Filled with confusion

So good morning. We are going to proceed into this passage here, Acts 19, 28-41. So we've got a riot right now. This is not on your handout, but what this lays out is the big picture on the Apostle Paul's third missionary journey and so we'll be focusing on Ephesus for our study today and so we have that is on your handout and then a little different scale Ephesus shown on kind of the upper left quadrant or northwestern quadrant of the map there and this will be for today and into next Sunday's passage Here's a map, it should also be on the bottom part of the first page of your handout, a map of the central part of Ephesus, and it shows the theater, which is the scene for today's riot and some other things. What takes place here generally is in This area in that map, including the theater, the Agora is the marketplace where the sale of everything from small little items to trinkets to souvenirs to amulets all came from. And on the right side of that, the most eastern part, this was where the City Hall was located. We'll take a look at that. So that's kind of the area where everything is happening in today's passage.

This is an aerial view of Ephesus, kind of an oblique aerial view with a architectural and archaeological reconstruction as it might have looked. It wouldn't have been nice if they had had some quadcopters you could go up there with with a camera or put a camera on a bird or something. That might have been what this would have looked like. But imagine, here's Ephesus, about a quarter of a million people living in Ephesus.

So that's a lot of people, especially for those days. And so it's about in the middle of that where today's passage takes place, where you see the theater and the semicircle there. And then you see the agora right next to it is that kind of squarish area, the marketplace. And this is what the silver craftsmen and other craftsmen making things for Artemis would be up in arms about as they were losing sales in that Agora or marketplace. Here is the theater of Ephesus as it has been now.

Ephesus has been under archaeological excavation for the last century and a half. For almost 100 years, or about 100 years, the Austrian archaeological team has been almost non-stop doing excavations of Ephesus, and they're not done. After all these years, they're still not done. They're still digging up more things. And some of the areas that they're yet to do in Ephesus include areas where they expect to find the synagogue where Paul had been.

This is a reconstruction of what it would have looked like. A lot of times we'll look at something like this and we'll say, well, that's kind of, even after partial reconstruction, looks pretty much like a ruin. Well, this is what it would have looked like in the day. So pretty nice.

As a matter of fact, just before Paul came here in his third missionary journey, they had done some upgrades to this and expanded it, changed the shape of it. and had upgraded the appearance of it as well. So during this time it handled up to about 25,000 people and had a tall structure in front so that a lot of different things could be done with people and lighting and things of that sort. This is an artist's rendering of the Temple of Artemis as it once was. It was upgraded from what it previously was to include well over a hundred columns. in this structure. It had previously burned down a couple centuries before, and so they upgraded it substantially. It is now one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Right now it's just kind of a wonder.

That's it. It's a swamp. Occasionally cows will go in and graze in it if they don't get too stuck. And nothing too much to get all that excited about. They've stacked up a column here and there so that it looks like something, otherwise it would look like nothing at all. But that's the side of it. And this is what everybody was getting all that excited about.

Here is an Ephesus Artemis coin. So one of the ways they could market in those days was to put this on the coins, and that would get passed around the empire and be a marketing piece for, oh, I got to go see that, right? Here's one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. I got to go see it just like this coin I'm looking at. It was also a way to get a hold of something that was a souvenir.

We showed this last week, and I remarked that there was around kind of as a necklace, the zodiac, to show that Artemis, according to the mythology, had power over the stars. And this Artemis had these ten creatures, spiritual beings, around its head.

And then we had this comment that I made. It's a terrible thing for a pastor to have. I taught all sorts of things last Sunday. The only thing I remember is the apparel. that she was supposed to have worn. Anyway, so here is the picture of the upper part of the body and then she had lions on her arms indicating the power and what not. What we saw in last week's passage, and this is why we start back at verse 21, Demetrius had pulled together among the various guilds those who made idols and amulets and souvenirs and everything focusing on Artemis. There was, in fact, a great deal more than we might even imagine.

Artemis was represented as the tree of life. in the center of the Agora. Can you imagine that? Artemis was all-powerful in everything. You were to look upon Artemis as being so powerful that everyone all over the empire should come to Artemis. And that's exactly what Demetrius put together. He pulled together these guilds these craftsmen's guilds, and he started pumping people and getting them all worked up, and that is exactly what he wanted to have happen.

These guilds, as part of the world system, were a major issue for believers in the pagan world. So can you imagine, during this time, here are the guilds, and the guilds, where would they hold their meetings? In the pagan temples. It used to be a custom, it seems that anymore it's going away, but city councils and even graduation ceremonies would begin with an invocation and they would end with a benediction. That's the way it used to be. Things are changing. But their way of doing an invocation and a benediction in these pagan guilds was to offer a sacrifice to the pagan gods and sometimes begin or end with orgies.

So it was a much wilder, crazy event. In the book of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, the messages to the seven churches, and actually letters, they're messages to the seven churches, a great many of those messages address the issues of the Christians and the problems with the guilds. The guilds were the influence of the world, and it took place about 40 years, the book of Revelation chapters 2 and 3, that was about 40 years after the events we're reading here in the book of Acts. They still had, and still continue to have, a big problem with the guilds, which were very, very pagan.

So there's all this worldly pressure. that Demetrius was drumming up and getting people really worked up for, and that leads us into this passage. So it says in Acts 19, 28 and 29, when they, that is all the craftsmen, that Demetrius had gathered together to get all worked up, when they heard what Demetrius had to say, when they heard this, they were filled with rage. They were not just a little irritated. They were filled with rage when they began crying out, saying, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

Is this the last time they're going to say that? No. We're going to find out much more. The city was filled with confusion. Matter of fact, it's the confusion. And they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia.

Now, what's interesting, this fellow Aristarchus, we're going to see him show up again. He's going to show up in chapter 20, next one, verse 4. Chapter 27, verse 2. He also, the same guy, shows up in Colossians 4.10 and Philemon 24. So we're going to see him again. And he, though only mentioned five times in the New Testament, is apparently a real solid fellow. But he gets dragged into this. Demetrius had accomplished his aim. Getting people all worked up was exactly what he had in mind.

The emotionally driven crowd didn't just go from where they were gathered there with the guild, but as others came along, they swept them up into this emotional frenzy that they intentionally stirred up. Some were drawn by the emotions of the apparently growing crowd to move towards the theater and were going to find out that they don't even know what's going on, but they're screaming and wondering who's screaming about what. The places turned into mayhem and confusion. They were gaining support and glorifying Artemis, although not anybody was quite sure what this whole gathering was about.

Next, two of Paul's fellow believers who were traveling companions and ministry supporters were grabbed as well, this Gaius and Aristarchus. These two were dragged along as possibly others, but at least these two by name. Here's Acts 19, 30, and 31, but when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let him. Also, some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater. So Paul wanted to go into the theater.

You imagine the Apostle Paul, he says, people are gathered! It's an opportunity to spread the gospel! And you imagine him just getting excited and seeing the opportunity in front of him. And everybody else is going, oh no! Here's the Apostle Paul, he's got good motivations.

This is the disciples, these were the fellow believers in Christ, and remember that in the book of Acts, the disciples, with reference to the church from chapter 6 until chapter 21, okay? Disciples means those who are in the body of Christ, male, female, Jew, Gentile, from the point they believe on to the time when the Lord takes them home. These are the ones who are called to walk in fellowship with the Lord, abiding in Christ. These are also the ones who are to love one another. This is what Jesus spells out in John 13 and John 15.

These fellow believers who were there said to Paul, no, please don't go. No, you mustn't go. This is going to be a dangerous place to go. So we see that. The other is even the Asiarchs. Now that's an interesting word here. Asia rulers is what it means literally. The one with whom Paul had become friends. Now so notice a distinction. These guys are not necessarily believers. But Paul had a friendly relationship with him. They warned Paul again and again, so repeatedly, to stay away from the theater. This is a place where kind of mass mentality takes over. And so, between the disciples and the Asiarchs, there was plenty of prior warning and right here, restraint, in the middle of this time, telling him, don't go, this is a very dangerous time and place for you right now.

One of the things, more than a hundred inscriptions, that is writings typically in stone, have been found in and around Ephesus, that is Asia, the area of Asia, mentioning Asiarchs. So this is interesting. One of the things we find here is one of them we give as an example. And so this is an Asiarch inscription from Miletus. It's on one of the pillars there. And it's just simply an example. There are over a hundred of those in this area, mentioning these Isiarchs. They were men who had some kind of authority over the state of, if you will, the province of Asia.

And so Paul had a good relationship with him, enough so that they said, Paul, you know, we like you. You're our friend. Please don't go into the theater. It's a bad place for you, right? So one of the things we find here as we go through the book of Acts, Dr. Luke gets the official titles right, including this one. In the Roman Empire, there was not some consistent uniform system of naming different people and giving titles to different officials. There were different names to different ones. This is in fact just a few of them, but what we find is every single time when we study the history and when we study the archaeology, Dr. Luke gets it right. It is testimony to the actual historicity of this. This is not a Bible story made up. This is not mythology or even legend. These are real events, and this demonstrates the reality of those events.

So it says Acts 19, 30, and 31, and when Paul wanted to go to the, excuse me, so this I had just read, but one of the points that we want to make with this is this is one of the key principles in learning the will of God. One of the key principles is there may very well be times when other believers can provide wise counsel. to you and to me. Other believers can provide wise counsel around us. Sometimes it may be because they've been through something similar. Sometimes it may be because, for example, these Asiarchs had a good idea. Here's what goes on at this theater. Stay away from there. It's not going to be good for you, okay? But that would be a very important principle for us as believers to take to heart.

Here is the Apostle Paul. He is an apostle. He has miraculous insight into many things. And yet, he was willing to listen, in this case, to the advice and counsel of others. And that's going to be a key principle for us to learn from in the will of God, that we listen. This is one of the ways in which the Lord may, in many cases, lead us to listen to wise counsel from others. And it may, in fact, be those inside the church body or others who have some experience and insight into something.

Here's Acts 19.32 and 33.

So then, some were shouting one thing, and some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together. Boy, it sounds like a lot of things that people do, right? Okay. Verse 33, some of the crowd concluded it was Alexander since the Jews had put him forward and having motioned with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly. Imagine this, there are multiple voices and messages, mass confusion.

Most did not have any idea what this assembly was about. Where are we going? I don't know. What are they screaming about? I don't know. Why are we doing this? I haven't the foggiest idea. Do you know what's going on? No, I don't know what's going on. Do you? No, I don't either. So emotions ran high.

Clear thought, purpose, and orderly communication did not prevail. So Alexander is put forth by the Jews opposing Paul and the gospel, and he even intends to speak to the crowd in defense of the Jews' perspective, that's not what's going to happen. Do you know what the crowd said? They all said in unison, roses are red and violets are bluish. We don't like you. We know you're Jewish. Right? So they wouldn't let him speak. They wouldn't let him speak.

Here's Acts 19.34. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single outcry arose from them all, as they shouted for about two hours, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

You know how that translates? We want money in our pocket. We want money in our pocket. So for two hours, we want money in our pocket. That's what this translates as. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. You've ever heard, follow the money? Yeah, that's what this is about. Follow the money. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. We like to have luxury homes. We like to have really nice dinners. So mayhem went on for two hours. Can you imagine what that would be like? Let's see. It's coming up on 11 o'clock now. Imagine, great is Artemis of the Ephesians until one o'clock. Deafening. Can you imagine putting yourself in that? That's what people shouted for two hours. That is nutcase. Alright.

So, the Gentile pagan crowd seeing that Alexander was a Jew intending to speak to the Jews immediately threw themselves into this anti-Jewish froth. As if this was a sporting event. So for two whole hours they shout this, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So now there was a unity, sort of, among them. They all started shouting this, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Why are we shouting this? I'm not sure, but that's what we're going to do. Everybody's doing it. That, externally anyway, brought everyone together.

Acts 19.35 and 36, after quieting the crowd, the town clerk said, Men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of Ephesus is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell down from heaven?

So since these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and eat chocolate. No, you ought to keep calm and do nothing rash. He's trying to get them to calm down, right? And we're going to talk about why does he want to get them to calm down? Why does this sort of thing bother him? And why does he get to be appointed to be the one to get everybody settled down?

To give you an idea, this is the location of the City Hall, right there in the foreground. Looking down the street, let's see, over here, that's the library, okay? So, going down the street, you've got the library on the left, and then behind this hill, off to the right, is where the stadium would be. So you can imagine, here they are in City Hall, and they're hearing this, Greatest Artemis of the Ephesians, screaming from just right around the side of the hill there.

And after a while, thinking, boy, this is really nuts, this keeps going on. So that's what would draw this fellow called the town clerk here, but actually his position, he was the elected head of the city council. We might more likely call him a mayor in our terms, okay? So he's acting, this is the mayor of Ephesus, so a mayor of a large city in the Roman Empire, that was his role. And from the city hall, the theater was just kind of around the side of the hill, and he could almost certainly hear this screaming and yelling So after a while he says, okay, that's enough.

Enough of that stuff. So the town clerk, acting in the capacity of the mayor, had been notified either by messenger or by just hearing the noise of the crowd. He was called to this emotionally driven scene to bring order. You've got to bring order here.

His perspective was pagan. In other words, he spoke well of Artemis. He spoke in support of the glory of this god Artemis, realizing, of course, that Artemis was a chief attraction and a very important thing to keep in front of people. So he wouldn't want to say anything bad and certainly keep up the support for that. He called upon the crowd to base their actions on facts to keep calm and not to do anything rash.

So Acts 19.37 and 38, for you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess. So these would be Gaius and Aristarchus and possibly others.

So then if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against any man, so he knows that Demetrius is the one who drummed this thing up. It's possible that Demetrius has already been making noise And he certainly would have known who Demetrius is, being the mayor, and here's Demetrius, a key person, as likely the head of the silversmith's guild. But if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against any man, the courts are in session and proconsuls are available.

Let them bring charges against one another. He says the courts are in session. As a matter of fact, they're three times a month. Those specific courts where they could have brought such complaints were in session. And so they had regular periods of time where they could have brought this before the court. Instead, they were trying to handle things in mass.

So on the one hand, Gaius and Aristarchus, the Apostle Paul, didn't go about presenting the gospel by dissing on the pagan goddess, at least not in great verbiage. Probably at best, she's not a god or something of that sort, but the main message was to focus upon Jesus and to see, as we see in the book of Ephesians and similar books, that Jesus is the name above all names, just as we sang earlier this morning. Jesus is the name above those many names. Let's put the focus on Jesus and not spend a lot of time dissing, speaking negatively of Artemis or any of the other gods and goddesses, right?

And certainly they weren't thieves and weren't there to address that. There was a problem, by the way, with thievery in Ephesus, and that's why in Ephesians chapter 4, and they'll be getting there, he'll talk about their stealing problem and their lying problem and all the other problems, right? But these believers were not thieves.

As the mayor told them, the courts were all available to bring valid grievances before the judges and all the pro-consuls. They could have done that. After saying this, he dismissed the assembly. He said, OK, go away. So imagine what's happening here. There was a danger There was a danger here that if things did not dismiss, if this did not break up, there was a threat. So let's take a look at that.

The mayor urged them all to use due process of law to deal with any legal issues. Legal and military dangers were possible and they were possibly quite severe. At very least, this mayor could start commanding his officers to begin handing out fines. Fines that would go to the leaders, fines that would go to individuals who were heading up this riot. Fines against the guilds. That's something they didn't want to do. Paying the fines is no fun. The city officials not only could pose fines, but In the worst case, the Roman authorities could use military power to suppress a riot. There was in Ephesus a Roman governor and stationed usually about 3,000 Roman soldiers and they could bring down military suppression of the riot if the civic leaders failed to do so. So that was a danger that was there.

So he dismissed the assembly and they were gone. Now, everything at this point seems calm, but this is also a major turning point for the Apostle Paul. This marks the end of his time in Ephesus. He's going to move on to go up to Macedonia and go into the Greek Peninsula and go down to places like Corinth and go through those places.

But one of the things that's going to become a focal point here, about seven months after this riot, Paul wrote the book of Romans, and so here's Romans 15. We looked at it last week. I want to take a look at it again because it's an important perspective. How is Paul looking at things from here on out here?

Verse 25, But now I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. I know that when I come to you, I'll come in the fullness and blessing of Christ. So he is intending to head for Jerusalem Okay, after this time and his perspective is already there. He has already said earlier in Acts here just a passage or two Behind where we were he is headed for Jerusalem and then headed for Rome And then he says in verse 31 that I may be rescued He's asking for prayer that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints, so I may come to you in joy by the will of God, and find refreshing rest in your company." He has not, so far as we have any record, been to Rome yet. But he is wanting to head there, and it appears that he is going there not by his own insistence, but by the Lord's leading. One other aspect that we pointed out last week, and we'll make particular point of it again, even you've got it as the head verse in your handout there in the bulletin.

Here is Christ talking to Ananias, the one who was assigned to go to Paul when he had first been met on the road, met by Jesus on the road to Damascus. And Jesus says to Ananias, I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. Show is a warning, is a word of warning. Show is also a word of instruction. Those two things. So what we're going to see here, and in subsequent passages, is the Apostle Paul is going to be warned in advance about the things that he is about to suffer. Isn't this amazing?

The Apostle Paul is headed to Jerusalem, and though he doesn't have all the details, he knows that he is headed for trouble. yet he goes anyway because that's in the will of God and the blessing of Christ. That is the direction of the Lord. It is how he is constrained by the Holy Spirit. Acts 20, 22 and 24, And now behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me. This is just the very chapter after where we are.

Except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city saying that bonds and afflictions await me, but I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course in the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. So imagine the Apostle Paul's perspective. He has been in Ephesus, and for about two years he has had relatively smooth ministry opportunity there. After initially turning away from the Jews in the synagogue, he's had about two years of time where he's carrying on a ministry with the Gentiles and those Jews who had been saved, and everything is going along pretty well.

Ever had those periods of time in your life? And then, along comes this riot, and it's going to make things real tough, and as a matter of fact, it's going to be a pivotal time that is going to make him have to turn away from Ephesus and go to some of the other churches and follow through.

So the question is, when everything is going smoothly, can you abide in Christ and He in you? When things are going riotously, Can you abide in Christ and He in you? When everything is going really smoothly, can you walk in the Spirit? When everything is going riotously, can you walk in the Spirit? When everything is going really smoothly, can you rest in Christ? And when it's going riotously, when everybody is screaming and there's lots of confusion around, When things appear to be going nuts, can you rest in Him?

That's exactly what God has in mind. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You that through times smooth and times wild, that we can put our trust in You, that You want us in all times, no matter what the circumstances, to abide in You. You want, You desire, You have designed that we depend upon you and rely upon you, that we fellowship with you through all times. We pray that you would teach us and draw our hearts to do exactly that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.