What happens when the Super Bowl comes to town? No doubt, the Super Bowl makes a lot of money – well over a billion dollars annually including advertising, ticket sales, etc. – but what about for the towns that HOST the Super Bowl? What is the economic impact for them? Well, according to a recent study, New Orleans (which hosted this month’s Super Bowl) made $500 million off the game. WOW! That is a super bowl of money! When the big game comes to town, it makes a big impact … enough that the local merchants certainly took notice.
I was thinking about this today as I was reading Acts 19. In this chapter, the Gospel comes to the city of Ephesus … and when the apostle Paul brings the Gospel to this city, there is a super impact. An impact that is felt by the local merchants. How big of an impact did the Gospel bring? Well, the text tells us the people responded to the Gospel message by sacrificing today’s equivalence of $7.5 million in valuables! That is no Super Bowl, but it is quite the impact for a brand new movement known as “The Way.” And when I say sacrifice, I mean DESTROYED … not that they gave these valuables to charity, but that they destroyed them a bonfire! And not only did people sacrifice that kind of value, but they also stopped buying other things, as their affections shifted. This created such a profound impact that a local trade guild started a riot to try to drive the Christians out of town, because the life change that was occurring among the people in response to the Gospel was threatening to drive certain trades out of business. WOW! What an impact!
This Sunday at Wildwood Community Church in part 8 of our “Deep + Wide” series, we will be looking at Acts 19:17-27 to see what happens when the Gospel sets up shop in the hearts of genuine Christ followers living in pagan surroundings … it has such a deep impact that the surrounding city takes notice! How might the Gospel impact our community as it takes off? We will talk about that this Sunday as we dive deep into the Scripture together. Hope to see you Sunday in our 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00 service … and bring friends!