John James has had a fruitful ministry in Penarth for many years both in bringing people to Christ and building them up.  We’ve been studying his ‘Anatomy of the Healthy Church’ for the last few months and we have invited him to come to our next joint meeting on 14^th September. In preparation for that he has asked us to do a SWOT exercise on our church life and we’re busy doing that in the house groups at the moment. I urge you all to be involved in this.

So what’s a SWOT exercise? It’s a way of finding out where we are at the moment and where we are going. It works by identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in the life of the Church.

Today, we’re going to look at the apostle Paul doing a SWOT exercise on thd church in Ephesus. Did you notice it in the reading from 1 Corinthians 16?  It’s in verses 5 to 8. In fact, we know that Paul did at least three SWOT exercises on Ephesus. The first time he went there he only stayed a few days and concluded the opportunities didn’t make it the  right time to work there. He left Priscilla and Aquila there instead. They did great work and identified Apollos as a future leader. The third one we’ll  read near the end of the sermon but we’ll concentrate on the second which is the one in 1 Corinthians 16 and that we find in great detail in Acts 19. This chapter shows the ‘wide door for effective work’ with all it’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

1-7 There’s a great strength here. Paul can start from scratch with a new group of eager disciples. Roger Forster once said to us at Spurgeon’s that it’s easier to start a new Church than to renew an existing one. Paul comes to Ephesus and finds a group of disciples of John the Baptist. This is an enigmatic passage. How had they avoided Christian baptism? Was their faith already in Jesus? Questions, questions. What is plain is that this is the last of the Pentecosts in the Book of Acts and the original believers, the faithful old stagers of John the Baptist come in the New Covenant. And this is presented as a new beginning for Christianity in this great port of perhaps 300,000 people. John the Baptist is once again the forerunner of Jesus. Once again, Jesus comes to complete the spiritual quest of a group of 12 faithful disciples of John. And once again, Christianity starts here.

Have you been a Christian a long time? Well don’t forget that ‘New every morning are the blessings of God.’ Come to God daily not as an experienced believer but as a child. The kingdom of God belongs to the childlike.

8-10 This is a passage full of strength and opportunity. It’s full of people who are eager to hear about the Kingdom of God. And why did Paul choose Ephesus anyway. Well, 10 tells us that over a period of time everybody in that province – Turkey really – heard the message. People coming over from Rome on trade and they took it back. And the camel trains coming from the east down to the harbour. They all heard it. To such an extent that Paul perceived the threat of getting involved in bickering in verse 9 and just got on with his task. Now, probably, his not debating with these people meant they got on with it too and  they probably stirred up a lot of the trouble that comes out at the end of the chapter. But for the moment Paul has this great door of opportunity and he has to prioritise. So rather than debating within the community, he debates outside it. And actually the community grows.

So what’s are opportunities folks? And what would be the best way of frittering them away?

11-20 This is a remarkable time. And I think Luke tells us all this not as a prescription for what we should get up to but as an account of an incredible nexus of God’s activity and invisible opposition. This is one of the most important periods in the ministry of Paul and verse 15 tells us that this is known in the spiritual world. This reminds us that whenever God is especially active we can expect him to back up his word but also that there can be trouble. Here is another mirror of Jesus’ own ministry in the life of Paul. The devil opposed him in person at the temptations, in the ministry and in Gethsemane. And there is opposition around this key ministry.

Does this fascinate you? It shouldn’t. There’s a warning in verse 13. Don’t dabble. Chadwell Heath. Does it terrify you? It shouldn’t. 15 ‘Jesus I know and Paul I know about’. Get known by God and get known by Jesus and you can cross this type of bridge if and when you come to it. The key is 17 – the name of Jesus is extolled. 18-20 people’s lives are changed and there’s a great victory for God, his Son, his Word and his Spirit.

21-22 This is Paul’s SWOT and it corresponds closely to 1 Corinthians 16.

23-41 And here is the event which puts a stop to Paul’s ministry in Ephesus and leads to him moving on. But we should beware of stigmatizing it straight away as threat and opposition. Not all bad things are ultimately and definitively destructive. Think of the Cross. Think of Paul’s thorn in the flesh.

But what did happen here was that Paul’s ministry of speaking and debating, persuasion and upbuilding is no longer possible. 32 and 35 make that clear. It didn’t become too hot for Paul to function. There’s simply no answer to 35 and no way of addressing 32.

And so Paul moves on. There’s another SWOT in 20:17-38. Let’s read it and think Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats as we do. And Paul consolidates by sending Timothy for another type of ministry and the Apostle John and possibly even Mary the mother of Jesus are associated with it later on.

And what about us? What stage are we at? I’ve got my ideas. But what about you? The recognition we have – strength or threat? The buildings: a weakness or an opportunity? Our programmes, allowing people to meet Christ or preventing the members from meeting non-Christians. Our meetings, are we equipping the members for evangelism or fattening ourselves like so many foie gras geese?