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Reading Acts 19:21-41 as Paul's time in Ephesus concludes with a riot because the gospel was putting the idol-makers out of work and turning pagans into followers of Jesus. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
When the gospel was having such success in Ephesus, the Ephesians gathered together in a mob and tried to shout down the truth by proclaiming, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! And we see this kind of tactic happen today as well, when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ. That we may humble ourselves before the Lord, and at the proper time, He may exalt us. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky.
Today we will finish up Acts chapter 19 and the time that Paul spent in Ephesus preaching the Word. And we conclude with the riot that is stirred up against him. Let me begin reading in verse 21 through verse 41, here the Word of the Lord.
Now, after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. And having sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
Now about that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen.
These he gathered together with the workers of similar trades, and said, Men, you know that our prosperity is from this business. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia.
This Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable crowd, saying the things made with hands are not God's. And not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be considered as worthless, and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship is even about to be brought down from her majesty.
When they heard this, they were filled with rage, and began crying out, saying, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! And the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia.
And when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let him. Also some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater.
So then some were shouting one thing and some another, for the meeting was in confusion, and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together. And some of the crowd concluded it was Alexander, since the Jews had put him forward, and having motion with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly.
But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single cry arose from them all, as they shouted for about two hours, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Now, after calming the crowd, the city clerk said, Men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the Great Artemis, and of the image which fell down from heaven?
So since these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm, and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples, nor blasphemers of our goddess. So then, if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are in session, and pro consuls are available.
Let them bring charges against one another. But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the lawful meeting. For indeed, we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection with today's events, since there is no cause for which we can give as an account for this disorderly gathering.
After saying this, he dismissed the meeting. You know, there are occasions in our world today in which we will see a mob of people stirred up just like this. It may not be a mob rushes into a theater or a stadium and gathers of this nature, although we may see that.
But you can just have groupthink among a certain ideology in which they will be shouting things like this, and they believe their shouting louder than Christians, louder than the truth, will make the lies that they believe true.
If we can be louder than the other guy, then that will make what we believe in and say and do, it will make it all the more true. So here you have this crowd that is gathered in the theater of Ephesus and they begin shouting again and again and again for two hours.
They shouted for about two hours, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. You might see an LGBTQ pride parade where the people are flaunting their sexual immorality and it's as if for hours upon hours on end, they are shouting great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
I've seen Planned Parenthood on social media that will, they'll post something like abortion is healthcare and they'll repeat it over and over and over and over again in the same post. It looks just like this mob in Ephesus shouting great is Artemis of the Ephesians, great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
But no matter how loud they get, it will never be true. The lies that they are trying to push upon people, the truth of Jesus Christ will continue to prevail. Where is Ephesus today? In ruins. Where is the great temple of Artemis?
Doesn't exist anymore. It's not even used for that purpose anymore. Artemis we know is a false god. All of the evidence points to Artemis being a figment of the pagan imagination. But Christ's word will continue to be true and go forth and win people out of darkness into his marvelous light as it has done for you and me.
So let's consider some of these things as we read this final episode to Paul's time in Ephesus in Acts chapter 19. Now verses 21 and 22 I'll go through rather quickly. This is definitely speaking of the end of Paul's time in Ephesus.
He's already making plans to leave and go on to where the spirit is leading him next. So after these things were finished, we have that whole episode that happened with the sons of Sceva and the people being convicted of heart, recognizing that syncretism is not going to cut it.
We can't actually have this hodgepodge of religions and believe that we are going to survive or we'll be able to stand before God in the judgment. And so they get rid of all their magic spells and any other religion that they had in their life and they devote themselves fully to the Lord.
So as said in verse 20 and this has been the theme throughout Acts chapter 19, the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. So you have this mob that attends, they attempt to prevail over the word of the Lord.
They attempt to prevail over the gospel with this mob, but even that doesn't work. Even that doesn't prevail over the truth that is going forth. So as these episodes are finishing up that we've read thus far in Acts 19, Paul purposed in the spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia.
That's where Corinth was, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, some of these other places where Paul had visited and churches had been planted there. So he was going to go back, visit those churches, encourage those brethren.
And then after I've been there, Paul says, I must also see Rome. That's where he's going to make it to by the end of the book of Acts. So verse 22, having sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
So he's continuing there as he's making preparations for his own departure. He's still preaching in Ephesus and in Asia. Verse 23, now about that time, there occurred no small disturbance concerning the way.
By the way, Christianity is called the way in the book of Acts more than it's called Christianity. Christianity was a label that was used to make fun of Christians. But for the Christians, they referred to this faith as the way.
It is the only way of truth. It is the only way to be reconciled to God. It is the only way to have the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. The way. That's what it was. It was known as among the saints.
And then verse 24, for a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, also known as Diana, the goddess of love, was bringing no little business to the craftsman. Now it says that Demetrius was a silversmith who made silver shrines.
There are two kinds of personal idols that have been uncovered from the ruins of Ephesus. One is, and probably the most common of which is, a statuette of Artemis. And this goddess was a fertility goddess, a goddess of sex and love.
So the shrine of the goddess itself, the likeness of this goddess, shows her as being many-breasted. She actually has like dozens of breasts. And it was these little statuettes that would be bought by someone who might come to Ephesus.
And they would believe that possessing this statuette would bring them fruitfulness. Either it would be much sex, or it could be much offspring, or it could just be financial prosperity and whatever I invest myself in.
But that's what they expected, possessing one of these little statuettes. A bit of memorabilia from Ephesus, which was a major port city, a lot of money coming in and out of that place. If I possess some sort of shrine of Ephesus, then the gods will have favor upon me.
Another common shrine that was made was a model of the temple itself, the temple of Artemis, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world as we refer to them today. Because of how massive it was, how many colonnades were there, it was a marvel that people came to see even when they passed through Ephesus.
Maybe go up to that place and offer a sacrifice. Because of such a place with such magnitude, surely the gods and goddesses have to be honored by this. So they would want to take a little bit of that place with them, hoping that as some sort of good luck charm, the gods would continue to show favor to them.
So they would also buy little models, little silver models of the temple of Artemis. So this Demetrius, who is one of these silversmiths, probably makes a very lucrative living off of these statues and statuettes that he makes.
He gathered together the craftsmen with the workers of similar trades and said, men, you know that our prosperity is from this business. You see in here that not only in Ephesus, but in most of Asia, Paul is persuaded and turned away a considerable crowd saying that things made with hands are not gods.
Now that was exactly the message that he proclaimed in Athens, wasn't it? As he was standing there at the Areopagus and saying that God is not dwelling in places that have been made by hands. These statues to gods and goddesses that you've made, they're not really gods and goddesses.
They're just empty. The God who made heaven and earth and all that is in it, he doesn't need places made by hands. He doesn't need little statues of himself. And so these guys are getting frustrated with this.
We're capitalizing off of this business. This is our way of life. See, their very religion is even tied into their way of life. It's tied into the culture of Ephesus itself. And we can't prosper if we don't have our gods and goddesses.
Here's Paul saying that the very thing that we're doing is actually worthless. It's costing us money. People are turning to Christ and they're not buying our stuff. Again, it's true what is said in 1 Timothy 6 10, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.
And it's out of this love that many people have turned away from the truth and have pierced themselves with many pangs. That's what these men are doing here. They will be judged by God if they don't repent.
But instead, they decide to incite a commotion against the apostle Paul. They also seem to express some sort of worry about this goddess of theirs that they worship. Because of what Paul is doing, our great goddess Artemis is going to be considered as worthless.
And she's about to be brought down from her majesty. You know, if your goddess can be brought down from her majesty, that's not really a goddess worth worshiping, is it? And if Paul is proclaiming something that could tear down Artemis, well, you better stop following Artemis and listen to what it is that Paul is saying.
The very arguments that these men are raising, they give credibility to what Paul is preaching. It's kind of like the atheists in our world today who will go after Christianity. They don't go after any other religion, but they go after Christianity.
The very definition of an atheist is to deny the existence of God. Now, they'll say they deny the existence of all those other gods. They don't invest their time in disproving the Greek gods, or the Roman gods, or even Islam.
Some of them do, a little bit with Islam. Or Buddhism, or Hinduism, or any of these other things. No, they're an atheist because they hate the Christian god. And it's the very definition of their belief, or what they would claim to be lack of belief, that really gives credibility to the truth of Christianity.
So here are these men. They're even focused on what it is that Paul is preaching. So they began crying out, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. The whole city is filled with confusion. They rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia.
When Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let him. Also, some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, these are people that live in Asia, they sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater.
These Asiarchs, they were men of importance. They had ruling positions in the region of Asia Minor. And it's been said by some scholars that most likely these men were not Christians. So they didn't believe in what it was that Paul preached, but they respected Paul.
They loved Paul, this man who was so eloquent and preached the way that he did in the Hall of Tyrannus, so that he gained friendships, even among people who had great influence. And they cared for Paul enough to warn him, don't go into the theater.
If you go in there, they will kill you. And it doesn't matter that it will be unjust. It's certainly not a court approved execution, but regardless, you'll still die. No matter how the justice will be carried out after that, or who will be found guilty, Paul would still be dead.
So the Asiarchs, these men of importance, respect Paul enough to tell him, you're just going to incite this mob all the more. And that would be of great devastation to the city, as well as to the Apostle Paul.
So going on in verse 32, some were shouting one thing and some another, for the meeting was in confusion, and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together. They're all shouting and just causing a commotion and doing whatever.
And some of them don't even know why. They don't even know what has us in such an uproar. We just know that we're in an uproar. It reminds me of when the Sodomites were coming against Lot's home and the angels who were with him, and they're beating at the door, and the angels struck the men outside with blindness.
So now they're all just in confusion, but they're still clamoring for the door. The fact that they've been struck with blindness doesn't even stop them from their mob rage. And that's what's going on here among the Ephesians.
They may not have been physically struck with blindness, but they're all blind in their shouting. They don't even know why they're shouting. They don't know what all this is about. Many of the people that are in there probably don't even know that it's the Apostle Paul they're supposed to be mad at.
Because they go on in verse 33, some of the crowd concluded that it was Alexander. Since the Jews had put him forward and having motion with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly.
So Alexander, he's trying to calm everybody down, but instead a cry rises up from them as they shout for about two hours, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Again, so blind in their ideology that they believe shouting about it for two hours.
If we can just be louder than this guy, then it will make what we believe to be true. They are utterly blind as they wander about in darkness, in the darkness of their evil hearts. It's not just the worship of this false god.
It's all of the awful pagan practices that come along with it. I had talked about in the very beginning about the sexually immoral and the violent who will shed the blood of unborn infants. Same sort of thing was going on in Ephesus as well.
This people, they are trying to preserve their immoral way of life because they love their sin and hate God. Now, finally, the city clerk who himself would not be a believer, not a Christian, this is somebody who he probably also goes to the temple of Artemis and worships there because he defends Artemis.
He says, men of Ephesus, what man is there after all, who does not know that the city of Ephesus is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell down from heaven? So that makes a reference to something else that was there, not just Artemis.
And it was a meteorite that fell from heaven and the people worship that also. So since these are undeniable facts, that's what the clerk says. These are facts. Artemis is a fact. The object that fell from heaven is a fact.
Why are you guys all stirred up about this? You ought to keep calm and do nothing rash for you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess. Well, if they really knew what those men proclaimed, then the clerk would have said something otherwise.
But again, all of this was stirred up against the apostle Paul and Paul's not among them. So the clerk is saying, you guys are in an uproar against the wrong people. So then if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are in session.
Pro consuls are available. Let them bring charges against one another. You know, this really demonstrates how government is a gift from God, even when that government is pagan and wicked and doesn't acknowledge God as the true God doesn't acknowledge Christ as the true king.
Yet governing authorities are still a blessing of God is talked about in Romans chapter 13, one and seven, one through seven. They help keep order. And that's what's happening here. Trying to disperse the mob and keep the order of Ephesus.
So even this pagan man is doing, if you want anything beyond this, he says it shall be settled in the lawful meeting. Take it up with the courts for indeed we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection with today's events.
You want the Romans coming in here and taking rule and control and instituting martial law. I don't want that. And neither do you. So there is no cause for this, which we can give as an account for this disorderly gathering.
And after saying this, he dismissed the meeting. So again, as I said, in the beginning, we will see this very kind of thing play out in our world. And there will be people who will try to shout their lies and be louder about their ideology.
And they will try to snuff out the truth so that their lies will prevail. And maybe my lie will be true if I can get you to be quiet and I can just shout louder, but we must not be led astray by these tactics.
In fact, we've even been called to be patient in these days and not lose our minds over the fact that the culture is going to behave in such ways. Consider what Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2. We are to flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
So with the other saints, with the church, we are to grow in these beautiful things together that we've been given by our Savior, Jesus, who died for us, who rose from the dead for us, who clothes us in his righteousness.
For all who believe in him, we will not perish, but have everlasting life. So confident in these things have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil.
There you go, patiently enduring evil. This is going to be an evil day in which we live, but we patiently endure it, looking to Jesus, knowing that he is making all things new. He will bring his enemies into judgment.
He will bring us into his perfect imperishable kingdom. So we have nothing to fear of the lies of these days. Don't be led astray by them. Instead, hold fast to Christ. Though we can and we must, as Paul goes on to say here, 2 Timothy 2 .25, correct opponents with gentleness.
God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. But the power to transform the heart in this way, that's the power of the Spirit.
It's not going to be in the power of us to be louder than the other guy. We patiently endure evil, correct opponents with gentleness, and God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth.
Let us conduct ourselves in such ways in these days, and pray that the gospel of Christ would go forth and change many hearts in these days. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read, and I pray that we would continue to be led by this truth also.
May it give us great peace in the way that we conduct ourselves in these days, and confident in the work of God to change the heart. We share the truth with others with gentleness, asking and praying that you would grant repentance and lead to a knowledge of the truth.
It's in the name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.
You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday we look at an Old Testament book.
On Friday we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow we'll pick up on an Old Testament study when we understand the text.