I want to tell you about a city, a well known, popular, the-place-to-be, kind of city. It was on the coast as you might expect. At the time it was the 4th largest market in the world. The city arena seated 24,000 people for public events and sporting spectacles, larger than many of todays Verizon sized arenas. Sports and athletics were almost worshiped in this city. The education system of this city was legendary as it boasted one of the largest libraries and collections of literature from all over world. The city was proud of its sophistication. Commerce was booming and sorcery, astrology, and sex were selling. This city contained the largest building ever dedicated to sexual expression and the worship of sex. In fact, it was at the time called one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

And then something began happened that sent shockwaves throughout the political, social, and economic cultures in this city.

A preacher arrived and for 3 months spoke in churches that he was familiar with, until they kicked him out and set out to publically discount his message. He then just rented a public facility and continued to speak about Jesus everyday to anyone from this city who would listen. And listen they did. Even though this preacher spoke against the sex trade that sustained much of the economic foundation of the city, even though he claimed that only through Jesus could anyone be saved and that any other person or object that men and women worshiped didn’t even exist and was therefore worthless, even though this preacher was unimpressed with their culture their politics and their famous personalities… the people listened. This preacher and his message and the lifestyles that those who believed him were rejecting and giving up were the talk of not only this city but the whole region of the country!

And then the businessmen who were seeing their bottom line affected by the life changes that people were making decided that they couldn’t afford to sit back and let their industries go under. One man who was adamant about stopping this preacher called together his union of other businessmen and made his case. They agreed, got very vocal, and took their cause to the streets of the city. It worked. It wasn’t long before they had almost the whole city convinced that because of this preacher and his message their entire way of life was threatened with extinction. They couldn’t find the preacher so they grabbed two of his workers and took them to the arena. The whole city followed just to see what was going on. Racial tensions began to boil, chanting and yelling ensued, and the whole place was about to go up like a match. A city official stepped in front of the crowd after a couple of hours and spoke some plain truth to those in the arena. He told them unless they each were ready to face rioting and maybe other charges; they had just better go home now. And they did.

The preacher decided after this event that 3 years was enough and it was time for him to move on to share his message with other cities. The believers in Christ who remained in this city were many. This new church would become a strategically important outpost of truth in an increasingly dark and troubled world.

As with most spiritual movements, over time the purity of the message of the gospel that the preacher had shared began to fade. The culture of the city overall was still carnal, worldly, greedy, and sexually perverse. Leaders in the church that the preacher had planted began to try to make peace with the larger culture. Maybe it wasn’t so bad to let a little of the city’s influence effect the life of this church. After all, they had lived in this city a long time and they understood the political, social, and economic ramifications of totally rejecting the long held and long esteemed way of life of this city.

The preacher heard of the weakening convictions and moral and spiritual compromises that the church had allowed to take root. So he sent someone to lead this church on a course correction. Imprisoned for his faith and his preaching in another city, the preacher wrote a letter to his protégé because he had heard of the opposition he was facing from the city, it’s culture, and those in the church who had led the movement toward a politically more palatable tolerance of all beliefs in the church that had once so proudly and effectively stood solely on the gospel of Jesus Christ as it’s only message.

What could one person do against such odds? Could one voice make a difference? The situation was complex and his opponents were well read and made convincing arguments. The protégé of the preacher was relatively young and inexperienced compared to the preacher. So the first letter the preacher sent to him contained instructions on what he was to do in facing these enormous odds, how to respond and react to accusation, and perhaps most importantly, how to prepare for a difficult mission that many would rather run and hide from.

The preacher: Paul

The city: Ephesus.

The instruction from Paul to Timothy: train yourself in godliness (1 Timothy 4:7)

Our city is not that different. Our call to represent truth in word and deed is consistent with Timothy’s. God has a plan to use you and to use Cornerstone to make a deep impact with the gospel in a secular society that seeks to crowd out the voices of Truth.

Are you ready?

How’s your DEW60 this week?