Sunday, February 16, 2025 AM

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for these many promises and blessings that we have been reminding each other of in song today. And I thank You for the honest look at believers in various situations that we see in Your Word, like Job.

Thank You for the reminder this morning of Your desire for our honest dependence upon You and how trustworthy You are. Lord, as we turn our attention to the events that Your servant Luke faithfully recorded, events that show the folly of idolatry, the shortcomings of those who reject Christ, events that show the victory of the gospel, Lord, I pray that You would build us up in our most holy faith, that You would encourage us, that You would increase our faith, that You would warm our hearts with the affections that You desire so that our love for You would grow and our joy in You would increase, and that the light of Jesus Christ would be ever brighter in our midst in the love that we have for one another and in the faithfulness of our witness to all whom You have put into our lives.

We pray for these mercies, looking unto Your Son, Jesus Christ, the one with whom You are well-pleased.

Amen.

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts 19. Acts 19, verses 21 through 41 will be our focus this morning, though we will be reading verses 28 through 34. My plan is to quite unfairly drop you into the middle of the drama.

There's a lot of drama in the second half of Acts 19. When we consider the acts of the risen Lord Jesus Christ in this early church, we find both comedy and tragedy. We find the continued victory of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the repeated frustration of jealous Jews and pugnacious pagans.

These acts by which Jesus Christ is building His church, they are not unscripted reactions to unexpected stimuli. These are scripted. These are directed acts. They are woven together by the author and finisher of our faiths.

His grace and truth are at play, set in the light of His glory, and they fill every scene as we read through Acts. And we find that the rendered applause, the settled conclusion of Luke and the saints, is always applause to the Savior.

Look what Jesus did. Oh, now look what else He did. These are the acts of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Let's read about some drama in Acts 19. You will please stand with me. We'll begin reading in verse 28, and we'll read through verse 34.

This is the word of the Lord. Now when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, "'Great is Diana of the Ephesians!'. So the whole city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's travel companions.

And when Paul wanted to go into the people, the disciples would not allow him. Then some of the officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater.

Some, therefore, cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused, and most of them did not know why they had come together. And they drew out Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward.

And Alexander motioned with his hand and wanted to make his defense to the people. But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours, "'Great is Diana of the Ephesians!'.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.'". You may be seated. All these ancient, unsophisticated idolaters, that they would get all worked up about things that they're not even sure about, all upset and angry, and they don't even know what's going on, but they will join in public displays of rage.

So unsophisticated, so antiquated. I'm so glad that we live in a modern society where people do not engage in such pointless expressions of drama. Perhaps the condition of man has not changed very much.

Perhaps the need of man remains the same. We are sinners and we're in need of a great Savior. Drama. Shakespeare's most famous monologue begins this way, "'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.'". An observation from the Bard of Avon, which is entirely biblical, does not mean that the world is all pretend and that men and women are frivolous actors and actresses.

It means that there's an author, and each of our human dramas are actually connected to the human drama. It's a biblical observation. I asked Dylan to help me collate a good understanding of what Shakespeare is up to, and I'm going to quote Dylan.

Shakespeare quotes the Bible roughly 1 ,350 times in his works, not including biblical allusions or narrative parallels. Recent studies on the works elicit that Shakespeare likely thought in Greek and Hebrew, much like the theologians of the time, but the profound gift that God granted to the author was his ability to, using a biblical anchor, accurately measure the depths of the human drama of his own day.

I think it's a needful reminder, as we look at the scenes of Acts 19, why there's so much drama. Why does it show up again and again in the human condition? That it can be observed, that it can be related to.

Why all the drama? The conspiracy and the chaos which manifest in the second half of Acts 19 bring to mind a question of who is really in charge? Is it Diana of the Ephesians, this great idol? Is it Caesar to whom the Ephesians must give some sort of account?

Is it the silversmiths who are running the economy of Ephesus? Who is really in charge? How can this swirl of confusion, you heard the theme of confusion again and again in the text, how can this swirl of confusion make any sense?

And has something gone dreadfully wrong with Paul's mission to preach the gospel and to see sinners saved? Surely, surely something has gone wrong if the entire city is in an uproar. In fact, all this drama takes place on Christ's stage, and ultimately, it is directed for His glory.

Luke faithfully records this drama for us precisely because it exposes the folly of idolatry, the failure of Judaism, and the glory of Jesus Christ. The saints seem almost passive here, swept along by the events which pan out in the following way, that the pagans end up incriminating themselves and exposing themselves and refuting themselves.

We are invited in Psalm 2 to see how the nations rage and to consider their vain plots against the Lord's Christ, and how indeed they only end up advancing, according to Acts 4, the very plans of God.

We can't miss that. How terrible it is to have to sit through a play or a movie or to try to read a story, and yet, for some reason, you have missed the main character. You have missed the critical plot element, and you don't know what is going on in the story.

Missing the main point leaves us mystified, if not annoyed, as to the drama, as to the importance of the story. How often are we tempted to forcibly insert ourselves into the main character role of whatever drama we find ourselves in?

I'm the main character. These things are important because they affect me. And let me reflect on how much it affects me. Many miseries are manufactured by the myopic mind, the selfish soul, the one primarily concerned with how everything seems to affect me.

The Gospel as the True Center of the Conflict

The chaos and confusion of Acts 19 only makes sense when we recognize that Jesus Christ is the main character. We begin with the merchant of Ephesus in verses 21 through 27. Here, we find a catalyst of idolatrous resentment.

In the first seven verses of the unfolding drama, we are introduced to a merchant of Ephesus, Demetrius, and his opposite is Paul, the apostle. We know that Paul's purpose is to preach the gospel to every creature under heaven, while Demetrius' purpose is to fleece them.

Paul's message directly threatens the silversmiths' prosperity, and it signals a severe economic problem for those who are making their living off the Ephesian commodities of witchcraft. I think we are reminded in these verses that there is no neutrality in preaching Christ's kingdom.

There is simply no silent, inintrusive way to bang on your neighbor's door in the midnight of their sin. You cannot do it and fail to disturb them. And if you find a way to bring the message of the gospel to a sinner in the midnight of their sin and do it without disturbing them, you've not brought the gospel and you've not brought them anything to wake up over.

Consider the apostle's purpose in verses 21 and 22. When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia into Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I've been there, I must also see Rome.

So he sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a time. See all these plans of Paul? The gospel is sounding forth with clarity and power.

A real dent is being made in the Ephesian magic market. The fires are still burning bright. And consider that Paul had spent 18 months in Corinth, now two years in Ephesus. And these local churches, isn't Christ good to plant these churches and have Paul spend such time in these two locations, Corinth, a port to Europe, Ephesus, a center for all of Asia?

Here, the gospel is being proclaimed again and again. The gospel is going forth to all the known world. Paul has plans. He wants to go through Macedonia and Achaia. He wants to sail from there back to Jerusalem.

And after that, he wants to go to Rome. But notice, he has purposed in the spirit. See that in verse 21? When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the spirit. Some translations will just leave the spirit out of the whole thing.

It's very interesting. But it's there, I checked. He purposed in the spirit. What does that mean? Well, Paul's not telling the spirit what to do. He's not using the spirit as a force to try to manifest his own spirit.

He's planning in the spirit. What does that mean? It means that he's making his plans in conscious submission to the authority of Jesus Christ. What does Jesus want me to be about?

What does he want me to do?

He's making his plans with the Holy Scriptures abiding in his heart. He's making his plans step by step, prayer by prayer. He's making his plans in loving faith, trusting his heavenly Father. Why is that purposing and planning in the spirit?

Because it is the Holy Spirit who's bringing to mind into Paul's life everything that Jesus Christ taught and magnifying the authority of Christ in his life. It is the Holy Spirit who inspired the text, who illumines the text, and brings it to mind and clarity in the heart of Paul.

And he's praying and praying. And it's the Holy Spirit who intercedes with groanings far too deep to be uttered. And the spirit is carrying Paul's prayers right to the throne room of God. And it's by the spirit that Paul knows that his father is Abba, Father, who loves him dearly, you see.

He's making his plans in the spirit. It's keeping in mind that Paul's not in charge, but surely he wants to follow the one who is. And these plans that he makes, he wants to go to Macedonia and Achaia, then to Jerusalem and then to Rome.

His long-range plan of going to Rome turned out a little bit different than what he'd expected, didn't it? His mid-range plans going through Achaia and Macedonia and then to Jerusalem got delayed by a plot, which we'll read about later.

And his immediate plans are disrupted by a riot in the city of Ephesus. He has no idea what's going on. He has no way to control what's going on. But he is purposing and planning in the spirit. Keeping in step with the Holy Spirit, being spiritually minded, being led by the spirit is not a mind-emptying exercise whereby we refuse to make any plans or decisions until some impulse takes us, which we blame on God.

That is not purposing in the spirit. We are renewed in the image of God and trusted with spiritual tasks that require purpose and planning and putting our focus upon the Lord through the spirit is the way that we should be making plans.

Demetrius, the Way, and the Threat to Idolatrous Prosperity

Consider that the apostle's purpose is in direct opposition to the silversmith's prosperity, verses 23 through 25. And about that time, there arose a great commotion about the way. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsmen.

He called them together with the workers of similar occupation and said, men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. So observe that this commotion was about the way, it's about Christianity, it's about the preaching of the gospel, it's about Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life.

This was not about rival coppersmiths. This is not about a competing goddess. This is not about even the religious Jews. The commotion is not about any of those things, it's about the way. It's about the preaching of Jesus Christ.

Why?

Because the actual preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ never fails to create a tectonic shift in the culture and society and personal lives of those who receive it. Mountains are brought low, valleys are raised, and the aftershocks are disruptive and disturbing.

That's what happens when the gospel gets preached, when the gospel is applied. We do not want a so-called Christian advance that leaves the religious topography and cultural landscape pristinely preserved.

What kind of news are we bringing? The mundane or the earth-shattering? Demetrius is upset. We're going to lose our business. We're going to lose our way of life. Everything's going to change. This commotion that later on happens in the great chanting in the theater, seemingly was about Diana, also called Artemis, who is this goddess.

She's not the classic Greek goddess by the same name, but this is an ancient mother goddess of Asia Minor. This is a demon plaguing people of that land from prior to their written history. And she has a temple in Ephesus, which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Her image was cut from a meteorite, hideously chiseled like a Hindu idol. Artemis was thought to control all fertility, all animal life, and even the stars. She is identified as the goddess of witchcraft.

And I think that she is still reverenced by every atheist breathless awe of Mother Nature, Mother Earth, natural selection, and Gaia. Demetrius takes center stage now and begins his speech. And he says, we can't allow ourselves to lose our way of life and our way of living, our money-making schemes.

The silversmiths are making money because they're building shrines of Diana. These are terracotta miniature shrines of the temple of Diana, and they're covered over in silver, and they're making a lot of money from this.

And they're saying, there's a problem here. We need to wake up. We're about to lose our way of life, lose our business. This is an economic problem, in verses 26 and 27. Demetrius says to the silversmiths' guild, moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands.

Did you catch that? They are not gods which are made with hands. So, not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship.

He's only overstating a bit because archaeologists have found temple shrines to Diana and the worship of Artemis to be very, very widespread throughout the known Roman Empire. Demetrius brings together his guild, and he begins his rabble-rousing.

The world has been filled with unrivaled worship of Artemis. The Ephesian silversmiths make so much money from this, but now their world is coming apart, and they risk themselves becoming nothing but artifacts.

Demetrius doesn't like it one bit, and so he pulls upon the heartstrings of those that he's talking to, pulls upon their native Ephesian loyalty and pride in the temple of Diana, and he figures Paul is just out there doing a persuasive talk.

Well, Demetrius, he can be persuasive too. He can make people upset too. The main problem is that Paul is claiming that they are not gods which are made with hands. Demetrius probably thinks of himself as a hero, a bold civic leader.

Demetrius, this merchant of Ephesus, he is caught up in a major drama, but he has no idea who the main character is. He thinks of himself as the protagonist and Paul his antagonist. But is the story truly about defending the honor of Artemis and maintaining the celebrated Ephesian way of life?

It's not. It's not at all. Demetrius is going to stir up a tempest, but it turns out that this tempest is nothing but a little whirlpool soon spent in the rapids of the Gospel River. Notice his appeal is the love of money.

Recall that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and the love of money certainly is a primary motivator of political action. Demetrius is about to get very political, and the claim will be not, we're going to lose our money.

The claim will be, they're trying to destroy our culture. The claim is not, we would like to be more rich and not grow a little less rich. No, the claim will be, you're bringing shame to the city of Ephesus.

Many a complaint has been lodged against Christians. Many a complaint has been lodged against Christians that first start with a perceived threat to personal gain. It goes like this, threaten any means by which I gratify myself, and I'll threaten you.

Threaten any means by which I gratify myself, and I'll threaten you. You've seen that pattern? If it's perceived that Christianity, if it's perceived that belief in the Scriptures, if it's perceived that a follower of Jesus Christ would threaten some means by which someone might try to gratify themselves, they consider it a threat upon their very existence, and they'll fight like a wild animal caught in a corner fighting for their very life.

Why is this? Because in our sinful hearts, mankind, we are tempted and tend to immediately identify self-gratification with the actual self. And we think that opposition to what I want is opposition to my existence.

If I can't have my way, if I can't do what I want, that means that you're against me personally. Have you noticed this way of thinking? Have you observed that way of thinking in your own hearts? That if somebody were to say, no, you can't please yourself in that way, no, you can't do what you want in that way, that you take it as a personal threat?

Well, you're saying you're against me then. Why is that? Because in our sinfulness, we immediately identify self-gratification with the actual self. And that's why the pride paraders and feminists and woke ragers claim and scream and cry, you're killing me.

You're killing me.

There's nothing new. Jesus Christ invites us to die to the flesh. He says, die to the self, take up your cross. Die to that self-gratifying, self-promoting pride that continually thrusts yourself into the center stage and to say, this play is all about me and behold my drama.

No, like Paul, let's make plans, let's sort priorities, but let us purpose in the spirit. We're just, we're servants, we're stewards. We are minor characters on the stage of Christ's glory. The drama really isn't about me, it's not about us.

We can't bear that burden anyway. Demetrius gives no honor to Christ, he gives no acknowledgement to the Holy Spirit, no acknowledgement to the grace of God. He thinks it's just a matter of being persuasive, so he's going to be persuasive and he's going to stir up a tempest and we see the chaos of idolatrous rebels.

Confusion in the Theater and the Difference Between Jews, Christians, and Pagans

Now, as Luke records this chaos and confusion that occurs in Ephesus, a notable event that undoubtedly Theophilus, Luke's patron, had heard about. It made waves and who knows what was said about what happened in Ephesus.

Maybe the Christians got blamed and Luke is setting the record straight. But what we find is that at the center of the story in verse 32 is confusion. Some, therefore, cried one thing and some another for the assembly was confused and most of them did not know why they had come together.

And then on either side of that center of confusion, you see the conflict between those who are trying to make their statements and then you see that ultimately, these are cultures at war. These are cultures at war.

Notice in the beginning and the end of the passage, verses 28 and 29 and verse 34. Verse 28, now, when they heard this, this is Demetrius' silversmith guild. When they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians.

And they began shouting this and chanting this and now notice verse 29, so the whole city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's travel companions.

So the silversmiths and then all of Ephesus get really angry and they grab the two Christians that they can find and then they drag them into the theater. And they're going to want to put them on trial and get them in trouble, perhaps punished, perhaps killed.

But then something happens in the chaos of the city. The Jews who had a very strong presence in Ephesus want to make sure that if they're going to be upset at Christians, they not confuse the Christians with the Jews, which was very, very common.

And so they put Alexander Ford of the Jewish community to try to say, hey, look, we're not the same crew. In fact, they separated from us. We are two different groups. We're not the ones who are making you upset.

But when the folks in the theater find out that this man who has come before them to try to calm them down is a Jew, verse 34, but when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours, great is Diana of the Ephesians.

That didn't work very well, did it? The great open-air theater of Ephesus held 25 ,000 plus people and many more could surround that area. Can you imagine 25 ,000 people shouting, great is Diana of the Ephesians for two hours?

Now, all it took was Demetrius and the silversmith's political action committee making a bunch of noise to get the whole city stirred up, and most of them didn't know why they were all stirred up. Demetrius figured rightly that the populace would be on his side, on the side of Artemis, on the side of Diana, against Paul and company, against the Christians.

And not being able to find Paul, they just grabbed the two closest Christians that they could find, and they bring them in. They're going to make their accusations, they're going to make their point clear, we can't abide these Christians, let's get rid of them.

But they don't have a chance because the crowd starts mindlessly chanting, great is Diana of the Ephesians, G-D-E, G-D-E, over and over and over again, mindlessly. They don't know why they're doing it.

So the Jews, notice, want to separate themselves from the Christians. The Christians had already separated themselves from the Jews earlier in the chapter, but the Gentiles, the pagans, the idolaters of Ephesus don't care whether you're a Christian or a Jew, you're both against idols, so we're against you.

So we have three different cultures identified here. One of them is the pagan idolatry of Ephesus that is incompatible with the ways of either Jews or Christians. But the Jews and the Christians, notice, are not the same.

There is no Judeo-Christian ethic, not in the Bible, and not today. It's a myth that doesn't exist. There is no monolithic Judeo-Christian culture, not even a compatibilistic one. The Jews and the Christians are not the same.

Their righteousness is not the same. Their values are not the same. Their goals are not the same. Their culture is not the same. And that was made clear from the beginning of Acts 19 to the end. So Paul wants to try to defend the faith and defend his brothers, and so he's trying to.

And so he wants to go into the people, verse 30, but the disciples would not allow him. Then some of the officials of Asia who were his friends sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater.

But notice that Alexander, of course, verse 33, of the Jews, he was drawn out of the multitude. They put him forward, and he tried to make a defense to the people. So consider this dynamic of conflict and witness here in the text.

Paul is wanting to preach the gospel as usual. He wants to defend his brothers. He feels perhaps responsible. They're in the mix of that crowd because they're all accusing me of stirring them up, and I want to go help them.

Paul was ever willing to make his stand, even if it was his last. How often does the brethren say, no, you don't, pull you back, sneak you out by a basket, sneak you out of town. So they hold him back, and even Paul's friends amongst the magistrates in Asia, they convince him to stay out of the storm.

When is it proper to preach the gospel, and when is it more pleasing to Christ to wait? How are we to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves? Do you know that that may not be immediately apparent to you if you're just one sheep amongst a bunch of wolves, that it's good to rely on one another and seek one another's counsel and to see, is it wise for me to walk into that forum at this time and do that, or is there a better way to do this?

What would be most pleasing to Christ? It's interesting that Luke is clarifying for his patron Theophilus, hey, look, it wasn't the Christians who caused this Ephesian conflict. It was the pagans. It was the Jews who were causing all the fuss and not getting along.

In fact, Paul did nothing to directly stir up the problem at Ephesus, and Paul even complied with the Roman officials who were his friends. How many lies is Luke dispelling by telling the story in this way?

Let me tell you whose fault it was. Let me tell you how it actually happened, and, of course, Luke would have firsthand accounts from Gaius and Aristarchus who were in the middle of the crowd. And in the middle of the crowd is not clarity, but confusion.

There's confusion at work in verse 32. Some, therefore, cried one thing, and some another, for they simply was confused. Most of them did not know why they had come together. This is likely the report of Gaius and Aristarchus.

They're in the middle of it, and they can overhear. They can tell the folks around them. They don't know why they're there. They don't know why they're upset. They're there because everybody else was, and everybody else is stirred up and upset, so they better be upset, too.

Confusion. They didn't know who the main character was. They didn't know what the real problem was. They didn't really know what was at stake. Here's a question. How long had the Jews occupied Ephesus?

How old and grand was their synagogue? In all the time that they had been there in Ephesus, in all that time, had their anti-idolatry stance ever sparked such a riot, ever threatened this great and ancient wonder with bankruptcy?

They had been there for 300 years. For seven and a half generations, the Jews had occupied Ephesus, and they had only ever done one thing, carved out special permissions to be left alone. The Jews had secured for themselves exemption from military service.

They were allowed to observe the Sabbath, which went against the normal cultural routines, but they were generally well-adjusted to the social expectations of Ephesian culture. The very fact that they put Alexander forward is a statement that they would never dream of ever causing such a riot.

They would never dream of disrupting the Ephesian silversmith trade. That's just not how they do things. The clarification that Alexander undoubtedly wanted to bring was that the Jews were no threat to the pagans' idolatry, but the Christians were.

And not because they were raiding the coffers of the silversmiths, not because they were vandalizing the Temple of Diana, not because of any of that. They were preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And sinners all over the place were being saved, delivered from the deceptions of idolatry, and they were throwing away their idols and no longer interested in buying the idols, and they were telling their friends, and more and more people were turning away from idolatry, and the wicked enterprises of Satan were falling.

So what were the Jews trying to preserve? Not biblical Judaism, because that has been fulfilled in Christ. Do you recognize, and please recognize, that the remnants of Judaism today are no more biblically Jewish than Mormonism is Christian?

Do you realize that? What were they concerned about? What are Christians concerned about today that we would never, ever be accused of causing a fuss or a ruckus or stirring anything up? How many efforts have gone into our Christian lives to say, look, at all possible, just recognize that Christians, we don't ever, ever cause a disruption or a fuss, and we're just fine with the society working the way it works.

Just know that we're never troublemakers in any way. We would never say anything or advocate for anything that would disrupt society. We're here to play ball. We want a seat at the table, and we'll even stand in the corner if you ask us to.

And this is not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the King of all the rulers of the earth. He has an iron scepter in His hand, and He routinely crushes nations like clay pots. He is King of kings.

He has a name currently right now, has been given to Him, a name which is above every name. He is King of kings, and He is Lord of lords. Hebrews 2 says we don't yet see all under submission to Him, but just wait.

Psalm 110, 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that He's going to reign from the right hand of the Father until all of His enemies are placed as a footstool for His feet, and then He will.

Return.

We have that confidence. This commotion was all about the way. It was all about Christ. It wasn't really about Artemis. Artemis and the temple of Diana, that was just scenery. And in fact, the Artemisium, as it's now known, is simply a rock-strewn hollow, and it is not very great at all.

Don't waste your money in the trip. Just get on Google Street View. It's a pretty sad place. The commotion was about the main character, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ doesn't just have main character energy.

He really is the main character. Psalm 2, verses 1 through 3, why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, against His Messiah, against His Christ, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.

Everywhere Paul went, he tended to have a riot that followed him. These are Psalm 2 riots. They're not Paul riots. They're Psalm 2 riots. Psalm 2 riots are as regular as tornado season in Oklahoma. We don't know exactly when and where, but we kind of know when and where.

We don't know where the disruption is going to be, but we know that wherever Christ is magnified and whenever Christ is magnified and wherever Christ's authority is pressed, there's going to be some sort of fit being thrown.

But such riots and fits are much ado about nothing. Verses 35 through 41. Notice the result of the two-hour chant was not much. And upon final assessment, there was no reason to be angry, there was no right to gather, and there was no result to praise.

Notice in verses 35 and 36. And when the city clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian of the great goddess Diana and of the image which fell down from Zeus?

Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly. The city clerk is Rome's official liaison officer who published Roman law to the city and reported to Rome on the city's behalf.

And he's going to set forth his reasons why everyone should just calm down. But they are illogical assertions. He states that since everybody already knows about Diana's temple in Ephesus and how wonderful it all is, there's no reason to be upset.

Meaning the undeniability of the temple's location in Ephesus and the undeniability of how much Ephesus loves Diana already means that you all should just stop the mind-numbing chanting. But these are not great reasons.

Those objective facts are not enough to manifest the greatness of Artemis. The very fact that these things are so is what's being called into question. The great glory of Diana is being swept aside by Jesus of Nazareth.

And that's why all the demonic chanting is going on. The great religion of Ephesus has no hope of survival because the gospel is being preached. They need angry momentum of crowds to try to stop Christianity.

So his reasons are illogical. But he's trying to get them to go home because it's an illegal assembly, verses 37 -39. He says to them, For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess.

Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, the courts are open and there are procouncils. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you have any other inquiry to make, it should be determined in the lawful assembly.

So the Christians weren't out there robbing the temple. They weren't highway robbers intercepting the currency being exchanged. They weren't directly blaspheming Diana. They're just preaching Christ. You don't have to blaspheme Diana.

That's not the message. The message is Jesus Christ is King. And there is no life and no divinity in anything that has been made by human hands, because Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God.

Worship Him. And so there's an illegal assembly. But Demetrius has come raging about justice, but he has no interest in using any system of justice. He has come forth crying out that things are unrighteous, but he has no desire to do things in a right way.

So at the end of the day, Artemis, well, she had no legs to stand on. And she had no voice to speak with. And she had no eyes to see the assembly. And she had no ears to hear their devotion. And she had no champion to stand in her place.

And they have an illegitimate account, verses 40 through 41. The clerk explains, for we are in danger of being called and questioned for today's uproar, there being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering.