Acts 19:23-20:16 - Part A

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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Imagine being able to walk down the streets, the very streets, not around the same area, but the very pavements that Paul walked down on the Acadian Way down toward the library of Celsus. And imagine looking into some of the ruins of the shops and seeing the original mosaic tile that Paul would have seen as he was sharing his faith on that street. Now in Ephesus, I never saw the patron deity of that city named Diana. But once when I was in Rome, actually three times when I was in Rome, and we went to the Vatican Museum, as we're walking through the halls of the Vatican, just imagine how stunned I was in the Vatican to turn, look up, and see this in the Vatican. So I just wanted you to see the grotesque nature of this statue, this multi-breasted depiction of Diana of the Ephesians, here made out of marble, discovered, and now is in the Vatican in Rome. Not in Ephesus, in the Vatican, that's interesting. But Diana, this statue, or a statue like it, this multi-breasted statue of Diana, was said to have fallen from heaven to the earth. Well, I wouldn't want it in heaven either, I'd want to get rid of it too.

Maybe it was just trash, take out the trash, dump that thing. It was the belief that Diana was born just outside of Ephesus, thus the temple of Diana was real close to Ephesus, just on the outskirts, this massive place of worship. Diana is the Roman name, her Greek name was Artemis, and she was the goddess of wild animals.

She was born in the woods, she was the goddess of wild animals, the goddess of the hunt, but also the protector of young women, according to their false ideology. So, oftentimes young women would pray to her, they would give off up their maiden cloth and a lock of their hair, I mentioned, as they got older, but also when young married women wanted to get pregnant, they would pray to that patron deity of Ephesus, Diana, that they would get pregnant. Now, I mentioned that the temple was quite large, we'll get to that as we go through this, but according to ancient mythology, Diana was the daughter of Zeus and the twin sister of Apollo, the goddess of fertility as well as the goddess of the hunt. There were in the Roman Empire 39 different shrines, temples to worship her, so she is one of the chief ancient cults, worship cults, religious cults in the Roman world. 39 different sites, however, the chief one, the big one, HQ, headquarters for Diana worship was Ephesus, so much so that Ephesus was called the official guardian of the temple of Diana. Because she fell out of heaven, or the statue did, she was born there, the temple there was larger than any worship site, the guardian of the worship of that cult lay at Ephesus. The temple was one of the seven wonders of the world, huge. And when I say huge, I mean huge. The pillars in that temple stood 60 feet tall, so I know there's lights, but if you were to look up at the very center of our auditorium and double that, and go a little higher than that, that's how tall one of the pillars was.

127 pillars on an area, a building that measured 425 feet long by 220 feet wide, or four times the footprint of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece on the Acropolis, which is of itself a massive, it was one of the seven wonders of the world. There in the center of that temple was some depiction, like that gross image that you saw on the slide a moment ago, that multi-breasted, weird-looking trash thrown out of heaven to earth. Now in verse 23, because Paul has been in Ephesus and he spent some time there, verse 23 it says, and about that time, there arose a great commotion about the way. There's that little description of the early church, and I just want you to make note of it, the way is what early Christians were called, they were not called Baptists, or Methodists, or Calvary, they didn't go by different genres like that, or Calvinists or Arminians, they were just the way. And I love that actually, because it is the way, it's the only way, it's not a way, one of many ways, it's the way.

And Jesus said in John 14, I am the way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. So I love the fact that in the book of Acts, one of the earliest depictions of New Testament Christians was the way, so a great commotion, it'll get into a riot, but confusion and commotion over the way. But for, and here's why, we find out was an economic reason, for a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who had made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsmen. If you travel today to Rome, and you go to the Colosseum, just outside the Colosseum, they have these little tchotchke shops, these little gift shops where you can buy junk, tourist junk. And you can buy like a little tiny colosseum that you could take home, give to your kids, and they could put it on their shelf, or you could put it on your desk. If you go to the Parthenon in Greece, same thing, you go outside, there's these little shops, and you can get a tiny little model of the Parthenon.

You go to Paris, Eiffel Tower. You go to Caesarea in Israel, you get a little depiction of the theater at Caesarea. Well, there were tourists back then, too, who wanted souvenirs whenever they would visit Ephesus, so little silver shrines were made, but it was more than just a tourist souvenir, it was used for one's private worship.

It was like having personal idol. It was a depiction of the temple, but a little rounded structure on these shrines, because archaeologists have discovered terracotta ones of these. So the silver was melted off of these terracotta little depictions of this encircled shrine, and right in the middle, a depiction of Diana, so people could buy them and take them home. Now, Demetrius was a businessman in Ephesus. In fact, it looks like, it sounds like, it could be that he was like the president of the silversmith union. He was notable, he was noteworthy, he had influence, he had stature, he speaks here, he gets the people together, and it will ensue into a riot. He, verse 25, called them together, that is the rest of the union workers who make these little idol shrines. He called them together with the workers of similar occupation and said, men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Now he's getting honest.

Now he's revealing motive. The reason he is upset is because the gospel is going out, causing people to turn from idols. If you were with us last week, people who saw the power of God brought their occultic books to one huge bonfire and burned all of those false religious parchments and books right there in Ephesus. So people are turning away from idols and turning to the Lord, which means those that make little idols are losing profit, and that's his point.

We have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana.

It may be despised and her magnificence destroyed whom all Asia and the world worship. Now, when they heard this, they were full of wrath and they cried out saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. So the whole city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with one accord. And one Prius.

There were a couple of different cars there, perhaps. Having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's travel companion. You can never step on a man's wallet without hearing him cry, ouch.

The most sensitive part of a person's anatomy is their pocketbook. And Paul just touched that. How? Just by simply spreading the gospel, not by picketing against Diana worshippers, not by holding out signs. He just simply spoke the positive truth and let the negative consequences happen to the false religion.

But Demetrius is mad and he knows that his pocketbook is being touched. And so he wants to spread a zealous fervor around the workmen, the craftsmen to get Paul out of town. What I love about this is it affirms Paul's testimony.

There is never a stronger testimony than when one's critics admit the success of their adversary. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, God's peace, his Shalom, can penetrate every aspect of your life spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally. In his book, Unleashing Peace, Experiencing God's Shalom in Your Pursuit of Happiness, author Jeremiah J. Johnston helps you understand Shalom and guides you into the peace that passes all understanding. And when you give a gift of fifty dollars or more today, we'll send you Unleashing Peace. Our thanks for your support to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. Paul, wherever he goes, this stuff happens.

People are turning away from idols. Hallelujah. What a great testimony when you don't say that, but somebody else speaks highly of you like that. Now he wasn't trying to give him kudos. He was trying to cut him down and start a riot.

But nonetheless, he had to make that admission. Now it mentions here the theater at Ephesus. They all rushed into the theater. I've been in this theater. I've been in a lot of ancient Roman and Greek theaters around the area of Turkey, Asia Minor and the Middle East. But this was known as the largest theater, Greek theater, in the ancient world. And it's preserved. In fact, the entire Akkadian Way, Library of Celsus, the cross streets that face out to the ancient harbor with the theater, which, by the way, faced out to sea toward the harbor.

It's preserved to this day. And so when we take groups to Ephesus, we go in this theater. And I don't care how big your group is, it looks like a drop in the bucket because it sat 25,000 people.

Enormous. And so they're all going into the theater. And they seize these men, Gaius and Aristarchus, Massoonians, Paul's traveling companions. So it's getting hot spiritually in Ephesus. He found favor in Ephesus. He'd been there a couple of years. He went from the synagogue. They were interested until they got disinterested. They wanted to hear him until they didn't want to hear him. He got out of that, went to the school of Tyrannus, spoke there a couple of years.

All of Asia heard the word from that vantage point. But things are getting hot. It's tough to be in Ephesus now for Paul after a couple of years.

It's interesting. And my heart is burdened over this. But some of you have gone with us on these journeys of Paul tours where we've gone to Ephesus. And now cruise lines, the ships that take passengers in that part of the world refuse to go to Ephesus today. And that is because the threat is high. The religious threat is high in Ephesus and it's not safe for travelers. And Turkey is turning more and more radicalized. Now the threat is not the worship of Diana anymore.

It's the worship of Islam. And Ephesus that once saw a great revival, you can't find a Christian church in that city. In fact, so many of these areas that had the gospel penetrate them, like the seven churches of Asia mentioned in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 and Colossae, Hierapolis, Laodicea, all of these places that had great movements, the churches vanished, virtually vanished. Now there are believers in modern day Turkey, but like 0.2%. And that's all different varieties of churches. For the last 800 years, that has become the case.

And it was dawning on me this week as I was just studying something else, but I realized just how desperate it has become. It has become as vacant of the Christian witness as it was during the time before Paul. So I just found myself this week daily praying for believers in Turkey and for more believers in Turkey in these areas for a revival to break out.

You may want to make that a prayer point as well. But as we go through this, keep in mind something great happened there, but that witness is long gone. So in verse 30, when Paul wanted to go to the people, that is he wants to go in the theater, he wants to speak to the people. This is Paul's style.

You remember, well, we haven't got there yet, but I know you've read it, so I'll say you remember. You remember later in the book of Acts when Paul goes to Jerusalem, gets arrested in the temple, they bring him into the Roman garrison. The mob is outside in the temple courts wanting to tear him to pieces. And Paul says to the Roman guard who has him, let me go out and speak to the people, he's even going to tear you to shreds. So, oh, but I'm one of them, they'll understand my way.

And this is Paul. Don't have somebody go for me, let me speak to them. Let me go into this theater where people hate my guts. Let me just have a few words with them.

But notice that. When Paul wanted to go to the people, the disciples would not allow him. It was dangerous. It was too dangerous. And they didn't want to place him in unnecessary danger, hence they want to protect him, they want to keep him from that.

Nothing wrong with that, that's wisdom. And it's interesting coming up what we read in the next verse. Then some of the officials of Asia, I'll get back to what that means in a second, who were his friends, that is friends of Paul, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater. Now, you see in verse 31, officials of Asia, these were called Asiarchs. You've heard of patriarchs, oligarchs, these are Asiarchs. And they were called Asiarchs because they were elected officials of prominence, notoriety, influence, and wealth, yearly elected to these ancient cities.

And they were given the term Asiarchs because of Asia Minor, that the area was called. Now, it's interesting to me that these men of influence, these secular governmental rulers in this city are friends of Paul. And Paul decided, you know, to get out and about, he's not like cloistered, he's going to make friends in the community, he's high profile, he'll meet these guys and be friends with them. And what this shows, and it's important to make a note of this, is that at first, when Christianity made its debut, the secular world had no qualms with it. The religious world did, the Jewish world certainly did. Paul was on the hit list ever since he was converted. And there's great persecution in Jerusalem from the beginning. But when it comes to the secular world, the governments never saw Christianity as a threat, even in Rome. It wasn't until Caesar Nero came on the scene and subsequent rulers of the Roman government decided to focus their attention, and Nero did it because history says he burned Rome, or a part of it, and he needed a scapegoat, so he turned to Paul and the early Christians in Rome.

But at first, no problems. Paul's our buddy. Hey, don't let Paul go into the theater. So it's just interesting that Paul made friends with these government Asiarchs.

Verse 32, Some, this is in the theater, therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused and most of them didn't know why they came together. Come on, that's funny. I don't even have to say anything about it.

That in and of itself is hilarious. This is mob mentality. What are we mad at? What are we protesting? I think a lot of protests that hit the streets are like this. Hey, we're going to protest.

Okay, man, I've got nothing to do. They'll whip it up, they'll do the march, they'll get their selfies, they'll get their pictures, but they don't really know why. They don't certainly have a breast of the depth of the knowledge of the issue necessarily, but it's like a bar fight. You have one and then another and then a group and you don't know who's on which team, but hey, everybody's fighting.

It's sort of like an ancient bar fight in the Ephesus Theater. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward, and Alexander motioned with his hand and wanted to make his defense to the people. Alexander was obviously a leading Jewish citizen of that city. Jews, ancient Jews in ancient cities like this, did have a problem and they had problems with Jews.

Why? Because Jews didn't believe in depictions of any sort of anything, animal or human. You never have any statue or any painting or anything, especially in worship.

It was forbidden in Judaism, second commandment. So in a town like Ephesus where there's lots of idolatry, the Jews would be opposed to it. And this leading spokesman, Alexander, is drawn out of the crowd to speak. Now, we don't know for sure if this is the same Alexander, but he definitely is against Paul.

He's against the idols, but he's against the Christian movement. The Jewish synagogue has become thus in that city at the time. But in 1 Timothy chapter 1, Paul mentions a guy named Alexander the coppersmith. And it could be, since he's writing that letter to Timothy who pastored in Ephesus, it's a letter written to Ephesus, it could be this Alexander. This Jewish citizen could have been a coppersmith. But it's interesting, Paul says, Alexander the coppersmith has done me much harm.

You know, let his reward be according to his deeds. We don't know if it's the same Alexander. It could be, it may not be. It was a common name, but it could be that's who he's referring to. But most certainly, the riot that breaks out in Ephesus during the latter days of Paul's ministry there is what Paul referred to in 1 Corinthians 15. He said, I fought with the beasts at Ephesus. That doesn't mean he was in a coliseum fighting wild animals. It was metaphoric for the riot probably that broke out in that theater. I fought with the beasts at Ephesus, he writes to the Corinthians.

So they're crying out, they're in a fervor. Alexander motions with his hands to give a defense to the people, verse 34. And when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

Great is Diana. That's the only thing on their music sheet. That's the only verse. There's not a second verse. It's just the refrain over and over.

Two hours, they're just kind of shouting like, hoorah, hoorah. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Jeremiah Johnston's powerful book, Unleashing Peace, to guide you into the peace that passes all understanding. To request your copy, call 800-922-1888.

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