're reading the book of Job, perhaps, and the Word is stirring you up, the Word has given you something to say, you speak that truth in love to one another, not just a few people speaking it, no, it's clear, everybody who's in the body, all of us who are believers. That's just why we have our thirty-two Fellowship groups that are meeting now here at the church. People are getting together. Did you know, we have fellowship groups where they speak Vietnamese to one another, where they speak Spanish to one another here at the church? And people are speaking the truth in love to one another. Hey, I heard that sermon from Acts 19. Let me tell you what, the Spirit was stirring up within me, and we started sharing that truth, we started loving one another.
And we see people mature, we see the church grow up into the image of Christ, we become less like our old selves, and more like Jesus. And it happens through the speaking of the truth in love from one another. So, you’ve got to get God's Word in your heart. And then you’ve got to go and have something to say to your brothers and sisters, something that's bursting out of you. Wow, what we learned in Acts or, wow, what I read in Job, and it goes from you, and you share it with somebody else, they share what's going on with them, and you guys build each other up into maturity. That's what we want to see, the Word increase here in our church. If you don't feel like you're growing in your walk with God, if you don't feel like you're increasing in your faith as a Christian, then I’ve got to ask you here today, is the Word increasing in your life? Because there's going to be a direct connection. If you're feeling dry, if you're feeling stuck, if you're feeling like you're at the same old place, are you really getting God's Word in your heart? Do you really have truth that you want to share with one another here at the church? See there's a connection, as the Word increases, so the church grows up. And we want to see this church where we've now seen people believe and get baptized. Well, we want to see every one of us mature and grow as the Word increases. We want to grow up and mature in our faith.
And so go back now to Acts chapter 19 with me, because that's review. That's what we've already read. We've already studied from the book of Acts that “as the Word goes, the church grows.” Now today we want to learn what happens in the town when the Word comes to town, when the Word didn't just stay in the church in Ephesus, the Word increased, and it made an impact on the city of Ephesus. We're going to see three remarkable things, like inspiring things that happen in Ephesus, because the Word of the Lord continued to increase and grow. And it had some mighty power. I mean, God was really doing a work. So, we looked at this a couple of weeks ago, but go back to Acts 19:8. And let's just remember what happened here in this church in Ephesus. It says in Acts 19:8-10 that Paul, he came into town, found some disciples, explained the gospel to them, and then “he entered the synagogue and for three months he spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation.” So, before we were ever known as Christianity, or Christians in the book of Acts, we were known as “the Way.” And he's bringing it every Saturday on the Sabbath there in the synagogue, and some disciples are with him, but some people, they're against it, they reject the message. And so, it says here, that because of their rejection, because they were talking bad about the Way, “he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the Hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” So, you guys don't want to hear it in the synagogue? Okay, I'm going over to the Hall of Tyrannus, I'm going to teach now every day for two years. I mean, that's a lot of teaching, right? I mean teaching every day! Can you imagine having church every day in a row for two years? Like that's the Word of the Lord really increasing, and it's spreading. I mean, the Word that Paul is teaching in the hall is spreading, be aware of word of mouth, not just filling the city of Ephesus, but filling all the cities in the area known as Asia. They're all hearing about what Paul is teaching every day in this city.
So, the Word of the Lord didn't stay within the people in the church, it spread into the city, and we're going to see it made a remarkable impact. In fact, it spread among many cities. But we're just going to look at what happens here in Ephesus. Pick it up with me in Acts 19:18-20. It says also, “many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.” Now, isn't this awesome that we're studying this passage on Halloween? Isn't this great? Anybody having a magic book-burning going down here in the city of Ephesus? So, it's saying that these people who believed, they came and started confessing, and the word there divulging, it's like the idea of an angel making an announcement. Like, people who were doing evil things in the dark, are now stepping into the light of Jesus Christ, and they're like turning themselves in, they're announcing, they're calling themselves out, and they're saying, hey, I've been practicing magic over here in the dark, I’ve have been doing something evil over here, and now I'm coming in, I'm saying, I'm confessing it, I'm announcing it. And I'm saying, hey, I'm not doing this anymore. In fact, there's such a revival among the Magic community here in Ephesus that they burn up, they have like a public burning of all the magic books. And it's done in front of the whole city like this is something talked about throughout the whole town. Hey, did you hear about the magic book-burning that's going down, and somebody's like, this is quite a lot of material were burning up. I mean, there might have been smoke going up into the sky, this might have been a real fire there. And somebody's like, well, how much? How much material is this we're burning up, and they say fifty thousand pieces of silver. Remember Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. This is fifty thousand pieces of silver. Clearly it's mentioned like that's a large amount, and immediately it goes into look at what the Word of the Lord is doing in Ephesus. Because when the Word comes to town, sinners turn themselves in.
Let's get that down for number one: Sinners turn themselves in. This is how powerful the Word of God is. The Word of God is alive. It's living and active. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. And when you hear the Word preached, when you read the Bible for yourself, it cuts deep into who you are, it cuts to the thoughts and intents of your heart and exposes the darkness in your soul. It reveals the deceitfulness that's there in your heart and you see your sin for what it really is through the power of the Word of God, the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin. He bears witness to you of Jesus who died for your sin. And we got people, there's no witch hunt going on in Ephesus, but the witches are turning themselves in. They're coming forward and they're confessing, like you've seen that maybe even here in our church, you've seen that from Christian people, people become Christians, and they start to tell you the worst things about themselves. They start to bring their secrets that they’d kept hidden. They now bring out into public the darkness that was inside of them, they now reveal in the light. They'll get here, and they'll get baptized right here at our church. And they'll start sharing in public with a whole roomful of people, hey, here's the worst things I ever did. They come confessing and announcing their practices. This is the power of the Word of God, that it takes people who are in the dark and it brings them into the light. And things that they used to feel so guilty about, and so ashamed of, and things that they used to just think they would never tell anybody their secret sins, they're now announcing to the world, let me tell you what Jesus saved me from here in Ephesus. And there are so many people who are involved in sorcery or magic, that they burn up all their books. It's like they come together, and what must have been such a powerful moment, I mean, people really coming out of the evil of magic arts and having a book-burning, and it's just a huge amount of money that's being burned up there. And it's like it's happening in front of the whole city. And this is what the Word of God does.
Now, I didn't plan that we'd be talking about magic arts on Halloween. We're just preaching through the book of Acts. God planned that we'd be talking about it. And you might think, well, magic arts is that really something that that people are doing these days? Well, let me just tell you, I got this article from the Orange County Register. This was on Friday everybody. Okay, so I don't know if anyone here reads newspapers, I still read a newspaper. I read our local newspaper. I used to want to write for the newspaper, that used to be what I wanted to do for a career. Good thing God got me out of that business. Right? But the point is, on the Orange County Register they are still doing it, and some of us are still reading it, and they had an article, and the heading was Religion Now. It is on the front page. When there's an article about religion on the front page, I always pay attention. And the article is, “Being a Witch Isn't Just for Celebrating Halloween.” Polls find Southern California is definitely one of nation's best places, but, sorry, it's shocking. I'm not going to read this. Like it's funny because this is not funny. A poll finds Southern California is definitely one of the nation's best places for the practice of witchcraft. Okay? And Disney apparently isn't alone when it comes to making magic in California. So, there's this poll, and they find out what are the best places to practice magic, and then it said this. This is a quote from somebody, “witches are perfectly normal people. We just have a spiritual path that is pagan,” said the founder of Bewitched, who goes by the name of Zelda Twinkle Toes. I'm trying to read it like it's not a joke. Okay? This lady, she says that witches are perfectly normal people. She goes on to say, “We are your workmates. We are your neighbors.” And then this is the part that just hit me. “She lives in Garden Grove, one of America's best cities for witches, and is not a Wiccan but a pagan.” Now, I grew up in Orange County, I grew up reading the Orange County Register. Never did I think that we would come to a day where there would be in a front-page article about how great it is to be a pagan in Garden Grove. My mom grew up in Garden Grove back when it was actually a garden, back when there were actually groves there. And now we got to be found out by some poll that Garden Grove is one of America's best cities for witches. So, these magic arts that were happening in Ephesus are apparently happening right down the street from where we're worshipping Jesus today.
And let's just make it very clear on Halloween 2021. What does God think about people practicing magic arts? Will you turn with me to Deuteronomy 18:9. Let's turn back to the law because God already said very clearly, once and for all, what he thought about it. In fact, he puts the practice of sorcery or magic in the abominable practices. And in Deuteronomy, God was sending Israel into the promised land. And he's telling the nation that they're going to drive out these other nations in the land of Canaan because these nations have been committing abominations. Abominations are things that God hates. Abomination is something loathsome to God. And so, the nations in Canaan are doing abominations. So, I'm going to send you to go and judge them and drive them out of the land. And in the middle of that instruction, God says this, this is Deuteronomy 18:9-14, “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.”
Now, I know when we read the law, when we read a book like Deuteronomy, some people at church today, some Christians today, they say, oh, well, that's the old covenant. That law isn't really for us, that was just for Israel. Let's just make this very clear. If God says something is an abomination, that means he hates it, and our God doesn't change his mind. It's not like he was really mad at sorcery back at the time of the Law of Moses, but today, he's chill about it in America. That's not how it is. No, if in the Law of Moses, God calls something an abomination, that's telling you how God thinks about it for all time. Not just in the nation of Israel, or these nations in Canaan, but in this nation, the United States of America. God hates sorcery. Let's just make that very clear. Because it needs to be said, maybe especially at a time like this, on a day like this. It needs to be said that this is an abominable practice. All the things that are listed here, God wants his people to have nothing to do with this. And I think it's important for us to remember this because it's right down the street. You might drive by it literally on a daily basis. Like I drive by this place all the time. HB psychic. There it is. lit up at night, fortune telling definitely going on, and who knows what on that list. Definitely going on at this place. Right there on PCH. I mean, has anybody here ever driven down Beach Boulevard before? Anybody? I mean, honestly, Westminster Boulevard? You ever been down that street before? Like, I'll tell you when I first moved here to Huntington Beach, and I started driving down these streets, I was shocked by how much sin is just going on out in the open here where we live. And I've been here now seven years. I'm afraid I'm starting to get desensitized to it. Are you getting desensitized to it? There's witchcraft going on down the street. I mean, there are marijuana dispensaries popping up all over the place. There are so many liquor stores going on, hookah lounges, vape shops, I mean, all kinds of places, just saying, hey, are you living in the flesh? Come here, give us all your money. I mean, it's all around us, this evil.
And people that when they heard the Word, they started coming in there, started saying, I'm a witch. Can you imagine that. Somebody walks in here from Garden Grove, and they're like, hey, I'm a witch. And they start confessing and announcing their practices. And they're such a work of the power of God. It's such a mighty work that the Word is doing that they're going to come together, and they're going to burn up all of their books. I mean, praise the Lord. When somebody turns themselves in for their sin, we should all praise the Lord for that. I'm here to tell you that there have been drugs that have been flushed down the toilets of this church in the name of Jesus Christ. There has been alcohol poured out into the sinks of this church in the name of Jesus Christ. There are people who attend this church, that they said, hey, here's my collection of pornography here on my computer. I want to delete this once and for all, and never look at this again, in the name of Jesus Christ. Nobody was doing a witch hunt. Nobody was trying to go and investigate. What are you up to? What are you up to? People came, confessed, and announced and they said, I'm done with my sin because I've heard the Word of the Lord, and I'm following Jesus Christ now. And so, this should inspire us that the Word, it has so much power, when the Word comes to town, it can shut sin down. Sounds like the Magic community in Ephesus took a real hit because the Word of the Lord increased and prevailed mightily. And this isn't just to inspire us. And from acts like what happened in that city.
Turn with me to the book of James chapter 5. And I want you to see that this is commanded for our church, that if you're in sin, if you know you're up to something in the dark, something that’s secret, something that your one-anothers, your brothers and sisters don't know about you, I want to encourage you by the power of the Word of God working in your life, to confess it to other people, to announce it, turn yourself in, and get rid of your secret sin. And James, he makes this a command when he's giving a book of wisdom to the Jews who have been dispersed. He says this, this is James 5:16, this a verse hopefully everybody knows, but I want to make sure that we understand this is a command given to our church, an expectation that we should have “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be…” what does it say, everybody? that you may be what? “Healed”.
Oh, there must have been some kind of catharsis going on when all the magicians are watching the smoke rise from the pile of the magic books being burned up, there must have been some healing from all of this dark stuff that had happened in secret. And it says that when we confess our sins to one another, when we come and announce, not like I'm waiting for somebody to find out, not like I'm waiting for somebody to ask me about it, but I'm showing up, I'm saying, hey, I want to meet with you. And then I'm saying, here's what's going on, I'm confessing my sin to you. Because I think you're a righteous person, you believe in Jesus, you've been saved by his blood, you have a new life in his resurrection. So, I'm going to confess my sin so you can pray for me. And as I confess, and you pray, there's a healing that happens there. Now, let's just make it very clear, because there is confusion. The only person who can forgive sins is no man, no priest. There's only one name who can forgive sins, and his name is Jesus Christ. Let's make that very clear, you don't need to confess your sins to anyone to have your sins forgiven. No, you can go to God because Jesus is your high priest, because Jesus sacrificed his body and shed his blood as the atonement for your sin. You can go straight to God, and you can confess all of your sins in prayer to God, and he is faithful and just to forgive your sins, and to cleanse you from all of your unrighteousness. I mean, this is good news. Anybody here could have your sins forgiven today. Because if you have a broken heart, if you have a contrite spirit, and you turn to God, he will not despise you, he will not look down on you, he will not turn you away. No. If you go and confess your sins to God, he will forgive you. We have a God who is gracious, he is merciful, and he is ready to forgive. Everybody who comes to him in confession will experience the abundance of his steadfast love. That's who our God is. And you can confess to him, and he will forgive you. But then it says here in Scripture, confess your sins to one another. It says there's something about it that. Not that forgiveness is at stake, but there's a healing that comes from getting real with your brother or sister in Christ and having them know what's really going on with you, and really pray for you. There are some powerful healings that comes to your soul when you really get that sin out in the light. Then you're not tempted to live in the dark with it anymore. And I have seen that. I praise God that I have seen people come in here, nobody was seeking them out, nobody was investigating them, they came, and they turned themselves in and they said, I get angry with my family every day. And they confess that and it's like the power of anger was broken in their life after that. People with private struggles of sexual immorality, and they bring it out into the light, and they confess it openly. And suddenly they're experiencing victory over that sin in their life like they never have before because they confessed it to a brother or sister in Christ. Like why are you going to stay in the dark in the secret with that sin weighing such a heavy burden upon you, when you could confess it, you could announce it, and you could have healing today right here. I mean, that's what we're here to do is we are here to say I'm a sinner and turn ourselves in to one another so we can come around and pray for one another, and we can experience the healing that comes when we really confess our sin. I mean, this is the beautiful thing about Jesus is he brings us out of the darkness and into the light, and people who walk in the light have nothing to hide. Do you have something to hide? Because maybe today is the day you need to turn yourself in. And you could get healed, you could get forgiven. You could enjoy a book-burning watch and all your wicked deeds go up in smoke. That's what happened in Ephesus. That was powerful. I mean, it's so powerful that Luke is like, boom, the gospel has gone out to the ends of the earth, the Word of the Lord increases and prevails mightily.
Go back to Acts 19, and let's consider here for a moment what that means. Fifty thousand pieces of silver, because I think it said like that's a significant sum. And see, it's hard to translate money in the Bible times two money today, because we've been reading in the Proverbs or in the book of Acts, we come across silver and gold, and we're like into stocks and Bitcoin these days. You know what I'm saying? So, you say silver and gold that doesn't really get everybody fired up here in Southern California 2021 And it's hard to even translate what was fifty thousand pieces of silver at that time in Ephesus what would that equal today here in Huntington Beach? but they did money with the denarii, which is like a day's wage. So, if it's fifty thousand denarii, that means fifty thousand days’ pay. That means they just burnt up hundred and thirty-seven years of salary of magic books. So, imagine somebody working a job here in Huntington Beach for hundred and thirty-seven years. That's how much just got burned up in the streets of Ephesus. So, the point here is, this had an impact on the economy, like the magic arts community got destroyed through this book-burning. I mean, a massive amount of money just went up in flames because they weren't doing these magic practices anymore. And they didn't want anybody else doing them. So, they burned it up, because the Word of the Lord was increasing there among them. So, what we're going to see is that the Word increasing in Ephesus literally affects the economy of the city. And let's make it clear, Ephesus isn't some small town. This was a great city of its day. It had one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that we're going to see. The Temple of Artemis is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was here in Ephesus; it put Ephesus on the map, it made it famous, it brought in all kinds of tourists, and all kinds of business of people who would worship Artemis, and they would engage in idolatry there and they would spend their money there. In fact, look down at Acts 19:23. It says, “About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way.” So now, the Way of Jesus, the Word increasing in Ephesus, it's going to cause some disturbance here in the city. And it says in Acts 19:24-28, “For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, ‘Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. 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. 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.’ When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
So, when the Word is increasing, and Paul's down there at the Hall of Tyrannus and he is preaching that Word, well, they call a meeting they call a business meeting, get all the guys in the union. All the tradesmen who work here for the Temple of Artemis, we're going to have a meeting. Do you know what's going on down at the Hall of Tyrannus? Do you hear how Paul is turning so many people here in our town, and they're turning to Jesus Christ and the name of Jesus? Go back to Acts 19:17. Let's remember what was happening there in Ephesus. “And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.” We looked at that. It was like the name of the Lord Jesus was megaluno, it is the Greek word. The name of Jesus was made mega, it was large, it was made great in the city of Ephesus. So many people were healed of diseases. So many demons were cast out. Paul is teaching and doing miracles. And people weren't like, oh, look at Paul. They weren't like, oh, look at the church. People saw Jesus' name as great there in Ephesus. And these guys are so intimidated. These men, these businessmen, working over here at the Temple of Artemis, they are so intimidated by what Jesus is doing to build his church, that they're calling a business meeting. And they're saying, the Christians down the street, the people of the Way, they're changing the whole local economy, like we're going to lose our jobs. Like people would come and they would worship Artemis, who's in Roman mythology, Diana, and they would come and worship her here at this temple, and they would buy our silver shrines, and they would buy all of the things that we made for idolatry. I mean, this is how I make my living, how you get your income. I mean, this is our livelihood. And so many people are turning to Jesus that we might not be able to make as much money anymore over here at the Temple of Artemis. And can you imagine that the people down the street who are making their money through idolatry and sin, they're so intimidated by the people turning to Jesus Christ, that they start shouting megas is Artemis of Ephesus? Like, we can't let the name of Jesus be mega in this city. So, they literally start shouting Artemis of Ephesus is megas is what they start shouting. It's like a protest against the revival breaking out in Ephesus. I mean, this to me is so epic. This just inspires so much faith. I would love to be a part of a church where so many people were getting saved that it had changed the local economy. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that?
I mean, the people down the street that make their money from the Temple of Artemis, which is this famous, you got to understand, this is a big deal. The city of Ephesus Temple of Artemis, very well known, and they are concerned that they're going to lose business because people don't want to worship idols anymore. They want to worship Jesus Christ. I would love if all the marijuana dispensaries had to get together and be like, hey, I'm concerned, people aren't going to want to get high anymore because they're all being filled with the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, wouldn't it be awesome if like all the bars on Main Street like, hey, are you seeing less people come on Saturday night? Because I'm seeing less people. Why do you think people aren't coming on Saturday night anymore? I think they're going to bed early for church on Sunday morning. I mean, wouldn't that be amazing, right? When you go up to the liquor store, and it's like, stay dry, get Jesus on the door of the liquor store, right? Don't get drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit. So many people stop living in the flesh that it affects the economy of the city. Are you kidding me? This is awesome. And you might think, well, that's hard to believe. That's why it's in the Bible for us to study together on Halloween 2021. Because this was more than anybody was asking or thinking what happened in Ephesus. I mean, this is amazing, that the Word of the Lord is increasing, and the name of Jesus is getting so exalted, that the business down the street that makes its money based on idolatry, and immorality is like we're going to go out of business if people keep turning to Jesus Christ. I would love to see some businesses go out of business in North Orange County. Anybody with me on that? I mean, I would love to see some of these places we drive by every day, go out of business, because people don't want to go there anymore. Because they want to turn. That's what Demetrius says. Look at it there in Acts 19:26. He says, “in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people.” Even Demetrius can see the repentance that's taking place, he can see the revival that's happening because the Word is increasing.
So, number two, let's get this: When the Word goes to town, the economy is turned around. When the Word goes to town, the economy is turned around. People aren't buying magic books anymore. People aren't buying silver shrines to Artemis anymore. I mean, there is a redistribution of wealth because the Word is increasing in Ephesus. And this might be really encouraging because somebody when they saw those magic books getting burned up, and they saw this huge pile of books being lit on fire there in the street, or maybe they just saw all the people who are confessing and announcing their evil practices, and they're bringing all the books, somebody got the idea. This is a lot of material. How much did they spend on all of these magic books? And somebody decided they would add it up and they came to fifty thousand pieces of silver, which seems like a very significant sum. I wonder if you went and thought about what were the evil practices that you spent your money on before you met Jesus? What kind of alcohol were you consuming? What kind of drugs were you putting in? What kind of things were you looking at that you shouldn’t be looking at, all to feed your flesh? And how much money has Jesus saved you since you got saved? I mean, you want to find out about somebody you go and look at their bank statement. You go look at their account, you see where their money goes. You're going to see where their heart is. Jesus made this very clear, you cannot serve God and serve money. You either lay up treasures here on earth, or you lay up treasure in heaven, and where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
And so, when Jesus really saves people, they stop spending money on sin and he redistributes their resources. And so, what a powerful thing. I mean, this is something that I hope will inspire you to pray, maybe with more faith than you have before. God, I pray you would do such a work through your Word increasing in Huntington Beach and Garden Grove and even into Long Beach and Lakewood, I pray that your Word would increase so much that the economy of our cities would be affected, because so many people are being transformed by Jesus Christ. You think, well, that seems like a stretch for that to happen here today. No, this place was known for the great temple of Artemis; it would have seemed like a stretch for that to happen at Ephesus. But this is the power of our God. And it's been awesome to see a lot of people who are spending a lot of their time and money on evil things get turned to Jesus Christ. Here at our church, I've seen people leave behind some of the evil practices that we can all see are around us. I've seen God turn people out of that. And a lot of those people, they stopped spending money on sin, and they started giving money here to this church. And everything we do at this church comes from people just giving because they want to. In fact, we have a whole new building because people gave money for us to get it. So, it's very encouraging to see how Jesus has redistributed some resources here in Huntington Beach so far. But I want to talk about this project we're doing right now called the Double Double project because we want our church here in Huntington Beach to double into a church in Long Beach. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? And the reason we're doing this isn't like some vision we had, this isn't some idea that we had, we are doing this because we think that there is a need for the Word of the Lord in Long Beach. We think it's overwhelming that there's a need for the Word of the Lord in Long Beach. In fact, when I was a pastor at Compass Bible Church in Aliso Viejo, which is down in South County, I started meeting people from Huntington Beach or from Fountain Valley. I even met somebody from Stanton. And they had to tell me where that was because I never heard a Stanton before. And I was like, why are you driving all the way down? I don't even know where Aliso Viejo is down in South County, but I was like, why are you driving all the way down here for church, and they're like, because we need to hear the Word preached to us. And so, when I heard they were driving that far, that's what led us to plant a church here in Huntington Beach. But now, history has repeated itself. I've met so many brothers and sisters looking for the Word in Long Beach, and they end up with us here in Huntington Beach, many from Lakewood driving down the 405 to come down to Huntington Beach. Why? Because they want to hear the Word of the Lord. And so, we now have a good number of people who live in Long Beach and Lakewood coming to this church. So, the need is there. The people are here. And so, we've been asking everybody this year to pray for two things.
One, we've been praying for pastors and parking spaces; this is what we need to get a church started in Long Beach. And I want to give you an update on how that's going. Because we were talking with a man that we were thinking could be a preacher of the Word there in Long Beach. We talked to him for six months. And at the end of that time, it became clear that that was not God's will at this time for him to join us. And so, we still are praying for a pastor. We've got Bruce Blakey here, working with us. He is on the hunt here, training up from within search and without. We're praying for a pastor. But let me tell you about the parking spaces because we have looking at many buildings in Long Beach. We've studied like, what about a church? What about a church? Could we take over a building that's being used by a church? Would they let us use it? We know something about industrial spaces being used for church. Could we do something like that in Long Beach? And if you drive around Long Beach right now, you know, there are all kinds of commercial spaces where the businesses have shut down. A lot of Kmarts and TJ Maxxs is and different companies that are no more. You got empty boxes with big parking lots, sitting there doing nothing, and we're looking at all of it. We're praying about it, and one day we were getting fired up about it. And we were like, let's go start talking to some of these people. And our brother in Christ here at the church is working on this with me all the time, Scott Shew, and he's saying, hey, what are we going to say to these people about these buildings? We got no money down. You can't go get property without money down. You ain't gonna negotiate a lease for an apartment or go try to buy a home. And after you find out this is it, this is the good one, we want this one, and you can't say to him, well, let me go tell the rest of the church. We'll pray about it for a few months, we'll take an offering, and then I'll come back, and we'll do some business. That's not going to work. Like if we go and find the spot, and we talk to the people, we're going to need the money even to get to the table and to talk to them. So, I'm asking everybody to ask to add one more thing that we're praying for starting today. And you can pick this up on your way out, a Double Double project update.
Number two, we need money down for the building in Long Beach. Okay? When we think about the Word needing to go into that city, well, we're going to have to redistribute some of our wealth if we want to get a building. We think a building will really help a church in Long Beach. If we want that we're going to need some money down. And I figured while we're seeing revival, breakout in Ephesus, and the redistribution of the economy so that the silversmiths down the street are intimidated, they're going to lose their livelihood, because so many people are turning to Jesus Christ and his name is going mega. Artemis is going down. What a powerful concept to think about! What God can do to redistribute the wealth and turn the economy around. But that's not the end of the story.
Go back to Acts 19. Look at it here with me in Acts 19:23, when the trade union has started shouting out, megas is Artemis of the Ephesians. Right? And in verse 28, they're enraged that people are turning away to the name of Jesus. They're shouting how great Artemis is, and now there's a riot that's going to break out. It says in Acts 19:29, “the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel.” Hey, those guys are with Paul, grab them, bring them with us. And they end up now in this open theater, this biggest area here in Ephesus, and it just becomes a mob. It says here in Acts 19:30-31, “when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.” This is out of control. Paul, don't try to speak to these people. They're not going to listen to you. I mean, we already know Paul has gotten beaten up. Paul has gotten thrown into prison. Paul has gotten left for dead outside of other cities before. People are like, Paul, if you go in in front of this mob, who knows what could happen to you. Please don't do it. And so, Acts 19:32 says, “some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly…” this whole massive group of people there “was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.” What's going on down there at the theater? I don't know. Let's go check it out. Let's go see. And so here they all come together. Acts 19:33, the whole city's coming out now, “and some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. But when they recognize that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.’”
These people are so fired up. They're so in a frenzy. They're so concerned that the name of Jesus is going to take over Ephesus that they're like we need to protest and make sure that Artemis is the great name around here. Megas is Artemis of Ephesus, is what they're shouting for two hours. Now see, at this time, Artemis, this temple, I mean, this seems like such a real thing. Such a substantial thing, like this is what pays the bills around here. This is what keeps people coming around here to our city. This is what had tourism and all the industry. It all feeds off of this temple. And so, it made sense to a whole city of people to shout for two hours at the top of their lungs, how great Artemis is. And to us now, reading this story, it just seems ridiculous that they would think this ancient temple, that got destroyed somewhere in the four hundreds, that they would think how great it was against Jesus Christ. But that's what they responded to. See, people when they saw the name of Jesus being extolled and made mega in their city, they were like, we’ve got to get louder, and we’ve got to get another name up as more great than Jesus.
Let's get this down for number three: When the Word comes to town, the opposition turns up the volume. The opposition turns up the volume. We need to have realistic expectations. If people keep confessing their sins, and believing, and getting baptized, if the Word increases so that it even affects our cities and our local economy, not everybody is going to like it. If people will stop being witches in Garden Grove, not everybody's going to like it. If people aren't spending money on getting drunk, or getting high, or sexual immorality anymore, no, you can be sure of this that, if the world hated Jesus, they're going to hate us too. And if we get the revival that we're praying for, well, there's going to be some opposition. We need to be clear about this. If you really do a good job of lifting high the name of Jesus, somebody else is going to try to take the name of Jesus down and put something else as greater than Jesus Christ. All of us who desire to live godly lives will be persecuted. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? Like, we can't make a big deal about the name of Jesus, we can't raise a ruckus through the Word of God, and not expect a very negative response coming from somewhere, from somebody around us. And that's what we see here. We see that the temple down the street is not okay with the church having a revival, and they are going to try to get Artemis’ name back up as the name that is great in Ephesus. And fortunately, it doesn't get too hostile. Nobody gets beaten up here because we have a town clerk who's a good governing official here. Look at Acts 19:35, “when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, ‘Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky.’” He's like, hey, everybody knows about our temple. Everybody knows the back story, that history that we believe around here. And so, hey, seeing that these things cannot be denied, you want to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here probably referring to Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's friends, you brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. If therefore, Demetrius and the craftsman with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are pro consuls. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly, for we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion. And when he said these things, he dismissed the assembly. Now, whenever I read something about a common sense governing official, I like to give a round of applause right there, everybody. We need more town clerks like this guy here in Ephesus, doing a great job putting it into perspective, quieting the crowd. So, praise the Lord, Gaius and Aristarchus don't get beat up or killed, or something unjust happened there. But we've seen this from city to city, it almost seems like the more that happens in the name of Jesus, the more negative response comes from the world. And maybe you feel some of that tension. Maybe that's why you hesitate when the extended family gets together, or when the workplace conversation goes a certain direction, you hesitate to tell everybody that you were studying the book of acts on Halloween. Because you know, there's going to be tension in that conversation. You know that if in a conversation, you try to Lift high the name of Jesus as the one who is great, you might have other people trying to put something else up as the name that is great. And maybe you've stopped spreading the Word of Jesus because you don't like the negative response. We need to make this very clear that when all is said and done, the name of Jesus will be the only name that is great. And he will be the name above all names.
Turn with me to Philippians chapter 2. I want us to read it together. Because I just feel like we've been in an age where there's so much bad news. There's so much fear mongering, there's so much information, can you even really trust it to be accurate, and I am concerned that even people are making decisions based on fear, or they're making decisions based on what they think will be accepted by the people around them. And we need to understand that whatever people are saying is great today, in the end, that will seem as ridiculous to us as people shouting great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Okay? So, whatever the movement is now, whatever the moment is here today, and people are trying to say, it's not Jesus, it's this. Whatever people are holding up in opposition to Jesus Christ, someday will be seen as completely ridiculous. Because the name of Jesus will be exalted, and it will be exalted by every single person, every single soul. If you believe in Jesus, and you live tie his name, you need to know here today you're on the right side of history, and you shouldn’t be intimidated about what anybody else thinks, because someday everyone will agree with you. Everyone will know you were speaking the truth, and you were doing it in love. And they will wish you had said it louder, and they will wish they had heard more of it. Because this is how history ends. This is how the story is told after Jesus humbled himself to be born as a man, after he died on the cross for our sins, God raised him from the dead, and he seated him at his right hand. And it says in Philippians 2:9-11… this may not be on the front page of the Orange County Register, but it should be. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
It may seem hard to believe that the witches would come to church, it may seem hard to believe that the local economy could get turned around, it may seem hard to believe that we could see a revival like that in Huntington Beach and Long Beach in our day. But I promise you that someday, every single knee in Huntington Beach will hit the ground. Every single tongue in Long Beach will say, oh, I know the name that's great. And they will all worship him; they will all see him for who he truly is. What we get to see by faith now will become everyone’s sight. Every eye is going to see Jesus riding on the clouds, and everyone will mourn. And all the things that we've been saying great will seem so ridiculous compared to Jesus. There is only one name we're shouting for two hours at the top of your lungs. And it's not Artemis of Ephesus. And I believe this to be true that everyone will know that Jesus is Lord. And I just wonder, where will they know it from? Will they be here in Huntington Beach or Long Beach? Will they be in heaven seeing all of his glory? Or will they be under the earth wishing they had joined us here at the church, here in the Word of the Lord. Do not be intimidated, but Lift high the name of Jesus Christ. That's the only hope we've got. We need to bring this book to the beach so that we can see God do something like he did in Ephesus here among us. Let this story inspire our faith. Will you pray with me right now?
Father in heaven, we come to you, and we just confess that we are those of little faith. And it's hard for us to believe that the magic arts would burn their books, and the liquor stores and the marijuana dispensaries would get shut down because people don't want to do the deeds of the flesh anymore but want to live in the fruit of the Spirit. It's hard for us to believe that something like that could happen not here where we live, not today. So, God, I pray that you will use this story of what you did in Ephesus to cause us to believe that there is power when your Word increases, when the name of Jesus is made known and exalted, that you have a mighty power that works. And it's so powerful that sinners come and turn themselves in. People stand up here to get baptized, and they start sharing their darkest secrets in public. People stop giving their money to drugs and drinking and immorality, and they start giving it to the Church of Jesus Christ. You do mighty things, and we're asking you to do them here among us. We're asking that we could see just a glimpse of the glory, that we could have just another page in the story of the church, that we could see people down the street, some kind of meeting of a bunch of seedy business owners said, hey, we're in trouble because everybody's turning to Jesus Christ. Father, will you do something like that here in Huntington Beach? Will you do it in our hearts here today? Do it in this church. Let us believe it. Let us speak the truth in love to one another. Let the Word increase. Let this just be the beginning of what you're doing among us here. Father, we pray that the name of Jesus would be exalted. We pray that people would come to know him as we know him, that you can build your life on the gospel of Jesus, that the Jesus is the one who's building his church, and he's restoring marriages, and he's transforming from families, and he’s redirecting lives, and there is no name we're shouting, except for the name of Jesus Christ. Father, will you please be pleased to glorify your Son here in Huntington Beach and let us double into Long Beach. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.