Reaching a City (Part 2 of 2)

When the Apostle Paul preached the Gospel in Ephesus, he proclaimed that man-made gods aren't gods at all.

As a result, sales of idols plummeted and the local craftsmen incited a riot against him. Today on Truth for Life, we'll learn how Paul's response to the opposition set an example for Christians not only then, but in our day as well. Alistair Begg is teaching from Acts chapter 19. So you have, then, the craftsmen, and then you have the crowd, and then we're introduced to the city clerk.

Well, actually, we're not really immediately introduced to the city clerk, because in verses 32 and 33 and 34, we have a couple of important insights. First of all, that the assembly was in confusion. Some were shouting one thing, some were shouting another thing, and most of the people didn't even know why they were there. It's almost humorous, isn't it? I think it probably is.

I think this is one of the little insights into Luke's humor. Some shouted one thing, some shouted another thing, and if you ask the majority of the people, they didn't even know why they were shouting at all. It's not dissimilar to many crowds that we find in the cities of our day. Why are you here? I don't know. I'm part of Rent-a-Riot. I don't know why I'm here. Some guy came up to me and said, hey, you know, if you hold this sign and shout, what do I have to shout?

Great is our team. I say, yeah, I can shout that for a while. That's fine. Okay, well then let's get going. Now, in the midst of that confused crowd, the Jews, wishing verse 33 to distinguish themselves from Paul and his colleagues, choose a poor unsuspecting fellow Alexander, and they push him to the front. We didn't delay here, but I don't want you to miss this. There's nothing in the Bible except for our help.

And again, I think this is vaguely humorous, isn't it? The Jews pushed Alexander to the front, and once he got to the front, standing there, poor Saul, some of them began to shout instructions to him. Okay, go ahead, Alexander. Come on now. Go, Alexander.

Start. Say your peace, Alexander. The poor fellow standing there, people are prompting him from the front rows. And eventually he manages to motion for silence. You see him standing there in front of the vast crowd, putting up his hands for silence? Then he just turns around and walks back to his place.

Because as a result of his request for silence, when they realized he was a Jew, they shouted in unison for about two hours. Alexander, you're our man. Step up. Okay, here I go.

What should I do? Well, go ahead now, Alexander. Okay, let's try this. Okay, fine.

Thank you. And his wife asked him in the evening, what was the highlight of your day? Well, I spoke before a large crowd in Ephesus. You did? What did you say? Well, not a lot, actually. Well, actually nothing.

Well, I never spoke at all. But the city clerk, the liaison officer between the civic government and the Roman provincial administration, he knew how to do it. He was a politician. He understood it. And he was able to do what Alexander was unable to do—namely, silence the crowd.

Verse 35, the city clerk quietened the crowd. This fellow is polished, he's intelligent, he knows the ropes, he has influence, and he, in a masterful way, brings a measure of clarity and sanity to these riotous proceedings. And look at what he does. He just says four things.

I'll point them out to you. First of all, he says, Men of Ephesus, doesn't all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image which fell from heaven? Secondly, he says, you need to realize that since these facts are undeniable, you should just be quiet and not do anything rash. Thirdly, if you folks know something I don't know, if Demetrius and his friends has a concern that is a legitimate concern, then they can use the normal legal channels, the proconsuls are around, they can be approached, and they can get a verdict on the strength of the structures of our time. Fourthly, if we're not careful, he says, we as a city are in danger of being charged with civil disorder.

And if it was to get back to Rome—then, of course, there's a measure of self-preservation in this, presumably, he's the liaison officer, he's supposed to look after things—if it was to get back to Rome that there's a commotion that is ensued, then we wouldn't be able to give an account for the commotion at the end of verse 40 there. Why? Because there's no reason for it. Now, I want you to note that, because this is very, very important as we come to our final point. Here is the testimony of, if you like, an objective bystander. Here is the testimony of someone who takes the political route, takes the pragmatic journey, stands on the side, and looks at things, but is honest enough to report it as is. There's no reason for all the shouting. The two characters that you've dragged in here are innocent.

There are normal legal channels if someone has a beef. And fourthly, frankly, we ought to get home to our beds as soon as possible, because if this commotion reaches Rome and they come to investigate, neither myself nor anyone else is going to give any reasonable explanation for what is going on, because there is no reason for it. And then verse 41, after he said this, he dismissed the assembly. We go to chapter 20 next time, when the uproar had ended, so it came to a conclusion. Now, the only group that we haven't considered, and it is here that we finish, are the Christians themselves, represented by Paul and by his colleagues. They are the ones who've been at the heart of the issue, and their strategy has been very clear. You know, there's a sense in which the real impact here is not in what they were doing, but it is in what they weren't doing.

Now, I know you've come to expect this of me, and I don't mean to be a broken gramophone record, but I think it is legitimate to point it out once again. Namely, that Paul and his colleagues have not been involved in a ministry of denunciation. Right? There is no indication here that when Paul confronts the paganism of Ephesus, his immediate reaction is to put together a kind of sociopolitical group who will challenge the thought forms and structures of the government of Ephesus.

He is challenging the thought forms and the structures of the government of Ephesus, but not as a result of dissing the people and their views. That's an easy game. That's an easy one. You're wrong. No, you're wrong. No, you're wrong. No, you're wronger than I'm wronger. You're wrong.

I'm the wronger. No, that is a complete futility, a waste of breath and energy. I point it out because it has been indicative of a large waste of breath and energy on the part of conservative evangelicalism for the past thirty years in this country. See, it's much harder, isn't it, to proclaim the gospel, to tell people who are so misguided in their convictions, so off the line—not that they are misguided and off the line, but that there is a seeking Savior who came, providing grace and transforming power.

And it's actually possible not simply to have a little shrine that speaks of some kind of God, but it is actually for your heart to become the shrine of the living God. But of course, you see, that's so hard because I can't do that in your life. Nobody's going to know whether that's happening. I'm not going to look successful in raising a movement like that. No one in the church can get excited about that because it seems to happen so sparingly, and it seems to happen despite us, not because of us. So why not just forget that for the time being and get a group of people, and we'll stand outside the temple. We'll let them know these little shrines are rubbish. We'll let them know there is nothing of validity in what they're saying. We'll let them know what we are opposed to, what we don't like, what we resist in them and resent in them. Now, don't allow me to overstep my boundaries, but the response of homosexuality to evangelical Christianity is largely completely negative, completely disinterested. Seldom do we find folks from that community seeking out the average evangelical local church, because in that they will find someone who can listen, someone who can respond, someone who can care, as opposed to someone who is the great proponent of denunciation.

Is there a strategy here in what they don't do? No special rallies held against the religion of the temple. No special words of denunciation.

No. What they do is speak in such a way that they are free from accusation, that they are clear in their proclamation, and they are forceful in their persuasion. The city clerk, the liaison officer stands up and says, you might as well let Gaius and Aristarchus go, because there is no way in the world that we can do anything with them at all. They are not desecrating our temples. They are not dissing our goddess. That's remarkable to me.

It should be remarkable to you, too. The tone of contemporary effective Christianity in the continental United States is largely denunciatory. People expect that of us. They expect that whatever else we do, whatever else we're like, we are the ones who will denounce them, will denounce this, will explain that this is wrong, and that is wrong, and everything's wrong. And we wonder why it is that they find so little interest in hearing from us, because we're not telling them the gospel. The gospel is not about the fact that everything is wrong.

It's good news. Now, if you think about it, that was what had happened to shut down the business. That was the reason for the riot. It was because these people were persuasive. Their lifestyles were persuasive. Their words were persuasive.

Their gatherings were persuasive. Yesterday in the New York Times, in the Leader page, the editorial page, there's a piece by Matt Miller under the heading, Is Persuasion Dead? Is Persuasion Dead?

A fascinating piece as well. It's interesting to put it in the context of the article Uncertainty from Crowdhammer that's falling just on the same weekend. And essentially what this fellow is saying is, I'm a journalist, I write lead articles, I'm involved in the art of persuasion, but I don't know if I'm persuading anybody. In fact, I don't know if it's even possible to persuade anybody anymore, he says. You can't persuade anybody. People don't like persuasion. They don't want to be persuaded. You can't take somebody from here and move them there by the art of persuasion.

That's what he's saying. Whether by rhetoric or by intellectual ideas and so on. It's quite a sad piece. And of course, we would say that the observation of Demetrius, that this man Paul was doing this, is accurate only up to a point. Surely Paul was the mouthpiece, but Paul wasn't doing anything other than speaking. It was the work of the Spirit of God who was bringing home the voice of a Paul, a faltering voice often, sometimes a very unimaginative voice, a kind of repetitive voice. It was the work of the Spirit of God to bring that truth home and shine light into the hearts of men and women. And they were persuaded. Persuaded. I'll give you just a piece of this, and then I'm going to stop.

The signs are not good, he writes. Ninety percent of political conversation amounts to dueling talking points. Best-selling books reinforce what folks thought when they bought them. Talk and radio opinion journals preach to the converted. Let's face it, the purpose of most political speech is not to persuade but to win, be it power, ratings, celebrity, or cash. By contrast, marshaling a case to persuade those who start from a different position is a lost art, which is actually the challenge of the gospel. I mean, every time you take your Bible and speak to men and women, you are speaking to people from a different persuasion. By nature, they're from a different persuasion.

The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. That's not intellectual stupidity. That is moral perversity. And the art of persuasion is lost, and certainty is suspect.

You could go crazy thinking about this if your task was the task of the gospel. Honoring what's right in the other side's argument seems a superfluous thing that can only cause trouble, like an appendix. Politicos huddle with like-minded souls in opinion cocoons that seem impervious to facts. The politicians and the press didn't kill off persuasion intentionally, of course.

It's more manslaughter than murder. Elections may turn on emotions, like hope and fear. But with persuasions passing, there's no alternative. Now, what are we going to do with this?

See, to the extent that this article speaks to our contemporary culture, to the extent that Krauthammer is accurate when he says this—and I believe that both these things speak to the issues of the day—you and I go back out into a community that lives within the framework identified by these two journalists. And Paul says, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men to persuade where the art of persuasion is gone, to speak with conviction in a world where certainty is suspect. What possible hope is there? Well, every hope. Why?

Because the message of the cross, which is foolishness to those who do not believe, is the power of God for salvation. Think about this as we finish, and we are finished. You said you were finished some time ago. Well, that's okay, but now we're finished.

This is how it was happening. Mrs. Levi is putting on her nightie. Mr. Levi is brushing his teeth. Mrs. Levi shouts through from the bedroom, Hey, Reuben! Yeah? I don't think we should get Rebecca a shrine for her graduation. Why not? I just don't think we should get her one.

I'll talk to you when I get in the bedroom. Let's get her a book instead. Mr. Simeon, who's been running a successful business, buzzes through to his secretary and says, Is it possible to hold the supply of shrines that we ordered last Tuesday to give to the successful amongst my marketing team? Answer, Yes.

We'll do that. But Mr. Simeon, we always give shrines. They expect the shrines.

Yes, but I don't want to give them this time. Multiply that throughout the culture. That then hits the bottom line of Demetrius and his buddies. What's happened to the sale of the shrines? Who's dissing the shrines? Who's arguing against our position?

Who's cutting in on our business? And they go, and they ask, and they ask, and they get into the home of Mrs. Levi. Why are you not buying your niece a shrine? Why would I buy her a shrine? I've come to know the living and true God. I want my niece to know the living and true God. Hey, Mr. Simeon, what about the order for the shrines?

We were just checking up. If you still want them, I'm calling you from the temple precincts. No, actually, I've changed my mind. I'm going to buy them books. Books? Yes. Okay. And to his colleagues, he brings them in and he says, you know, I would normally, in fact, in the last few years, I would normally have given you a shrine.

You know that that's the kind of standard practice for a job well done. The shrines are throughout our whole company, but I haven't bought you shrines today, and I want to tell you why. My life has been turned upside down by the power of Jesus of Nazareth. I've discovered that the living God can come and indwell my life and change me, and he has totally changed my affections. And therefore, I want to offer to you the opportunity to come to know the living God rather than to live one further day in the superstition of this little peace provided by Demetrius the silversmith. See, God says that his Word and his weapons have divine power for tearing down strongholds. When God's people do not believe that, they will go for other mechanisms with which to tear down strongholds.

And in the process of doing so may appear to be very momentarily effective. But in the long run, only the power of the risen Jesus can change a heart, change a home, change a business, change a street, change a university, change a culture, change a nation. If Christ does not return in the next hundred years, our children's children will live to bemoan the fact that our generation, that enjoyed such freedom, such opportunity for the proclaiming of the gospel in overt, imaginative, persuasive, gracious ways, took the easy way out with 1-800 numbers, and placards on the corner of the street, and the denunciatory posture of angry men and women, very unlike the tenderness of Jesus of Nazareth. It was the Pharisees who couldn't stand him. It was the sinners that loved to listen.

Why? Because he, having modeled the pattern for his apostles to follow, beckoned them—not with denunciation, but with an invitation. "'Hey, I could give you a drink of water,' he said to the woman who'd been married five times and had a live-in lover. I could give you a drink of water, and you'd never have to have another drink of water in your life? Instead of, if you think you're joining our church after five marriages and a live-in lover?"

I think you get the point. Let's finish. God, thank you for the Bible. Thank you for the example of Paul and his colleagues.

Thank you that there was no charge of disruption that could be leveled against them. They were not bringing down the structures of the day by their overt judgmental posture, but that they were impinging upon the economic sanctity and the religious proclivity of Ephesus as a result of the transforming message of the gospel of faith in Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, as a church, to pray to you constantly that you would help us to learn this lesson, that you will help us to make an impact on the city of Cleveland in more ways than we are even clever enough to envisage, that you will come and surprise us by your intervention, that as a result of the gospel taking root in our hearts and in our homes and in our lives, we may genuinely rescue the perishing, care for the dying, and tell them of Jesus, who's mighty to save. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, rest upon us now and forevermore.

Amen. You're listening to Truth for Life. That is Alistair Begg sharing the Apostle Paul's strategy for making a gospel impact on a city. I hope you are benefiting from our study in the book of Acts.

If you've missed any of the messages in this series, you can catch up online. All of Alistair's teaching can be streamed for free on our mobile app or on our website at truthforlife.org. Right now, we're offering volume one in this series, which is titled For the Sake of the Gospel. And if you'd like to dive deeper into the Apostle Paul's missionary journeys recorded in the book of Acts, you can download a supplemental study guide for free as well. Each of Alistair's 22 sermons in this series are paired with a lesson in the study guide. As you listen to each message and complete the accompanying lesson, you'll learn how Paul preached the gospel, whether he was being tried by royalty, caught in a storm at sea, or surviving a shipwreck. This in-depth study of Paul's life and ministry will inspire you as you learn about his passion for reaching the lost and preaching the gospel of salvation, even when his own life was in peril. Again, the study is titled For the Sake of the Gospel. You can hear the complete series and download the study guide for free at truthforlife.org slash acts. Thanks for listening. Hope you can join us tomorrow when we'll learn what it takes to be an effective spiritual leader. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.