Got some slides about Ephesus and give us a little background about the city, and then we'll take what time we have left and actually get into the scriptures tonight. Yeah, this will work, I think. We'll see if my clicker works. That sounds more impressive than what I did, I think. At least in my view. I was interested in, I browsed around and found some maps and some pictures because I think the value that comes from this is it gives you, at least me, a sense of this is a real place. And it also helps to visualize what you're reading. So Ephesus was and is, the ruins are there, but it's on the westernmost end of the peninsula. port of modern-day Turkey on the water there. Let's see if this clicker works. Okay, so here is, here's another map, zooming in a little bit, and you can see Ephesus is where the red pin there is, and I don't know how well you can see from that distance, but you can see there's a little bit of water next to it. Ephesus in the first century was a port city. It was, you know, you could, you could sail your ship right up there to it. It was a major town. Now, here is a picture from Google Earth that someone took the Google Earth picture, and they painted on top of that the blue water that used to be there. It turns out that today, that's all silted in. And so it's solid land there in the middle. So let me see if I can get the pointer to work. Okay, so here's the actual coastline, runs down through here, but all this blue is actual land where you can drive around cars. This, and obviously if it's not clear to you, this is where Ephesus was. This sort of bright white line there is the runway of an airplane. Okay? And there is a – and again, I'm not sure how well – I can see it pretty well on that there. I'm not sure how well you can see it here. There's a dark section that runs in here, which is a slow, meandering river of a sort. I don't know if we even call it a river, but anyway. And again, I don't know how well you can tell it here, but there's a thing that looks a little bit like a spatula or a broom there that is the actual ancient port. the water of the harbor for Ephesus. It's sort of a swampy – I don't know what I'd call a swamp, a lake. What do we call these things around here? I don't know, but it's – yeah, a pond. There's some water there even to this day. So let's go to the next thing. So here is a topographic map of Ephesus. Seems like I have Different one. Maybe it's coming next. We'll see. I'm expecting something else. Anyway, topographic map. There's a big hill on one side and a big hill on the other side, 600 feet or more or whatever. And the city lay in the valley between those, coming down to the port. So here's the harbor. And then here are the main part of the city. There's an, let me see. This is the amphitheater. This is the Harbor Road. There's a road that comes down this way. It'll give you a sense of the layout of it. And I think this is the picture. Well, I'll just say this. I don't know where we get to tonight, but there was this big uproar in Acts 19 about the Artemis of the Ephesians in the temple, the great temple that was there of Diana or Artemis, whichever name you use. Her temple is not here. This is, I guess, where the main city is. The temple was over in this direction about here, about this distance twice over that direction. And all that's left of that temple is maybe one pillar. Not much is left of that. There's a good deal left here in this part of the town. This is the picture I was thinking of. I don't know how important this is to Ephesus or even the letter of Ephesians, but can anybody tell me what those seven stars are? Right. And if you look at it, it's very interesting. They're in the same order. And we start with Ephesus. Whoops, wrong one. This button. You start with Ephesus, but then you go letters, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea in that order. So the gist of the history, I can give you, OK, so here's what I can say. Ephesus was really the capital of this area. It's a representative of this section of this province of Roman. jurisdiction. So here's a picture. How am I doing on time? Here's a picture that I don't want to spend a lot of time with because I'm going to zoom in for other things. But the gist is this will give you a big overview layout such as it is. Here's the amphitheater. This square is the Agora, which means that's the open air marketplace where goods were sold back and forth. I'm going to show you another picture of this. the front of a two-story building that was called the Library of Celsus, a pretty majestic looking thing. It was a private library. And then there's another street that comes up here. This is the street that goes up between those two hills. And there was buildings and stuff on both sides. These areas are called the Houses on the Slopes. As I understand it, that's where the rich people lived, or at least it was a ritzy section. Okay, here's another diagram that maybe to give you a sense of how the city was laid out. Again, Harbor Road, theater, a marble road here, Agora, Celsus Library, and this street that goes up that way. So here is a... Okay, I don't know how well you can see. I like to see it bigger. But anyway, it is what it is. So there's the Library of Celsus, that two-story front there. There's some gateways here that go into the Agora. This is that marble. It's called the Marble Street. It runs out toward the theater. And I think what you would gather from this picture, maybe even more than just the, wow, this is a rich place and it has pretty fancy buildings, it's a tourist place. Lots of tourist companies, you can give them money, they'll take you there and tell you all about it. I don't know how much you spent. But lots of people in these pictures. Here's another picture, another angle of the Library of Celsus. Obviously, a lot of ruins. And then that's the street that's between those two hillsides. And in the distance there is the Library of Celsus. This is the library there. So there are all sorts of things along that street. Yes, sir? I don't know a lot about it other than it was a major library of books. And Celsus was the man's name who owned it. And it wasn't a public lending library, but it was owned by this man. And I imagine you could go in there and read. I don't know if you could take things home or not. I don't know. But it's the major structure that's there, and it's very impressive. Now, let's go on to this, because I think maybe this gets interesting for you. This is that amphitheater. which figures in the scriptures. It has some damage in the Middle Ages, there was an earthquake, but generally speaking it's all there. can be used and not dangerous to enter. They would have plays in here and concerts. They would also do some gladiator-type games. The part that's on this side is the stage, and that was a three-story building where the people could come out. Right now, you have about two stories left there, or maybe one and a half. But actors could come out from the rooms that are inside that building and onto balconies. It's said that if you dropped a coin on that, I don't know, I'll call this a stage. I don't know if that's the real name of this thing. If you drop a coin there, it can be heard up in the stands. And in fact, I saw a little video of a guy doing that, and he called to the people up in there and said, did you hear that? And they shook their head, and they could say yes. Now, I don't know how far up they were, but anyway, it's kind of impressive. And that way, it holds 25,000 people. And it's the largest of these in Asia Minor, the largest Roman theater in Turkey, and may have been the largest even in that day. Let's see. So this goes around the other side and gives you, there are three tiers of seating. And you can see the top two from this angle. So you can get a sense of what it might be like to have been there and have that place full of people shouting, great is Diana of the Ephesians, upset with you. not a, and Paul, well, maybe I'm getting ahead of you, but they, and Paul wanted to go in there and address them, and the people wouldn't, they said, don't go, don't you dare go there. If you move up into the stands and look down the other way at the stage, and I think this is my last picture, you can see this is the, this is the Harbor Road running out to the harbor, and about where those trees are is where the harbor would have been, where that pond is now. Okay, so I think that's basically what I have to show you tonight. Any questions? I don't know that I have any answers, but I'll be glad to hear one. It's behind you. In other words, let me back up. Maybe I'll show a different picture. That hill that's behind you, that's the main hill that's on the What would that be on the northern of those two hills? Diana of the Ephesians would have been to the left over about two clicks. The distance from here to the downtown was one click, and you go two clicks that way is where the Temple of Artemis would have been. So it doesn't seem like it was downtown. Roman what? Kings? I'm not sure that I know the answer to that. This is Ephesus, so the Caesars probably would not have come here very often. They probably stayed in Rome. The city was built well before Rome even took over. It was a Greek city. Rome came in, and I don't know what year it was, but before the time of Christ or around that time, and added that third layer up there. It used to just have two tiers. But they expanded it, the Romans did. Anyone else? Yes, ma'am. I didn't read much about how much digging is happening, but obviously it's a prime place. There's a lot there to find. I get the impression that mostly it's just tourists these days. Yes, sir. Is there a modern city not right there, but not too far away? I don't know, five miles, three miles? Not too far. We're more or less in that same direction toward where the temple is. And obviously, like I just said, the other picture, if you think about it, not too far from there, there's an airport. Not to say that I don't know the jets coming in and out there, but there's an airport right there. OK? All right, let's switch. I probably shouldn't say this, but it gives you an interesting perspective on sea levels rising. All that is now land at one time was water. So it just is a natural process that sometimes the water rises, sometimes the land rises, just what happens. Acts chapter 19 is where we find Paul at Ephesus. Acts chapter 19 and we'll get to some of the things that Phil alluded to, probably not tonight. We'll just get started in chapter 19 this evening and then we can look at it further next Wednesday evening. We had already looked at the first seven verses of chapter 19 where Paul comes to Ephesus, this is his third missionary journey. It began at Antioch and he went back through the region of Galatia and Phrygia strengthening the churches there. and then ends up in Ephesus and most of his third missionary journey is spent in the city of Ephesus, establishing a church there. And so in verse eight of Acts chapter 19 begins really the work of starting the church when he went into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus." By the way, the word Tyrannus means tyrant and so somebody named their son Tyrant, just an interesting side note. This continued by the space of two years so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. and God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them. So thinking about the founding of the church at Ephesus, starting a church has its challenges but it's also an exciting prospect. I was thinking about this church, knowing its history, were any of you here If you can remember back and know exactly about when you came, anybody that's here tonight that was a part of Faith Baptist Church before 1995, anybody? Wow, everybody came after that. So none of you were here really in the founding days of the church. And of course, a lot of you have come even since we've been here in the last five years. But you know, it's exciting when you go into a place and you start a church and you see God bring together a group of of people who are all different and meld them together in a single body. It's a unique experience and it's an exciting thing to do. I think I've shared with you when we were When we first went out to Mississippi, we weren't, in one way we weren't starting the church there, it had a history, but we were starting over and the only advantage I guess we had was we had a piece of property and we had a little bit of money in the bank when we started, but we only had three active members and a few others that were attending, so we were effectively starting over, but we came here when we were raising support and It was just exciting to me to see at that point, that was in 2000 or 2001, I think when we were here, and seeing what God had done here, how, you know, there had not been a church here, Faith Baptist Church hadn't existed. And as the Privets came and and began this work and then God brought people here and the church grew and the buildings were built. It's just exciting to see what God had done here and to think about the possibilities in Mississippi, that what God could do there. And it was encouraging to me to do that. And I may have shared with you, I was at a pastor's conference in Texas sometime after that and I shared that with a group of men that were there. And one of those men that I knew was getting ready to start a church in Texas. And I saw the tears streaming down his cheeks as I was telling that because he was thinking about what God was going to do through his ministry. It's an exciting thing. You know Paul had many opportunities to start churches because as we've been studying his ministry, I mean everywhere he went he's a pioneer missionary. There were no churches, there were no believers or if there were there would be very few believers in the places where he went. So at Lystra and Iconium and Derby in Antioch and Philippi and Thessalonica and Berea and Corinth and Ephesus and other places. I mean Paul's going into these cities and he's starting churches and it's an exciting thing and it's interesting too because if you talk to men who have started churches and particularly men who have started a number of churches many of them will say you know I've only got so many in me because it's exciting But it is also challenging and it has its difficulties and a lot of guys will say, you know, I can only do this so many times. And, but Paul did it many, many, many times. And so we've already looked at these other churches, but let's think tonight about the beginning of the church at Ephesus as Luke records it in the book of Acts. And I want to begin with what the scriptures show us, the declaration of the gospel. As again Paul went into the synagogue and he spoke boldly for the space of three months disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. As we think about the declaration of the gospel at Ephesus it was first of all clear, the word bold that is used there is sometimes translated plainly or openly. As Paul went in he declared the gospel and showed from the Old Testament scriptures that Messiah must suffer and die and rise from the dead and that Jesus is the Messiah. I mean, that was his message. We've already seen that as we've looked at his ministry and other parts of his missionary journeys. But that's what he's doing. He's going in like Christ did with the two on the Emmaus Road and what he did with the disciples in the upper room. He opened their eyes to understand the scriptures that Messiah must suffer and die, that everything that Jesus had experienced was exactly what had been prophesied about Messiah and so Paul is going around preaching that same message and declaring that Jesus is the Messiah and very plainly just opening the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures to the Jews in the synagogue and showing them what the Bible said about Messiah and then pointing to them how Jesus had fulfilled all those prophecies about Messiah. So it was a very clear message that was given, but that word bold also has the idea of a fearless declaration. We know that Paul dealt with fear in declaring the gospel. How do we know that? How do we know that Paul struggled with fear when he was even preaching the gospel? You remember? Something we've already considered. Okay, but what happened in Corinth? I know it's been a while. It's been weeks since we were there. But yeah, the Lord had to give him a special message. Paul, don't be afraid. Nobody's going to hurt you. I've got many people in the city, but the Lord wouldn't have said to Paul, don't be afraid if Paul hadn't been afraid. When you think about Paul and his boldness in preaching the gospel, sometimes we forget Paul is a man just like the rest of us. He had the same struggles that we do. Even though God used him mightily to start all these churches and to preach the gospel, he suffered much. And so as he goes into a new city, he doesn't know what he's gonna face, but he knows there's a good possibility that he's gonna be at least opposed, if not literally physically persecuted or put in prison. I mean, he knows that's a real possibility. So but yet when he goes in and it was it was most often at the hands of the Jews. So he's going into the synagogue, which is made up primarily of Jews, though there were Gentiles proselytes that were there as well. But but he knows going in there that he's preaching a message that is not popular to the Jews. And he suffered much for this message that he's preaching. But yet he still boldly preaches Jesus in the synagogue. How do you do that? Well, you do that through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not something that Paul just worked up on his own. And it's not something that we can work up on our own. If we're fearful in witnessing, you're not gonna overcome that just by gritting your teeth and saying, I'm just gonna buck up and do this. We need to be dependent upon the Lord and upon the Holy Spirit. You remember back in Acts chapter four, and you don't need to turn, but the apostles have been threatened. They have been told not to preach in the name of Jesus. They had been threatened with beatings and imprisonment and even death if they did. And when the church gathered together, they prayed and rehearsed all that before the Lord. And then they said, now, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness, they may speak thy word. They prayed for boldness and then it goes on to tell us in Acts 4 that when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and spake the word of God with boldness. That they prayed for boldness and God answered that prayer. That if we need that boldness to be a witness for Christ, if we struggle with fear and a lack of boldness, the answer is get on your knees and ask God for the boldness to be his witness. because it's not something we work up on our own. It is something that God does for us. And you know, as Paul's preaching, it says he was disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. He preached about the kingdom of God, which is the rule of God in the life of individuals. He preached, again, a message that was not popular to the Jewish people. In John chapter three, Jesus encountered Nicodemus. And he said to him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. For the Jewish people, you know, they, they thought, and those of you that were in our Bible study yesterday morning, we were looking at this in Romans chapter two, but you know, their, their idea was we're Jews. We're descendants of Abraham. We've got the law. So we're good. We're getting into heaven because of our heritage. And we have the word of God and everything. And, and along comes, first of all, Jesus Christ saying, you must be born again. Nicodemus is not keeping the law. It's not your works. It is faith in Jesus Christ. It is a new birth through faith in Christ. That's what Jesus preached in Nicodemus. You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, unless you're born of the spirit of God. That which is born of the flesh, Jesus said to Nicodemus is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. You've got that fleshly birth into Abraham's family, but that's not enough. So when Paul goes in again to the synagogue, he's clearly and boldly proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah and that salvation, if you want to get into the kingdom of God, you have to believe on Jesus Christ as your Messiah, as your Savior. And that's not a popular message among the Jewish people. And yet Paul boldly proclaimed it by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he kept on proclaiming it. It says that he went into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months. Of course, you know, the synagogue services were on Saturday, on the Sabbath. And so every Saturday for three months, he went back and he preached the same message again and again and again. Disputing, he's teaching and that word disputing, it has the idea of back and forth. We've looked at this before. That was Paul's method and it was the way it worked in the synagogue. As Paul would declare, he would go through the scriptures explain them and show how Jesus fulfilled them. And then there was opportunity for questions. And so there's some back and forth and not everybody's accepting that message. And so there's some discussion and even disagreement that's going to go on there. But Paul kept going back Saturday after Saturday after Saturday for three months, sharing that same message over and over again, maybe enlarging upon it, answering questions, but just giving that same message over and over and over again for three months. Some years ago, I heard a story of a, the pastor was telling the story how he had become an assistant pastor in the church, and one of the deacons told him, he said, I want you to go with me tomorrow. I think maybe they got together on a Wednesday night, said tomorrow, Thursday, I want you to come pick me up. The deacon said, I want you to come pick me up, I wanna take you somewhere. And so that Thursday, I guess it was, the assistant pastor went by the deacon's house, picked him up, And they went and drove to a car dealership in town and drove around to the back to the service department and asked for a man, and I don't remember the man's name, but they asked for a man who was one of the mechanics. And he came out to the car and the deacon was elderly and he was on oxygen and so he couldn't get out of the car. So they called this mechanic to come to the car and this deacon says to this mechanic, he said, let's just call him John. He said, John, this is pastor so-and-so. He's the new assistant pastor at our church and I wanted you to meet him. And John, tell him how often I came to see you. And the mechanic said, every week? And he said, John, tell him how long I came every week to see you. He said, 20 years. For 20 years, every week, that deacon went and talked to that mechanic and witnessed to him. And after 20 years, he finally got saved. Over and over and over again. And sometimes it just takes going back to the same person over and over and over again, as God would give opportunity to just share the gospel again and again and again and again. And as long as they're willing to listen. We should be willing to share the gospel with them to keep on sharing that message. There's a man in our first church that and I may have shared this with you, but his name was Jack and He had been offended as a younger man, something that went on at church and was just, really wanted nothing to do with the church. At the time, he never married, he was living with his mother, and we would go visit his mother. She was elderly, I think in her 90s when we were there. And we'd sit and visit with her, and Jack would be there, and he would sit there, but he wouldn't say anything, and just kinda was, didn't wanna have anything to do with us. But his mother died and I preached her funeral. And he asked me if I would share something about his mother and father in the funeral and I did. But that seemed to soften his heart. And so after his mother passed away, I just went to visit him. And for two or three years I would go visit him, not every week but periodically. And not every time I went did I share the gospel. Many times I would talk to him about the Lord and sometimes we'd just talk about life, you know, just being friends. But I won his confidence through that and kept sharing the gospel and one day he said he was ready to receive Christ as Savior. Sometimes that's the way it works that God just gives us those opportunities to continue to share the gospel over and over again with somebody until they finally come to that place of accepting Christ as Savior. And so as Paul went into the synagogue and clearly and boldly preached Jesus and the things concerning the kingdom of God. It says he disputed and he persuaded many came to know Jesus Christ as Savior. His ministry was effective in that some did believe and the nucleus of the church was established during that three month period that Paul preached in the synagogue. But then there was opposition. Let's go ahead and look at the second thought and then we'll finish for tonight. But the separation of the church at Ephesus Paul pulled the church out. When divers, it says in verse nine, were hardened and believed not bespake evil of that way before the multitude. This is the turning point for Paul and his ministry in the synagogue. There was a hostile rejection of the gospel by the Jews. They had hardened their heart. They had become obstinate and stubborn. After a while, as Paul had done this for three months, there came a point where those that did not believe didn't want to hear it anymore. and they weren't just shutting their ears or sitting there with their arms crossed and a frown on their face, they began to speak against, strongly speak against the things that Paul was preaching and teaching. And so because of that, he departed from them, it says, and separated the disciples disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. And it reminds us tonight that God doesn't force himself on others. You know, for three months, Paul went back and kept sharing that message. They were willing to listen. But when the time came that they were not only not willing to listen, but even stubbornly resisting and speaking against the things that Paul was preaching and teaching. At that point, Paul pulls the believers out. God doesn't force himself on others. If somebody's willing to listen, we can continue to witness, but we don't have to force somebody to listen. We don't have to try to make somebody listen to the gospel message. God doesn't do that. He gives men opportunities. He gives them the gospel, gives them the opportunity to receive it or reject it. But God never forces himself. God didn't twist your arm to make you receive Christ as your Savior. God has a way of bringing us to that point where we can't really help ourselves. When we're under conviction, obviously, you still can reject the gospel. But God knows how to get our attention and keep the pressure on. But when a person knowingly and willingly rejects the gospel. God doesn't force them. God doesn't make them listen. God's not going to make anybody get saved. And so when the opposition became hostile, Paul pulled the church out, the believers out and began to meet in the school of Tyrannus. So the interesting thing about this, though, is that Because of the hostility of the Jewish people in Ephesus, and Paul having to pull them out of the synagogue, it actually opened the door for a greater opportunity in declaring the gospel. They moved into the school of Tyrannus, into a school building. It's interesting, as I was thinking about this, today we associate buildings with the church. You know, we talk about going to church, and what we're talking about when we say that, we're talking about we're going to the building where the church meets, but the church is people, not the building. But we do so often today associate the building with the church. When we were in Mississippi, and I think it was two or three years before we were actually able to build a building. When I went, we were meeting in rented facilities. I had a great opportunity there. because there was a community center. We were paying $100 a month to meet in this community center, and we had unlimited access to the community center for $100 a month. But we had a piece of property across the road from the community center, and we were able to build a building. That's a whole other story. I won't get into all the details of that. It's an interesting story. But anyway, we built the building. It wasn't until we got a building that we really began to see people coming. It's like they identified the church by the building. And, you know, today, that's kind of the way we think about things. No doubt, I don't know the details, those details of the history of the church here, but I would assume that once you moved into this building, that that helped the church move forward, because there was something visible that people could relate to that they couldn't when it was in the business park or in the school. But there's a church building, a visible place that people could relate to, and so they began to come. But it wasn't always that way. The earliest buildings that were especially dedicated to the worship of God didn't happen until the 200s A.D. Until then, the church met in homes or other rented or barred facilities. And it just reminds us tonight, there's no right place for the church to meet. Circumstances will determine the place. It's wonderful today that we can have church buildings, and there's nothing wrong with having church buildings, but we do have to keep a balance. We can go overboard with the building and get our focus on a facility instead of the people that we're ministering to. A building should be a tool to help us reach people and we always need to keep that in mind as we think about the church and the facilities that it is a tool to help us reach people with the gospel or build believers with the truth of God and we ought to take care of the facility that God has given to us but again we have to keep a balance between the facility and the ministry to people and when the facility is no longer a help but a hindrance The facility needs to be abandoned. There have been churches that have died because they were committed to a location, a building. And, you know, in some cases, maybe especially older churches, well, my great grandfather helped start this church and it's been right here and we're going to be here till we die. And they're going to die because they're committed to a building or a place instead of a ministry. So we need to make sure that we keep our focus right. And it may come to the point in America where we have to abandon our, I believe the day will come, and I could be wrong, but when the government's going to take our buildings, they're just going to confiscate them and we won't have them. And we'll have to find other places to meet. And it may be difficult to rent facilities because Christianity and Christians will be second class citizens and people won't want to rent to us or there'll be liability issues with renting to Christians. And I'm looking down the road and maybe none of that ever happens. I pray it doesn't. But it wouldn't surprise me if it does. But that doesn't mean the church ceases to exist. It just means we lost our facilities. But the church is not the building, it's the people. And as Paul moved his church out of the synagogue where they had been meeting into the school of Tyrannus, it actually gave Paul more opportunities for preaching the gospel. In the synagogue, they met once a week. In the school of Tyrannus, it says he disputed, what does verse nine say? How often did he dispute in the school of Tyrannus? Every day. It's been said that In in that day and time that they worked until 11 o'clock every morning and then they took off until 4 o'clock every afternoon because of the heat of the day. And so probably that's the way Paul worked. He worked at tent making in the morning. And then when 11 o'clock came, everything shuts down. Well, that's probably when Paul then began his ministry. So when everybody else is resting, Paul's gathering the church and he's teaching them, and as they would bring unbelievers in, he's sharing the gospel, preaching the gospel, and people are getting saved, and the church is growing. One writer said, the tradition says that Paul taught from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tyrannus would need his school before 11 a.m. and after 4 p.m. In the Ionian cities, all work stopped at 11 and did not begin again until late afternoon because of the heat, and we are told that there would actually be more people sound asleep in Ephesus at 1 p.m. than at 1 a.m. So what Paul must have done was to work all morning and all evening in his trade and teach in the midday hours. This writer went on to say, it shows us two things, the eagerness of Paul to teach and the eagerness of the Christians to learn. The only time they had was when others rested in the heat of the day and they seized that time. And then this writer went on to note, it may well shame many of us for our talk of inconvenient times. Would we be willing to give up our afternoons if that was our rest time every day and we were working before and after to give up our afternoons to be taught the word of God? But these were new believers. They're hungry for the truth. No doubt they're bringing their unsaved neighbors and family members and friends. So what the opposition that Paul faced in the synagogue at Ephesus actually created an opportunity and how often does the Lord take opposition and transform it into opportunity? All right, I think it's interesting and let me share this and then we'll close. But in Acts chapter 11, we read that they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Who do you associate with the persecution that arose about Stephen? Saul, who became Paul. This is neat how God works. Because here is Paul, at that time Saul, who's persecuting the church. As a result of that, the believers are scattered and they end up in Antioch. Well, what happened in Antioch? What happens? Fast forward a number of years and there's some teachers in the church at Antioch. Among them were. Two that were called of God to missionary work. Paul and Barnabas. How did that church in Antioch get started? Because Paul is persecuting the church and the believers in Jerusalem fled the persecution that Paul was leading and ended up starting the church that God used then to be the base for all of Paul's missionary journeys. Is that not the work of God? I mean, it's tremendous. But that opposition, the persecution in Jerusalem simply created an opportunity and the gospel spread. In Acts chapter eight, where we read about that persecution, Saul was consenting unto Stephen's death. At that time, there was a great persecution against the church at Jerusalem, and they were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. And Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. And there was a great revival in Samaria. And so, you know, all that opposition was simply creating greater opportunities for the spreading of the gospel. And so let me close tonight with that encouragement that as we see an increasing hostility to Christianity today in America, and it can be discouraging, but don't get discouraged because God uses opposition to create doors of opportunity. God's work is not hindered by opposition. There's that old statement that the blood of the martyrs is the seat of the church. But even when it's not martyrdom, it's just hostility and opposition, God still can use that to grow his church. And so even as we see things changing in America, God is still at work. And as Christ told the disciples, as he said to Peter, Thou art Peter, upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. God is going to build his church. He's going to keep on building his church no matter how much. Satan would oppose. No matter how much Satan tries to keep men in his kingdom, God knows how to deliver men from Satan's kingdom and bring him into his kingdom. And even use the satanic opposition to do that. Let's stand together for prayer. Our father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for. The ministry. that you gave the Apostle Paul and the things that we can learn as we study his life. Lord, as we have considered your truth tonight, I pray that you would take that which we most need and impress it upon our hearts. And Lord, help us to leave here knowing what we must do to serve you faithfully and fulfill your calling in our lives. to be encouraged by your word to keep on keeping on for you. Lord, maybe there's that person that we need to keep sharing the gospel with. And Lord, we pray that you would bring people across our path that we could witness to. Lord, encourage that one maybe here tonight that's been witnessing to somebody and they haven't received Christ. And Lord, just help them to continue to share that gospel as long as that person is willing to listen. Lord, may that day come when when they receive Christ as Savior. Lord, help us to be encouraged. Even as we see increasing opposition to the truth in our nation, to know that you are at work. And Lord, may we just be faithful and then see you do the work that you want to do for your glory. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.