Okay, thank you, brother.
All right, so if you look at Acts chapter 18 there
and look at verse number 19, verse number 19,
it says, and he came to Ephesus.
The title for the sermon tonight
is History of the Ephesian Church,
History of the Ephesian Church.
Now, as I mentioned last week, these Wednesdays,
I'm gonna be preaching sermons
that I otherwise wouldn't normally preach, okay?
And the reason I'm preaching these sermons
is basically to better prepare this church
mentally and spiritually as the pastor and his family
is away for those 12 months coming up, right?
It's less than two months away now,
and I really wanna set you guys in a good place,
just mentally, if you have any questions
about this trip to Sydney, what's gonna happen?
Are you gonna get back into Queensland?
My goal is to get back into Queensland every single week.
I already bought my tickets,
I already got them booked for October
and even early September, but I don't know.
I don't know what's going on, right?
I mean, it just seems like things are getting worse
once again here in Australia and all the border closures.
I don't know what kind of effect that's going to have.
And so, look, those are things
that I have no control over, all right?
There are things I do have control over,
and when it comes to those things,
I'm asking for the Lord's leading,
I'm asking for his guidance,
but also what I'm preparing on these Wednesdays,
I hope it's a benefit to you, okay?
And so the reason I wanted to look at the history
of the Ephesian Church is I've personally
just been doing my own study.
I wasn't planning on preaching about this.
Just my own study on Paul's missionary journeys.
If you know the story of Paul,
he went on three missionary journeys during his time.
It's captured for us in the Book of Acts.
And trying to, you know, pierce together
when did he write certain epistles,
when were certain churches started,
who were the pastors, who were the leaders
over these certain churches,
and as I was thinking about the Ephesian Church,
this is one of the churches that's the clearest
as to when we see that it begins,
how it starts, and where it ends up,
as well, it's mentioned in the Book of Revelation as well.
And so can you please now go to Acts 15?
We will come back to Acts 18,
but please go to Acts 15.
Because what we start with, Reverend,
here in Acts 15 is Paul's second missionary journey, okay?
And so when we look at Acts 15, look at verse number 35.
Acts 15 and verse number 35, it says,
"'Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch.'"
So they've done their first missionary journey,
but they've come back to the church in Antioch, remember?
The church in Antioch is the church that ordained them,
sent them out as missionaries, as church planters,
so they've come back, and then it says here,
"'teaching and preaching the word of the Lord
"'with many others also, and some days after,
"'Paul said unto Barnabas, let us go again
"'and visit our brethren in every city
"'where we have preached the word of the Lord
"'and see how they do.'"
And so Paul gets the idea, hey, Barnabas, let's go back,
let's go back to those churches that we started,
let's go back to see the brethren,
and this is now the beginning
of his second missionary journey, all right?
Now, not only did they go to the cities
that they preached to initially,
yes, they went back and visited those brethren,
but they went out and visited other cities.
They went out preaching the gospel,
getting other people saved in other cities,
starting other churches.
And so when it comes to the city of Ephesus,
they go to the city on the second missionary journey.
They didn't go on the first one,
but they went on the second one.
Now, what I want you to compare, though,
is when we look at this second missionary journey from Paul,
you know, he just decided with Barnabas,
hey, let's go back, all right?
It's not that they're seeking
the entire church's approval for this,
they've just made the decision,
because if you go back to Acts 13,
on their first missionary journey,
let's have a look at Acts 13, verse number one,
Acts 13, verse number one,
we see the beginning of the first missionary journey, right?
And in verse number one, it says this,
now, there were in the church that was at Antioch,
certain prophets and teachers,
as Barnabas and Simeon, that was called Nigah,
and Lucius of Cyrene and Menaen,
which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul,
and they ministered to the Lord and fasted,
the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul,
for the work whereunto I've called them,
and when they have fasted and prayed
and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
And so when we see the beginning
of the first missionary journey, right,
that's Paul and Barnabas are selected by the Holy Ghost,
you know, the people of the church were fasting,
hey, this was a unanimous decision by the leaders,
hey, the right thing to do is to send Paul and Barnabas
to go preach to the Gentiles, go start churches,
go do this work that we've left them to do,
but what you notice when we get
to the second missionary journey,
they're not doing that again, all right?
This is just a decision made between Paul and Barnabas
to say why, because the Lord God,
the Holy Spirit has already ordained them to that role,
okay, they don't have to go seek that again,
they've already been ordained to that role,
and they're saying, hey, now's the time,
we've come back home, we've reported back
to the church in Antioch, hey, we're refreshed,
we can get back out there
and start the second missionary journey.
Now the reason I bring this to your attention
is just because, you know, with the support of the family,
you know, going down to Sydney,
the question has been brought up, and rightfully so,
you know, shouldn't we be praying about this
in the sense of fasting and prayer
and asking the Holy Ghost and seeing
if this is something that the Holy Ghost wants us to do
as a church, to send the pastor down to Sydney?
Well, the reason I don't believe
that's what we ought to be doing
is because this already happened the first time, okay?
When we first started the church down in Sydney,
blessing up at this church, you know,
from the time the idea first entered my mind
and started to share with the church,
I worked out that it was two and a half months
from the time that happened
to the time we started the church, and I was going again.
Remember going down there every week,
going every week, every Tuesday,
going down and preaching the gospel,
or not the gospel, preaching to the church,
you know, getting that church established and set up,
and so what I see when it comes to this idea
of going down to Sydney for 12 months
and helping this church, that this is just a continuation
of the same work that was already agreed upon,
because hey, during those two and a half months,
I was speaking to basically the whole church,
we were praying about this on Wednesdays,
and we got to the point where we were just back
unanimously saying, hey, we need to go
and start that church, okay?
And so what I want you to be considering
when the family does go down to Sydney for the 12 months,
that this is just a continuation of the same work
that this church has started, you know,
some over two years ago, okay?
And so in a sense, it's kind of like
the second missionary journey,
but this time it's gonna require more labor,
it's gonna require more time to get down there
and establish that church.
Now if we can please go back to Acts chapter 18,
because what we saw in Acts 15
is the start of the second missionary journey,
and so they go in city by city,
they go into different families and things like that,
and so what we want to do is look at the story
of the church plant in Ephesus.
Where did this begin?
Well it begins here in Acts 18, 18,
Acts 18, 18, and it says,
and Paul after this tarried there yet a good while,
and then took his leave of the brethren,
and saved thence into Syria,
and with him Priscilla and Aquila
having shone his head in centuria for he had a vow.
Now this is important for us to realize,
these families, this married couple,
Priscilla and Aquila, Aquila being the husband,
Priscilla the wife, they come with Paul
and they journey with him to Ephesus,
look at verse number 19,
and he came to Ephesus and left them there, okay?
Now this is important to realize,
because soon Paul, yes,
he's going to do a lot of preaching in Ephesus,
but he's going to move on,
he's going to move on into other cities,
but the reason he brought Priscilla and Aquila with him
is because he planned to leave this couple there
to help the believers in Ephesus,
and it says that he came to Ephesus and left them there,
but he himself entered into the synagogue
and reasoned with the Jews.
When they desired him to tarry a longer time with them,
he consented not, but bade them farewell,
saying, I must by all means keep this feast
that cometh in Jerusalem,
but I will return again unto you if God will,
and he sailed from Ephesus, okay?
So we see what happens.
Paul gets into Ephesus,
and Priscilla, Aquila are joining him,
hey, he says, look, I need to go back to Jerusalem,
I don't know what feast he wants to celebrate,
maybe it's the Passover, maybe it's the Pentecost,
whatever it is, right?
He wants to go there, he leaves,
but he leaves Priscilla and Aquila there for that church.
He leaves this church, and I'll prove to you later
that this was certainly a church that had developed
at this point in time, okay?
And Aquila and Priscilla are left as caretakers
for the church.
And so here's what we notice.
When Paul is going and confirming believers,
he's establishing disciples in different cities,
establishing different churches,
he's always mindful to think before I leave,
there's gotta be others that are there
to take care of the church.
And in this light, we see this faithful couple,
this faithful married couple, Aquila and Priscilla.
Now, I don't believe,
some people believe Aquila was a pastor,
I don't believe that, and I'll show you later on
why I don't believe he was a pastor,
as we go through the history of the chronology
of the church in Ephesus.
But you can see that this church still fell
under Paul's jurisdiction,
and it was his responsibility to make sure
they were being taken care of, okay?
Priscilla and Aquila,
these become very important figures in the Bible.
If you read the New Testament,
you'll notice the names get brought up
again and again and again.
Now, let's drop down to verse number 22.
Verse number 22, it says here,
and when he had landed in Caesarea
and gone up and saluted the church,
he went down to Antioch.
So now we see he's going back to Antioch, right?
He's going back to his sending church.
He's given now a report back
of his second missionary journey, okay?
And then when we look at verse number 23,
he begins his third missionary journey, all right?
So let's get in our minds.
First missionary journey,
he goes about with Barnabas,
they're starting churches,
they're winning souls, all those kind of things.
They get back to Antioch, they report back, okay?
Then they start the second missionary journey.
This time, they include Ephesus in the trip,
and they leave the believers in Ephesus
under the caretaking of Aquila and Priscilla, all right?
And then he heads back to Jerusalem for his feast.
He ends up in Antioch later on, reports again,
and then look at verse number 23,
and it says, and after he had spent some time there,
he departed and went over all the country of Galatia
and through Gaea in order,
strengthening all the disciples.
So now this is his third missionary journey.
He's going once again out there,
establishing, strengthening the disciples,
being a support to the churches that he's planted, all right?
Now look at verse number 24.
Because we go back to Ephesus, the story in Ephesus,
and it says here in verse number 24,
and a certain Jew named Apollos,
born at Alexandria, an eloquent man,
and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.
So now we have another character joining the story, Apollos,
okay, Apollos, and we can see here,
he's mighty in the scriptures, okay?
He knows the Bible very well.
He's a saved man.
Look at verse number 25, it says,
This man was instructed in the way of the Lord,
and being fervent in the Spirit,
he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord,
knowing only the baptism of John.
And so this guy knows the scriptures well.
He's a saved man.
It says he is fervent in the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit of God is working in the life of this man.
Hey, but his knowledge is limited, right?
He only knows only the baptism of John.
That's as far as his training went, okay?
Say, what is the baptism of John?
What is that about?
Let's go to the next chapter, Acts 19, verse number four.
Acts 19, verse four, it says,
Then said Paul, John verily baptized
with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people
that they should believe on him that should come after him,
that is, on Christ Jesus, okay?
So that gives us confirmation
that Apollos, knowing the baptism of John,
then obviously knew that he had placed his faith
on Jesus Christ, okay?
This is a saved man, okay?
But he only really knew till then.
I don't know where he went.
I don't know what happened to him, okay?
He learned from John the Baptist.
He learned that he had to place his faith on Jesus Christ.
He's done that.
He knows the Old Testament scriptures.
The Lord is using Apollos in a mighty way
to preach about Jesus Christ,
but he doesn't really know anything else.
He doesn't know the story of Jesus.
He doesn't know what's happened,
how it's now the New Testament days.
And so what we notice here in verse number 26, it says,
And he began, this is Apollos,
began to speak boldly in the synagogue,
whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard,
they took him unto them and expounded unto him
the way of God more perfectly.
He says, look, they find a fellow believer.
Hey, this guy's on fire for the Lord,
but he's limited in understanding.
It doesn't seem like he's fully understood
where we're at now, right?
That Jesus has come, it's all been done,
and we're in New Testament days.
And so they help him.
They take him under his wing, right?
You can see that Aquila and Priscilla are these leaders
that have been left in charge of the church
while Paul was away.
And I think this speaks highly
of the kind of people that they are
to take a man like Apollos and want to train him, right?
Under their wing, hey, let us be a help to you.
And they instruct him in the way of God more perfectly.
And if I haven't said already,
tonight's sermon is more of a Bible study, okay?
The history of the church in Ephesus, okay?
And so Paul's now on his third missionary journey,
and he passes through Ephesians once again.
Look at Acts 19, verse number one.
Acts 19 and verse number one,
it says, and it came to pass
that while Apollos was at where?
Corinth now.
Paul, having passed through the upper coast,
came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples.
So now on Paul's third missionary journey,
he arrives to Ephesus,
but Apollos, who has been trained by Aquila and Priscilla,
he's moved on.
He's left Ephesus and he's gone to Corinth, okay?
Now keep your finger there in the book of Acts.
Let's go to 1 Corinthians,
because Corinth is a city
that the Corinthian church was based in.
So let's go to 1 Corinthians, chapter one, verse 11, okay?
And what we learn here,
what we're gonna learn is that Aquila and Priscilla
did a really great job in the absence of Paul, all right?
Because when we turn to Acts, sorry,
1 Corinthians, chapter one, verse 11,
now you may remember in our study of the Corinthian church,
this was a messed up church, a very carnal church,
a very divided church, a lot of problems in this church.
But 1 Corinthians, chapter one, verse 11,
Paul writes to the Corinthians, he says,
"'For you have been declared unto me of you, my brethren,
"'by them which are of the house of Chloe,
"'that there are contentions among you.
"'Now this I say that every one of you sayeth,
"'I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos,
"'and I of Cephas,'" and that's Peter,
"'and I of Christ.'"
Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you?
Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
And so what Paul is telling this church,
look, you're so divided, you've got your favorite preachers,
and they've created their own cliques,
their own cliques of their own favorite preachers,
and we only hang out those that are of Apollos.
And with this group, we only hang out
with those of Peter, right?
And they've got this separation in the church.
But what I want you to notice there is,
when we read Acts 19, verse one,
that Apollos had gone to Corinth,
well, we see this confirmation here in 1 Corinthians
that Apollos had done some preaching during that time,
had been a powerful leader,
had helped this church to some extent,
but this carnal church had elevated Apollos
and all these men rather than having their focus
on Jesus Christ.
So we can see the chronology there
of when the book of Corinthians was written.
It was written after Apollos had gone there
during Paul's third missionary journey.
Now, please go back to Acts 19.
Acts 19 and verse number eight.
Let's drop down to verse number eight.
Acts 19 and verse number eight.
And I know I'm throwing a lot of information at you.
If you get confused,
either go back and listen to the sermon
or just ask me after the service, okay,
if I've missed anything important for us to gather here.
But look at verse number eight.
Acts 19, verse number eight.
Because again, Paul's here at Ephesus,
his third missionary journey,
and he has a lot of difficulties though, okay?
He faces a lot of problems on this journey.
In verse number eight, he says,
and he went into the synagogue
and spake boldly for the space of three months,
disputing and persuading the things
concerning the kingdom of God.
But when thy verse were hardened,
and believe not, but spake evil of that way
before the multitude, he departed from them
and separated the disciples,
disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus, okay?
So Paul, hey, he had some decent success in the synagogue
with his second missionary journey,
but in his third missionary journey,
he's getting a lot of resistance, right, from the Jews,
a lot of the resistance from the Jews.
And he's there for three months
trying to convince the Jews of Jesus Christ,
they're rejecting that,
and then he ends up disputing daily
in the house of one Tyrannus, okay?
So, and what a strange name, Tyrannus.
I mean, he kind of means the tyranny.
That's what he means, right?
One that reigns, one that reigns with tyranny.
This is why we call that dinosaur the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
We say he's the king,
he's the one that reigns over all the dinosaurs, right?
What a name, right?
And Paul finds himself disputing every day daily
in this Bible college, all right?
He's gone to this Bible college,
all these lecturers are denying the teaching of Paul,
and he's not having an easy time
during his third missionary journey, all right?
Look at verse number, where are we, up to verse number 10.
And this continued by the space of two years
so that all that which dwelt in Asia
heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks, okay?
So this gives us a little bit more information now
on Paul's third missionary journey.
He's spending at least, you know, over two years
and three months as well,
so I believe at least two years and three months
of his time in Ephesus, okay?
Trying to win more people, you know,
just being a help to that church
that has been planted from his first,
I'm sorry, from his second missionary journey.
Now if you can please, again,
keep your finger there in Acts
and go back to 1 Corinthians.
I should have told you to stay in 1 Corinthians.
Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 16.
So you know, the book of Acts, you read it,
it's quite a quick read,
you feel like events take place so quickly,
but you can see what we just read
is basically a two-year period that's taken place, okay?
And during this two-year period,
of course we know Apollos was at Corinth at the beginning,
but within this two-year period,
Apollos returns back to Ephesus.
Okay, he leaves Corinth, okay?
And I'll prove to you why this is
because when you read 1 Corinthians 16,
look at 1 Corinthians 16 verse number seven,
1 Corinthians 16 verse number seven,
Paul, desiring to go see the believers in Corinth,
he says, for I will not see you now by the way,
but I trust to tarry a while with you
if the Lord permits, okay?
So you'll notice that about Paul.
He always has a desire to see the brethren.
He has a desire to help establish the believers in churches,
but he always says, if the Lord permit
or if the Lord will, okay?
You can see his desire.
Listen, my desire is to get down to Sydney.
That's my desire.
I wanna be there to help that church,
but I also have to qualify that with,
if the Lord will, if the Lord permit.
Now, I do believe the Lord permits at this point in time,
and the only thing that would stop me
from going down to Sydney is if down in Eusephio
they say that the church is there, I'm not allowed to meet.
There's a ban on churches once again.
That would be the only thing that stops me
at this period in time from going down to Sydney.
But you know, while I'm down in Sydney,
it's my desire to, as you guys know,
I've already got the tickets bought, right?
To get up here every Wednesday and preach for you guys.
But I also have to qualify that if the Lord permit.
I mean, I don't know what's gonna happen
with these borders, brethren.
You know, I can't really plan for that.
And whatever happens, happens.
If I can get into Queensland and be here
and get back home to my family,
if the Lord permit, that's what I'm gonna do every week.
That's my goal.
That's my desire, okay?
But if the borders are closed
and the only way I can get into Queensland
if I self-quarantine for two weeks,
well, that doesn't help anybody, all right?
That's not gonna work.
I hope it doesn't come to that.
But the possibility might be
that I may not be able to get here on Wednesdays.
Now, that wasn't my thought when I first started this plan
because when we started this plan of going down to Sydney,
the restrictions were being lifted.
I had already traveled back and forth
from Sydney a few times, right?
I thought, oh, things are getting better.
Things are returning back to some normality.
And then we started to plan this
and things have gotten worse over the last,
you know, three, four weeks, whatever it is, right?
And so look, if the Lord permits,
I'm just going to say,
look, I'm not gonna get frustrated about it.
Today, we have something different.
When he came to Paul and he was far away from churches
and he had been away from them a while,
hey, he could write them an epistle.
He could write them a letter, right?
Hey, we have the internet, okay?
We have telephones.
We have the internet.
And Brevin, if I can't get up here on Wednesdays,
I'll tell you what, I'm still going to record a sermon
and you guys can still hear some preaching
from your pastor, you know?
It's not ideal.
It's not the same as having your pastor physically here,
but that's what I'm going to do at the very least.
I'm going to use the technology
that we have at our disposal.
Now, 1 Corinthians 16, verse seven.
Did I read it already?
No, I didn't.
1 Corinthians 16, verse seven.
Oh yeah, we did read verse number seven,
but look at verse number eight.
It says, but I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost.
Okay, so when Paul is writing this letter,
he's at Ephesus.
Okay, it's during this two year period, okay?
And Apollos has come back because when we keep reading,
it says, verse number nine,
for a great door and effectual is opened unto me,
and there are many adversaries.
So we got to see all the adversaries that he's facing.
All right, verse number 10.
Now if Timotheus come,
see that he may be with you without fear,
for he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do.
Let no man therefore despise him,
but conduct him forth in peace,
that he may come unto me,
for I look for him with the brethren.
Now look at verse number 12.
As touching our brother Apollos,
remember Apollos had gone there already?
He says, I greatly desired him to come unto you
with the brethren.
So he said, look, I want to send Apollos to you again.
Even though before you were like, I'm with Apollos,
now he's trying to set things right.
He says, look, it's my desire to send Apollos to you, okay?
That proves that Apollos had returned back to Ephesus, right?
And now Paul, during this two year period,
Paul is now talking to Apollos,
hey, when can you get out there
and see the brethren in Corinth again, right?
But look at verse number 12.
I'll just read it again.
As touching our brother Apollos,
I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren,
but his will was not at all to come at this time,
but he will come when he shall have convenient time, okay?
What do we learn there?
That Apollos also wants to go see the Corinthian church,
but he's waiting for the convenient time.
He's waiting for the right time.
And listen, when it came to my desire to go down to Sydney
and see the brethren,
I didn't know at what point that one might be.
You know, I had put in my mind at some point,
I want to get down there, train the guys.
I don't know when that will be, okay?
I don't know when that convenient time will open up.
Well, I'll tell you what, brethren,
that convenient time had opened up now, okay?
And it's opened up and I feel like this church has grown.
I feel like we have faithful men.
I feel like, you know, we had some visitors.
This church is growing.
We've got people that want to come
and be part of this church.
Hey, this church has a good foundation right now
and it's growing.
I can definitely see it's growing,
not just in quantity, but also in quality.
And I believe in the men that we have here.
You know, I believe that we have people here.
I believe we have, you know, an Aquila and a Priscilla,
you know, in New Life Baptist Church.
I believe we have some, a couple here,
husband and wife, that will be very helpful for this church,
you know, in the absence of your pastor, all right?
I believe that we have people
that can be caretakers to this church while I'm away.
If I didn't have that,
if I didn't have people like this in this church,
I wouldn't be making this decision at this point in time.
All right?
Now, if we go to verse number 19,
1 Corinthians 16, just drop down to verse number 19,
because here I just want to show you proof
that the believers in Ephesus did start a church.
There was a church operating there, okay?
Because when you look at verse number 19,
it says here, the churches of Asia salute you,
Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord
with the church that is in their house, okay?
So how good are Aquila and Priscilla, okay?
Not only are they caretakers,
not only are they taking believers under their wings
and training them up, hey,
but they also opened up their house.
They were hospitable to people,
to believers in their house, you know, let them in,
and they even held church service in their house, okay?
So you can see the group in Ephesians
was definitely a church at this point in time, okay?
It was a church meeting in the house
of Aquila and Priscilla.
This is why Paul had left this couple,
this married couple, you know,
in charge of the church while he was gone, all right?
Now again, I don't believe Aquila was a pastor, okay?
I just believe he was a faithful Christian,
a faithful man of God, and I'll show you soon why.
Can you please go back to Acts 19, Acts 19,
and verse number 19?
I hope this chronology of events is interesting for you.
You can see how, you know,
you gotta go to different passages
and piece it all together,
but you can see the consistency of the Bible.
You know, it always gives us, you know,
the confidence of the Bible is true
when all these things go so well together.
Look at Acts 19, verse 19.
You know, this is,
I'm not going to go through the whole chapter
because, you know, this whole time,
Paul is in Ephesus, and it says in verse number 19,
it says, many of them also which used curious arts
brought their books together and burned them before all men,
and they counted the price of them
and found it 50,000 pieces of silver.
So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
And so look, they're having great success in Ephesus, right?
I mean, these people with these wicked books,
you know, these people with their NIVs and their ESVs
and their satanic Bibles and the Book of Mormons
and the New World Order, Bible version,
what is it?
No, the New World Translation of the JWs.
They all brought those books
and they burned the big fire there,
and, you know, it says that some mightily grew
the word of God and prevailed.
So they're having great success in Ephesus, all right?
You can see that this church is growing.
You can see that the believers are growing,
and they're even taking people from false religion
who are burning their books
and being part of that local church.
Drop down to verse number 21 now, verse number 21.
So we start to get toward the end of Paul's time
in Ephesus here, and it says here,
after these things were ended,
Paul purposed in the Spirit
when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia
to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I have been there,
I must also see Rome, okay?
So he wants to go back to Jerusalem,
and this is where he makes a big mistake,
because the Lord warns him time and time again,
don't go to Jerusalem, all right?
And Paul, I guess, you know,
this is one of his mistakes, right?
But on his way back to Jerusalem,
it said he wants to pass through Macedonia and Achaia.
So he wants to pass through these cities
to see the brethren there, you know,
help the churches once again
on his journey back to Jerusalem.
Now, why is this important?
Because if you can now turn to First Timothy chapter one,
go to First Timothy chapter one.
First Timothy chapter one.
So we started with this church being planted, right?
And then we had some caretakers,
Priscilla and Aquila in place, right?
Paul comes back and forth, you know,
encouraging that church, helping that church,
doing more works for that church,
then he leaves, okay?
But this time he leaves it with more resources, okay?
More manpower than he had before.
When we read First Timothy chapter one, verse one,
it says here, Paul, so this is, of course,
Paul writing the epistle to Timothy, a letter to Timothy.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Saviour
and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope,
unto Timothy, mine own son in the faith,
grace, mercy, and peace,
from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now look at verse number three.
As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus
when I went into Macedonia,
that thou mightest charge some
that they teach no other doctrine.
All right, so you can see now, right?
Paul, when we were reading the book of Acts,
he wanted to go back to Jerusalem,
but on his way back to Jerusalem,
he wanted to pass by Macedonia, all right?
So we see the plan coming together.
Now, he says, well, because I'm leaving,
this church has grown.
This church is growing in disciples.
There's Priscilla and Aquila.
This is why I don't believe Aquila was a pastor,
because then he leaves Timothy, okay?
Timothy in place, and Timothy is the pastor
at this point in time, okay?
He leaves him for a specific purpose.
And of course, if you know the book of First Timothy,
in chapter three, Paul gives Timothy the qualifications
of the office of a bishop, you know,
and tells him, hey, if you're going to ordain bishops,
you're going to ordain pastors, this is the list, okay?
And he gives that instruction to Timothy.
He didn't leave that for Aquila, okay?
And this is why, you know, number one,
he established Timothy in that place,
even though Priscilla and Aquila were faithful workers
in the church, okay?
But for whatever reason, it doesn't look like Aquila
was ready or able to be a pastor, but Timothy steps in.
Eventually, this church now has a pastor in place.
Now, how long did this take place?
Well, we know it definitely took at least over two years
because on Paul's third missionary journey,
he was there for two years.
Now, we don't really know the timeframe of the others,
of all the journey that he did
from his first missionary journey,
but I think you could safely add another year.
I mean, you could probably safely add a few more years.
This could easily be three, four, five years in place
when they finally got a pastor put in place, okay?
I think that's realistic.
I don't think that's stretching it too far, okay?
And so, you know, any thought that might be,
well, why doesn't the Sydney church yet have a pastor?
You know, these things take time.
We wanna choose the right people.
Hey, I have Aquila's, I have Priscilla's there.
I don't have a Timothy just yet, okay?
I don't have that person just yet.
And so, that's the goal.
That's the hope that I can help, you know,
go back to that church, establish the believers,
help that church grow, bring other people into that church,
train up people.
Hopefully, we find a Timothy along the journey.
Whatever it is, maybe it's a Timothy here.
Maybe it's a Timothy down there.
I don't know where Timothy's gonna come from,
but eventually, he's gonna come from somewhere, okay?
The one that's married and qualified, brother.
That Timothy, that Timothy.
You'll get there eventually, brother.
We'll get you there.
But you can see, you know, the process.
And look, I'm not saying that the way
I've started the Sydney church and what we're doing here
is, you know, exactly parallel to what we see here,
but I just wanna show you some examples
of how this church grows and the time it takes
to put a pastor in place, okay?
This is a long-term project, okay?
We can't just think starting churches, you know,
we can start one church one year,
next year, just start another church.
We gotta be mindful and make sure
that every church is established.
And when it came to the church in Corinth,
even with all their problems, Paul kept sending,
you know, Timothy and Apollos, and go, Peter,
go and help them, right?
Everything takes time.
It takes time.
And I think it's better this way.
We don't want things to be just perfect from day number one.
You know, it took time for us to get a building.
It took time for us to get to the live streaming.
It took time for this church to grow, right?
Everything takes time.
You know, it even takes me time.
From the time we started this church,
I don't know how good my preaching was back then,
but I think it's a little bit better now.
It takes time for pastors to grow and develop
and find their feet and get comfortable, you know,
doing a work that, you know, they've not done before,
these kinds of things.
Everything requires time.
Now, if I can get you to go back to,
I hope you say in Acts, go back to Acts chapter 20,
Acts chapter 20, don't forget that Timothy was left there
to ordain elders, okay?
Otherwise, he could have just got Aquila to do it.
No, he left Timothy for that purpose, right?
He had the office of a bishop Timothy had,
and so he was left there to ordain other elders.
So let's fast forward a little bit.
Paul does eventually go to Jerusalem
at the disobedience of God's word, right?
He does get himself in a bad place,
and if you know the story, he gets arrested, right?
And you know, he's concerned for his life.
He might lose his life, but then he appeals to Rome.
As a Roman citizen, he appeals to Rome,
and so they send him off to Rome, you know,
and that's how the story of Acts goes.
But if we look at Acts chapter 20,
and what I like about Acts chapter 20
is that it tells us that Timothy did the job, okay?
He went in there to be a pastor,
and he did the job, he was trained up at church,
and eventually, he ordained elders.
Eventually, he ordained pastors.
He got the job done, because in Acts chapter 20,
verse number 17, it says, this is a journey of Paul here,
and from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus,
and called the elders of the church, okay?
So is it just Timothy now?
No, no, now there's multiple elders in place, okay?
And so Paul calls all the elders of the church before him,
and he gives a really great sermon, okay, to the elders.
Now, don't forget, when you're reading the Bible,
the apostles, they had a higher office than the pastors, okay?
So the pastor, when he comes to the local church,
we don't have apostles today,
but when he comes to the local church,
the pastor has the highest office in the church, okay?
But when he came to these days,
when the apostles were going around establishing churches,
and someone could have that office,
well, that office was above the office of the pastor, okay?
And so this is why someone like Paul
is able to get all these elders together from Ephesus,
and to teach him a few things, right?
But look at verse number 28, Acts 20, verse 28.
We're not gonna read the whole sermon that he gave them,
but he says this, take heed, therefore, unto yourselves.
So he's talking to the elders, okay?
And to all the flock of the which the Holy Ghost
have made you overseers, to feed the church of God,
which you have purchased with his own blood.
When he says that the church of God,
yeah, we can apply this for any church,
but specifically to the people he's preaching to,
it's the church at Ephesus, okay?
And he's telling these elders,
look, it's your job to overlook, be careful,
you know, give care to the flock, be an overseer,
but also feed people, you know, the word of God.
Feed people, you know, the people that make up the church.
And so you can see that Timothy had done the job, right?
You can see the chronology works out so well.
He puts Timothy in place,
Timothy, you've got to ordain elders,
Timothy trains them up, he ordains elders,
I don't know how many there are, we don't know exactly.
And now, you know, so we can see how this church
just continues to grow, okay?
It started as we caretakers, one pastor now,
at least two pastors in place, right?
At least two pastors.
Now what's funny about verse number 28?
Well, not funny, what's some ridiculous people?
You know, I don't know if you've learned this from me yet,
but I hate self-ordained people, self-ordained pastors.
I hate that idea, it's so wicked.
Oh, I'm just gonna call myself a pastor
and just start a church, okay?
Now look, you can question the church I came from
and the pastor that ordained me,
but at least I was faithful to the process.
At least that church, established a church,
at least someone with the office
ordained someone into the office, okay?
We need to be careful about this
because I have heard from these self-ordained pastors,
well, I'm not going to call them pastors,
these self-ordained, what can we call them?
Soul-cored pastors.
Huh?
Soul-cored pastors.
These self-ordained soul-cored pastors,
they turn to verse number 28 and say,
see, the Holy Ghost have made you overseers.
See, it wasn't a man that ordained you.
To be a pastor, you don't need another man
to ordain you into that position.
The Holy Ghost made you that.
Well, you know what?
If you learn the chronology of events,
you'll learn that it was Timothy
that ordained these men, all right?
This is not self-ordained pastors.
They had Timothy.
Timothy was in place at Ephesus to ordain these men,
and Paul is just, I'm sure Paul is delighted to know
that this church had grown and become very mature, all right?
Now, let's go to the book of Ephesians.
Let's go to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter one
and verse number one because, yeah,
Paul gets arrested, he gets taken to Rome,
he goes through his adventures of shipwrecked
and all those kind of stories that you're familiar with,
being bitten by a serpent, okay?
And he's a prisoner of Rome.
And now, when Paul writes the epistle to the Ephesians,
well, let's look at chapter one, verse one.
It says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus
and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
I love that, faithful in Christ Jesus.
He says, not only are you guys saints, but you're faithful.
You know, this church had good quality.
You know, this church was made of faithful people.
And when you read the book of Ephesians,
when you compare Ephesians to the other books,
like the Galatians or the Corinthians or, you know, Philippians,
there really isn't anything to fault this church, right?
I mean, in the other epistles,
Paul is just constantly fixing their problems,
constantly telling them, you're making a mistake here,
this is wrong, you've got these false teachers in place,
get rid of them.
He's constantly telling these other churches,
you've got to, you know, grow up.
But when it comes to the book of Ephesians,
it's a doctrinal heavy book.
There's very little correction.
He's just teaching them doctrine.
He's just grounding them further in the word of God.
You don't really notice any major problems, you know?
He does warn them of false teachers.
He does warn them.
He does encourage, you know, the new Christians to grow up,
you know, from the milk of the word of God to strong meat.
He does encourage the believers
to continue walking the Spirit.
But really, you know, if you read the book of Ephesians,
there's not a lot of wrong with that church, you know?
They're just absorbing some very strong meat
through that book.
And I think this gives testimony to the hard work,
the many years it took, you know, for this church to grow,
the dedication that different men gave,
you know, Paul and Timothy and, you know,
Aquila and Priscilla, and who knows,
Apollos, who knows who else was involved
in helping this church be strongly established, all right?
Actually, I'm not going to turn away from there just yet.
If you can look at chapter four, Ephesians 4, verse one.
The reason we know this book was written
when Paul was imprisoned,
because he says in chapter four, verse number one,
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,
beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith ye are called.
So you can see that Paul's referring to himself
as the prisoner of the Lord, okay?
Because he'd been taken prisoner.
He shouldn't have gone to Jerusalem,
but oh well, he did that.
And he's still able, you know,
God is still able to use him even when he made a mistake.
Even when he had bad judgment,
God was still able to use Paul, okay?
To write a great epistle, a great book in the Bible
to the Ephesian church.
Now, please go to 2 Timothy, chapter four.
Because obviously, 2 Timothy is written
a few years after 1 Timothy, all right?
And Timothy has grown as a pastor.
1 Timothy was really poor, just encouraging a young Timothy,
new in the role as a pastor to grow
and to just be a great leader in the church.
But then we get to 2 Timothy.
Now, Timothy's a little bit older,
a little bit more mature.
And look at chapter four.
2 Timothy, chapter four and verse number nine.
2 Timothy, chapter four, verse number nine.
Because, you know, your thought might be,
well, yes, we see Paul as an apostle.
We see him going from church to church
and to church to church and he's going and establishing,
but Pastor Kevin, you're not an apostle.
Yeah, you know, I'm not an apostle, that's right.
You know, I'm not gonna pretend to be that, okay?
But the responsibilities are still there.
You know, even though that office does not exist,
the responsibilities to visit churches
and help and train those people is still there.
And listen, if it's not the apostles,
which we don't have today,
it's definitely gonna fall on the shoulders
of the pastors, right?
Now, whether it's the pastor that's doing it
or if it's the pastor that's trained up other people
to go and start other churches
or have deacons or other people, that's one thing.
But right now, we just don't have that in place
here in this church, okay?
But I wanted to show you this
because it's not just apostles that would travel
and help other people in other places,
other believers in other places.
Because when we look at 2 Timothy 4, verse number nine,
Paul says to Timothy, and now remember,
Paul has authority over the pastors because of his office.
He says, do thy diligence to come shortly unto me.
Now, Paul is in Rome.
He's imprisoned, okay?
He writes 2 Timothy when he's imprisoned in Rome
and he says to Timothy, who's the pastor
of a faithful, strong church that's growing,
he says, look, I need you to come to Rome.
I need you to come to me.
And you might turn around and say,
well, you shouldn't be doing that, Timothy,
because you're a pastor at Ephesus
and you need to stay there no matter what happens, okay?
But no, he's being called by Paul, he's needed there.
Look at verse number 10.
For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world,
and is departed unto Thessalonica,
Crescents to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
Only Luke is with me.
Take Mark and bring him with thee,
for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
But don't miss verse number 10.
So he's asking Timothy to come and join him, okay?
But just like Paul,
when he went on his second missionary journey,
he left some caretakers in place.
He left Aquila and Priscilla, all right?
So he has a love for the brethren.
It's not like, all right guys, see you later,
whatever happens to you, I don't care,
I'm not gonna come back,
I'm not gonna send anyone to help you,
I'm not gonna leave anyone in charge, I don't care.
No, he cares for the Ephesian church,
because in verse number 12 he says,
Antichokos have I sent to Ephesus.
So he says, look Paul, I need you in Rome,
but don't worry, I'm sending Antichokos.
I'm sending him to Ephesus to help that church.
Now, I don't know exactly what office he held,
but Antichokos is mentioned seven times in the New Testament
as a faithful worker of Paul's, okay?
So you can see Paul's careful, right?
I'm going to be pulling resource away,
but I wanna make sure I'm sending someone,
I'm gonna make sure there's resources
that are available to you,
we've got the people there that can make it happen.
And brethren, once again, I would not be going down to Sydney
if I did not think we had the people here,
if I didn't think we had the resources here,
if I didn't think we had people
that were gonna be faithful to step up
and help out this church to continue to grow, okay?
We see that, but what do we see with Timothy?
Hey, he's called elsewhere, he's needed elsewhere.
And brethren, I truly believe I'm needed elsewhere
at this point in time, you know?
At the end of our free anniversary,
I don't really wanna go, I love it up here.
Why would I wanna go to Corona Infested Sydney
where we can only meet with 15 people?
I can't even get back into the border,
I'd probably have to walk around in masks, I don't know.
At least here we've got some semblance of normality.
You know, there's no really any earthly
or personal reason to go there
except for a love of the brethren,
a love of the church, blessed of Baptist Church.
We started the work there, we need to finish the job,
all right?
I haven't got Paul telling me go here and go there,
but I've got the Lord God, I've got the Holy Spirit,
you know, and if anything, this church has been established
on the foundation of Jesus Christ, you know,
of believers, like-minded believers,
and we all want the same thing,
we all want to see more people saved,
we all wanna see more churches in Sydney
that are like-minded, that people can be part of, you know?
And I believe this is the right step for us to take.
Now I'm not saying that you guys don't think it is,
I just wanna give you further reinforcement, you know,
as we study, you know, through this church here,
how it had grown and how people had to move, you know,
back and forth to help in other places of the world as well.
Now let's finish in the book of Revelation,
please go to Revelation chapter two.
Because we have to go to the last mention
of the book of Ephesus, right?
And so we've already covered this,
I'm not gonna go into any great depth,
don't worry about it, we're gonna read it quickly,
but of course, the book of, sorry,
the church at Ephesus is one of the seven churches
that was, that's mentioned in the book of Revelation,
right, the book of Revelation was written by John,
so now we have another man that God is using
to reach out to that church,
and in Revelation chapter two, verse number one,
it says unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, right,
so we definitely see that there was a pastor in place.
Now I don't know if this is Timothy, we don't know,
at this point, we don't know who this angel is,
we don't know who this man is,
but there's someone there, okay,
some pastor in Ephesus, right.
These things save he that holdeth the seven stars
in his right hand, who walketh in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks.
I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience,
and how thou canst not bear them which are evil,
and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles
and are not, and has found them liars.
So Jesus says about this church,
this is now a few decades in the future, okay,
I think the book of Revelation was written around 90 AD,
I think most people agree with that,
and when we're reading about Paul's missionary journeys,
it's around 60, 70 AD, so there's at least,
there's about 30 years into the future
when we're reading about this church.
Hey, but what do we find out?
This church is still going, there's a pastor in place,
they've got works, they're laboring hard, all right,
they've been careful about those that come in
saying they're apostles, all right,
that are trying to teach this church,
and they're finding out, no, you're a liar,
you're not right, so they're zealous for God,
they do love God, they do love,
they have a good foundation, right,
they've continued soldiering strong 30 years later.
Verse number 30, and has borne and has patience,
Jesus says twice you've got patience,
this is a patient church, and for my name's sake
has labored and has not fainted,
nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee
because thou hast left thy first love.
So even though we read the book of Ephesians
and there's nothing really majorly wrong with them,
we get down 30 years down the track
and something has started to crack, right,
they have left the first love,
they had left the love for Jesus Christ in what sense?
It says in verse number five,
remember therefore from whence thou art fallen
and repent and do the first works,
or else I will come unto thee quickly
and will remove thy candlestick out of his place
except thou repent.
And so I believe like many of you do
that the first works mentioned here is soul winning.
They had forgotten to do the first works
which was to preach the gospel
to the lost and dying world, right,
and this was the major flaw that they had in the church.
It looked like this church was going strong
in every other way, every other aspect
that this church can be strong in,
they were doing well, but somehow the soul winning
had dropped off the radar, okay,
and the Lord says look, you need to bring that back,
repent, all right, you gotta repent from that, right?
Now the reason I, oh let's finish it,
verse number six, but this thou hast.
So you do have, listen, Jesus doesn't wanna make him
feel so bad, he goes look, you got something good, right?
I wanna make sure, yeah, I just told you
you got something bad, but you do have something good.
My boss in my workplace used to tell me
if you have to give one of your employees criticism,
take the sandwich approach.
I don't know if you guys know what this means.
It's like you take two pieces of bread
and you have the meat in the middle, okay,
and so basically you start with one slice
and that's like positive news,
and we see Jesus started with positive.
Hey, you're doing well, you got patience,
you're laboring hard, and then he puts the meat
in the middle of the bad news, right?
He goes well, you know, you've forgotten the first works,
you've forgotten the first love,
but then he finishes it with another sandwich,
a positive, right?
Yeah, but you got something good going for you, right?
So the same kind of idea there, right?
It says, but this thou hast, thou hatest
the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate, okay?
So they hated some false prophet,
some false doctrine that was coming their way.
Here they have an ear, let him hear what the spirits say
unto the churches, to him that overcometh
will I give to eat of the tree of life,
which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Now the reason I wanted to end on that
is because I do believe New Life Baptist Church
is going strong, and I believe we're going
from strength to strength.
I believe our best days are still ahead of us, okay?
Still ahead of us, the best days.
But as we saw with the church at Ephesus,
they started so well, you know, it grew, grew, grew,
but then in time, yeah, things started to crack.
They started to forget the soul winning, right?
Things started to be dropped off in the church.
But it needs to be fixed.
And so what I'm saying to you, brethren,
is in my absence during the 12 months,
I hope to be up here every week,
but look, it's probably realistic
that some things are going to drop, okay?
I can't sit here and just pretend
things are gonna be perfect, and it's just gonna be,
look, I don't think I'm this great pastor.
Honestly, I don't, but there's something like,
if a church loses their pastor for 12 months,
especially if I can't cross the border,
if this issue continues, I'm expecting there
to be some challenges in place, okay?
But when we do face some challenges, whatever it could be,
I don't think the soul winning's gonna drop in 12 months.
I doubt that's gonna happen, okay?
Because many of you guys are just as zealous
or even more zealous than I am for that job, okay?
But there could be other things.
There could be divisions in the church.
There could be problems that arise.
I don't know.
It could be, I really, I don't know,
top of my head, I don't know what it could be, okay?
But I want you to not get discouraged.
I want you to say, well, look, even the Ephesian church
had some problems as time went on, okay?
And then what do we do?
Do we just give up?
No, we go and we repent and we fix those things, right?
Repent, we fix the things that need to be fixed
so we can continue just being that candlestick
for the Lord here on the Sunshine Coast.
Well, I hope that's beneficial for you guys.
I hope that's helped answer some questions.
As I said, on Wednesdays, I do wanna continue
just giving you things that I think are gonna help us
while the support of our family is away for the 12 months.
Okay, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord.