The Prevailing Word

  • Mark Lauterbach
  • Jun 4, 2008
  • Series: Home page

Suppose you just moved into a new neighborhood.  In a casual conversation with a few of the folks next door, you discover that many of the people in the neighborhood are part of an occult group and participate in the new paganism of the USA society.  How would you respond as a believer in Jesus Christ?

Paul walked into such a situation in Ephesus.  Ephesus was the home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  For more than 500 years the city of Ephesus has been wed to the goddess Diana.  Her education, commerce, social, political, and religious life were dominated by the temple.  Ephesus was an occult center, a center of pagan worship. 

What did Paul do?  Did he devise new strategies?  Did he hold special prayer meetings to bind the spirits?  Did he change his message?

NO, NO, NO.  Paul did what he has always done.  He proclaimed that God had sent his Son into the world to be our Savior.  Jesus has taken upon himself the full blame for our sin, has taken upon himself death, had engaged in combat with the powers of darkness.  By his death as a sacrifice for sin, and by his resurrection, he had triumphed.  He is now exalted over every power and principality and every name that is named.  Paul preached Christ in his infinite glory.  That is all that was needed.

As the Spirit called and people believed, they were united with Christ by the Spirit.  When that happened all the power and glory of Christ came to bear in their lives and all the sin and evil of their hearts began to be overturned. 

Paul believed that if Christ is preached and people come into union with HIM, that is all that is necessary for the power of sin and darkness to broken. He respected spiritual forces of darkness, but he was preoccupied with the One who had stripped them of their power.

That is what happened in Ephesus -- the message of God grew and prevailed mightily.  False religions were rebuked.  Commerce in sin was diminished.

We at Grace Church believe that the same message about the same Jesus is the power of God for salvation in San Diego.