Resolved

0:01 Somewhere greater than 750 days that there have been hostages in Gaza. And I, I continue to, to bring you this report because there are still, uh, 11 bodies remaining in Gaza. Two were returned this week. Uh, one of those bodies, by the way, I don't know if you know this, one of those bodies has been held in Gaza for, for 10 years, since, well before October 7th, 2023. This week. I, I try not, I'm trying not to gross you out too much, but there are, there are, there are actions that reveal the character of people.

0:47 And one of those actions was this week was Hamas attempting to return a, a body of a, what they claimed was a hostage and Gaza, but it ended up being the remaining body parts of a, of a body who had already been returned to Israel. I don't tell you that to gross you out, gross you out. I tell you that because these are the people, these are the types of people that the world is negotiating with. And the world has, has brought about a ceasefire, might I say probably right before Israel would've decidedly won the war.

1:33 Uh, the, the ceasefire was, was agreed upon. And, and yet this week, rocket sirens went off and Caram Shalom. This is another instance of Hamas breaking the ceasefire agreement while Israel continues to hold steady. I think I mentioned last week that Egypt has committed 5,000 police to go into Gaza as a part of a stabilization force. This week, Egypt rolled heavy equipment, diggers and excavators into Gaza, uh, for the purpose of, um, recovering the remaining bodies. Qatar has also committed to supply manpower for security force in Gaza this week,

2:19 probably most recently, the most recent news, 250,000 protestors assembled and shut down the highway to and from Jerusalem. Uh, on, on Thursday this week. These protestors were ultra orthodox communities in Israel, and they are demanding the right, I I wanna be very clear here. They're demanding the right to continue to receive taxpayer money while refusing to serve in the military. You understand that? I just wanna be very clear. They get paid by the government of Israel, and yet they refuse to serve in the military.

3:07 I, um, I mentioned last week a video that I wanted to show you. For those of you who want to see it, you can go on to U version. And I, and I put the link in the, in the u version notes, uh, so that you can watch the video. It, the video brought, brought me to tears. It was such a, um, I don't know, meaningful video. But I wanna share with you a couple other things. I know I've been talking about Israel, but I wanna talk about antisemitism for just a moment because antisemitism, since October 7th, 2023, has risen in America. I'm, I'm giving you the American statistic by 350%. And I, and to me, I actually think America might be the least of all of the,

3:53 of the nations in which it's risen. I read an article last night, and I, I wanna read you a quote from it. The author is Mary, uh, Eber stat. I I put her the link to her article in, oh, no, I didn't put the link to her article. I put the link to a different article, but this is, this is what she says. Online antisemitism is the new pornography. It is moral pornography and pornography. It is because like pornography, internet antisemitism is mostly engaged in secret like pornography. It delivers illicit thrills to degraded users. And like pornography, its consumption

4:41 embarrasses users when it comes to light, as is seen whenever people are exposed in public for spewing Jew hatred online Christians who were in the forefront of, of understanding that pornography causes harm should be in the forefront of opposing the moral pornography of antisemitism. It was such a, and when I read the article last night, it was such a, um, I don't, I don't a succinct definition of what antisemitism is that it, it, it was, I don't know. It was very, very interesting to me. I think I dropped a link in the notes, um, for another article.

5:27 No, I didn't do this one either. Nevermind, sorry. Too many. I'm referencing too many articles. But this week was the 60th anniversary of the recognition of Nostra ate. I recognize probably nobody in here is Catholic. Um, however, Nostra ate was a massive shift in, um, Catholic theology regarding the relationship between the church and the people of Israel. And, uh, as such, the Pope this week gave a message marking the anniversary, and he condemned antisemitism during this message, uh, particularly, or in reference to antisemitism

6:15 that has been hinged or, or linked to Israel's treatment of Gaza during this war. It was actually a very poignant statement. Um, I I, I'll read you a, a, a, a clip, but, um, there's more to it. And so I, too, this is Pope Leo the 14th confirmed that the church does not tolerate antisemitism and, and fights against it on the basis of the gospel itself. This is actually y'all, this is the Pope. He is the most in Influe. I mean, whether, whatever you think about Catholicism, the Pope is the most influential

7:00 religious figure in the world. There are so many Catholics in the world that it makes him the most influential religious figure in the world. Uh, I thought that was quite, quite interesting. Uh, and then, now let me, I have failed the last, I don't know, about year and a half, uh, my duties to encourage you to go vote voting is this coming Tuesday, November 4th. So if you haven't voted yet, I'm pretty sure early voting, finished 7:00 PM last night, but you still have Tuesday to go vote, um, in,

7:45 uh, whatever elections you're in here locally. Uh, in terms of Texas, if my memory serves, I think there are 16, um, propositions to amend the Texas Constitution, uh, regarding a number of variety of things. Go look it up. I, I know I've said this before. It's been a few years. Municipal elections in Dallas, uh, I'm not gonna quote anybody else, but you miss municipal elections in Dallas. That means the Dallas mayor, Dallas City Council, the people who, who set the budget, the people who spend your tax money, the people who do all of that. Tho those elections are Desi are decided

8:33 by about 50,000 people. I, I, and I think I might be high on that. I it may be closer to 30,000, which means I'm encouraging you here. Let's just say 200 of you can go vote in Dallas. You have the ability actually to influence election. I know, I don't wanna sound, I don't wanna sound negative. I don't know if you have the ability to influence a national election. We're in Texas, Texas votes one way, generally speaking, but you have the ability to influence a, a municipal election. And if you're in a city smaller than Dallas, even more so,

9:19 your vote counts even more because there's less. People don't, people don't go out and vote anymore, uh, unless it's the presidential election, which is not happening this year. Thank the Lord. Okay. Um, I, I saw them passing out handouts. Is there, I I have a, I have a handout for you if you, if you wanna follow along or if you need a doodle or, um, just keep your brain doing something to not fall asleep while I talk. Um, if you need one of those and don't have it yet, Rocky, do you still have those or does somebody else have them? There's a few, there's a few left. If anybody is in need of one, just raise your hand and they'll, they'll find you. We are continuing our study in Acts chapter 19.

10:10 Acts chapter 19. Today we will be covering verses 21 through 31. Before we get into the passage, I just want to show you, uh, a a little bit from the last couple weeks about where Paul is. Paul has gone this, this right here, marks, uh, Apollo's journey at the beginning of Acts chapter 19 from Ephesus. Lemme see if I can zoom in for you a little bit. Oops. From Ephesus to Corinth. This is where, this is what, um,

10:57 Apollos did at the very beginning of the chapter or the end of the last chapter. Then now we, oops, let's, uh, go on here. So Paul goes through, uh, what is, what, what the text. We'll call Asia. Uh, it's not Asia like China Mongolia, it, it's Asia like modern day Turkey, um, especially Western Turkey. So in fact, let me, let me go back and I'll, and, and, um, you perhaps remember this slide from, uh, probably a year ago at this point, Asia

11:46 is this province right here. Paul moves through Asia, uh, on his way to Ephesus. He was in Antioch. Antioch being right here. And he moves and, and ends up in Ephesus being right here. And you may recall, I think it was in last week's, perhaps, uh, it said that, um, in fact, you know what, let me, let me just get into my text and then we'll, we'll come back through and, and look at these maps a little bit more. I'll read through the text in Acts chapter 19, and then we'll come back and go section by section.

12:33 Now, after these things were accomplished, Paul resolved in the ACH to go to Jerusalem after passing through Macedonia and Acacia saying, after I've been there, I must also see Rome. So after sending two who were assisting him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. Again, this is the Asia that Paul is ta that Luke is talking about. Around that time, there arose no small uproar concerning the way for a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, a maker of silver shrines of Artemis was providing no small amount of business to the craftsmen. He gathered these together, the craftsmen, along with those of related occupations, and he said, men, you know

13:19 that our wealth is from this business. You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but throughout all of Asia, Paul has persuaded and perverted a considerable crowd saying that handmade gods are not Gods at all. Not only is there a danger that this trait of ours might come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess, Artemis, might be considered as nothing. She whom all Asia and the world worships, might even be thrown down from her majesty. When they heard they were filled with fury and began shouting greatest Artemis of the Ephesians, and the city was filled with confusion.

14:05 They rushed into the theater, dragging with them, GAAS and Aris Staris Macedonians, who were travel companions of Paul. Paul was wishing to enter among the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Some of the Chiefs of Asia being his friends, sent to him and begged him not to surrender himself in the theater. Okay? As you'll recall from the earlier, earlier part of the chapter, Paul traveled throughout all of Asia as he was, uh, throughout the upper regions, excuse me, of Asia. So Paul's making his way to Ephesus, and the word of the Lord is being very effective as his, uh, spread throughout the region, is bringing real change within people, causing them to turn from their idol worship.

14:53 You may recall from last week that they brought their books concerning the magic arts, and they burned them. That's what the text tells us. And the text also tells us that these books were valued at 50,000 pieces of silver, depending on the silver. This could be valued somewhere in the multiple millions of dollars range. This has really begun to affect the financial industry and the market in Asia, in that region. So here, we, we come to this, to this week's text. Now, after these things were accomplished, that means what, what is the, after these things is referring back to the previous two sections, which were covered by Rabbi Sean and Marcus over the last two weeks.

15:41 And if we, if we assume that each person who came and brought their magic stuff before the Lord and burned it, let's just assume that each person brought $200 worth of oc cult material to burn. If you do the math, that means the congregation in Ephesus was upwards of 10,000 people. Do you understand what that, what that is? If everyone had some, some magic books and stuff, maybe, maybe they had a little bit more than $200, but, but maybe not, maybe they had less. It means it puts mathematically the, the, the people who Paul has won over in Ephesus, around 10,000 people.

16:29 So let me just put it into your mind. Uh, I don't know current numbers, but Gateway Church, uh, in, in South Lake, one of the biggest churches in the Metroplex, actually, we have several very large churches in the Metroplex Gateway Church at one point represented 35,000 people. This would be a third of Gateway Church in Ephesus. This is a big community, 10,000 people. The city, Ephesus is estimated during this time period to have been around 250 to 300,000, uh, inhabitants or people that's comparable in size. If you're trying to your brain, you're like, I don't understand what 250,000 is.

17:14 That's like the city of Irving. City of Irving is 254,000 people. Or perhaps the city of Plano, if you're from North Dallas, city of Plano is 285,000 people. Or maybe your brain still doesn't track because you're all, oh, that's all within the metroplex, which is like 10 million people. That's twice the size of Abilene. Twice the size of Tyler is, that's the size city that we're talking about when we're talking about Ephesus. And Paul comes in and he's there for a period of time, and 10,000 people come to faith and burned their stuff. It seems to me pretty quickly, or at least in a very short period of time, that doesn't account for what the after effect is. Also, is

17:59 10,000 a number even that can be felt within a city? I would contend, yes. Why would I contend? Yes, the Muslim population of Dallas is about 30,000 people. I'm telling you, it doesn't matter where I go, what grocery store I go to, there's, uh, halal food everywhere. It's, it's changed the market. It's changed, uh, who this is just 30,000 people. So you can begin to understand how 10,000 people, and by the way, that's in Dallas. Dallas is much larger. There's other communities like Richardson and, and, uh, east Plano that are much smaller communities and have a higher percentage.

18:46 But this is, this is the effect that a, a a group of people who, who switch and turn to another direction can have within a community. So here in this text, it says, Paul resolved in the spirit or in the ACH to go to Jerusalem. Why is resolution required? Paul is experiencing an enormous growth in the community. He's probably excited. Look at all of these new people that I can instruct in the hall of tyranny. He's probably really excited, but also with that comes opposition. Marcus, last week spent time on opposition, uh, and, and,

19:33 and the fact that opposition by us, we often tend to, um, think it's bad, whereas opposition is not a bad thing. Opposition is an opportunity. That's what Marcus told us last week, Paul here has to resolve because there's opposition. And so Paul is resolved to finish and to go to Jerusalem via Macedonia and Acacia, and then also to Rome. When opposition is encountered, it is an opportunity to exercise. Now, some of us, we may not like to exercise, but actually exercise is dealing with opposition.

20:20 So when opposition to your faith arises or is encountered, it's an opportunity to exercise one's faith. It's also an opportunity to exercise one's faithfulness. Now, I, I know that perhaps there's not a difference. One's faith is directly connected to one's faithfulness. But I think perhaps in my life, I, I would draw a little bit of difference. My faith being that I trust in the Lord and that I will continue to trust in him, but my faithfulness, it, it, um, activates, if you will, my, my faith activates my faithfulness. And so I show my faithfulness to the Lord by continuing to do what he's asked me to do, even during times

21:07 of opposition, even during a season of opposition. These moments are strength building moments. It's like when you go to the gym, and I don't know about you guys, but if you're, Instagram is loaded up with pictures of dudes who are cut with a, like a a 12 pack. I don't even know if those things existed. And, and their biceps are like big. And, and on my Instagram feed, it says, if you're nearing 50 and want and wanna get rid of the dad bod, and I'm like, what are you, what are you reading about me? Turn that camera off.

21:55 But you don't get there by thinking nice thoughts. You get there by extreme diligence and longevity of faithfulness to a particular action. In this case, strength building or, or, or body lifting. How whatever you're doing, the resistance is hard, but the resistance is what gives you muscles. If there was no resistance, you would have no muscles. If you don't have resistance to your faith, perhaps your faith doesn't have muscles. Perhaps the Lord wants you to in to increase the muscle of your faith so that he can prepare you for a time when the times are

22:41 much more difficult than they are. Now, Paul's next steps are guided by the Ruach. This, this verse here in, uh, in Acts 19, where it says, I'm, uh, resolved to go to the to Jerusalem through Macedonia and Acacia. And after I've been there, I must also see Rome. By the way, this verse sets the trajectory for the rest of the Book of Acts. You know, we talked in Acts chapter one, I recognize it was more than two years ago, but in Acts chapter one, we read in, in verse eight,

23:29 that the Lord would, would, uh, bring his spirit down and would empower the people to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost ends of the earth. That verse set the, the trajectory for all of the Book of Acts. And here we are, uh, in Acts chapter 19, we're, Luke is making sure that we're still on that trajectory, and he's setting the trajectory for the rest of the book here. Paul's resolution, interestingly enough, may coincide with an offering that he intends to take from these congregations up to Jerusalem on their behalf. If you've been doing your homework

24:15 and reading one Corinthians, two Corinthians, I can't remember what other books Philippians, I think we read also Thessalonians, we read Thessalonians two. Uh, that's right. I forgot about that. In these, in, in these, and first, certainly in first Corinthians and second Corinthians, it talks about taking, Paul talks about taking up a collection to take it to Jerusalem. It could be that Paul's resolve to go gather that collection, and it could be that he sends Timothy and Erastus out right here in verse, uh, what verse is this? 22, I think in verse 22, yeah, ahead of him to go and start the move to bring the, gather the collection together.

25:00 So it's ready for Paul when he comes through. So let's continue in verse 23. Around that time, there arose no small uproar concerning the way, by the way, by the way, no pun intended. The way is another, another method by which to refer to the followers of Yeshua. If you haven't, if you didn't remember that through the book of Acts, okay, let's continue. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, a maker of silver shrines of Artemis, was providing no small amount of business to the craftsman. He gathered these together with, along with those of related occupations, and he said, men, you know that our wealth is from this business. You see, and you hear that not only an Ephesus,

25:46 but throughout all Asia, Paul has persuaded and perverted a considerable crowd. Well, I would say 10,000 is a considerable crowd, but that's just the beginning saying that handmade gods are not gods at all. Not only is there a danger that this trait of ours might come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess, Artemis might be considered as nothing. She whom all Asia and the world worships, might even be thrown down from her majesty. Here we have Demetrius's reaction, and he's, he's trying to create an uproar in the people, and he has this reaction. He's a silversmith. He makes little silver shrines, uh, of Artemis. And I just want you to recall that the value

26:33 of the burn books in the previous text was around 50,000 pieces of silver. So that was just the books. There's also these little statues and, and sort of things that you make outta silver. In fact, if Demetrius, if he actually is, is crafting, um, little idols, and if he's crafting them out of silver, his business is actually one of the higher end, what we would call higher end businesses, uh, because idols were generally made out of wood or something, or stone, but silver was worth more. And so his business would be adversely affected with all of this. And so he says, as much, he says, it's affecting my income.

27:18 And so he realizes it's the lifestyle of the followers of the way that are affecting his income, because they don't live like the rest of society. Namely, they don't participate in idol worship. So Demetrius says that the idol worship provided he uses, and Luke uses this term, no small amount of, um, profit or business for the craftsmen. Therefore, when his business was affected, there's a chain reaction for all of the craftsmen. So he gathers together all of the craftsmen and, and also those with related occupations. Do you see what he's trying to do?

28:03 He's trying to build up a revolt against what's going on. Using money is his primary factor. He says, our wealth is from our business. He's now emphasizing that it's the followers of the way who are affecting their businesses and their standard of living. So I want you to think about if you have a high standard of living and all of a sudden you don't have income, you're trying to figure out where to, where to shuffle your money around so that you can continue. Nobody wants to go from a high standard of living to zero standard of living. So you gotta do all these things. And he says, I, I know who it is.

28:49 It's these followers of the way they are affecting your business, your wealth, your standard of living. He is mixing fear and anger into a developing situation in Ephesus. It also is reinforcing their views, the businessmen's views that they're victims in this scenario. Why? Because he says it's the followers of the way. They're the ones doing this to you. They are affecting your profit. Therefore, any way, the, here's the thing. When you become a victim, any form of retaliation is possible. And, and not just possible, but justified. It's the same way. The war

29:36 and Gaza, if you noticed real quick, after October 7th, I would say within three weeks, Israel had barely been at war, uh, barely had sent soldiers in, and the narrative began to change. The narrative went from, there was a, a company of people who invaded Israel, terrorized Israel, murdered and took hostages, and it went from that to Israel. The biggest army in the Middle East is bombing poor innocent goins. You see, the moment you begin to change who the victim is, it changes what is permissible

30:21 in terms of retaliation. Demetrius explains why all this is happening. It's Paul's fault. Now, he's shifted not only as it followers of the way, but specifically if you're looking for one person, it's Paul. Paul has persuaded it, persuaded a considerable crowd in Ephesus and throughout all of Asia. See, now he's going beyond the city, and he's saying all of Asia is this way. There's the, he's persuaded them of handmade gods, or aren't Gods at all, by the way. Well, I, I don't wanna say that. Nevermind his primary concern, Demetrius's primary concern is that he no longer has income from this business.

31:08 His income has been affected. His secondary concern, which he says in the text, is their businesses will fall into disrepute. In other words, future income will be affected. So it's my current income and my future income. Now, here's the kicker. This is what always happens. He says, the temple of Artemis might be considered as nothing. He wraps his own financial gain and future with the religiosity of the society around him and says, this is why. So what he did is he took his own prophet and, and, and convinced others to fight for him because of the religiosity.

31:53 They weren't, they weren't fighting for him to get more profit. They were fighting for the honor of Artemis. Demetrius explains all of this to them, and it's his last ditch effort to rouse support for his cause against the way so that he can recoup profit. I I, I, reading into the text, I, I don't even know if Demetrius cares about Artemis, he makes an absurd claim, which is designed to confuse and to aggravate others. His claim is that all of Asia and all of the world worship Artemis, and that Paul's work might throw her down from her majesty.

32:38 By, by the way, this sounds so strikingly similar to the anti-Semitic trope today. On the one hand, Jews control all the banks in the world. They, oh, maim, they control the weather. They control all of the powerful militaries in the world. They control the media. That's the trope. The the Jews control all of that. And yet, if Jews controlled all of that,

33:27 nobody would stand a chance of overthrowing them. You can't overthrow all of the militaries in the world, all of the media in the world, the weather controllers, the bank controllers, if you're just a peasly little yourself, this is, this is the conundrum of antisemitism and also the conundrum that Demetrius puts himself in. Artemis is so big, she's worshiped by all, and yet she's able to be toppled by Paul, by one person. It, it, it doesn't reason correctly either. You can do all of that.

34:13 You can control all the media, which if Jews control the media, can I just tell you, they're doing a really bad job, like really bad, like the worst. They should be fired for the way they're controlling the media and the weather. Like, seriously, uh, we need a little bit more rain in Texas. We're, we're a little bit, a little bit shy on, on, on, on rain. Let's move on to the next section. When they heard they were filled with fury, you, you see, when you have a crowd, crowds don't think logically, crowds just hear, great is Artemis. Christ is king. By the way,

35:00 I gonna say it stopped saying, by the way, I, I just found this out. I don't know if you guys have noticed this. I saw a video this week with, um, Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk, and they were at a, a university or something like that. And this man is arguing with them, a younger man, I don't know, 22, 24, something like that. And he's saying something, and Charlie Kirk goes, are you, are you trying to condemn, get me to condemn all Jews? And his reply was Christ as king.

35:48 I thought it was a little bit odd, but I didn't, I I couldn't quite figure it out until I read this article that I already, I just quoted for you a little bit ago. The antisemitism that we've seen from the left over the last two years is now having an aftershock reality of resurgence of antisemitism on the right. And the Christ is king is a rallying cry for the antisemitic hatred that comes from the far right. I hadn't realized it, and I, so I read this article and watched the video, and I, and I was thinking to myself, I'm trying to think how many other times I've seen on Instagram in the last week, somebody saying Christ is king, or posting it,

36:33 or I'm like, oh, there's things happening that I, I have never realized before. Maybe that's a good or bad thing. I don't know. Confusion is raining. They're here, they're shouting greatest Artemis of the Ephesians. And the city was filled with confusion. They rushed into the theater. This is a mob. They're rushing into the theater. They're dragging with them. Gais and our Starks Macedonians who were travel companions of Paul, Paul was wishing to enter into the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Some of the Chiefs of Asia being his friends, sent to him and begged him not to surrender himself in the theater. The response of the crowd to Demetrius's, uh,

37:18 appeal is the crowd gets riled up. He's able to rally them together, and they, if you will, support his position with Artemis, he's really trying to get money. This city's full of confusion. The mob rushed into the theater with Gaas and Aris Staris. By the way, the theater in Ephesus at this time, likely sat around 20,000 people. I'm trying to think. I I'm not sure. I've been in a, I guess I've been in Cowboy Stadium, American Airlines, thank you. That's American Airline Stadium. That's 20,000 people. That was the, that was the example I was looking for.

38:04 I was like, cowboy Stadium, even with all the empty seats. I don't know. But anyways, American Airline Center, 20,000 people, they fill the stadium up with 20,000 people. Can you imagine 20,000 people a mob chanting great as Artemis, and they're looking for the person who is trying to tear Artemis down the city is full of confusion. After this time period of Paul, the theater in, in Ephesus actually became the largest theater in the world. They renovated it. It might've even been under renovation during this moment,

38:50 this confused mob, when you get into a mob, you go to one part of the mob and you say, what are you guys protesting about? And they tell you one thing. You go to another part and they tell you something entirely different because nobody knows. They're just, it's just a, a pile of confusion. They're, they're confused, and they're trying to bring charges against Paul and the way via Gaas and acus who are Macedonians on a very interesting note. The next chapter, we'll see this in a couple weeks, indicates that acus is from Thessalonica, which is in Macedonia, but Gaas is from Derby, which is not Macedonia. So either it's a different Gaas or, um, or something's off.

39:37 But Paul, at this point, he sees all of the people in the theater. Paul wants to run in. I don't know about you guys. I don't know that that'd be my first reaction. Like I, I think of the different protests that have happened here in Dallas, just in the last pick five years, I didn't really run toward any one of them. In fact, I kind of was like, Ooh, I don't, I'm like, mobs. I'm not sure what they're gonna do. Paul wants to run in why? It's a number one, it's a healthy desire for him because number one, he wants to share the good news with

40:23 as many people as possible. So think about this, if your congregation is 10,000 and you have 20,000 in a room together, captured audience, that's like the perfect opportunity for Paul. Paul's like, let me add it. I'm not afraid. But also, he doesn't want to see his companion suffer on his behalf, so he wants to run in for their sake. That being said, a mob never responds to a well-reasoned argument. Doesn't matter. The mob doesn't matter what day it's on, doesn't matter what the mob is supposedly supporting,

41:10 they never respond to a well-reasoned argument. Once a mob is formed, it's near impossible to regain control of the mob. It begins to take on a life of its own. In fact, it's better to leave and return when the mob has dispersed. And then at that point, you'll have the opportunity to have a well reasoned argument. Paul is prevented from entering the theater by two different groups. Number one, he's prevented by the disciples. They say, don't run in there like, you stay back. Likely. This is referring to the community of Yeshua followers there in Ephesus. It could be specifically speaking about Paul's. Perhaps he has an immediate, I don't know, 10

41:55 or 20 disciples, perhaps it's even referencing, uh, Aquila and Priscilla who are there with him in Ephesus. But whoever it is, they are saying, don't go in there. And then also Luke tells us in the, in the TLV text, it says, some of the chiefs of Asia, literally this word is a c acus, and it's a high ranking government official of Asia. So every year, someone would be, someone would be appointed to that position. They, you know, they may represent Ephesus, they may represent, uh, other, other cities. But Ephesus had numerous, uh, people who had served in that role before.

42:41 These people want, they would serve a one year term, and once they served the one year term, they would serve on the local, the municipal, if you will, um, board the local Senate. But these high ranking government officials, the text tells us they were friends of Paul. I do want to note these officials are grouped separately by Luke from the followers of Yeshua. So it may not indicate that they were actually followers of Yeshua. They may, they may not have been, but it's a different grouping. And they could have been his patrons, they could have been sponsors of his public teaching. They could have just been friends of Paul's. But this position, it was a, i I, I mentioned this, it was a highly honored position and of filled on a yearly basis.

43:28 They're representative of different cities from all over Asia. And it seems that Paul has a good reputation with this group of people. In fact, it reminded me of a, of a, of one of Paul's writings where he writes to Timothy concerning the office of overseer or, or Elder in one Timothy three. Uh, there's, you can read all of it. It, it's, it's in the notes, or you can reference it in your Bible, verse six verses. But in verse seven, he says, furthermore, he the elder or the overseer must have a good reputation with those outside so that he will not fall into disgrace in the devil's trap.

44:15 Very interesting language. And, and it seems like Paul lived what he was teaching Timothy to live. We're gonna stop the, stop the text there, and we're gonna finish the text in next week and we'll wrap up 19. But from this text, I have about four questions for you. First of all, have you ever been resolved in the Ruach in your own life? Have you ever had that moment where you had to resolve yourself concerning what the future was going to be? By the way, when you have resolution in the Ruach, it doesn't mean immediate fulfillment.

45:01 In fact, Paul's takes the next several years just for that one verse of going to Jerusalem and then to Rome. It takes him years to get to that point. Question number two, has opposition shaped your faith? And if so, in what ways? In what way is your faith affecting the larger society today? Maybe it's not, if I can call this, this is like a subset question there,

45:46 is there a way for you, in your faith community, in this case, I, I'm speaking to em, but there may be people watching online, or maybe you're here and you're just visiting for you to take this back and, and, and to in state, in your own community, is there a way for you, in your faith community to affect change in our broader society today? Are there things that the body of Messiah is doing well that alleviates pressure in society, or it helps those who are under pressure? I don't know if that makes sense. I, I, if there's someone who's experiencing trauma or need, are, are there things that the body of Messiah are doing today here at em, at any,

46:35 any part of the body that is helping those in, in those moments? And finally, how is your reputation? How is your reputation within the body of Messiah? And how is your reputation in the rest of society? Are you able to say that you're like Paul, that the, the disciples said, wait, wait, wait. You come here like you trusted element and they wanna hold onto you, and also by the leaders of the city around you, that that is a steep task. By the way, there was a point

47:22 in the last couple years, I have a, I have a friend who, how much do I wanna share? I have a friend who, um, is in the diamond industry, and he and I were talking a few years ago and he says, what's going on over at your place? He's not a follow of Yeshua. And, um, we, we were having, uh, our own dilemmas at that point. And, and he says, um, he says, maybe there's something I can do about it. And I looked at him and I was like, what are you gonna,

48:09 you don't even come to em. Like, what are you gonna do about it? Whatcha gonna do about it? And he says, he looks at me and he goes, you know, I have friends in the Jewish community. He goes, lemme call some lawyer friends of mine and see what we can do. At that moment, I don't know, did I come home and tell you guys this? I can't remember if I, I came home and told my parents, I was like, somebody, by the way, this is for me a monumental moment. Somebody outside, somebody Jewish, outside of Messianic Judaism, who does not believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, was ready to come to bat for me.

48:57 And I was like, whoa, that is amazing. I, I don't, I I don't have words for it. And still, I still think about it. Do you have those relationships with people outside of the body of Messiah? It doesn't, I'm not telling you. Lemme go, lemme go back to this Charlie Kirk and Dennis Prager video for a moment that I just saw. Dennis Prager is Jewish and doesn't believe that Yeshua is the Messiah. Charlie Kirk was an avid, uh, evangelist. I, I don't know how else to say it. He sat up on the stage with Dennis and said, I

49:45 have absolute zero hatred or something along these lines toward the Jewish people. So he was responding to this guy who said, Christ is king. He said, he said, I have zero hatred. I love him. And he said, Charlie goes, does that mean I I don't share Yeshua with him? I don't share Jesus with him. Because, because he doesn't follow. And Dennis, 'cause trust me, he does it all the time. It doesn't mean that you don't continue to share, but it means that you have friends, people that you can influence and that, that have influenced themselves outside of the body.

50:30 Sometimes I feel like we get so microscopic that we only want to be here with our own people, that we don't wanna be challenged. In fact, if that's you, the algorithms support you. They isolate you. They stick you in a, in an echo chamber where you don't hear anything else. The problem is, is you need to hear the opposition. You have to be able to have a conversation. Because Can I tell you something? I don't know if you know this or not, but I look through the whole congregation here and not one of you are the Messiah. I don't know if that's a surprise piece of information.

51:19 Whoa, That's a huge thing. Not one of you is the Messiah, which means not one of you is a hundred percent correct in what you believe, which means even someone who's not a follower of Yeshua may actually have something better than what you actually believe. I mean, I'm not trying to like stomp on your toes at all, But If you want your faith to grow, you have to engage people who have an opposing belief. And I don't mean engage them

52:04 by you guys are the filth of the world. That's not engaging, that's disengaging. You have to have meaningful conversations. It is an amazing thing to admit that someone else might be right in your own life. I can tell you I was one of the most obstinate children perhaps ever. And I can't tell you how often I call my mom now and say, I am sorry because I have one of those who challenges me every moment of every day.

52:55 I, I think my mom probably said, hopefully one day you, when you get older, you'll experience the same thing. And, and now the Lord listened to her and Brittany says, but did I have to be included in that? So all of that to say, it is a good time to work on your reputation, both within and outside of the body of Messiah. I have a piece of homework for you, which I've been meaning to give you for the last three weeks, but just kept forgetting a piece of homework is it's time to read Ephesians because we're in Ephesus. So read Ephesians, see what you can see.

53:43 If there's any sort of connections that, that Paul Paul makes in the letter, when I, I find some amazing connections Between Paul writing the community and even in the foundation of the community, things that are true then and are true later as well. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

55:00 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua.