Grace Baptist Church

Pastor Chris Bell: Acts chapter 19. We'll be in verses 21 through 41 this morning. But as we approach the Word of God, let's pray and ask that the Spirit would really work in our hearts through His Word this morning.

Father in heaven, You do deserve the greater glory. You are the great and glorious King. And yet when we sing those words, we are confronted with the reality of our own sin as well—that in our sin, we seek to rob just a little bit of that glory for ourselves. Father, we confess that even our finest works are stained with sin. Even our acts of service done for You are tainted with the desire to get a little bit of recognition and the applause of men for the things that we do in Your name.

So, Father, we confess that as sin and we ask You to cleanse us of it. Father, we pray right now during this hour as we approach Your Word that Your Spirit would crush that prideful spirit within us, that He would humble us, that He would through His Word root out any desire of self-seeking glory and instead move our hearts to confess that You alone are the One worthy of all glory.

I pray that You would crush the idols in our hearts. I pray that You would lift up Jesus above all. Father, we also sang this morning that it's not about our legacy. It's not about our remembrance. It is about the glory of Christ. Christ promised that He would build His church. We sang that unless You build the house, our labors are in vain.

So, Father, we pray that You would build Your church this morning in the way that You have ordained, which is through Your Word. So I pray that Your Word would go forth. I pray that Your Word would smash down the idols and the sin in our hearts and then that that same Word would build us back up in the faith that is in Christ Jesus, that He would be seen to be all in all in Grace Baptist Church and in each of our hearts. We ask this in Jesus' name and we thank You for it. Amen.

With the Easter weekend and then with us being away also the following week, it's been a few weeks since we were in the book of Acts. So we need to take just a moment to briefly remind ourselves of where we're at in our journey through Acts. God has been greatly blessing Paul's ministry in Ephesus. Ephesus had even become a base of operations for the gospel to spread into all the surrounding region of Asia Minor.

God was also validating Paul's ministry through the miracles and the exorcisms that were being performed through his hands. But the sons of Sceva sought to manipulate the name of Jesus and really try to use that same power that they saw at work through Paul really for themselves. Of course, we looked at the fact that that backfired, and it only led to the name of Jesus being even all the more highly extolled and magnified in the sight of the people so that many believers turned from their magic practices and repented of those things. In this way, God's Word continued to triumph and continued to grow in influence in the surrounding region and in Ephesus.

It's at that point that we now pick up. There is now another enemy which the gospel is going to confront in Ephesus, and that is the enemy of idolatry. Sometimes idolatry is very blatant—the literal veneration of a false god or a graven image, as we're going to see in our passage. But we have to remind ourselves that idolatry creeps up in many forms, manifesting itself as a heart that values created things over the Creator who made us. That is the essence of idolatry.

But the grace of God in salvation overcomes this idolatry, as we're going to see this morning. Ultimately, what we're going to look at together this morning is going to show us that the Holy Spirit directs our lives towards ministry, speech, and conduct which magnifies the all-surpassing worth of Jesus over and against every idol. I'll say it again: the Holy Spirit directs our lives towards ministry, speech, and conduct which magnifies the all-surpassing worth of Jesus over and against every idol.

Let's read our passage in its entirety before we begin to break this down. Acts chapter 19, verses 21 through 41, and this is the Word of God to us this morning.

"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, 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!'

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."

The first point that we're going to see together this morning comes in verses 21 through 22, and that is I want us to look at Paul's resolve. Paul's resolve. It says in verse 21, "Now after these events, Paul resolved in the Spirit." He resolved in the Spirit. While there are some translations which interpret this to be simply a reference to Paul's own human spirit, I believe the ESV and other similar translations are correct in seeing this as a reference to the Holy Spirit. Evidence for this comes just in the very next chapter, in chapter 20, verse 22, where we clearly see that it is the Holy Spirit who is moving Paul to go to Jerusalem.

Acts chapter 20, verses 22 and 23: "And behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me."

It seems from this then that Paul's travel plans are being directed by the influence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is giving Paul an inner sense of prompting or perhaps creating within him a strong sense of desire and urgency to carry out the travel plans that are listed here. He goes on and he says that 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."

So he's passing through Macedonia and Achaia to get to where? To Jerusalem. But this strikes us as a little bit odd, that he says, "I want to go through Macedonia and Achaia on the way to Jerusalem." Why does this strike us as odd? Well, take a look at this map with me. This is a map of Paul's third missionary journey. Paul's right here in Ephesus. Jerusalem's way over here. And yet where is it that he says he needs to go on the way to Jerusalem? "I need to go up into Macedonia and Achaia on the way to Jerusalem." It's the complete opposite direction. It's definitely not the most direct route to get there.

So what is he doing? Why is he taking the long way around? I think that if we look at some of the writings of the Epistles—1st and 2nd Corinthians, the book of Romans—we see a lot more light shed on this to understand what it was that Paul was doing. Let's look at one passage, Romans chapter 15, verses 25 through 27. Paul wrote to the Romans, "At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings."

So Paul, he had a Spirit-given desire to bring relief to the needy saints in Jerusalem, and he planned to do this by collecting a love offering from the churches in Macedonia and Achaia, which he would then bring to the saints in Jerusalem. That's why he's going the long way, to collect that offering to bring to Jerusalem. Such love is clearly the fruit of a Spirit-generated desire by the Holy Spirit. But even Jerusalem is not Paul's ultimate goal, as he goes on to say in verse 21c, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome."

Even Jerusalem is a pit stop on the way to Rome. Paul really had a strong desire to visit there. Why? Well, we know from the book of Romans that Paul really wanted to visit the church in Rome. Paul did not plant that church. It was already established before he ever got there. But he'd heard so much about them and about their faith that he longed to enjoy fellowship with them and to build them up in the faith of the gospel.

Romans chapter 1, verses 11 through 12, gives us a little bit of this desire of Paul. He says to the Romans, "For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." A longing to share fellowship with other believers and to build them up in the faith, that is also another clearly Spirit-wrought desire.

But we also find in Romans that even Rome was not his final goal on this journey. If we read Romans chapter 15, verses 23 and 24, and then we'll skip down to verse 28, listen to what Paul says to the Romans: "But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while... When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you."

Not only did Paul want to fellowship with the church in Rome, but he then wanted to use the church in Rome as a launching pad and a base of support to send him even further west into Spain, to keep expanding the borders of the gospel's influence in the world. Paul was a visionary, wasn't he? That was always his goal: pushing further and further out, letting the gospel go to lands where it had not yet been. And this was another clearly Spirit-wrought desire.

So we see then that the Holy Spirit, He was producing a fervent resolve in Paul's heart to want to provide relief to the saints, fellowship with the saints in the truth of the gospel, and continue spreading the gospel to new regions of the earth. But we continue reading in verse 22 of our passage this morning, "And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while."

Why did he send Timothy and Erastus ahead of himself into Macedonia? Well, it would seem that Paul sent his coworkers ahead of him to begin the process of preparing the collection ahead of him so that it would already be ready by the time he got there and there wouldn't be any further work to be done in that regard. This would fit what we read about even in passages like 1 Corinthians 16, where Paul commends Timothy to the Corinthians even as he provides instructions in the letter for the collection. So he sent his companions ahead to begin that work of collecting and preparing the gift.

But there's one more detail to cover under this first point. Rather than going with Timothy and Erastus, it says that Paul stayed in Asia for a while. Why is this? Once again, the Epistles shed great light on this. Isn't it really amazing even the way that the New Testament canon has kind of been shaped and formed, that the book of Acts provides the narrative backdrop for the Epistles so that you have a context to understand so much of what then is actually written about later on when we get to those letters?

1 Corinthians 16, verses 5 through 9, Paul wrote to the Corinthians—now remember, the Corinthians are in the region of Achaia, which is on this route that Paul intends to go on: "I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries."

So as much as Paul wanted to go and engage in those other fruitful areas of service and ministry which we've just outlined, he knew that he had to stay in Ephesus, which was of course in Asia, until the work there was done. God had opened a wide door for effective service and outreach and ministry, and Paul was not going to squander that opportunity. He knew that he had to focus on the work which was right in front of him and pour himself into that until the time when the Lord decided to move him on, when the work was done.

And yet whenever there is effective work taking place, there's also resistance, isn't there? There will always be these adversaries, as Paul speaks of. We've seen that all throughout Acts. We've already seen opposition to Paul's ministry in Ephesus, and we're about to see more adversaries in the rest of our passage this morning. But there's a lot packed in even just into these two short verses. They help us gain insight into Paul's Holy Spirit-motivated desire to give relief to the saints, fellowship with the saints in the gospel, spread the gospel to new regions, and yes, to complete the work right in front of him there in Ephesus.

Verse 21 also serves another function in the book of Acts. Verse 21 actually provides us with an outline for the rest of the book of Acts as the rest of Acts will trace Paul's journey through Macedonia and Achaia and then to Jerusalem and then ultimately through much toil and difficulty to Rome itself. So you can almost think of this as an outline of the rest of the book in verse 21.

But first, let's make an observation here: the Holy Spirit directs the church's mission as He influences the direction of our hearts. The Holy Spirit directs the church's mission as He influences the direction of our hearts. We see how much was accomplished through Paul in the church and the world as we trace his activities through these various locations. But it all goes back to that beginning line of verse 21: Paul's resolve to carry out this course came from where? It came from the Holy Spirit. He resolved in the Spirit.

And the same Holy Spirit can fill our hearts with a strong desire of work to accomplish for Him. He can place those goals in our hearts. So the application then would be: pray for the Holy Spirit to conform your desires to His and to lead you into outlets of effective service and ministry. Pray for the Holy Spirit to conform your desires to His and to lead you into effective outlets of service and ministry.

The biggest way that the Spirit conforms our desires to His is through scripture and prayer. As we read the Word and pray the Word back to God, we are aligning our wills to God's. Over time, the goal is that our priorities and the things that we love will begin to look more and more like God's priorities and the things that He loves. And as we grow in this way, we'll find that we begin to develop more of a heart for the areas of ministry that align with God's heart so that we grow in our hearts' yearning to serve in those same ways in various ways.

Sometimes I think that the Holy Spirit really does impress upon our hearts a strong desire or a goal to pray for and to seek to accomplish. I've had this happen before where I'm laying in bed at night and I can't sleep, and I just get this strong sense of something to pray about, maybe related to the church or the ministry in some way with an unusual sense of urgency impressed upon me to really pray about this. Sometimes it can take you by surprise.

But I have to give a caveat here as you seek to grow to be more Spirit-led and to let Him have a greater influence in your heart's desire: please don't then go around and telling people, "God told me..." fill in the blank. When you feel those senses of promptings internally, be very reserved in your speech. Don't go around saying, "God told me this" and "God said this to me," "He told me to do this."

One, I think it's very dangerous to introduce any sentence with "God told me" unless the next statement is a Bible verse. As God is not granting any new revelation today, revelation is finished with scripture. But second, we also have to recognize we could be mistaken about what we believe to be the work of the Holy Spirit prompting us in some direction. I may think that some desire or sense of direction comes from the Lord, and then that course of action turns out not to come to fruition in the end. And thus, time proves that it was really just our plans and not the Lord's. So seek the Spirit's guidance in your life through the Word of God and through wise counsel with other believers and through prayer. Yes, do that. But be very reserved about the kinds of statements that you make in this regard. If you believe that the Lord is leading you in some direction that aligns with His Word, then pursue it. But recognize that it will take time to see if this inner sense of direction will actually come to fruition with the Lord's blessing overseeing it and guiding your labors.

Paul remained in Ephesus for fruitful gospel work. Но the gospel labor, it's now met with resistance as we see in verses 23 through 34, Demetrius's disturbance. Let's look at verse 23: "About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way." "No little disturbance." That's just another way of saying it was a big disturbance, isn't it? And it was over what? It was over "the Way." Remember, we've seen a couple of times in the last few passages of Acts a reference to "the Way," and we noted how it was really just an early way of referring to Christianity, probably because Jesus Himself said, "I am the Way," and so followers of Christ became followers of the Way. Christianity was known as the Way.

But what was this big disturbance all about? Let's look at verse 24: "For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen." So there's a silversmith, his name is Demetrius, and he makes little shrines to the false goddess Artemis. And since he brings the business to the craftsmen, maybe we can think of him as the guild master. Perhaps many of these other craftsmen are even employed by him. Either way, it's clear he's the ringleader of the whole crew.

But notice that he brought no little business to the craftsmen. Do you see the parallel here? No little disturbance, no little business. That's the point. That's the parallel. And so we're already beginning to get a sense of what this is really about: the disruption of this idolatrous business practice. And this is confirmed in 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.'" Bingo. There it is. It's all about the money. That's the issue here. And Paul, he's a threat to their profit. How?

Look at verse 26: "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." Paul is a threat to their profit by proclaiming that there is only one true and living God so that these idols, including the idols of Artemis, are nothing. This matches Paul's preaching in chapter 17, verse 29 that we saw: "Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man."

And this is not the first time that we've seen the gospel threaten an illicit form of financial gain, is it? Think back to the demon-possessed, fortune-telling slave girl in Philippi. Once Paul cast the demon out of her and her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, what did they do? They stirred up a riot in Philippi. So the real motive is the money, just as it was for the slave owners in chapter 16. Paul's ministry in Ephesus had been so effective, and such a significant number of people had turned to Christ, that it was actually beginning to have a tangible economic impact on the idol business, on the idol trade. Enough people had stopped buying these silver shrines of Artemis that Demetrius and the other craftsmen were beginning to feel it where it hurt the most—in the wallet.

But the silversmiths' guild in chapter 19, it will now also employ a similar strategy as the slave owners did in chapter 16: stir up the crowd once again. Look at verse 27, the way they accomplish this: "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."

So not only might the silversmiths' trade of idol making fall out of favor with the people, but the Temple of Artemis may also lose esteem in the people's eyes. The city of Ephesus was renowned for its Temple of Artemis. The Temple of Artemis was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was actually the largest building in the world at that time. It must have truly been a sight to behold, mustn't it? And Ephesus would have considered it a great honor to be the city chosen to host the Temple of Artemis so that this city with the capital of Artemis worship in the Greco-Roman world is known for this. It's renowned for it.

And Demetrius expresses the fear not only that the temple which Ephesus so prided itself in will lose esteem, but even that the goddess Artemis herself will lose honor in the midst of the world. He says that all Asia and the world worship this Artemis. Now, this is no exaggeration, as people from all over the ancient world would travel to Ephesus to worship Artemis in this magnificent and world-renowned temple structure. So you really could say that Artemis worship was the city's claim to fame. It was what it was known for. It was the main draw to the city of Ephesus.

And you just think about the economic interest in having travelers come from all over the world to visit the city of Ephesus. Especially for the silversmiths. I bet that they saw quite a surge in sales and profits when these worshippers would come from all over. It was an economic draw. In modern terms, we might say that Ephesus got a lot of its annual revenue from tourism—the tourists coming to worship in this great temple structure to Artemis.

So the religious pride of Artemis worship and the civic pride in Ephesus's claim to fame are interrelated here. And it's these two things that Demetrius is appealing to in order to stir up this mob: civic and religious pride. That's the strategy. "We pride ourselves that we are the temple keepers of the temple to Artemis, and we of course love our goddess Artemis. We don't want her to lose fame and renown." That's the strategy: appeal to the masses' religious and civic pride.

But the true motivation behind it is the money, as we saw. The strategy is just a ploy to try to find some reason to fight back against the influence of Christianity. Но as we move in to see this riot unfold, I want us to pay attention to the effects that idolatry has on the masses—specifically the effects that this sinful idolatry has on both the emotions and the mind. The effect that the idolatry has on the emotions and the mind of the people.

First, let's look at the emotions in verse 28: "When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, 'Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!'" Lest we think that we have nothing to learn from this passage as we see their rage, lest we think that this has nothing to do with us because we're above such things—we don't really engage in this explicit type of idol worship today, a form of Artemis worship which is no longer very prevalent in the world—consider that the root issue of idolatry is actually really the common and natural bent to all of our hearts apart from the Lord's intervention.

Romans describes that this is the fundamental issue with the sinful human heart. Romans chapter 1, verses 18 through 23: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things."

This is a general description of fallen humanity apart from the grace of God: to exchange the glory of God for the image of created things. The root of essentially all sin is the same—idolatry and unbelief. That we prefer and value things in the creation over our Creator, seeking our highest satisfaction in created things rather than the Creator who we were made for, who we were made to know. And this is inherently tied with unbelief as well, because it's unbelief which does not believe that God is the truly satisfying One, instead choosing to believe the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil which promises greater delight in the cheap pleasures of sin, preferring them over God.

But the gospel's challenge against idolatry in Ephesus sparks their rage so that they feel indignant to cry out in defense of Artemis worship, in defense of Artemis's honor. Why is this? Because idolatry first and foremost deals with the affections of the heart. At root in idolatry is that we love the wrong things. And when we feel that the thing we love is threatened, our idol, we emotionally rise up in anger to defend what our heart is clinging to.

Perhaps you've noticed this, even in your own heart. Someone challenges something that you're really into, or maybe you feel slighted in some way and you start getting a little bit hot under the collar. You feel that little flame kick in. The anger starts to well up within you. But if we were wise we would stop long enough to ask the question: wait a minute, why am I having the emotional response which I'm feeling right now? Where's that coming from? Why do I feel so emotionally invested in my hobby or choice of entertainment that when another Christian with different convictions than mine speaks against it, I feel personally threatened or like I need to defend the honor of whatever I'm into?

Why do I act this way? Why do I feel this way? Maybe that thing is not inherently sinful, but if I have such an emotional reaction when I feel challenged about it, then it likely reveals that I'm putting a level of emotional investment and esteem into that thing that it does not rightly belong to it and that should really be reserved only for the Lord.

This can even crop up in the church, as we engage in various ministries. We might feel such a sense of ownership over some particular ministry that when something is done a little bit of a different way, all of a sudden my instinct for "Well, this is my ministry, I need to control how it's done here" kicks in, and we start feeling that. That need of "Well, this is my area, you're stepping on my toes, this is my thing." We feel that defensiveness kick in.

That is to say, our emotional defensiveness and anger, they oftentimes actually expose the idols in our hearts, or really our need for control—what it is that we're clinging to. Or why do we get so angry when we feel slighted by someone? It's likely because we've so convinced ourselves of our own sense of self-importance that we believe that we deserve more honor than we're actually getting. We react angry and defensive because our glory is challenged. We're so quick to idolize ourselves, and this self-love so often lies at the root of our sins, does it not?

But what should we get angry and indignant about? Not our honor, but when the truly worthy One, God Himself, is dishonored. Last week in David Coleman's message, he mentioned that so often what we feel is our righteous indignation is not righteous at all. If we'll begin to actually press in we'll recognize this is about me, that's why I'm getting so angry here. And yet scripture does provide us with a great example of truly righteous indignation when someone is angry not for his own honor but because the honor of God has been challenged.

You can think of David in 1 Samuel chapter 17, verse 26. Listen to what he says here when Goliath is taunting the armies of the living God: "And David said to the men who stood by him, 'What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?'" Why was he angry? Because he recognized that to taunt and mock God's army in this way is really just to blaspheme God Himself. He understood that it was God whose honor was being sullied, and so that stirred up a righteous anger in David. That's something right to become angry about. Not when our own petty sense of self-glory is threatened or whatever it is that we're clinging to.

But as we move into verse 29, we're going to see that the sin of idolatry, the fundamental problem of the human heart, of fallen humanity, it affects not only our emotions but also our mind. Let's look at verse 29: "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."

We see the confusion here. Now, for those of you who really enjoy learning the new theological terms from time to time, theologians refer to the effects of sin on the mind as the noetic effects of sin. The noetic effects of sin. That sin affects every aspect of our being, not just our emotions, not just our will, not just our bodies, but even our mind, even the way that we think. That's the noetic effects of sin.

So the attitude of rage, it so prevails that it leads to a general disorderliness and tumult. They're not being driven by reason at this point, but by emotion as the crowd surges through the city. And they grab Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's companions. Once again, this is really not unlike what happened in Thessalonica where they could not find Paul and his team, so what did they do? They just settled for dragging some of the other Christians out, including Jason. So at least some of the crowd knows to direct its animosity towards the Christians due to their challenge of idol worship, but that can't be said of all the crowd. Not all of them even know who to direct it towards. We're going to come back to verses 30 and 31 in just a few minutes, but first let's skip down to verses 32 to 34 to continue looking at this confusion that we're speaking of here.

Verses 32 and 34: "Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion"—there it is again—"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!'"

So we see the idea of the confusion once again. And this time, it manifests itself in the crowd saying conflicting things, not even knowing what the whole riot is about. There was only one unifying element in the whole thing, and that is what comes in verse 34. They all want to cry out to defend the honor of Artemis for two whole hours. "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

But considering the diverse sentiments of verse 32—some of them say one thing, some say the other, they don't actually know exactly why they're all there—combined with the one unifying element of 34—they're all crying out to defend Artemis—that led one commentator to write the following: "What united them was a common resentment against those who paid no honor to the goddess Artemis. Yet there appears to have been widespread confusion among the people as to the focus of their resentment." They know they're mad, they don't even know who they're mad at. They just know that they're mad about something, and that is that Artemis has been challenged. And so they're up in arms about that.

But we read in verse 33 about this Alexander. Now, who is he? What is he doing here? Well, we don't really know almost anything about him, other than the fact that he was a Jew. We have no real basis to connect him with any of the other mentions of someone named Alexander in the New Testament. So a likely explanation is that the Jews, they put forward Alexander to speak in an effort to disassociate the Jews from the Christians. Perhaps the defense Alexander's trying to make is to say that it was Paul and the Christians who are responsible for the unrest, not the Jews, so that the anger of the city does not land on the Jewish population.

But Alexander, he never even gets the chance to make his case. Why? Because evidently based on his appearance, the people can tell that he's Jewish and they just shout him down, not even giving him the opportunity to speak. Why the resentment of him for being simply Jewish? Well, we've already seen other instances of anti-Semitism in the book of Acts. And particularly in this case, what the Christians and the Jews had in common was an insistence on monotheism—the belief in only one God. Not just the Christians but also the Jews would not approve of Artemis worship. And that Jewish monotheism is likely enough to once again spark a two-hour chant of the mob at the mere sight of a Jewish man.

But this reveals something else about the confusion and the effect on the mind that idolatry has on us. And that is: it creates a blind unwillingness to reason. Just a blind, stubborn unwillingness to reason. Fueled by their idolatrous passion, the people were not even willing to listen to someone who held opposing views. Rather than engage in intelligent conversation in the interaction of opposing ideas, the crowd would rather just drown this man's voice out with a mindless droning chant that lasted for two whole hours. You think their voices might have been shot by the end of that?

But it shouldn't surprise us that their passion for idolatry led to an unwillingness to reason and to mass confusion, as idolatry always dulls the mind. It's often been said, and I think this is completely true: sin makes you stupid. Sin makes you stupid. Consider again the passage that we looked at earlier in Romans chapter 1. Romans 1:21-22: "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools." Idolatry causes us to embrace futile ways of thinking and our hearts to become darkened.

In other words, idolatry blinds us. When we are in the grip of sin, we are so captivated by our evil desire that we don't think properly. We don't have the sense or reason to consider the harmful consequences that will come to us because of our sin, and instead we either use faulty reasoning to justify our sin or else we abandon reason entirely altogether because the only thing we care about is gratifying the insatiable desire of our flesh. The desire for sin overrules and distorts the truth or reason which would restrain us from plunging headlong into our own destruction. You don't think right when you're captivated in the grip of sin.

Consider also Psalm 115, verses 4 through 8: "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat." That's a description of the idols. And yet notice then what is said of those who worship them: "Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them."

In other words, those who worship idols become just as unseeing and blind as the idol itself. Sin distorts our perception of reality. But the more we love God and have our affections rightly ordered by His Word, the more we come to see the true nature of things clearly and understand the world rightly.

But as I was studying this passage, I noticed something interesting. The commentaries that I looked at didn't really draw any attention to it, but nevertheless, I do think it's there. And that is: I think that verses 28 through 34 form what you call a chiasm. What is a chiasm? Well, a chiasm is a literary ring structure in which the first line parallels the last line, the second line parallels the next to last line, and so forth and so on until you reach the middle of the structure which is highlighted by being the center of the chiasm. So for those who maybe are new to this concept, I have a slide to illustrate the way a chiasm works here. So in a chiasm, you'd have line A, and then line B, and then line C, but then you have B-prime where this later line parallels the thought earlier in line B. And then A-prime, the last line, parallels the thought in line A. And all of it funnels towards really the focus in the middle. It highlights attention to what's being highlighted there in the middle.

And how would this work out in our passage? Why do I think that these verses form a chiasm? Well, notice in verse 28 they say, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" and then once again in the final section of this paragraph, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" Once again, in verse 29, we have the emphasis on the confusion, the confusion as they rushed. And then also in verse 32, the confusion, the confusion.

And so what's the center then of the passage which the chiasm would be drawing our focus to in the middle? It's verses 30 and 31. Let's read them. Let's start with just verse 30: "But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him." And what we see there really is that the ignoble attributes of the idolatrous crowd, their rage and their confusion, are being contrasted with the noble courage of Paul.

Paul courageously wants to go in among the crowd. Why? Well, we can imagine that he wants to come to the aid of his friends Gaius and Aristarchus. But he probably also sees this as a platform moment to proclaim the gospel in front of thousands of people, right? It might be a riot, but still, they've all headed to this theater which can house approximately 25,000 people. And so Paul is willing to risk his life to save his friends and to proclaim the gospel in front of this enormous crowd. He sees an opportunity. And he's so intent on it that it takes the care and compassion of others to hold him back and spare his life so that he isn't torn to pieces by the crowd.

But what would fill Paul with such a courageous spirit in this instance? Well, I think we get a little clue into this in the next chapter, chapter 20, verse 24, where he tells the Ephesian elders: "But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I've received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." You see, for Paul, Jesus and the ministry of making Jesus known was better than life itself. This is the exact opposite of an idolatrous heart. This is a heart that values Jesus supremely in all things. And of course, Jesus is always better.

I want us to consider as well even the way the book of Jeremiah speaks about the folly of idolatry and the superiority of God by all comparison. Look at Jeremiah 2, verse 13, where Jeremiah is rebuking the people for their idolatry, their worship of other gods, and this is the description of what's really taking place: "For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." In other words, God says, "Here I am! I'm the fountain of living waters, all you could ever want. And yet you've abandoned me. That's evil number one. Evil number two is instead you've replaced me with something worthless. Not just a cistern, that's not a flow of water, but a broken cistern at that, that doesn't even hold any water."

Sin and the idols of our hearts, they lose their appeal when we recognize that they can't satisfy us in the way that only God can. God is an endless source, a fountain of refreshment to our souls, and every alternative that we might seek satisfaction in is by comparison a broken cistern that holds no water, leaving us to lap up whatever trace we can find that is spilled out into the muddy puddles at our feet. It's garbage.

Just think of the woman at the well in John chapter 4. She sought satisfaction in what? Man after man after man. And yet Jesus was the One right in front of her, telling her that He alone could provide her with the living water that would refresh her soul and spring up into everlasting life. And this is the same realization that so many others in Ephesus had come to when they finally traded in their worship of Artemis, they stopped buying the silver shrines, and instead came to find fullness of joy in Jesus. And it's the same realization that Demetrius and his guild so desperately needed, but which it seems very sadly that they likely never came to: to find that Jesus is so much better than whatever profit that they would lose by repenting of their trade of idol making and putting their skill of silversmithing into some more noble use as they would turn to find satisfaction in Jesus instead. That's what they needed to see, but that they were blind to see in their lostness.

So let's make a second observation here: the gospel overcomes idolatry and its harmful effects in our lives and society when we come to see the all-surpassing worth of Jesus. And so what's the application then? This is how we fight sin. Overcome sin in your life not by a sheer determination of the will to stop sinning but by growing to love Jesus more than the sin that He calls you away from. That's how you win. Not by just white-knuckling it and saying, "I'm not going to do it again," but by growing to love Jesus more so that He is more supremely satisfying to you.

The famous preacher Thomas Chalmers, in a well-known sermon, he called this the expulsive power of a new affection. Oh, that's a mouthful, isn't it? The expulsive power of a new affection. Но let's break it down. In other words, it's saying a new and greater affection or love that has the power to expel an old and lesser affection or love. In other words, we will fail in our sanctification if we merely focus on avoiding sin. If we merely avoid sin, we will create a void which will simply be filled with other sins or perhaps even leave the door wide open for the same ones to return. But instead, we will find great success in our battle against the sin and idolatry of the heart if instead we come to find that Jesus is more pleasant, He's more lovely than the sins that we were once deceived by. We find that the love of Jesus is greater than the love of sin, and that is when we gain real victory against the flesh. Look at how even Hebrews uses this exact same logic to call us away from the idolatry of covetousness. Hebrews 13:5: "Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have." Why? What's the motivation? "For he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" In other words, you want to fight the idolatry of a covetous heart that just says, "I always need more, more, more, more"? Let me tell you, we all wrestle with that as Americans, right? We've all been there. We've all gone to the mall and we don't quite have the budget for the spending spree we would like, and so we walk through and instead of enjoying a day with our family, we're just eaten up with misery because we can't have that nice thing in the window. We've been there. And yet how do you fight that? It's right here. He says, "Keep yourself free from that. Be content with what you have because I will never leave you nor forsake you." I'm enough. You have Me. I'm all you'll ever need. So find contentment and satisfaction of soul in Jesus. That's how you're going to fight covetousness or any other sin that might fight for the affections of your heart.

So how do you practically grow to love Jesus in this way? Spend time with Him and other people who know Him. Form habits which help you set your mind on Him. Read books, good books, beyond just the Bible, written by other godly people which help you see Jesus for the treasure He is. Listen to music which stirs your heart's affections for Jesus. Spend time with people who are contagious in their love for Jesus so that some of their enthusiasm for Him rubs off on you. And as your appetite for Jesus grows, you will find that your appetite for the sins of the world will begin to grow weaker and weaker and weaker.

But there is one last interesting note in verse 31 before we move on to our final point. So let's read 31 very quickly: "And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater." Even some of the Asiarchs urged Paul not to get himself killed in the theater by the mob. These Asiarchs were high-ranking officials who were tied to the Roman Emperor cult which worshipped the emperor. But it's interesting that even these high officials are sympathetic to Paul. This is a further demonstration that at this point, Christianity was not viewed by those in power as a legitimate threat to Roman society or the empire. And this fits with Luke's apologetic emphasis which we've seen on previous occasions throughout the book where he is at pains to show through these accounts that Christianity should be regarded as a legal and legitimate religion which poses no threat to the well-being of society. Luke will further enforce this point in our final few verses that we look at, verses 35 through 41, the clerk's quieting.

First, look at verse 35: "And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd..." This town clerk here, this was the main administrator of the city. And notice he's actually able to succeed in quieting the crowd. Why would they listen to him but not to Alexander? Well, they probably give him a little more respect because of his office, but also, he would have been a pagan like the rest of the Ephesians rather than a monotheist like the Jews or the Christians. So they're willing to give him more of an ear, assuming that he is someone who will likely already be more so on their side.

And we have to cover these verses very briefly, but these final verses, they really break down into three basic points. First, look at verses 35 and 36: "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.'"

So the basic point here is that the clerk is asserting the unquestionable glory of Artemis. In other words, everyone in the world knows of Ephesus's solid reputation of having the honor of hosting the glorious Temple of Artemis. And everyone also knows about the sacred stone that fell from the sky. Perhaps that was a meteorite which fell in the city of Ephesus which people came to associate with Artemis and the worship of Artemis. In other words, the idea is that everyone knows the indisputable facts surrounding Artemis, and she is so great that we don't have to worry about her falling into disrepute just because of Paul and his little band of Christians. In other words, her glory isn't really at stake. Therefore, don't go and get so worked up about this. Don't do anything rash. The Christians aren't a real threat to the glory of Artemis.

But oh, how wrong he was, was he not? He was so wrong. Today, that great Temple of Artemis, once one of the wonders of the ancient world, now lies in total ruins, does it not? And though there are still some fringes which worship Artemis today—I looked it up, does anyone actually do this? Yes, there are a few out there who do—it goes without saying that Artemis worship is definitely not a mainstream religion today. Whereas untold myriads upon myriads upon myriads worship King Jesus. And you know what? This is just a preview of the grand conclusion of all of history: that in the final analysis, every rival god and enemy will crumble before the lordship of Jesus Christ.

But second, the second part of this speech focuses on the noble conduct of the Christians. They haven't actually done anything wrong that would justify the disorder of this riot. And this pagan clerk, he maintains the innocence of the Christians in two specific areas. Look at them in verse 37: "For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess." So the first thing he says they're innocent of is sacrilege. They're not sacrilegious. Most translations render this as: they're not temple robbers. They're not temple robbers.

So the chief act of sacrilege against Artemis would be to rob her temple. And this was actually not an uncommon problem. Remember those silver shrines to Artemis? Well, not only would people take them home as an idol to worship in their house, but they would also offer them to the statue of Artemis in the temple. One commentator described the statue of Artemis in the temple almost like a Christmas tree with all sorts of presents placed around it by the worshippers offering these things to her. And unscrupulous people would sneak around and steal some of those expensive offerings from the temple. But he says, "Look, the Christians have not done this." They weren't thieves.

But the second charge that he clears them of is he says that they're not blasphemers of the goddess. Now, I gotta admit, this one puzzled me when I was in preparation. Isn't it clear that the Christian message is to deny that Artemis is a true goddess? Would that not be blasphemy against Artemis? Well, in a sense, yes, it would be. And so there are two main lines of reasoning which I came across in the commentaries at this point. One interpretation is that the clerk is speaking incorrectly at this point, either out of ignorance or just to say whatever he needs to say to pacify the crowd and break up the riot. The other option is that by blasphemy, he simply means that the Christians have not used a harsh and reviling tone and words when communicating their disagreement with idol worship. And since the clerk's speech is designed by Luke to function in Acts as a part of his defense of Christianity as a legitimate religion in the empire, I think that this second interpretation is more accurate. The Christians spoke out against the idol worship of Artemis, but they did so in a respectful and a gracious tone. They used wisdom in their tone, not adding unnecessary offense to the gospel message, which is already offensive in itself. How wonderful it is when even the enemies of Christianity are forced to acknowledge the good speech and conduct of Christians. Isn't it wonderful when even they are forced to say, "I don't agree with you, but I don't really have anything I can speak against you. Your conduct is very good."

But finally, look at verses 38 through 41. The clerk goes on, "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.

In other words, it's not the Christians who are disturbing public order. Once again, as we've seen over and over again, it's actually the opponents of the gospel, in this case Demetrius and his gang. The clerk as the chief of the city was responsible to calm this riot down lest Ephesus bring down the wrath of Rome on itself, as we've seen before how seriously Rome took any disruption to the Roman peace. And so the clerk says, "Demetrius needs to stop stirring up unrest and instead, if he has any legitimate complaint against Paul or any of the Christians, they should follow the proper legal channels to deal with it, not resorting to this mob justice."

Now, I'm not spending a lot of time on this because it's a theme that we've looked at before in previous passages. But this whole section just further supports Luke's purpose of demonstrating that Christians are not the troublemakers. And so the Christian faith should be recognized as a legitimate and legal religion in the Roman Empire. But what's a final observation we can draw? The gospel overcomes its opponents not by disorder and chaos, but through the noble conduct and gracious speech of Christians. That's how it's done.

And so what's the application? Speak and act in a way which shows Jesus to be the treasure that He is. We're not going to win people to Christ by being jerks for Jesus. As we already mentioned, the gospel is offensive enough in itself to the lost, so we don't need to give the lost any additional ammunition by acting and speaking in ways which will give them an excuse not to believe the gospel that we profess. Let there be a noble, kind, and gracious spirit which pervades your life, which would cause lost family members and coworkers to see and acknowledge the difference in you, even as the city clerk was forced to confess that there were no grounds on which to condemn the Christians. Conduct yourself in such a way that would cause others to sense that you have something they don't—in the way that you work, in the way that you talk, in the way that you raise your families. They see that there's something different there. That way when you have opportunity to witness to the world, to a world filled with hearts just as idolatrous as we're reading about in Acts 19, people will understand that your faith in Jesus is not simply a nominal commitment to attend church once a week, but that you really do treasure Jesus. You treasure Him the most above all and everything else and you find Him to be so much better than whatever it is that they're feeding themselves on in the world.

And I would invite you: if you don't know Jesus today, if you've not yet trusted in Him, recognize that He died and rose to pay for the sin of and to save idolatrous sinners like you. Turn to Him today in repentance and faith and you will find that He alone can quench the thirst of your soul that you've been trying to satisfy with so many other things that always come up short. So, unbeliever, run to Christ today. And believer, keep running to Christ every day, and every time you sense your heart begin to wander and stray from the God you love. "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love." Because ultimately, as we've seen together this morning, the Holy Spirit directs our lives towards ministry, speech, and conduct which magnifies the all-surpassing worth of Jesus over and against every idol.

Let's pray.

Father, You are so good. You are a fountain of living waters. You quench our dry and thirsty souls. You are the giver of all good gifts. And yet we confess that so often we value the gifts above the Giver. Forgive us for this. Create in us a love and a satisfaction in You, in Jesus, that surpasses all else. And I pray that that love, Lord—that love is not something that can be faked. And so I pray that that love would be so genuine in us that it would just spill over, filling us and overflowing into the lives of those around us so that everyone who knows us would say, "Wow, their Jesus is really great." I pray that You'd do this in us for the sake of Your name, for the sake of Your glory, the One who is better than anything and everything else. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.