“THE WAY!”

 Acts 19:23-27 (ESV)

[23] About that time there arose NO LITTLE DISTURBANCE concerning “THE WAY”. [24] For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought NO LITTLE BUSINESS to the craftsmen. [25] These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that FROM THIS BUSINESS WE HAVE OUR WEALTH. [26] And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. [27] And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”

JESUS said in John 14:6 “I AM “THE WAY”, and THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE. No one comes to the FATHER except THROUGH ME.” In Acts 4:12 Scripture records “And there is salvation in NO ONE ELSE, for there is NO OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN given among men by which we must be saved.”

When Demetrius began to espouse that “the wealth” from “the trade” generated through the worshipers of other gods, such as Artemis, it caused NO LITTLE DISTURBANCE! Could the EYES of Demetrius have been looking for the wrong things? All of the sudden “THE WAY”, JESUS was not sufficient to sustain the lives of those who were young in their FAITH. JESUS tells us in Luke 14:33, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce ALL THAT HE HAS cannot be my disciple.”  

“THE WAY” had a strong “drawing” because it filled the void that “this world” and its god (2 Corinthians 4:4) can not replicate. However, the “choice” of following JESUS is not something that we can initiate. John 15:16 says “You did not choose ME, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the FATHER in MY NAME, HE may give it to you.”  

Walking in “THE WAY” does NOT indicate that we are going to have life easy. Many places in Scripture indicate that TRIBULATIONS are rampant in our lives. But JESUS equals PEACE and that PEACE is hard to describe. When JESUS chooses us to walk in “THE WAY”, our EYES are OPENED and we can understand things that we previously could not SEE! That doesn’t mean that we are going to be able to navigate away trouble, but it does say that HE is with us leading us through “THE WAY”!!!