Acts 19:21-41
About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way.
Sermon Transcript:
I invite you to take your Bibles this morning. We’re gonna be looking at the book of Acts chapter 19, continuing in our series, the Spirit at Work, to the Ends of the Earth. We’re gonna be looking at Acts 19, verse 21 to 41, and I’m gonna read that in a moment. While you’re getting there, I just make this comment.
Sometimes. I’ve had people over the years talk to me about Christianity with great criticisms and concerns, and I have found myself many times saying, I agree. I share those concerns, and I think Jesus would have the same concerns. This is one of the reasons we can love the Book of Acts because there is no place in the scripture where we have a more authentic portrayal of what Christianity.
Is about and is designed to look like. Then this book, we’re returning to Ephesus today. Paul is gonna be an Ephesus for three years, and while he’s there, this event happens, chapter 19, verse 21, and following. Now, after these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Aya and go to Jerusalem saying, after I’ve 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 craftsman.
Then he get these, he gathered together with the workman and similar trades and said, man, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see in here that not only an Ephesus but all, 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 de deposed from her magnificence. She whom all Asia and the world worship. When they heard this, they were enraged and were crying out great as Artemis of the Ephesians.
So the city was filled with the confusion and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aris Starke 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 as Arks who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.
Now, some cried out one thing, 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. By the way, he was probably doing that to disassociate themselves from the Christians, 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. 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 sa sacrilegious nor blasphemous of our goddess. If they’re before Demetrius and the craftsman with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and there are pro counsels. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the, 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. Let’s pray. Lord, we come to you and God, we see this. Unique moment, the conflict of the gospel and idolatry. And Lord, I pray as we reflect upon this passage, that for everybody that’s in this room, for everybody that’s out outside, for everybody that’s in Collings, we’re joining us this morning, that Lord, your spirit would make specific application of this study to them.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Is it darker in here? No, not I’m just in the dark. That’s ominous cuz you’ve gotta listen for the next 30 minutes. Here we are back in Ephesus and, and here’s some things we, we’ve learned as we come to the city of Ephesus and the church at Ephesus. Aha. Aha. You thought it was me? Okay. We’ve learned some things.
The gospel was continually being declared and explained. We’ve seen that Paul has been teaching in the synagogue for three months, and then for over two years we’re told that he’s preaching in a teaching in a school called The School of Tyrannus. A, a school that, uh, apparently this, this public teacher used and I mentioned to you last week, there were post-grad universities throughout Ephesus.
It was the, the center of learning of the entire Eastern Empire and Paul’s in one of those schools. The gospel is exploding all over Asia. Asia in that time was the modern day land of Turkey, 2 million people strong, 200,000 in Ephesus. And it makes this statement in verse 10 of chapter 19, all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
We’ve also learned that the gospel is changing lives and minds. We’ve seen dramatic deliverances in transformation. People have been burning, having, having book burning parties of their magic books as their lives have been frayed from spiritual oppression and, and witchcraft. We’ve seen the gospel power is proven to only be available to those that have experienced that power in their own lives.
As the passage Jared was talking about, how these seven guys, the, the sons of Skiva, they’re called, were, were trying to evoke the name of Jesus to cast out demons, and the demons beat the guys to a pulp physically, as you see earlier in the chapter, because they didn’t have the experience of the spirit of God being their spirit, being God’s present in their own lives.
Now we see a scene where the gospel confronts idolatry. It’s really important to understand what’s being, what’s going on here. Because it’s easy to think, why would Paul take on idolatry? I mean, just preach the gospel. But the gospel can’t be effectively preached to our culture, to ourselves if it is not also confronting the idols.
The gospel of Jesus always addresses idolatry. The story we’ve read is the story of a felon named Demetrius. He was apparently the head of the association of, uh, idol makers and the city, uh, metal workers, all kinds of, all kinds of trades. He was a mucky muck among their group, apparently, and he gathers them together and he riles them up.
It leads to a gigantic public protest in the 25,000 seat auditorium, which is the truly that’s there. And I side, and I’ve said this before, if you ever get a Mediterranean cruise, You have to make sure on the itinerary is visits to ancient Ephesus. It’s awesome. But this, this is the theater. This is where Paul was 25,000 people crammed in there from the city.
Some of ’em don’t even know whether they’re there. It’s all riled up. Its chaotic. But Demetrius has been the form, the, the source of it. He who is an idol maker. The three things I want to talk about this morning about the gospel and idolatry. Number one, the prevalence of idolatry. Verse 23 tells us that about that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way, the term way or the descrip descriptive title.
The way was a designation for the believers. Many believe it was actually the one they took for themselves. Christian was, was foisted upon them in the city of Antioch. But this disturbance by Demetrius is in response to what the teachers of the way are saying. He says it here in verse 26, when he gets all the gang together, as you see in here that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people saying that God’s made with hands are not God’s.
Now, it’s unlikely that Demetrius had signed up to go to the School of Tyrannus and taken a course with the Apostle Paul, but he had heard word of what was being spread. This was a continual message of Paul idolatry, and the message about Jesus will always be at odds. The movement Paul is repping for is called the Way.
And it caused no small stir in the environment of idolatry because the way meant Jesus is the way to the living God. It meant that there was one way to the one God. It meant that there was one way of living with God as one center. An idolatry is placing something other than God at the center of your life.
It’s an interesting and important concept that’s being highlighted in this city. Conflict idolatry. It’s the first issue that God addresses when he talks to people about their relationship to him Of the 10 Commandments commandment. Number one, you shall have no other gods before me. Commandment. Number two, you shall not make a God and bow to it or service or serve it.
You might be out there and you might say, well, Of course there were idols, but they were, this is antiquity Mark. I mean, what does this have to do with, there’s not a thinking person here.
This reminds me of years ago, we had two birds flying around in the service, and I, not that they’re birds, but I, I finally just stopped and I said, look, everybody gets 45 seconds to watch the birds. We all know it’s there. Let’s, okay, here we are. So what’s taken place? You know, we’ve got this. You might say, well, I, I, there’s not a thinking person I know that thinks you can make a God, and then that he is deserving of being worshiped or bowed down to well, The Bible says some interesting things about idols.
There are ones that are made by our hands and there are ones that are designed in our hearts. Ezekiel 14, one talks about idols of the heart, the Apostle Paul in a number of his passages. I’ll give one example in Colossians three, he says this, he’s preaching against sexual immorality and greed, and then he makes this statement which are idolatry.
It is elevating something to a position of importance in the place of God. Anything that is most functionally dear to you for your happiness, your meaning, your purpose has become your God. Idolatry is taking things and making them ultimate things. It’s saying, I believe in God, but that thing. I, I have to have it, but it’s this, which is the, the source of meaning and joy to my life.
It’s what I must have to be happy. That is our God. Being out addicted to alcohol or drugs we recognize can be an idol. It’s a, an obvious, potentially deeply destructive thing, but most idols are taking good things and making them into ultimate things. Our children doing well, being respected in your career, having security from money, your looks or your partner’s looks, your competence or skill.
And when you go back in the ancient world, and, and Ephesus was a classic example of this, you find there are gods and every corner. There was a God to sex, a God to war, an agricultural God, an economic God, a music God. And we say what? Superstitious people. All these things they’re trying to arrange their lives around, that they’re elevating to a, to a deified place, but they were explicit about their gods.
We’re fuzzy about ours. They were overt. Ours are covert. They worship their gods. Consciously. We do so unconsciously. They had family gods we do as well. Within your family, there’s probably some deity that is more important than others. For some it’s education. For some it’s sports. For some it’s family loyalty and family pride.
For some, it’s being righteous. Which can become self-righteousness and pharisaical. When it is deified. They had cultural gods. Here’s, look at the passage here. It’s talking about the Temple of Artemis, which I talked about a couple of weeks ago, and, and this temple, this seventh wonder of the world was this massive temple, which they took tremendous pride in four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens, the largest known building in all of the world at this time.
It’s so prominent that when the, the, the worship of Artemis and, and, and what Paul is saying against idolatry gets out there, the town manager has to gather the people in the stadium and say, look, guys, calm down. Calm down. We all know the temple is our city’s glory. We all know a meteor came among us and affirmed the wonder of this place, which was the tradition that Paul’s alludes to here.
The people from all over the world know of her glory, which is our glory. Artemis Temple. Put them on the map, was a cultural thing that they took pride in. It distinguished them. I heard a little while back, someone, I can’t remember where I read it, but it was an individual, not a, a religious person, but they used this phrase, which I found interesting.
They were talking about they had lived in three different cities on the east coast. They had lived in New York City, they had lived in Boston and they had lived in in DC and they mentioned, they said it this way, the God of Boston is knowledge and education. The God of DC is power and influence the gods of New York City.
Money and success. There are personal gods, there are family gods, there are cultural gods In Ephesus, as in our day. There is a prevalence of god’s, the power of idolatry. What idols do for you? No one chooses an idol to devote themselves to if they aren’t getting some returns right? It’s obvious that the religious cult of Artemis offered much to their adherence.
Everyone’s trying to justify themselves to say that my life matters. I’m looking for something that validates me. What we look to, to validate ourselves, what we look to, to find our worth and our meaning and our value are, are, are to, to bring us joy and satisfaction easily becomes enshrined as a deity.
Some do it clearly in religious contexts. Charles Spurgeon is a guy, years ago, a preacher, but before he became a preacher, before he became a Christian, he said, I tried 50 different ways to try to make myself worthy for God. He was always trying to do things to, to validate his worth and his ex to gain his acceptance to God.
And then he found out all he has to do, and his description was to look, to look to the cross to embrace Christ as his savior. But everyone, no matter how secular and disinterested they are in spiritual things, is trying to justify themselves to prove themselves, to try to earn forgiveness and be declared righteous.
You just don’t use those terms. There’s a guy I’ve quoted before, a a a, I really enjoy his books. He’s written a book called Turning from Evil, but again, not a Christian. He was a cultural anthropologist. He’s passed now. His name was Ernest Becker. And Ernest Becker wrote a book that actually won the Pulitzer Prize for, it was called The Denial of Death.
And in the book, and I’m gonna read part of the quote and then I’m gonna put the latter part up there. He makes this statement, we all need to feel there is something that we are living for. So whether we are investing in sex, or romance, or family, or success, or fitness or vocational accomplishments, we do so with the same kind of spiritual significance that people used to only give to God and faith.
Here’s the remainder of his quote. We disguise ourselves, it skies our struggle by piling up figures in a bank book to reflect privately our sense of heroic worth. Or by having only a little better home in the neighborhood, a bigger car, brighter children. But underneath throbs, the ache of cosmic specialness.
No matter how we mask it in concerns of smaller scope, he says, we’re all longing for the sense of cosmic specialness. That, that I’m unique and special in the cosmos, that my life matters, that, that I can validate my life by something Rocky Balboa said it this way to Adrian, if I can go the distance, I’ll know I’m not a bum.
Idols bring you joy. They make you feel successful, validated, alive, George C. Scott and playing the movie Patton. And if you’ve ever seen, it’s a classic and, and basically General Patton, this tough warrior, uh, in the scene is portrayed. And, and those that have studied him said it was a perfect portrayal of, of.
General Patton, he’s looking out on the battlefield and it’s all going on, and he just says, God, how I love it. He loved the stratum. He loved being a warrior. He, he loved the rush that he got when he was doing what he felt he was designed to do as a leader, as a warrior. I’m gonna come back to him in a few moments.
Idols do something for us, right? They give us that sense, that validation, that my life matters. That I am something, that when I, when I enshrine this, when, when my children or my, my, my idol, my kids are thriving, it does more than just give me happiness for them. It affirms me. It validates me. Idols do something, but idols also do something to us.
Idols let us down. And no matter how capable, intelligent, wealthy, beautiful, peop popular we are, it’s a vain hope to think that our gods will serve us faithfully. The servant will become the master. I was reading a guy named Benjamin Nugent, who is a, uh, writer for the New York Times. He also has written a number of novels.
He is certainly not, uh, uh, a religious person and certainly not a a, a Christian. But in one of his writings, posting was called Monomania Mano from one Mania, meaning passion or, or, or, um, obsession. He was describing himself in his own experience, and he said, when I wanted, I wanted to be a writer, but I, I had a struggle.
When I found writing became my passion so much so it was like a monomania, well, it’s another word for idolatry, what he’s describing. He makes this statement and it’s sort of the summary message of the whole podcast. Good writing was my only goal I made the quality of my work, the measure of my worth. I mentioned earlier George Patton and again, the general and, and the, he loved what the battlefield gave to him and the satisfaction, the energy and, and, and, and, and the, the rush that he gave him.
But as they were preparing for the D-day invasion, Ike General Eisenhower met with George, and everybody knew on both the, the allied side and, and the a, the access side, the Germans. That Patton would lead the charge. And so all of the spies that were in Britain for Germany were watching where Patton was.
And what, what Ike designed for General Patton to do was for him to take a fake army. And he actually developed a fake army of, of, in a hidden part of England. But they knew the reconnaissance planes of the Nazis would come over it. And actually it was just fake artillery. They actually made cannons that were outta tree trunks.
And, and you had, they, they had tents set up. They had thousands of people, many of them, most of them were people from the English countryside in uniforms just marching. And they watched all those people getting ready to disembark in ships. At the same time, they were giving, uh, counter, uh, messaging to the Nazis that they’re going to collide, which is another port, um, in France.
And all this was going on. And they said, George, I want you to settle. In that region. I want you to be there. I want, we’re gonna give every indication that you are leading the invasion at Kali, but we’re actually going somewhere else. You’re not going to lead the invasion like everybody expects.
History tells the story as actually Ike’s son that tells the story of this warrior hero breaking down in tears, crying to Ike. No. He says, no, I’m a warrior. I’m a fighter. I’m a general. What was happening? His God was being pulled away and saying, no, you’re just gonna be a faint. You’re not going be the star.
Your history is not going to write about you as the leader of the D-Day invasion. Rebecca ERT says it this way. Whatever controls us is our Lord. The person who seeks power will be controlled by power. The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by the people he or she wants to please. We do not control ourselves.
We are controlled by the Lord of our lives. Tim, Tim Keller says it this way. People have come to sacrifice everything to the God of success, but it isn’t enough. In ancient times, the Didi were blood thirsty and hard to appease. They still are. Okay. Why am I talking about idolatry? I mean, mark. Here we are in Ephesus, and because the gospel is always spoken into idolatry, The gospel is not only the message, receive Christ and and receive forgiveness of sins.
Be declared righteous in Christ. Living out the gospel is always addressing the idolatry of one’s life. Coming to the cross and embracing Christ is centered in recognizing that I have made something else central in my life. So why does Paul talk about idolatry when he’s preaching the gospel? Because you won’t really fully unexperience the gospel without understanding your own idolatry.
The gospel is that you’re saved and justified. But everyone, religious, irreligious, secular, spiritual tries to put their trust, their allegiance, their worship in the other things for Val and some other things for validating and meaning. But the Gods always disappoint. The Gods never deliver.
They will ultimately enslave, but the gospel is the path out. My last point is this, the path out of idolatry, which I think was the whole issue that was going on in Ephesus earlier in this passage and also up in chapter 19 earlier, the Christian group is called The Way. It’s actually the word that means the path or the road.
Jesus is the way. He is the one out the gospel of Christ. The good news of Jesus is that there is a path out of your enslavement to idols. What you are looking for in your life is what everyone’s looking for. Peace, security. Love acceptance. The gospel presents a path. Augustine in the fourth century said it in this famous statement, oh God, our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.
Jesus is the only way out. He is the path. It’s a movie we watched years ago. It’s a story of Oliver Twist, my wife when I watched it a few times cuz we like it. And in the, in the story, and of course it’s true of the book as well, but the story is of, uh, a guy named Bill Sykes, who was a horrible man. Um, a robber murderer, just a terrible man in, in England, in London.
And he kidnaps a boy named Oliver. Oliver Twist, his girlfriend, his live-in girlfriend is named Nancy. She’s wonderful and kind. And she eventually, and, and, and Bill Sykes has captured Oliver Twist to make him help him with robberies. He’s a little tiny guy of all the street urchins, he was the thinnest and the smallest, and he could sneak into windows and, and, and crevices in people’s houses in ways others couldn’t.
So she went to the grandfather of Oliver Twist and said, I, I know where your grandson is and I will help you get him. He’s been captured. Um, and, and he said, so, he said, well, will you tell us who’s done this so that the authorities can deal with him? And here was her interesting response. Oh no, I won’t tell on him.
He’s all, I have. The story plays out and she does lead them. And all the time she’s leading them through the back dark alleys of Lu London. She’s looking fearful of of her, of her, her mate, her friend, her beloved. Bill Sykes and what he’ll do, because he is a man of great vengeance and rage, eventually they, they, they get the boy and they’re leading them out, and then a shadow appears.
And Bill Sykes comes upon Nancy as she is trying to get him to go to the bridge where she’s supposed to meet the grandfather. And in a rage, he grabs the boy, throws him to the side, and in a horrible scene, overwhelmed with rage, he takes his club and beats Nancy to death. And you watch the movie and you have this sense of horror and, and almost despair.
And you just sit there and you say, why didn’t she turn him in? Why be determined to redeem, to return to him, to protect him, to stay with him? There’s one reason she felt he was all she had. Maybe you say it’s the emptiness of your life this morning. You’re seeking satisfaction and validation in the wrong places.
Could be people, could be destructive substances could be your career, could be your family, your significant other. But in an all, there’s still an emptiness in your life. It feels like all you have in Ephesus, the way confronted people that felt that way. It’s why some of them were ca came and they say, we don’t need the magic anymore, which had provided our identity, our sense of power.
We burn it because we found that which provides that, which offers to us what we’ve longed for and all of our lives. In Ephesus, the gospel confronts idolatry. Why hear me here? You can’t understand God’s prohibition against idolatry until you understand the context in which he constantly says it.
Many passages in the scripture present God condemning idolatry. But do you know what he gives as the reason he says this? I’m a jealous God. Now, jealous can sound bad, but think of the beauty of it. I mean, what husband is not going to feel, feel jealousy if he really loves his wife and is jealous for her affections.
What wife who adores her husband would not be jealous that his eye be turned her way. God says, I want you. It’s my mercy. It’s my grace that says to you, don’t settle for your idols. So I come with the gospel and I turn a city on its head, and it causes no small disturbance. That’s what Christ wants to do in your life today, the transforming disturbance of him becoming the central reality of your life.
Some of you have lived your own life, your whole lives, trying to find a sense of purpose, a peace that seems to allude you, a satisfaction that never really arrives. You’ve allowed multiple other things or people’s opinions to rule you to be your center, to ultimately be your God, but you’ll only find the true center when you repent of your sins and yield to Christ as the savior of your sins and the Lord of your life.
Jonah says it this way in chapter two, verse eight. Those who clinging to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. That was the gospel that showed up in Ephesus. Don’t clinging to that. Embrace Christ, embrace him as the center of your life. I wanna close with this illustration. It is written by Kelly Clark Olympic Gold medalist in the snowboard event.
She wrote this a few years ago. When I was 18, I found myself in a place where I had accomplished everything that was in my heart to do. I had money, I had fame. I had an Olympic gold medal. I had won every major snowboarding event I had ever dreamed of winning when I was a kid, and I had poured everything I had into snowboarding, but I didn’t really know who I was and what I was doing.
Everyone knew me as Kelly Clark Pro snowboarder Kelly Clark, Olympic gold medalist, and that’s who I was. That’s who I was to other people, and that’s who I was. To me, I was thinking, if this is what life is, I’ve accomplished it all. If this is everything, I don’t want to do it anymore. I went to a snowboarding event and from the outside perspective, my life was picture perfect and together I was doing well in the contest and I qualified for the finals that afternoon.
But at the bottom of the pipe, this girl had come down and she had fallen both runs and was crying. I was half paying attention to her conversation and her friend was trying to make her laugh and said, Hey, it’s all right. God still loves you. There was just something about that comment that caught my attention that I couldn’t shake.
I couldn’t deny that it stirred something up in me. So I ran back to my hotel room and I thought, there has got to be a Bible in the hotel room. There are always Bibles in hotel rooms. Right? As I started looking at the Bible, I realized that I didn’t know where to look or where to start. There’s, but there’s something stirring up inside of me and I don’t know what to do.
I found out that girl who made the comment was staying in my hotel. I knocked in her door and I said, Hey, my name’s Kelly and I think you might be a Christian, and I think you need to tell me about God. And at the same time, I got a little nervous because I had never thought about God before. A day in my life, I had never once wondered why we are here.
I had never thought about it, never been to church, nothing. I had no grid for any of this. And so I spent the next four months thinking, okay, God, if you’re real, reveal yourself to me. I got to the end of my season and asked myself a few questions like, could I ever wake up another day and not think about God?
And the answer was no, because I was thinking about him every day and he was real. And now he was in my life. And another question I asked was, could I ever run the other way and pretend he didn’t exist? And the answer was also no. And so I came to a conclusion and said, all right, Jesus, come and live life with me.
Her next words are how Jesus replaces idols in our lives. There was a huge shifting point for me where my snowboarding became this amazing expression and fun thing rather than this thing I had to do. It became this thing that I was made to do and I could actually enjoy, and there was so much freedom in it because I wasn’t doing it to prove to people or to myself who I was.
Through my relationship with God, I learned who I was and was comfortable with it. But I’ll tell you, I’ve never had more fun snowboarding and I’ve never been more free.
Maybe God is saying to you, become a person of the way this morning. Come to Christ, find his forgiveness for your sins, for your displacing Him as the Lord of your life and as the center of your life. Come to this God that is jealous for you to experience his love. So much so that he sent his own son to provide forgiveness and life for you.
Let’s pray together. Lord,
there’s not a person in this room or watching in the prayer gardener in Collingswood that is not an idolater. We’ve displaced you over and over and over again. Tried so many ways to find our satisfaction in other things, and yet as CS Lewis so beautifully says, you are the humble God, the God who is willing to come.
Even though we’ve tried a hundred other things before you, you are still willing to come and be our grace, our forgiveness, our life. So, Lord, let us see you as the way this morning. The way out of our bondage, the way in to life. In Jesus’ name, amen.