WWUTT 1118 Great is Artemis of the Ephesians?

When Christianity was spreading through Ephesus and Asia Minor, the people went nuts.

They hated Christianity. That doesn't happen in our world today, does it? Oh, you know it does.

And it will continue to, when we understand the text. This is

When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.

For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Acts chapter 19, covering a little bit bigger section than we've been looking at this week.

This is verses 21 through 41. Now after these events,

Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying,

After I have been there, I must also see Rome. And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers,

Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way.

For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.

These he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said,

Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. 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.

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. When they heard this, they were enraged and were crying out,

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them

Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel. But when

Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. And even some of the

Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.

Now some cried out one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward, and Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd.

But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice,

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said,

Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple -keeper of the great

Artemis and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky? Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash.

For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess.

If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls, let them bring charges against one another.

But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.

And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly."

Back in verse 21, now after these events, everything that we talked about yesterday, the story of the sons of Sceva who were pretending to cast out demons until they encountered a man who really had an evil spirit and he overpowered them and sent them all running from the place naked and bleeding.

And when people heard about this, great fear came upon them and the name of Christ was greatly extolled.

And those who had been practicing magic arts and they were kind of dabbling in syncretism, belief in a lot of different religious practices, they brought their scrolls into the middle of town and had them all burned up.

We're not going to mess with this stuff anymore. We're going to worship Christ and Christ alone. And the value of all that stuff that was burned up was over 50 ,000 days wages.

So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. That's where we ended yesterday in verse 20.

So after these events had taken place, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem saying, after I have been there,

I must also see Rome. Now, the fact that Paul resolved in the spirit to do this, that's significant because there's been other occasions that we've read about in Acts where Paul wanted to go somewhere, but the spirit prevented him from going there.

And so here he knows this is what the spirit wants him to do, to go through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem and ultimately get to Rome.

Now that is what happens. So the spirit is revealing to Paul, here's where you're headed next.

That is where he goes next, but not necessarily the manner in which he would have thought of a better way to get there than the way the spirit ultimately gets him there.

Paul gets to Rome not by traveling his own way, but because he's arrested and he's transferred there as a prisoner.

So probably not the way Paul would have done it, but still by the spirit of God to the glory of God.

Verse 22, and having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

So now he's in Ephesus without Timothy or Erastus. We get to verse 23.

About that time, there arose no little disturbance concerning the way, capital

W. This is the way Christianity was described. I think I mentioned this way back at the start of the book of Acts, but the word

Christian only comes up three times in the entire Bible. It's twice in Acts and once by the apostle

Peter. And not one of those three times is it really spoken of positively because it's a word that people use, that pagans used, the

Gentiles used to make fun of those who follow Jesus. They called them

Christians, which literally meant little Christ's. You guys following around this carpenter of Nazareth.

So they would mockingly refer to them as Christians. And so when you have the writers of the

New Testament referring to Christianity, they don't call it Christianity. They called it the faith or the way as it's described here.

So when Christianity is being discussed, even by these pagan guys, these idol makers and worshippers, they are the writer of Acts, who is

Luke, nevertheless refers to Christianity as the way. Verse 24, for a man named

Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.

They're all kind of gathered talking about the fact that Christianity is costing them business. That's really the nature of this discussion.

Now, the fact that he made shrines, silver shrines of Artemis, this was probably not statues of Artemis.

It was actually replicas of the temple. That's what he was making, replicas of the temple of Artemis, because it was their greatest landmark.

It was one of the, we refer to it today as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Just this massive temple with numerous columns and it sat up high on this hill.

You could see it from everywhere in Ephesus. You could see it before you even got to Ephesus. There would be sailors that would be coming into port and you could see the temple of Artemis as you're coming into Ephesus.

So just like you might go to Washington, D .C. and you can buy little replicas of the

Lincoln Memorial or something like that, or you go to New York City and you can get replicas of the

Statue of Liberty. That's what Demetrius did. He made replicas of the temple of Artemis.

People would come to Ephesus to see the temple. If you went to Ephesus, you had to go see the temple.

Just like if you go to St. Louis, you got to go see the arch, right? You can't just go to St.

Louis and not see the big arch. It's what St. Louis is known for. Well, in Ephesus, it was known for the temple of Artemis.

And of course, there was religious significance to this as well. It was not just a landmark for the sake of being an incredible structure that was built.

It was also the fact that it represented this goddess of love. And so Demetrius brought no little business to the craftsmen, it says in verse 24.

And that means he made all kinds of people wealthy. A lot of folks benefited from the kind of work that Demetrius did, which all centered around making replicas, shrines of the temple of Artemis.

Verse 25, these he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said, men, you know that from this business, we have our wealth.

And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia. This Paul is persuaded and turned away a great many people saying that gods made with hands are not gods.

See, why would it concern them that Paul is not only spreading this around Ephesus, but even the surrounding communities and all of the western side of Asia Minor?

Why would that bother them so much that this is spreading so far? Because people are not going to come to Ephesus and see the temple of Artemis if they're convinced that there's really nothing all that spiritually significant about it anyway.

This goddess doesn't even exist. And here we are building temples, these grand structures to beings who aren't even real.

I mean, it's kind of ridiculous that this fine structure piece of architecture exists to a made up entity.

It would be kind of a joke to everybody. And so therefore, these guys know, hey, this is going to cost us a lot of money here.

This Christianity that's spreading around all over the place. We need to do something about this. You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but almost all of Asia, this

Paul is persuaded and turned away a great many people saying that gods made with hands are not gods.

Absolutely. That is what Paul was saying. They're not lying here. There's nothing dishonest that's being said.

But they're greatly concerned because if people start believing that these gods made with hands are not gods, then, well, that's going to cost us a lot of business.

Verse 27. And there is danger not only in this trade of ours, that it 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. Now, see, the funny thing about that is if Artemis really was this great goddess, if she really was this powerful being in the heavens, then there isn't any way that she would be deposed of her magnificence.

She could just demonstrate her magnificence. Who are these puny little human beings and what it is that they're doing?

But because she is not a real goddess at all, then she has no magnificence to demonstrate.

Consider Isaiah 44, where the prophet talks about the folly of idolatry.

All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit.

Their witnesses neither see nor know that they may be put to shame.

Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human.

Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified. They shall be put to shame together.

The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm.

He becomes hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line.

He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man to dwell in a house.

He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest.

He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man.

He takes a part of it and warms himself. He kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it.

He makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire.

Over the half he eats meat. He roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, aha,

I am warm. I have seen the fire. And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it.

He prays to it and says, deliver me for you are my god. They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.

No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, half of it

I burned in the fire, I also baked bread on its coals, I roasted meat and have eaten, and shall

I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?

He feeds on ashes. A deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, is there not a lie in my right hand?

In 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 11, it says, God sends the unrighteous a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

See, this is about more than just worshiping an idol. They've fashioned a god into their own making because that god, or in this case, goddess, permits them to do the unrighteousness that they want to do.

They don't worship the true god because their heart is darkened, and they have suppressed the truth with unrighteousness.

They would rather have their sin. So that's why they worship what they fashion with their own mind and hands, rather than worshiping the true god who has fashioned them.

We go on here into Acts 19, verse 28. When they heard this, they were enraged and were crying out, great is

Artemis of the Ephesians, this faction of men that has been gathered here now, concerned about this faith that the apostle

Paul has been spreading. So in verse 29, so the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them

Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions, and travel. Okay, so picture something in Ephesus here.

There is this straight that is called the Arcadian Way. It's this straight street, and it comes right from the port.

The ships would come in, they would dock, the merchants would come out, and they would line this street that's referred to as the

Arcadian Way. You can look up pictures of it. It's beautiful. The ruins are still there. Gorgeous.

If there's anywhere in ancient Rome, Greece that I would love to visit, it would be

Ephesus. I would love to go to Ephesus. So anyway, the Arcadian Way is where the merchants would line up, and right at the end of the way is the theater.

It's a little bit elevated. So if you were in the theater, you could see down onto the

Arcadian Way, or if you were on the way, you could look up into the theater. So these guys are gathered there in the theater where the busiest section of Ephesus is, and as they start causing a commotion, the people who are gathered down on the

Arcadian Way, they're hearing this. They're seeing the small group that's there, so they start rushing into the theater.

They want to know what all the commotion is about. That theater, the way that it's built, it amplifies sound.

So the sound is coming out of the theater and even over the hustle and bustle that's going on along the

Arcadian Way. So people, as they're hearing this, they start filing into the theater, and they're all filled with confusion because they don't really know what's going on.

Nobody knows what this is about. They just started shouting, great as Artemis, the Ephesians, hey, something is going on.

Let's go see what's happening. So they even brought with them a couple of Paul's disciples, the disciples who were with Paul.

Verse 30, but when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. They could see this was quickly escalating into something hostile.

And so it says in verse 31, even some of the Asiarchs, these guys were part of a Roman cult group.

So they're not believers. They're not Christians. But even some of them were friends of Paul's and sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.

So even they're going, hey, this does not look good for you Christians. I think it'd be better for you to stay out of there.

That's kind of what they were saying to Paul. Now, some cried out one thing and some another for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd.

But they recognized that he was a Jew. For about two hours, they all cried out with one voice.

Great is Artemis, the Ephesians. And they kept saying this over and over again to try to suppress whatever it was the

Jews wanted to say or whatever it was the Christians wanted to say. And you've seen this in real life.

You've seen it happen online where somebody from the LGBTQ group will want to say something like men have a uterus, men have a uterus, men have a uterus, and they'll repeat that over and over again, overpowering or attempting to suppress anybody who would want to say otherwise.

One of the Planned Parenthood groups online, I can't remember if this is Facebook or Twitter, it's probably both, will will say something like abortion is health care, abortion is health care, abortion is health care, and they'll repeat that over and over and over again.

They'll post it over and over in succession as though repeating it is going to make it true.

But the point in this is we're going to continue to repeat our lies until people get it.

And we're not going to let anyone else say otherwise. And that's what's going on here in Ephesus. We're not going to let anyone speak who is not for Artemis of the

Ephesians. And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, this is verse 35 now, men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of Ephesus is the temple keeper of the great

Artemis and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky. That's obviously a reference to a meteor of some kind.

And somebody saw it fall. It landed nearby. They unearthed the thing and probably worship that to verse 36, seeing then that these things cannot be denied.

You ought to be quiet and do nothing rash for you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess.

If therefore Demetrius, the craftsman and the craftsman with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and there are pro consuls.

Let them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly.

For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.

And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly. It's really difficult for me not to make a connection to this between this and stuff going on in our world today.

I mean, people are on the verge of rioting every day and over the most ridiculous things in the world.

But it's because they don't want to have their sin challenged, their hatred of God exposed.

They want to continue to live in the darkness, following after the sensuality of their flesh.

And they don't want a light shown on the fact that what they are doing is worthy of the judgment of God.

But that is what will come upon a person if they continue in their sin and their licentiousness.

We must shine a light on it. This is Paul in his letter to the

Ephesians in Ephesians chapter five, have nothing to do with the fruitless works of darkness, but rather expose them so that what will be exposed by the light will be clearly seen so that a person will be convicted over their sin.

They will realize their need for a savior and they will turn to Christ. And according to Romans chapter three, we use the law to do that.

A person thinks that they're right in their own eyes. It says that in Proverbs multiple times, every man thinks he is right in his own eyes.

So you show them, you show him that he is not. You use the law of God to expose his sin.

You have broken God's perfect law. Nobody's perfect. God is and what you deserve for sinning, rebellion, spitting in the face of the creator who made you, what you deserve for this is destruction.

You deserve to be destroyed. But God has sent a savior to die for your sins.

No matter what you have done, Christ will cleanse you of all unrighteousness.

If you repent, you turn from your sin and you worship him and follow in his righteousness that he gives you.

He imputes to us his righteousness that we may walk in his way and in his statutes where we had hearts previously that hated the law of God.

Now we love God and his word and desire to keep it daily.

This all by the washing of the water with the word.

When we give it to a person and the Holy Spirit does his work upon their hearts, they are convicted of their sin, having the light shown upon it, and they turn to the true light that is

Jesus Christ. So let us not withhold the gospel from anyone as we've talked about this week.

We need to preach the whole gospel. We need to point to the true Christ and we need to not withhold any of it that their sin may be exposed and their need for a savior realized so that they will turn to Jesus and live.

Heavenly Father, we thank you again for your word and I pray that we love this word and desire to live by it and preach it to others who need it.

Let us not withhold any part of it. Let us not be ashamed of it, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In his name we pray, Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt