Introduction

• Matthew: Before concluding our study of the Sermon on the Mount and the Upside Down Kingdom, which will lead us into Part 3: The Kingdom Collides with Darkness, I wanted to give a one-off special teaching.
• Why?
  • We just had an incredible Holy Week of gatherings.
  • And our leadership team is in the middle of a lengthy discernment process.
    • From Fall 2024 to today, we have been seeking the Lord about our future as a church.
    • Capacity reality: Seating, parking, and children’s space are at or above 80%.
    • Work: The board, pastoral team, staff, and I have been preparing in many important ways.
    • What I believe with all my heart: God is doing a good work here, and Jesus is going to continue to build his church (Matt. 16:18).
    • What’s ahead: In the months to come, we’ll have more to share about where we believe God is leading.
• So I want you to know about a church we admire—the church in Ephesus.
  • The church I want to tell you about today gathered in a city a lot like our region—a coastal trade hub, religiously pluralistic, filled with educational institutions, prosperous, sophisticated. 
  • They knew what it was like to follow Jesus surrounded by spiritual options. And forty years after their founding, Jesus sent them a letter that I think we need to hear too.

1. Rooted in the Word and Spirit (Acts 19:1-10)

1a And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.

1b There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 There were about twelve men in all.

The Spirit half (Acts 19:1–7)

• Who were these twelve men?

• • • Twelve “disciples” in Ephesus—believers in an unusual situation.
    • They had embraced John the Baptist’s preparatory message, had been baptized with John’s baptism, and were waiting for the Messiah—but they had never heard that Jesus had come and the Spirit had been poured out.

• Paul’s first diagnostic question: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2).

• • • Notice he assumes they’re believers—he asks about the Spirit’s work in addition to their faith.
      • Paul’s pneumatology: indwelling at conversion (2 Cor. 1:21–22; Eph. 1:13–14—sealed with the promised Holy Spirit), but here he’s looking for the empowering presence.
      • The distinction: indwelling vs. upon—both biblical, both the Spirit’s work.
    • The Jesus parallel: even Jesus had a subsequent Spirit experience (Luke 3:22; 4:14, 18).

• What Paul does:

• • (1) He completes their understanding (John pointed to Jesus); 
  • (2) they believe in Jesus;
  • (3) they’re baptized in his name (Acts 19:5)—their first Christian baptism, not a re-baptism. 
  • (4) Then a distinct second moment: Paul lays hands on them, and the Spirit comes upon them. Tongues and prophecy follow (Acts 19:6).

8 And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. (Acts 19:1–10, ESV)

The Word half (Acts 19:8–10)

• Three months in the synagogue, then two years in the hall of Tyrannus.
• Likely afternoons during siesta—daily, faithful, ordinary teaching.
• The result: “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10).
  • One room, two years, seven churches (at least, Rev. 2-3) across a province.
• Capstone: “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).

Our heritage and hope at Calvary:

• We want the Bible to be central.
  • Example: 20/20 lessons—the Word does so much for us.
  • Martin Luther, the great reformer, a German with no objections to the old German custom of drinking a moderate amount of beer with friends, once said: “I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.” (Second Invocavit Sermon, March 1522).
• But we crave the Spirit’s role in our lives as well.
  • Example: my teaching origin story—the Spirit invited.
  • We want him to help us grow and serve like Jesus.

2. United to Christ

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:11–16, ESV)

Positional Christianity (Participationist Grid)

• From the opening hymn (Ephesians 1:3–14), Paul cannot stop saying in him: chosen in him, redeemed in him, sealed in him, raised with him, seated with him.
  • Every blessing in Ephesians is located in one place: in Christ
  • This is the central nervous system of the entire letter.

The head-and-body image (Ephesians 4:15–16)

• “We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (4:15).
• The union is already real—we don’t grow into him to become united; we grow into him because we already are united.
• Three directions of growth: further obedience, deeper allegiance, fuller coordination.
• The body’s interdependence: united to the Head means united to everyone else who is united to the Head.
  • The Ephesian church—Jew and Gentile, sophisticated and ordinary—was held together by a single fact: one Head.

Our aim and desire at Calvary:

• The Ephesian church was not united by a building, a program, or a personality. They were united to Jesus and to one another. And whatever Calvary becomes in the years ahead, our unity will rest in the same place.
• Jesus Famous!

3. Structured to be a Fruitful Community

14 I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:14–15, ESV)

Why Paul wrote this letter:

• Paul left Timothy at Ephesus to deal with false teachers, lead a struggling congregation, and bring order to the household.
• Timothy was young, fearful, physically sick, pastoring the impressive Ephesian church.
• In the middle of his letter, Paul stops and tells Timothy exactly why he is writing it.

Three images for the church:

• The household of God: A family and a managed estate where God himself dwells; how it is ordered matters because of who lives there.
• The church of the living God: A pointed contrast to the dead idols of Ephesus (Artemis); we are gathered around the only God who is actually alive.
• A pillar and buttress of the truth: The Temple of Artemis had 127 marble columns holding up an erroneous lie. The church is a pillar holding up the truth, and a buttress holding it steady against the pressures of the age.

We want all three elements at Calvary.

• Note: all these elements—community (household of God), life with God (church of the living God), the truth (pillar and buttress of the truth)—are a great need in our time.
• 1 Timothy: Paul cared deeply about how this church was organized because the gospel was at stake; we care for the same reason.
• New Testament: Each local church is both a Spirit-filled organism and an organized structure. This dual nature is grounded in the work of the Spirit, and it is the Spirit who makes the church simultaneously a vital organism and a structured organization (1 Pet. 2:5, 1 Cor. 14:40, Acts 14:23, 1 Cor. 12:4-7).
  • A counter to Monterey’s transient spirituality: living things have structure; we are not a pop-up church.
  • In the months ahead, we are going to be talking together about some of the structural and physical decisions God is leading us into.
  • An invitation: pillars only hold things up when people stand in them—don’t just attend Calvary, stand in it

4. Perpetually Returning to their First Love

1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’ (Revelation 2:1–7, ESV)

The shock of the commendation:

• Working, toiling, persistently enduring, doctrinally vigilant, morally pure, suffering for Jesus, hating the works of the Nicolaitans
• If you handed me this description, I’d tell you it’s the church I want to lead.
  • Pause over this!

The shock of the rebuke—But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first (2:4).

• • First love is not honeymoon love—it is marital love, response love, the devotion of a bride.
  • Jeremiah 2:2 parallel—God grieved the same thing in Israel

• Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.” (Jeremiah 2:2, ESV)

• Mary and Martha—the Ephesians were too busy serving to waste their time in devoted worship to Christ.
• What cooled love looks like: orthodox but uncaring, defenders of the faith but condescending, zeal for purity but no compassion for the lost.
• The lampstand warning: Jesus considers this grounds to remove a church’s light.

The remedy (2:5)

• Remember: locate where the love was lost, like the prophet’s axe head (2 Ki. 6:6).
• Repent: not of an action but of a state—honestly name the cooling.
• Return: do the first works; the work will rekindle the love.
  • Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt. 6:21).
  • The first works of the Ephesians: the Word and Spirit.

Our priority and instinct at Calvary.

• The Word and Spirit, union with Christ, and a faithful structure are not enough without hearts that burn for Christ.
  • We want to be a devoted people.

Conclusion

• A moment of corporate response—silence, prayer, recommitment, or communion

Group Study Questions

Head — Knowledge, Facts, Understanding

1. In Acts 19:1–7, Paul asks the twelve Ephesian disciples a diagnostic question: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” What was their situation, and how does Pastor Nate distinguish between the Spirit’s indwelling work at conversion and the Spirit’s empowering work that comes upon a believer? 
2. Nate said that 1 Timothy 3:14–15 functions as the thesis statement of the entire letter, and that Paul gives three images for what the church is: the household of God, the church of the living God, and a pillar and buttress of the truth. What is each image communicating, and how do the three images work together to describe what a healthy church should be?

Heart — Feelings, Impressions, Desires

3. What did you feel when you heard Jesus then say, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first”? How does that contrast affect the way you think about your own walk with Jesus?
4. We described first love not as honeymoon love but as marital love—the kind of sincere, wholehearted devotion that a bride has for her husband. When was your love for Jesus warmest, and what were you doing during that season? What does it stir in you to remember it?

Hands — Actions, Commitments, Decisions, Beliefs

5. Jesus gives the Ephesian church three imperatives in Revelation 2:5—remember, repent, do the works you did at first. We observed that Jesus does not tell them to feel more, but to return to the practices that fueled early love, trusting that the work will rekindle the love. What is one first work you have abandoned that you sense the Lord inviting you to return to this week? What would it look like to actually do it?
6. We said that pillars only hold things up when people stand in them—and that the invitation is not just to attend Calvary but to stand in it. In light of what you heard about the church being a Spirit-filled organism and an organized structure, where might God be inviting you to take a more committed place in the life of this church? What is one concrete next step?