The First Letter Of Peter- 21

Subtitle: How Suffering Ties To Our Future Hope- Part 3

1 Peter 5:6-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, April 26, 2026.

We ended our sermon last week at 1 Peter 5:5. Peter quoted Proverbs 3:34, “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  He is not just passively opposed to the proud.  Just as He actively gives grace to the humble, so He actively opposes the proud.

Today, we are going to continue with this exhortation to stay humble in the humble circumstances of suffering.  As we do so, we will find that there is more than just suffering.  There is also the grace of Jesus.

Let’s look at our passage.

An Exhortation to all Christians (6-11)

The statement, even the revelation, of Proverbs 3:34 challenges us to trust God.  Do you really believe this?  If you do, then you will always choose the humble path because you do not want God to oppose you.

True humility is staying lowly in your attitude towards others, but at the same time, understanding that God has a purpose for you.  You can do what God has given you to do without becoming proud.  In fact, the humblest thing we can do is to say “yes” to God’s purpose even when we feel that we are not up to it.

In verse 6, Peter commands believers to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt us at the proper time.

Depending on your attitude, the mighty hand of God can be viewed in two ways.  If you stay humble, then God’s hand will be mighty in assistance.  He gives grace that aids us mightily in the ways that He knows we need.  However, if you are not humble, then His mighty hand will come against you in discipline and judgment.

We should not lose sight of the reality that the Hand of the Lord is an Old Testament metaphor that points to the Messiah, Jesus.  Thus, we need to humble ourselves under the Mighty Jesus who was sent to lead us to God.  Humble yourself by trusting the way of Jesus, and his way leads through suffering.

Notice that exaltation is at the bottom of this.  The proud and arrogant of this world fight and claw in order to exalt themselves.  We can even exalt others as a way of “hitching our wagon” to theirs.  However, God only exalts “at the proper time.”  Have you ever thought that you might not be ready for exaltation?  Shouldn’t we trust God’s timing in this?  Shouldn’t we have faith in Him?

It is good for us to learn discipline in this time in which we deal with our own sin and the sin of others.  Much of the suffering of life is a result of sin.

Even though Peter is talking about the ultimate exaltation of the Kingdom of God led by His Messiah, King Jesus, it is also true on a smaller scale within this life.  Most times of suffering have a season or period.  When we are dealing with trials, we can know that God will bring us through it.  He does not intend to let us be tested forever.

In order to do this, Peter tells us to cast our worries upon Jesus because He cares for us.  Our true problem is not the theoretical question of whether or not God is for us.  It is all those worries and anxieties that that we have going on in our heart and mind.  I might not get what I want.  Someone else might get what I want instead.  It is this multitude of worries that divide our heart against an allegiance to God, if we are not careful.

We are told to cast our worries upon Him.  This is a picture of what happens in our heart as we talk with God in prayer.  We don’t cast our worries at Him as an accusation.  Rather, we cast them upon Him.  We put the heaviness of the worry upon Him and let Him figure it out for us. 

We can do this because He cares for us.  That is, we are His concern.  God knows what we need and will provide it at the proper time.  Will I live refusing, rejecting, and ignoring His care for me?  Or will I lean into His care and rest in it?

Psalm 55:22 reads, “Cast your burden upon the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”  Pride leads to wickedness which leads to being shaken by God’s judgments.  However, humility leads to righteousness which does not lead to being shaken by judgment.

It is important that we do this because of what Peter says next. We have an enemy, the devil, who is on the prowl, seeking someone to devour.  First of all, there is a contrast here.  The devil devours everyone that he can.  However, God is only opposed to the proud.  Second of all, it is pride that makes us vulnerable to the devil.

This picture of the devil like a prowling lion connects to Job 1 and 2. Satan appears before God and is asked what he has been doing.  Notice that he doesn’t say why he is traveling to and fro throughout the earth.  This gives us a fuller picture.  He wants to devour those who are not able to stand against him.  He wants to devour your soul, your life, your ability to image God.  He wants to devour God’s purpose for you and make you a captive to his self-serving purposes.

When we walk in humility before our fellow man and before God, we will find all the resources of God’s grace available to us in that time of need.

Peter then tells us to be sober in spirit.  Yes, God is for us, but the devil is really against us.  We need to be able to deal with this reality.  We need to be on the alert for his tactics and schemes.  We also need to be on the alert for how our foolishness can set us up for him.  Our envy, fears, and hunger for recognition, can open access points in our life for his devouring work.

Thus, in this sober and alert state, we are to resist him.  Resist here is the sense of taking our stand against the devil and his schemes.  We are to oppose what he is trying to do in our lives and in the lives of our family and friends.  We do this by firmly putting our faith in Christ, not letting ourselves be pulled into trusting the ways of pride and the ways of the world.

Peter reminds us about the reality that other Christians are going through these same things around the world.  In fact, some of them may be going through worse suffering than we are.  Yet, Peter does not simply say they are going through them.  It is often translated as “being accomplished” by them.  They are going through them victoriously in Christ.  Their faith is not being overwhelmed and extinguished.  They are more than conqueror through Jesus Christ who strengthen them.  Thus, so can we be strengthened to face our enemy.  This is nothing unique to me or you.  All who want to follow Christ will face these things.

Even though we have suffering in this life, remember that God gives grace to the humble.  He doesn’t just do this after we die.  He gives us grace in the midst of our trials.  He has purpose in us that He will accomplish as we trust Him.  This is important.  God is helping us in this life against our enemy.  We don’t have to be afraid and shrink back.  We can humbly step up and stand our ground in Jesus.

Verse 10 says that we have been called to His eternal glory in Christ.  Dwelling within the glory of God is our destiny.  Yet, it is “in Christ.”  Christ is the ground, or foundation, that gives us standing before God.  We are called to His eternal glory, but the way to this glory is through times of suffering on this earth.

Peter mentions that this time of glory is “after you have suffered for a little while…” We can contemplate this “little while” in a couple of ways.  Life is generally not suffering all the time.  It may come in seasons, now intense, and now not.  It is very common to see that God brings us through times of difficult testing and into times of rest.  Those difficult times always feel like they will never end, but this too shall pass.  Knowing this can help us to keep faith in times of testing.

Yet, our lives are also “for a little while.”  We are grass and our time fleeting.  Even if my life is lived suffering under the boot of a tyrant until the day I die, this cannot change God’s calling upon my life.  When the suffering is over. Then I will see how God has used it to do some things within me that are eternal.  This is true throughout our life, and it will be true at the end of our life.

Peter states that God will “perfect you.”  This is the idea of making you complete, lacking nothing.  We can think of being completely equipped with all that we need, but we should also think of His ability to heal our wounds and make us whole, complete.

This doesn’t mean we do nothing.  We are called to be perfect as He is perfect, but none of us can do this on our own.  In this life, He is perfecting us through imperfect things.  Yet, in the end, we will be like Him because of His grace.

Trials and sufferings are one of the ways that God builds His character and righteousness into us.

Not only will He make us complete, but He will firmly equip us.  The firm part of this phrase has the idea of being set in a way that is not easily moved.  We might picture how construction uses braces to keep a structure from falling over.  God is making us to be a people that the devil cannot defeat and devour.  He is making us into people who cannot be pulled onto foolish paths.

He will also strengthen you.  There is strength that comes from bracing (external), but there is also strength that is more internal.  The Spirit of God uses trials and suffering to strengthen our faith in Him.  This is a spiritual strengthening.

Lastly, Peter says that He will establish you.  This is the idea of having a firm foundation.  Of course, Jesus is our firm foundation.  However, God is working to firmly set us upon His foundation, unable to be toppled.

Think of it.  Each trial you go through will also see God doing these things within you until that day you stand before Him completed.

This leads to Peter’s celebratory declaration.  To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.  Some versions don’t have the word glory.  Regardless, this is the language used of the Messiah’s Kingdom.  The Son of Man will be given dominion over all the nations of the earth.  Why should we remain humble at all times?  We should do so because the day is coming when Jesus will come in glory and take up his dominion.  The power, rule, and dominion are all his, even if he invites us into it and allows us to exercise it with him. 

This ties back to the earlier statement, “Let him who boasts boast in the lord!”

Peter does that here by declaring that all of this belongs to Jesus forever, Amen!

Suffering Future Hope 3 audio

The Acts of the Apostles 75

Subtitle: A Mob Restrained

Acts 19:32-41.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 11, 2024.

Last week, we stopped in the middle of a riotous mob in Ephesus.  Unable to find Paul, they had seized his associates, Gaius and Aristarchus.  These were taken by force to the local theater with great commotion.  It is unclear what they planned to do, but it is not hard to imagine being grabbed by an irate mob that quickly becomes thousands of people.  Nothing good happens in such a scenario.

We also saw last week that Paul wanted to address the crowd, but the believers of Ephesus begged him not to.  Even certain officials of the province of Asia, who were stationed in the city, worked to convince Paul not to address the crowd.

Let’s pick up the story at that point.

The confusion of the Ephesian mob (32-34)

In verse 32, we encounter the word “confused.”  First Corinthians 14:33 tells us that “God is not the author of confusion but of peace…”  We also see in James 3:16 that it says, “where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.”

It can be easy to over look that last verse.  We too often treat envy and self-seeking in a soft-handed way.  We can warn people that selfishness will affect their ability to win friends and influence people.  It will ruin their relationships too.  Typically, people are encouraged not to be overly selfish, and instead, show some concern for others.

This is all true.  However, there is also something deeper here, something darker.  Confusion and “every evil thing” come into the life of an envious self-seeker.  You become a source of darkness and evil.  In light of that, we should care much less about influencing people and more about delivering our own soul.  A delivered soul is fresh water to a person in chains.  Winning friends and influencing people would merely be the gravy, the overflow, of God’s goodness to those who trust Him.

Another way of putting this is to say that the Spirit of the One True God is not behind this mob in Ephesus, nor any other mob for that matter. 

This crowd is a pagan crowd.  We would expect such things of them.  However, have large groups of people, claiming to be on God’s side, ever done mob actions like seizing people outside of true justice?  Take the crucifixion of Jesus for instance.  There we have a collusion between the crowd, the religious leaders of Israel and the Roman government.  This is just as Psalm 2 said it would be.  “Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed…”  I could go on, but you get the picture.

This Ephesian mob is not from God.  It is from the spirit of this world.  Yet, even things done by the spirit of this world can be worked to the good by our loving Father in Heaven.

Luke gives the description of the crowd that many people were crying out many different things.  There is no cohesive, or coherent, message.  In our own time, we see groups organizing protests with a series of chants that emphasize the message that the organizers of the crowd want to be emphasized.  Yet, even an organized protest with a coherent message can disintegrate into a confused mob.  Of course, this mob in Ephesus was never an organized thing.  It was confusion from the very beginning.

Thus, we are told that many people in the crowd didn’t even know what they were all gathered for.  It is never good to join a crowd for which you do not know the purpose.  Although protests will sometimes hide their true purpose behind a noble sounding cause, scheming men led by a scheming devil love to use a cloak of morality to hide a sea of evil purpose.  There are many that would love to paint Christians as evil, bigots who are hateful and deserve to be removed from society, one way or another.

Let us remember that Christ never called us to create mobs that force change.  However, as the Church of Christ grows, it is going to tick off the devil and bring him forth in rage.  Of course, we need not fear this.  Greater is He that is in us than he that is in this world.

At some point, a Jew named Alexander is put forth by the Jews to address the crowd.  Why would they do that?  We should remember that there was friction between Paul and some in the synagogue, earlier in this chapter.  Paul and the Christians were no longer meeting with the synagogue.  It is possible that they want him to make sure that the crowd knows they are not connected with Paul, or that Paul, who is a Jew, does not represent them.  This would be to hedge against the guilt by association that is common among mobs.  However, it may also contain a fear that they will be blamed for the riot in some way.  We saw earlier in the book of Acts that Aquila and Priscilla had left Rome because Caesar had banned all Jews from the city, due to riots that were blamed on them.

Yet, when the crowd figures out that Alexander is a Jew, they will not let him speak.  This begins a two hour crowd chant of “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 

Now, no matter how much you love the Seahawks and want to shout and pound on a drum for hours to let people know that you really like them, eventually you will grow weary in the flesh.  I would say that  it is at the moment that the crowd’s fervor is starting to wane that the city clerk steps in.

A city clerk restrains the mob (35-41)

A clerk in the Roman system would have been closer to what we think of as a mayor. He would be known to the people, and is also one of them.  We do not know if word has reached the clerk from the officials of Asia that were friends of Paul, or if the clerk himself is friendly to Paul.  Since it doesn’t say so, we shouldn’t read too much to his argument.  He may simply be on orders from the provincial officials to get the city in order, or there will be consequences.

It is probably best to see this as an example of how God can make use of anyone for his purposes.  Sometimes, God uses unbelievers to restrain the wickedness of other unbelievers.

Alexander had stirred the crowd up, but this man was able to silence them.  He then reasons with them.  Remember, in a place of confusion, there is not a lot of reasoning occurring.  It is mostly knee-jerk reactions, emotions, feelings and following the crowd.  Essentially, the clerk argues for the crowd to disperse and go home.  So, let’s look at his persuasive rationale.

He gives a statement of fact and then a conclusion based upon this.  The first statement is that everyone knows that the city of Ephesus is dedicated to Artemis.  No one is questioning them on this.  So, why are they acting so rash and unreasonable by gathering at the theater and shouting loudly?

People can be whipped up into a moral frenzy in which they feel pressured to show their adherence to something.  We see this in social media online.  We can get in situations where we are afraid that others will accuse us of not being on the right side of an issue.  This kind of pressure is not of God.  We should do the right thing because it is the right thing, not because someone has manipulated us into it.  Make sure it is the Spirit of the LORD that is leading you to such actions and not a person, a group, or guilt.  A disorderly mob, of course, is never the right thing to be involved in.

Again, the clerk points out that there has not been any crime committed against the temple of Artemis or her personally.  They did not catch people trying to robe the temple, or publicly defaming Artemis.  Of course, Artemis is not a god.  However, Paul’s emphasis was on promoting Jesus, and calling people away from worshipping idols, which are made by the hands of people.

There is something lesser than this happening.  Thus, the clerk calls Demetrius out publicly.  If Demetrius thinks he has been injured in some way by Paul, then he must bring the matter to the courts in a proper way.  The matter can then be properly judged by first determining the facts of the matter and then making a judgment.

Mobs are extremely bad at getting justice.  They generally do things in a confused order.  They judge someone guilty and get others to jump on the bandwagon.  They then execute judgment.  Later, the hone a narrative to back up their actions, no matter how stretched it is.  A proper judgment will not be in a rush, and it will involve a true seeking of the facts before meting out punishment.

He finishes with the clincher in the argument.  He tells them that they are in danger of being considered an unlawful, disorderly gathering.  All cities, colonies, and protectorates answered to Caesar.  If wind of disturbances made it back to Rome, then some official’s head would be on the chopping block.  Rome expected its magistrates to keep order and peace.  Caesar could even punish cities.  In fact, Ephesus had not always been the capital of the province of Asia.  It was originally the city of Pergamum.  However, Rome had made Ephesus the capital of Asia when it put its provincial headquarters there.  Thus, the trade and economy of the city could be greatly harmed if they fell out of favor with Rome.

We are then told that the clerk dismisses the assembly.  This is the word that is typically translated church, but clearly not in this case.  This is no church gathered to worship the Lord.  This is a mob that has gathered for confusion and disorder.

Our cities today are full of confusion in the home, in neighborhoods, cities, governance and business.  Paul reminded the church in Ephesus that their battle was not with the Demetrius’ of the world.  Ephesians 6:10-13 says, “Finally be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of [not Demetrius, but] the devil.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [aka Alexander and the unbelieving Jews], but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”

God has called us for this time in this society.  If we truly live for Christ, then we will tick off the enemy every bit as much as Paul and the Ephesian Christians did in their day.  The real problem is not those other people.  The scheme of the devil, and people working with him, is to pit us against one another.  He gets a wedge between us and baits us into attacking one another.  Gentiles and Jews, men and women, rich and poor, black and white, the list of ways to be divided is unending.  These spirits are even now contemplating new ways to split us up further.  God help us because our enemies are the spiritual powers that want us offended and playing the victim.  They want us pointing to everyone else and saying that they are the problem.  They want you doing anything but repenting of your own sin.  In fact, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus tells us that we have a moral duty to deal with our own sin first, so that we can then properly help our brother or sister. 

The people are not your enemy.  In truth, they are POWs.  It is free men who lay their life on the line who go and free POWs.  Is it worth it to lose three people in saving one POW?  Let’s look at it another way.  How can three free guys enjoy their freedom when they know that there is even one POW in chains?  They would rather die trying to save the POW, then enter into the slavery of pretending that POW doesn’t exist.

For Christians, to die is gain, so we should never let the threat of death hold us back from the Lord’s work.  Christ has broken the threat of death forever for us.

When a person takes you to court, or publicly defames you before others, it hurts, but it is also a challenge from Jesus.  Will you love this person for me?  Will you attempt to set them free?  Yes, they may chew it up and spit it back in your face, but that is the honor we have.  We get to share in the honor of being persecuted for Christ.  Sometimes the honor of delivering a POW happens.  Some dare to believe in Jesus as Christ and are set free.  May God help us to keep our eyes on the real battle!

Mob Restrained audio

The Acts of the Apostles 74

Subtitle: A Riotous Crowd in Ephesus

Acts 19:21-31.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 4, 2024.

It almost seems to be par for the course that a mob would be stirred up against the Apostle Paul.  He had ministered in the city for around two years.  Yet, the impact that he and the believers has been making begins to stir up the pagans, those who worship the false gods.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Spirit leads Paul (21-22)

Paul is not a man who is focused upon his flesh, or doing whatever he wanted.  This is in contrast to how the average American lives their life.  Even as Christians, we can tend to treat God’s stuff as a list of things that we have attached to our lives.  As long as God is in the boat, we can drive as we please.

Yet, Paul had become a believer in Jesus by seeing his inability to righteously lead his life.  He was a man who had learned to pray about the Lord’s will and had come to a place of faith regarding the will of Jesus by the help of the Holy Spirit.  In short, we need to learn to capture the vision of what God desires to do through us for the Kingdom of Christ.  When we gain insight into God’s plan, we can reach a place where our will merges with God’s.  At least, our will becomes as harmonious with God’s will as is possible in our mortal flesh.

The book of Acts demonstrates that the early Church was led, empowered and helped by the Holy Spirit.  We are intended to continue that pattern through reading the word, praying and seeking His will.  We then commit ourselves to doing that will by faith.

We are called to die to the self-led life and to come alive to the Spirit-led life.  We should spend time in prayer asking this question.  “Jesus, what is the best use of my life?”  Along these lines, we have good counsel given to us from the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:17-20.  In general, we don’t seek to leave commitments when we become a Christian, but rather seek to redeem them.  If I married someone for ungodly reasons before I became a Christian, I shouldn’t seek to make it right by leaving them once I am a believer.  Rather, I stay in the relationship, but now I operate out of a desire to be used by Christ to minister to the other person.  I am the same person in the same situation, but now it is Christ living through me by the Spirit of God.  At least, this is the vision put in front of us.

No matter what great things we may be trying to accomplish, if they are not surrendered to God’s will, we are going after empty things, vanity.

In verse 21, Luke gives us insight to the road ahead.  Others looking at Paul’s choices and actions may believe that Paul makes some mistakes and gets himself killed in the end.  However, Luke shows us that Paul was being led by the Spirit of Christ, even when it led him to his death.

Paul’s plan would be to go back through Macedonia (northern Greece, e.g., Phillipi, Thessalonica), down to Achaia (southern Greece, e.g., Corinth), then to Jerusalem, and after that, “I must also see Rome.”

God sometimes has a necessity to certain things in our life.  In fact, we may not like some of them.  Think about Jesus on the night he was betrayed.  He wrestles with the Father in prayer over the coming cross.  In his flesh, it is something to be avoided, but his spirit is yielded to the will of the Father.

Yet, even when God has things that we must go through, not all of them are actively caused by Him.  God did not cause Judas to do what he did.  Judas did these things of his own volition and inability to guard his heart.  Yet, God worked the sin of Judas into His plan and purpose for Jesus.  God’s grace is always supplied for us to do his purpose and plan.

In verse 21, it literally says that Paul “purposed in the spirit.”   Some translations take this to mean within his own spirit, and thus, they sometimes translate it without the word spirit.  To them, this is a statement about internal dedication to a plan of action alone.  However, it doesn’t say in “his” spirit.  I believe it is far more natural to understand Luke’s phrase to be pointing to Paul’s determination having its source in The Spirit [of God].   When Paul is later warned by the other prophets that he will be taken prisoner if he goes to Jerusalem, it will be clear that Paul’s insistence to keep going was not a lightly made decision of his own flesh.  It was one made in the Spirit, with the help of the Holy Spirit.  The “must” concerning Rome is not a “must” of Paul’s flesh, but of God’s will in his life.  However, it has also become Paul’s desire and act of faith.

We should remember Acts 9:15-16.  At Saul’s (Paul’s) salvation, Ananias gave him the message of God, that he would be a “chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.”  Most of us will not testify before anyone of such great stature.  But, which is more important, witnessing to kings or a peasant?  Both are extremely important to that individual and can change an eternity of experience.  The Lord also told Ananias that, “I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”  I believe Paul’s prayer life had experienced such revelations from the Lord.  He knew what was ahead and the suffering involved.

It is not that God’s purpose is to make us suffer, per se.  Yet, nothing for God can be done in this fallen world without encountering it.  We encounter personal suffering when we deny our sinful flesh and follow the Spirit of God.  We also encounter suffering from people intent on serving self and from spiritual forces.  To live for God is a battle with self, the world, and the devil.  Yet, we should not fear this suffering.  We suffer for the Lord who suffered first for us.  This is our honor, but also bonds us deeper with the Lord as we grow to understood the love that compelled him to the cross.

With this plan to go to Macedonia in mind, Paul sends Timothy and Erastus ahead for several reasons.  They most likely carry correspondence from Paul to various churches, and would be able to see for themselves the response to such in each church.  Also, they would be giving the churches a heads up and enabling them to prepare for his coming.  We are told that he stayed in Asia “for a time,” after sending them.  I would gage this as a matter of months in light of the two years mentioned earlier.

A commotion occurs (23-31)

We saw earlier that friction in the synagogue had led to Paul and the believers in Jesus separating.  They met in the Hall of Tyrannus.  Whenever a mob occurs, there is a trigger event, whether it justifies a mob or not.  We have seen uprising against Paul before, and they pretty much led to his leaving town every time.  In Thessalonica, it was a mob instigated by Jews who would not believe in Jesus as Messiah.  However, it will be by Gentile pagans here in Ephesus.  Paul’s ministry and the growth of the church was noticeably impacting the religious economy of Ephesus.

Ephesus was famous for its temple to Artemis (the Latin form is Diana), but more on that later.

We are told that the commotion is “about The Way.”  Luke uses this term for the early Church again.  He will use it a total of eight times in the book, of which this is the fourth.  Saul of Tarsus had been a man arresting people of “The Way” in Acts 9:2.  In this case, Paul is part of The Way [of the Lord] and others are seeking to arrest him.

This commotion is stirred up by a silversmith in Ephesus named Demetrius.  It says that he was a maker of “shrines.”  These silver images were typically of a particular Greek god, but sometimes depicted a scene from their mythology.  They could be used within public shrines, but rich people would also buy them for personal shrines.  The fame of Ephesus for its Temple to Artemis would also make a shrine created in Ephesus more valuable and costly.  Demetrius makes his living crafting these shrine objects for rich people.

When we make our money out of something, even when it is a religious thing, we are easily led into sin.  Even Christians can do God’s things in a way that reflects anything but the image of God, and the Lord who bought them with his blood.  This would only be compounded in a person who serves a false god.

Demetrius gathers the silversmiths of the city and makes a speech.  Even if he didn’t intend to create a mob, the mob quickly takes over, and Demetrius is no longer in control.  He was the “releasing of water.”  He only began the strife, but the building up of pressure would grow to become greater than the initial action.  What is his message?

First, he reminds the group that they make their money through the trade of these images.  Second, he points to the fact that Paul has been persuading people to turn from these shrines.  This leads to the conclusion.  If Paul continues, our trade (aka financial interests) will be in danger, AND, the great temple of Artemis will be despised and its magnificence destroyed.

Notice how Demetrius shrewdly connects their personal, financial interests to the great glory of Ephesus and the temple of Artemis.  Essentially, he depicts the glory of Ephesus as being in danger, so any true Ephesian would refuse to allow this.  Ephesus had been famous for its temple to Artemis for over 500 years at this point.  Who wants to be the generation that jeopardizes that?

We should recognize that this same persuasive argument can be made by politicians.  We can have our financial interests conflated with the glory of the United States of America.  We can be told that our sons need to go over seas and die on a foreign field or America will diminish.  In truth, it generally is about the lower motive of profit, and not for the average citizen.

At this point, we have some descriptions of the crowd by Luke.  In verse 28, he uses the phrases, “full of wrath” and “cried out.”  In verse 29, he uses the phrases, “rushed into the theater” and “having seized” Paul’s companions.

This mob action is very different from a peaceful protest.  There is no sense of control and order.  However, even a peaceful protest can be easily pushed into a mob by actors of ill-intent who know how to manipulate crowds.  Our Republic was founded upon the idea that people need to be able to lodge protest against improper governance.  Typically, this is done through the courts, but not always.  Large groups of people can get the attention of governors far quicker than a single lawsuit.  This feedback mechanisms, if done appropriately, can serve to help redress grievances.  Yet, Christians should be wise in such plans and participation.  We need to be led by the Holy Spirit and not by a worldly person (Christian or otherwise) who uses persuasive arguments to bring about our joining them.  There are many manipulators who love to see a crowd because they are already set up to twist the narrative in a direction that works for them.

Paul finds out what is going on, and he wants to address the raging mob.  However, the believers in the city and some of the officials of the province of Asia talked him out of it.  Ephesus was the seat of the provincial rule of Asia.

Was this a lack of faith on the part of these believers?  Can’t God protect and use the Apostle Paul speaking to a mob in Ephesus and calming it?  Yes, God can do anything.  However, I believe that Paul would have done so if he really felt the Holy Spirit was urging him to do it.  Between the counsel of these two groups, and Paul’s  understanding that God wasn’t necessarily telling him to do it, the decision that Paul will not address the crowd.  Even though Paul is a man led by the Spirit, that doesn’t mean every thought that pops into his head is from the Holy Spirit.   Paul sees the greater wisdom of restraint.

If you enter such situations with the thinking that you need to prove that God is with you, then you may make foolish choices hoping He will back you up.  It is a better policy to pray about every endeavor and do that which God clearly leads you to do.

The Lord Jesus had been raising up a church in Ephesus over the last several  years, but we see here that the spiritual enemies of Jesus didn’t like it.  Whether it is the spirit of Artemis or not, Demetrius is also a man being stirred up by spirits that don’t like what Paul is doing.  Demetrius is not the main problem.  Perhaps, Paul could see himself, before he was saved, in these raging men.  We can be too easily offended by what people do, and lose sight that the real problem is the devil and his angels who are able to use people as tools. 

Yes, the devil uses people.  However, God is also looking for some people who will trust Him and fight the greater battle against the spiritual forces that hold our enemies captives.  May God help us to find and help to deliver those who can be saved from the kingdom of darkness.

Riotous Crowd audio

Checkmate and the Rulers of this Age

1 Corinthians 2:6-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 23, 2017.

In the game of Chess many different strategies can be employed, both defensive and offensive.  Regardless of how sophisticated a strategy may be, the proof of one’s superior ability is to put the other player’s King in a conquered position called checkmate.  They have no moves available to keep the opponent’s next move from taking their King.  Now, in using this illustration, I do not want to give the impression that the Devil is God’s equal in a cosmic game of Chess.  However, we do need to understand that the Devil has made many tactical blunders throughout the course of history, first of which is his choice to rebel against the Creator.

In our passage today we see that the cross may not have been the checkmate per se.  However, it was an irrecoverable error and all moves since are moving towards an inevitable checkmate in which he is out of moves.  Even the moves he employs since the cross are only possible because God is giving time for pawns on the Devil’s side to rebel against the rebel and come back to the Creator.  So the real question today is not so much how many moves or time is left.  Rather, the pertinent question is this, “Which side are you on?”  Are you on the side of the Father and His Son, Jesus?  Or, are you on the side of the Devil and his angels?  Let’s look at our passage today.

Jesus and the Crucifixion are God’s Wisdom

We are going to focus on verses 6-8, but to do that I want to point out verse 2 of this chapter.  Paul told the Corinthians that when he was among them he was “determined not to know anything among you except, Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”  The distinction is important because Jesus is the wisdom of God both in his being, and in his doing.  He is the wisdom of God before He ever opens His mouth.  When He speaks we are receiving the very wisdom of God.  And, when he acts, the decisions that he makes and the things that he goes through, are all part of demonstrating the wisdom of God.  Now, no matter how Christians want to be perceived by the world, we must hold firmly to this foundational understanding: God’s wisdom is very different from the world’s wisdom.  Not only this, but the world’s wisdom will never accept the wisdom of God in Jesus.  Yes, it may take hold of it and twist it into something and someone different, so as to embrace it. But it will always be an idol of their making and just as vain.

Paul wanted the Corinthians and us to understand that the rulers of this age were ignorant of the amazingly wise thing that God was doing in Jesus.  The Corinthians had embraced Jesus, but held onto wisdom and pathways of thinking that came from the rulers of this age.  You can’t keep the wisdom of this age and really follow Jesus.  The word translated as “ruler” here is used of both earthly and heavenly beings.  Now a human interpretation of this term would most likely be true.  If Caiaphas, Pilate, et al, had known what they were doing they wouldn’t have crucified Jesus.  However, there is very good reason to believe that Paul is also speaking of the Devil and his angels.  They are the true rulers of this age.  What evidence leads me to believe this?  First of all, Jesus often references the spiritual powers that were working.  In the Gospel of John he references the “ruler of this world” that was coming,” and who was about to be “cast out.”  Paul in Ephesians 2:1-2 says, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”  This “ruler” is clearly a spirit being and only ruling in the air as opposed to the heavenlies.  Later in Ephesians 6 Paul speaks further, “Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”  Again Paul is clear that these rulers are not flesh and blood, but rather spiritual hosts of wickedness.  There is another reason to recognize the spiritual rulers being referenced in this passage.  The “fallen angels,” as they are often called, operate in rebellion to the God of heaven.  As such, they have historically promoted an alternate wisdom to mankind.  As the serpent twists the truth in order to bring Eve into an alternate understanding, so they have always twisted the truth and used a wisdom that is particular to them in order to manipulate mankind.  The ancient nations even bragged that their wisdom was from the “gods” and their rulers were “demi-gods.”  The Corinthian culture is part and parcel with this Gentile penchant to be enamored with the wisdom and philosophy of the gods they served.  Paul is showing the Corinthians that these great “gods” were ignorant and so were the human rulers who were leaning on their wisdom.  They are not ignorant of everything.  Rather they are ignorant of the wisdom of God found in Jesus.  The spirits at least knew who Jesus was, and they knew that he was there to fight them.  But they did not understand how he was going to bring about the kingdom of God.  This was a mystery.  Yes, the wisdom of this world is vast and immense.  But, in the end, it is at war against the wisdom of the God of heaven.  More than that, it does not lead mankind to utopia or salvation.  It leads us to fight against what will save us, the wisdom of God.  Thus the wisdom of these great spiritual rulers has led them to a tactical blunder that will lead to their eventual checkmate.  The Book of Revelation makes clear that their end is the Lake of Fire, as does Jesus in Matthew 25:41.

Why were these great angels ignorant?  Paul states that it was a hidden mystery that God had kept from the very beginning.  The incarnation of the Son of God and his substitutionary death had been kept secret from the devil.  He had no idea that Jesus wanted to be killed and that it was part of his plan.  By crucifying Jesus, he and his angels commit a capital offense and bring a capital judgment upon themselves and those humans who join them.  From the Garden of Eden on, they have abused the knowledge that God had allowed them to know.  In Job 38 we are told that the Sons of God shouted for joy when the foundations of the earth were laid.  Thus, the “angels” who are called “Sons of God” were created and present for the creation.  The extra-biblical, book called 1 Enoch, which is quoted by Jude and Peter in the Bible, pointed out their involvement in the pre-flood world.  The fallen angels had taught mankind technological arts and used them to pervert mankind away from God.  Thus the weapons of warfare and the arts of seduction (clothing, adornment, and make-up) came from these technologies.  As I said before, the post flood cultures bragged that this information had survived and was the reason for their greatness.  Yet, God had hidden certain things concerning salvation from them.  They don’t know everything.  They are not God.  He most likely hid it because He knew that there would be a rebellion.  So what can we learn from this?  We can learn to be confident in the wisdom of God, and we can remain humble before the world.  Yes, we know the mystery of the incarnation and the cross.  But, what more do we not know?  This is not a time for arrogance, but rather humility.

I would also point out that technology is not itself the problem.  We see this today.  Technology can be used for good or for evil.  However, we need to understand that the drive behind increasing technology comes from a manipulative, spiritual origin.  When man is in rebellion to God, no amount of technology can save him.  In fact, it will only make things worse.

Paul also points out the ancient origins of this mystery.  Although I have already spoken to this fact, I would remind us of a couple of verses in the New Testament.  1 Peter 1:19-20 says, “… the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.”  Revelation 13:8 says, “All who dwell on the earth will worship him [the wild beast], whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.”  Notice that the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection were always the plan.  Even before He started Creation, God had already planned to save mankind.  In the unseen councils of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have agreed to the plan of the cross, which condemns all wickedness and redeems all who will humble themselves and put their faith in Jesus.

Verses 9-12, bring this to a point.  Jesus and the Gospel have been revealed to mankind by the Holy Spirit.  The mysteries of God and the wisdom of God that had been made known through the Apostles had its source in the Holy Spirit of God, and not the evil spirits of the Gentile nations.  The Corinthians were trying to follow the man Jesus on the outside all the while listening to the wisdom of evil spirits on the inside.  This will never work.  In fact, all Christians of every generation have had to wrestle with this tendency.  American Christians today wrestle with following Jesus while keeping a cultural wisdom that has its source in evil spirits.  The same is true of any other nation as well.  The wisdom of God has been given to all mankind through the man Jesus and by the Holy Spirit of God.  With it we are able to spoil the greatest beings of the universe outside of God.  We can be saved, seeing through their lies and the destructive tendency of their wisdom.  We can deliver ourselves and rescue others.  We have everything that we need to know for this age.  Sure, God has things prepared for the age to come, after Jesus comes back.  Until then, we can be confident in what God has given us now.  But if we choose the path of arrogance and a particular fascination with demonic wisdom then we will find ourselves in the same plight as the Jewish leaders in the first century.  So we end with the question, “From what spirit are you getting your wisdom?”  The answer to this makes the difference between death and life.

Checkmate audio