Now in these radio broadcasts we want to commence today with a new series of studies, the title of which is this, Lessons from the Church at Ephesus. Now before we read from the scriptures and introduce this new series of studies, let us bow quietly for prayer. Our Father. We acknowledge thee again as the eternal God, as the author of the inspired scriptures. And now as we turn to the sacred word, we would ask that by thy Holy Spirit, thou shalt enable each one of us today to understand and take in the teachings of thy word, so that our lives may be governed and molded thereby. May thy blessing be the portion of all listeners for the Lord Jesus sake. Amen. Now then, here is what I intend doing for these coming days. I have said the subject to be discussed will be the church at Ephesus. Back in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter twenty, verse twenty eight, we have this expression, the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. It's his church. It's a purchased church. And our objective in this series of studies is to examine the church at Ephesus as a representative church, and therefore we shall consider it as an object lesson for any church located in any place during any generation. Now in the New Testament we have four distinct sections. We have a book called The Acts of the Apostles, which can be classified in the historical section of the New Testament along with the four Gospels. But since you do not have the church in the four Gospels, you only have the church commencing when you come to Acts chapter two, then we take the Acts of the Apostles as representing the historical section. of the New Testament. Then there follows a number of epistles, letters that were written to different churches by the Apostle Paul. These are recognized as the doctrinal epistles of the New Testament. Then a number of letters that come under the category of the pastoral epistles, letters that were written to Timothy and Titus and so on. And then you have the last book of the Bible commonly referred to as the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which is an apocalyptic book. Now in all these four sections some reference is made to the church at Ephesus. You'll read about it back in the Acts of the Apostles. chapters eighteen, nineteen and twenty, there we find something regarding the development of the church at Ephesus. Then when you move into the doctrinal section of the New Testament, you have a whole epistle commonly referred to as the epistle to the Ephesians, setting forth there the doctrines of the church at Ephesus. Then when you move into the pastoral section of the New Testament, that letter that was written to Timothy that we refer to as the first epistle to Timothy was sent to him when he was resident in the city of Ephesus and taking a very important place in the church at Ephesus. And there, as you go through that particular epistle with its six chapters, You'll learn things concerning the difficulties of the church at Ephesus. Then when you move into the apocalyptic section of the New Testament, that is the book of Revelation, you'll discover that the church at Ephesus is mentioned there. For in chapters two and three of that wonderful book, there are seven letters sent to seven churches. And the first one to be mentioned is the Church at Ephesus. And there in Revelation chapter two, verses one through seven, we learn things concerning the declension of the Church at Ephesus. Now look again at these four distinct steps, because there is a kind of progression of thought as you link these four things together. Number one, then, you have the development of the Church at Ephesus, set forth in the Acts of the Apostles, chapters eighteen, nineteen and twenty. Then you have the doctrines of the Church at Ephesus. That is found in the epistle to the Ephesians. If I may whet your appetites right now with regards to these doctrines, I suggest this. And we shall deal with these in detail when we come to that particular section. In chapter one of the Epistle to the Ephesians, it is the doctrine of redemption with its associated truths. In chapter two of that Epistle, it is the doctrine of reconciliation with its associated truths. In chapter three, it is the doctrine of revelation, again with its associated truths. In chapter four it's the doctrine of the believer's calling. In chapter five it's the doctrine of the believer's conduct. But in chapter six it's the doctrine of the believer's conflict. These then will be the doctrines of the church at Ephesus. When you come to Paul's first epistle to Timothy, a letter that was sent to Timothy when he was resident in the city of Ephesus, Things at that time had gone a little astray. Certain difficulties had arisen in that well-established church, and in each chapter of that epistle, the Apostle Paul deals with those difficulties. In chapter one of that epistle, there are the difficulties relative to doctrine, that is, to teaching. In chapter two there were difficulties relative to devotions, that is, in the public services. In chapter three difficulties relative to directors, that is the leaders or the elders of the church. In chapter four there were difficulties relative to discipline, that is self-discipline. In chapter five there were difficulties relative to distributions. That is the care of the needy. In chapter six, difficulties relative to desires, showing that there was right and wrong desires. So in the epistle to Timothy, the writer deals with the difficulties of the church at Ephesus. But when you come into the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter two, mention is made there of the declension of the church at Ephesus. You'll find there will be a charge laid against this church. There will be a challenge pressed upon the church, and there will be the consequences if they fail to repent. And now, with that outline in your mind... We shall introduce now the thought of the development of the church at Ephesus. First of all, it had to be established. Let me read to you some verses from the Acts of the Apostles and chapter eighteen. When you come to verse nineteen of this chapter, remember the background is this. that Paul is finishing up with his second missionary journey, and he's on his way back to Jerusalem. When you come to verse nineteen of chapter eighteen, and he came to Ephesus and left them there, those that he left there was the man and his wife, Aquila and Priscilla. He left them there. but he himself entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not, but bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem, but I will return again unto you, if God will, and he sailed from Ephesus. And when he landed at Caesarea, gone up, and so you did the church, he went down to Antioch and thus finished the second journey of the Apostle Paul. But now you'll notice on this occasion he came to Ephesus. Now Paul the Apostle spent but a few days in the city of Ephesus on this occasion when he was journeying on towards Jerusalem and then on to Antioch. But he made a promise. He promised to return if this was according to the will of God. It would appear from the reading that he had quite an interest in Ephesus and also that the people gave him quite a good welcome, that is the Jews in the synagogue, as he spoke to them and reasoned with them. Now at that time he left Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus. These were good friends of his. He had met them in Corinth. Now Aquila and Persila were Jews. They had been in Rome doing their business. At the time when all Jews had to leave Rome, they had left Rome and they had gone down to Corinth. Paul came to Corinth and since he could work at the same trade as these people worked at, he was able to work with them and no doubt obtained a lodging with them. And then he took them with them when they left Corinth and he went over to Ephesus and he left Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus while he himself went on to Jerusalem and then back to Antioch. Then it appears that an eloquent man named Apollos came to the city of Ephesus, and he spent time preaching in the Jewish synagogue. But this man was a little defective in his understanding of Christian truth. He knew certain things about the Bible. He was an intellectual man. He was an eloquent man. But he only knew about John's baptism. He didn't know what lay beyond that, that the Messiah had come, that the Messiah had died, and so on. He knew nothing about church truth. He only knew about John's baptism and certain things pertaining to the Old Testament. So on Paul's third missionary journey, he fulfilled his promise and came to Ephesus. where he spent about three years preaching and teaching publicly and privately. During that time the church was commenced and consolidated. Let me read to you then some verses from chapter nineteen of the Acts of the Apostles. They came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples. Now I should point out that while it says finding certain disciples, it doesn't say disciples of whom or disciples of what. An awful lot of people have conjectured when they read this verse that these disciples were Christians. Now remember it doesn't say so. And if you maintain that these disciples were Christians, then you're going to land yourself into great difficulty in finding the correct interpretation of the verses that follow. They were disciples, but the following verses would explain to you disciples of whom or of what. The Apostle Paul seemed to find them good men, twelve sincere people, but he found them imperfectly instructed. Now here then in the first seven verses of chapter nineteen, there is the special manifestation of the Holy Spirit. These people had never been born again. They knew something about the baptism of John, for that's what they said. They were baptized unto John's baptism. But said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance. saying unto the people that they should believe on him, which should come after him. That is on Christ Jesus. Now it's obvious they never heard that, for when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And you remember that if you had read back in chapter two of the Acts of the Apostles, only those who believe were baptized. So these people believed the message of salvation as presented in Jesus Christ. They accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and submitted to believers baptism. Now then, to prove that they were genuine, we have an extension here of the great truth of Pentecost. Now, not a new Pentecost, but an extension of what took place in Acts chapter two. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they speak with tongues and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve. Now it's at that point where Paul begins his real work in connection with the establishing of this church at Ephesus. And he went into the synagogue and spoke 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 Tyranus. And this continued by the space of two years, so that all the which dwelt in Asia had the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. Now here then we have the record. of the establishing, the commencement of your life, and the consolidating of the work at Ephesus through the Apostle Paul under the power of the Holy Spirit. We have this special manifestation of the Spirit's work. Twelve men, they submitted to baptism, but while the baptism they had submitted to was the baptism of John, they had never been born again. They were sincerely religious, but had never been regenerated. They made some kind of confession, but were not on Christian ground. Now the truth is, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They had never heard anything about the Holy Spirit. Now it was at that point where Paul presented to them the message of the gospel. How that even John said that they were to believe on him who should come after him. And when these people believed the message of Paul, then they submitted to Christian baptism. Now verses eight and nine bring us to the synagogue ministry of the Apostle Paul in the city of Ephesus. If there was a synagogue there, then there was a good number of Jews. Now the sphere of Paul's ministry for three months. During this period Paul made use of the Jewish synagogue in order to reach the Jews who lived in Ephesus. This was his custom to reach the Jews first. Now the subject of Paul's discourses, his main theme was the kingdom of God. But he spoke of things related to the kingdom. And this would entail the person of the king and present the person of the king in his rejection. and would go on to tell them about the king and his return that he was coming back again. And also, how does one enter into the kingdom of God? It is only by the new birth. Then we are led to see something of the sequence to Paul's three-month ministry. At the end of three months, there was opposition from the Jews who refused to believe that. Now, in their rejection of the truth, They started a campaign of defamation of the Christian belief and of the Christian way of life. For it distinctly says that there were diverse people, number of people, different kind of people who were hardened and they believed not. But they began to speak evil of that way. That is the Christian truth, Christian doctrine, Christian way of living. They began to tell the multitude this. And so at that time, There's a real cleavage, and Paul had given them their opportunity, and now we note this, that following the synagogue ministry of Paul, there is the separation for the true believers, verses nine through twelve. There is the establishing of the church at Ephesus. This meant a complete break and separation from all religious unbelief. There were two great kinds of religion in Ephesus. There were the Jews, who, of course, you can understand, would have nothing to do with idolatry. Over against that, there were the temples of the idols. There was an idolatrous form of worship amongst the heathen in Ephesus. Now then, here is a third thing that's set up, and it's called the church. And the church was withdrawn. It had nothing to do with the Jewish synagogue. Nothing to do with the temples of the idols. The church was established. There was a complete break and separation from all religious unbelief. And then it goes on to say that during a period between two and three years, Paul gave instructions to all the people who formed the church at Ephesus. After the establishing of the church, there had to be the edifying of the church. There had to be the building up. It was necessary to give them instruction. And so Paul remained with them, so that they were built up in their Christian faith and in the principles and practices of a Christian church. Over and above that, there was the evangelizing by the church. During this period of time, the Christians at Ephesus learned the responsibility of the church to evangelize. And so the word was spread throughout the whole area, and other churches were commenced in adjoining cities. Now get it clear. Ephesus at that day was a very central city. It was a city into which many people would come day after day doing business. They would come into the city of Ephesus and then spread out up the valley, up the river, over into the other cities and villages and hamlets. And so as long as Paul could remain in that center and could preach the gospel there, people would come in and hear the message. They in turn would carry the message back to their native towns. They in turn would spread the word. And so the church at Ephesus became a great center for evangelism. So that during this period of time when Paul remained at Ephesus, not only did he build up and edify the Christians who were resident in the city, but there was this evangelical outreach throughout the whole area so that the world was spread throughout the whole land and other churches were commenced. in adjoining cities. If you continue to read down chapter nineteen, you'll find this. The remainder of chapter nineteen shows there was much satanic opposition directed against the Christian testimony in Ephesus because there were apostate Jews there, men who practiced sorcery, and then there was opposition from what we might call vested interests. people who made gain from religious sales. And so they were quite upset when the message of the gospel began to affect the manner of life of the people who lived in the city of Ephesus. People who had gone and bought those little religious shrines and those little... molded idols were no longer buying them. They had become Christians. They were no longer buying their books about magic. No longer were they buying the little images of the goddess Diana. And so the silversmiths were getting angry. And they saw that true Christianity was going to spoil their business. And so because of vested interest they had to oppose the preaching of the gospel. I mention this to show you that the church from its very earliest has had to face difficulties, and even the church at Ephesus didn't have it easy in its early days. Even in the first three years of Christian testimony, they had to face opposition. Opposition from the Jews. opposition from the idolatrous Gentiles. Nevertheless, the church went on and grew and developed. Now, when you come into chapter twenty and Paul comes back again near to Ephesus and has a special meeting with the elders of that church, we shall discover in our next study what that church had been taught and the warnings that Paul gave to them. And so therefore we leave our first lesson today, having sought to establish in your mind the fact of how the church was first of all commenced and consolidated on how it developed in the city of Ephesus.