THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUTH

Acts 19:1-10

INTRODUCTION

Today we begin our new sermon series on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. When we read Ephesians, we are reading someone else’s mail. If you were to read a letter from somebody you don’t know to somebody else you don’t know it wouldn’t make any sense. You would have to know something about the relationship between the two people. You would have to know something about them. It would help you to know the kind of people they are, their interests, and their concerns. In other words, it helps to know the context of the letter. You know how a real estate agent always talks about location, location, location. When you study one of Paul’s letters you need to know context, context, context. For that reason I would like to tell you a little bit about the city of Ephesus and how the church in Ephesus was planted.

Ephesus was located on the Aegean Sea in the far southwest corner of Asia Minor, which is now Turkey. It was the busiest seaport in Asia Minor. In fact, it was the greatest of the ancient Greek cities in Asia Minor, surpassing even Pergamum which was the capital of the province. Strabo, the great Greek historian and geographer who lived at the same time as Jesus, called Ephesus the greatest trading center of all the western Asian cities. Not only did it have the busy seaport but it was also the crossroads of three major overland trade routes. Ephesus had a massive amphitheater which sat over 25,000 people. The Celsus library was second only to the famous library in Alexandria, Egypt.

The native population of Ephesus consisted of Ionians, one of the three major tribes of Greeks who settled all the land surrounding the Aegean Sea. The Ionians were already there at the time we encounter Abraham in the Old Testament. Ephesus had always been dedicated to the worship of Artemis. The name “Artemis” is the Greek name which was given to the Mother goddess of paganism. Originally, she was always just the chief female deity. The Greeks came to see her as the goddess of fertility. The Romans called her Diana. Ephesus was the headquarters of the Artemis cult. In fact, the temple of Artemis was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens. The roof was supported by one hundred twenty-seven pillars, each of which stood sixty feet high.

The cult of Artemis spread throughout the Greek world and its frontiers. Pilgrims traveled from all over to come to Ephesus and participate in the rites at the temple of Artemis. This created a huge cult trade in Ephesus. Craftsmen made miniatures of the temple to be sold to the pilgrims. These would be similar to miniature replicas of the White House or the Capitol. They also created miniature copies of the idol of Artemis which they believed fell from heaven. This was a huge business at the time Paul arrived in Ephesus.

The church in Ephesus had probably been started just a few years before when Paul visited with his traveling companions on his second missionary journey. Acts 18:18, 19 says that Paul sailed from Corinth to Ephesus. He preached in the synagogue there but did not stay long. The people begged him to stay and he promised to return. Then he left Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus and returned home.

I. STAND FIRM ON GOD’S TRUTH

Paul was not home in Antioch long before setting out on his third missionary journey about 52 AD. He traveled overland through Asia Minor and ministered among the believers whom he had led to faith on previous trips.

Upon arriving in Ephesus he encountered twelve men who didn’t seem to fit into any religious categories. They are called “disciples” in Acts 19:1, but what kind of disciples they were is unclear. They were no longer following the Jewish way. They were not worshipers of Artemis. They had been baptized but there was something different about them. Paul asked them if they received the Holy Spirit when they were baptized but they reported that they knew nothing about the Holy Spirit. It turned out they had received the baptism of John the Baptist but had not heard the rest of the gospel that pointed to Jesus of Nazareth. Paul told them John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance; they needed to trust in Jesus and be baptized in his name! These were good men who had not yet received the whole truth. When they heard that John the Baptist pointed his followers to Jesus they willingly received Christian baptism. Paul laid his hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Paul came to Ephesus to tell the truth of God. Those who worshiped Artemis did
not have the truth. The Jews did not have the truth. These followers of John the Baptist did not have the truth. Of course the people of the Artemis cult thought they had the truth. The Jews and the disciples of John both had part of the truth. The Jews had the truth of the old covenant right up to the time of Jesus the Messiah. The disciples of John had a little bit more truth because they understood the call to repentance. There were people in Ephesus who had no truth and there were people who had varying amounts of the truth. They all needed the truth and Paul had come to give it to them.

In our postmodern age there are people who would argue that Paul had no business coming to Ephesus and telling the people they did not have the truth. They would say the followers of Artemis had a truth that worked for them. The Jews and the disciples of John had truth that was good for them too. What right did Paul have to come to Ephesus and start telling the people they needed to accept his truth? These people say the same thing to us. What right do we have to say that our truth about Jesus is the only truth? They say that all world religions have truth and if it works for them then we should leave them alone.

Truth is not relative. That is worth saying twice! Truth is not relative! To say there is more than one truth is to say there is no truth! Man’s sin made it impossible for him to know truth on his own. Romans 1:18-25 explains this to us. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”

Understand what God is saying in this passage! Men once had knowledge of God but in their foolishness they threw away that knowledge and chose to worship idols which represented creatures or man-like beings! This is the very definition of paganism! This is idolatry! This is exactly what the Ephesians were doing when they worshiped Artemis, the goddess of fertility. They once had the truth but they exchanged it for foolishness!

All truth is God’s truth! Only the Creator is truth and has truth, so all truth must be revealed to humankind. The glorious message Paul took to Ephesus is that God came to earth to reveal the truth to men. Jesus said it over and over again, “I tell you the truth.” In John 8:31, 32 he said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 14:6 says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Pilate famously asked Jesus, “What is truth?” The answer is, “Jesus is truth.” Jesus is God come to earth to invite people back into right relationship with God. The truth is that people are lost because of their sin. They cannot find the truth. They cannot have life with God unless they embrace the truth. The truth is that sin bears an awful penalty. The penalty for sin is death. The truth is that only faith in Jesus who died to pay the penalty for our sins can bring us life.

This is the truth! Paul brought it to the Ephesians because they didn’t have it and they needed it! The worshipers of Artemis needed it. The Jews needed it. And the disciples of John the Baptist needed it. Being close to the truth isn’t good enough! Paul took his stand on the truth that was revealed by God and he accepted nothing else.

We need to stand firm on the truth of God. Why? Because if you ever talk about your faith with anybody; if you ever try to share the truth with somebody, you will be challenged to compromise. If you are a person who never talks about your faith then this part of the message won’t make sense to you. But if you do discuss faith and truth with people, our culture will criticize you for being so exclusive and so certain. Our church needs to find a way to communicate God’s message to our culture. When we do that we need to speak the truth. We will meet with the temptation of cutting out some of the truth and accepting some things that are not truth. We have to stand firm on the truth of God because it is literally a matter of spiritual life and spiritual death. If we do not tell the truth, people will die without it.

Some people will say I am being overly dramatic. A matter of life and death? Let me try to show you how important holding to the truth is. We talked about relative truth a little earlier. Relativism simply states that truth is relative. In other words, you have a truth that works for you and I have a truth that works for me. It doesn’t matter if they are utterly contradictory because each of us has the right to decide what truth is for ourselves. The concept of relative truth makes a person feel completely free. There are no rules they have to live up to. There is no truth by which they are going to be judged because they make up their own rules. But if there is no absolute truth, then there is no meaning. A person can feel completely free but he is robbed of meaning in his life. That may not matter to some people but, to those who think about it, a lack of meaning in life leads to hopelessness. If there is no meaning to my life then there is no significance. All is hopeless. Hopelessness leads to self-destruction. I believe there are a lot of people who are feeling a lack of meaning in their lives. I think there is a lot of hopelessness out there. We have the answer for them. We have the meaning and purpose that leads to hope. Truth gives us a hopeful and meaningful place to set out feet, a place to take a stand and the way to find significance in our lives.

How do we tell the truth? We tell the truth with love. We do not have to become hellfire and brimstone preachers. We do not have to become argumentative. We do not have to pick fights. The best way to tell the truth is to live it out in our daily lives. The best way to tell the truth is to love the people around us and then share it with them when God gives us opportunity. But we have to take a firm stand on the truth of God!

II. PRESS ON WHEN OPPOSED

It was always Paul’s practice to take the message of Jesus to the Jews first. Wherever he went, he first entered the synagogue and taught the message of the kingdom of God. He knew the message had to be preached to the children of Israel before it was taken to the Gentiles. He did this same thing in Ephesus. Acts 19:8 says he went into the synagogue and “spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God.” For three months Paul taught the Jews the truth about the kingdom of God. The Jews’ understanding of God’s kingdom was skewed. They were expecting an earthly Messiah and an earthly kingdom. They did not have God’s truth about a lot of the things they believed. So Paul spent three months debating, discussing, and persuading the Jews to recognize Jesus as their Messiah and to realize the kingdom of God was a spiritual kingdom.

Then some of the Jews began to oppose Paul. Acts 19:9a says they began to speak evil of the way of Jesus in front of all the people of Ephesus. This seems to be the thing that finally motivated Paul to leave the synagogue. But the thing to notice here is that Paul moved; he didn’t quit! “He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.” (Acts 19:9b) Tyrannus was some kind of professional teacher. We know nothing about him. Apparently he was successful enough to have his own school building. The usual practice in those days was that students would come to school early in the morning and stay until about 11:00 before taking an afternoon break. It was the practice to eat and then rest through the heat of the day. Then they would return for an evening session around 4:00. This made the school of Tyrannus available in the middle of the day. So Paul would work at his tent making trade all morning and then go and teach throughout the heat of the afternoon. This really says something about the dedication and commitment of both Paul and his disciples. Paul went on like this for over two years! Why? Because he believed in the importance of the truth! He knew he needed to spread the truth and build the kingdom of God. Opposition could not stop him. When he was opposed he pressed on and found a way to keep telling the truth!

We are focusing our attention this morning on the importance of the truth of God. We read about Paul and his commitment to the truth and his determination to press on with the truth in the face of opposition. How important is the truth to us? Do we really see it as a matter of life and death? Are we committed to doing whatever we can to find a way to successfully communicate the truth to the people and the culture around us? We will face opposition in our world. There is no question about that. The question is, what will we do when that opposition comes? Will we become discouraged and give up? Will we get angry and stalk off thinking that those who oppose us are just unworthy? What will we do when we have tried and tried for a year or two and there has been no visible progress? Will we get frustrated? Will we grow weary and quit? Will we just stop loving our family and friends? Or will we press on? Will it matter to you if people make fun of you? Will it matter if they think you’re foolish or naïve? Will it matter if they try to find ways to shut you up? Jesus pressed on. Paul pressed on. We must also press on because the truth of God is important and it is the only message of hope our world has today!

© Rev. David A. Moorhead

The picture at the top is the Temple of Artemis