The Acts of the Apostles 75

Subtitle: A Mob Restrained

Acts 19:32-41.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 11, 2024.

Last week, we stopped in the middle of a riotous mob in Ephesus.  Unable to find Paul, they had seized his associates, Gaius and Aristarchus.  These were taken by force to the local theater with great commotion.  It is unclear what they planned to do, but it is not hard to imagine being grabbed by an irate mob that quickly becomes thousands of people.  Nothing good happens in such a scenario.

We also saw last week that Paul wanted to address the crowd, but the believers of Ephesus begged him not to.  Even certain officials of the province of Asia, who were stationed in the city, worked to convince Paul not to address the crowd.

Let’s pick up the story at that point.

The confusion of the Ephesian mob (32-34)

In verse 32, we encounter the word “confused.”  First Corinthians 14:33 tells us that “God is not the author of confusion but of peace…”  We also see in James 3:16 that it says, “where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.”

It can be easy to over look that last verse.  We too often treat envy and self-seeking in a soft-handed way.  We can warn people that selfishness will affect their ability to win friends and influence people.  It will ruin their relationships too.  Typically, people are encouraged not to be overly selfish, and instead, show some concern for others.

This is all true.  However, there is also something deeper here, something darker.  Confusion and “every evil thing” come into the life of an envious self-seeker.  You become a source of darkness and evil.  In light of that, we should care much less about influencing people and more about delivering our own soul.  A delivered soul is fresh water to a person in chains.  Winning friends and influencing people would merely be the gravy, the overflow, of God’s goodness to those who trust Him.

Another way of putting this is to say that the Spirit of the One True God is not behind this mob in Ephesus, nor any other mob for that matter. 

This crowd is a pagan crowd.  We would expect such things of them.  However, have large groups of people, claiming to be on God’s side, ever done mob actions like seizing people outside of true justice?  Take the crucifixion of Jesus for instance.  There we have a collusion between the crowd, the religious leaders of Israel and the Roman government.  This is just as Psalm 2 said it would be.  “Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed…”  I could go on, but you get the picture.

This Ephesian mob is not from God.  It is from the spirit of this world.  Yet, even things done by the spirit of this world can be worked to the good by our loving Father in Heaven.

Luke gives the description of the crowd that many people were crying out many different things.  There is no cohesive, or coherent, message.  In our own time, we see groups organizing protests with a series of chants that emphasize the message that the organizers of the crowd want to be emphasized.  Yet, even an organized protest with a coherent message can disintegrate into a confused mob.  Of course, this mob in Ephesus was never an organized thing.  It was confusion from the very beginning.

Thus, we are told that many people in the crowd didn’t even know what they were all gathered for.  It is never good to join a crowd for which you do not know the purpose.  Although protests will sometimes hide their true purpose behind a noble sounding cause, scheming men led by a scheming devil love to use a cloak of morality to hide a sea of evil purpose.  There are many that would love to paint Christians as evil, bigots who are hateful and deserve to be removed from society, one way or another.

Let us remember that Christ never called us to create mobs that force change.  However, as the Church of Christ grows, it is going to tick off the devil and bring him forth in rage.  Of course, we need not fear this.  Greater is He that is in us than he that is in this world.

At some point, a Jew named Alexander is put forth by the Jews to address the crowd.  Why would they do that?  We should remember that there was friction between Paul and some in the synagogue, earlier in this chapter.  Paul and the Christians were no longer meeting with the synagogue.  It is possible that they want him to make sure that the crowd knows they are not connected with Paul, or that Paul, who is a Jew, does not represent them.  This would be to hedge against the guilt by association that is common among mobs.  However, it may also contain a fear that they will be blamed for the riot in some way.  We saw earlier in the book of Acts that Aquila and Priscilla had left Rome because Caesar had banned all Jews from the city, due to riots that were blamed on them.

Yet, when the crowd figures out that Alexander is a Jew, they will not let him speak.  This begins a two hour crowd chant of “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 

Now, no matter how much you love the Seahawks and want to shout and pound on a drum for hours to let people know that you really like them, eventually you will grow weary in the flesh.  I would say that  it is at the moment that the crowd’s fervor is starting to wane that the city clerk steps in.

A city clerk restrains the mob (35-41)

A clerk in the Roman system would have been closer to what we think of as a mayor. He would be known to the people, and is also one of them.  We do not know if word has reached the clerk from the officials of Asia that were friends of Paul, or if the clerk himself is friendly to Paul.  Since it doesn’t say so, we shouldn’t read too much to his argument.  He may simply be on orders from the provincial officials to get the city in order, or there will be consequences.

It is probably best to see this as an example of how God can make use of anyone for his purposes.  Sometimes, God uses unbelievers to restrain the wickedness of other unbelievers.

Alexander had stirred the crowd up, but this man was able to silence them.  He then reasons with them.  Remember, in a place of confusion, there is not a lot of reasoning occurring.  It is mostly knee-jerk reactions, emotions, feelings and following the crowd.  Essentially, the clerk argues for the crowd to disperse and go home.  So, let’s look at his persuasive rationale.

He gives a statement of fact and then a conclusion based upon this.  The first statement is that everyone knows that the city of Ephesus is dedicated to Artemis.  No one is questioning them on this.  So, why are they acting so rash and unreasonable by gathering at the theater and shouting loudly?

People can be whipped up into a moral frenzy in which they feel pressured to show their adherence to something.  We see this in social media online.  We can get in situations where we are afraid that others will accuse us of not being on the right side of an issue.  This kind of pressure is not of God.  We should do the right thing because it is the right thing, not because someone has manipulated us into it.  Make sure it is the Spirit of the LORD that is leading you to such actions and not a person, a group, or guilt.  A disorderly mob, of course, is never the right thing to be involved in.

Again, the clerk points out that there has not been any crime committed against the temple of Artemis or her personally.  They did not catch people trying to robe the temple, or publicly defaming Artemis.  Of course, Artemis is not a god.  However, Paul’s emphasis was on promoting Jesus, and calling people away from worshipping idols, which are made by the hands of people.

There is something lesser than this happening.  Thus, the clerk calls Demetrius out publicly.  If Demetrius thinks he has been injured in some way by Paul, then he must bring the matter to the courts in a proper way.  The matter can then be properly judged by first determining the facts of the matter and then making a judgment.

Mobs are extremely bad at getting justice.  They generally do things in a confused order.  They judge someone guilty and get others to jump on the bandwagon.  They then execute judgment.  Later, the hone a narrative to back up their actions, no matter how stretched it is.  A proper judgment will not be in a rush, and it will involve a true seeking of the facts before meting out punishment.

He finishes with the clincher in the argument.  He tells them that they are in danger of being considered an unlawful, disorderly gathering.  All cities, colonies, and protectorates answered to Caesar.  If wind of disturbances made it back to Rome, then some official’s head would be on the chopping block.  Rome expected its magistrates to keep order and peace.  Caesar could even punish cities.  In fact, Ephesus had not always been the capital of the province of Asia.  It was originally the city of Pergamum.  However, Rome had made Ephesus the capital of Asia when it put its provincial headquarters there.  Thus, the trade and economy of the city could be greatly harmed if they fell out of favor with Rome.

We are then told that the clerk dismisses the assembly.  This is the word that is typically translated church, but clearly not in this case.  This is no church gathered to worship the Lord.  This is a mob that has gathered for confusion and disorder.

Our cities today are full of confusion in the home, in neighborhoods, cities, governance and business.  Paul reminded the church in Ephesus that their battle was not with the Demetrius’ of the world.  Ephesians 6:10-13 says, “Finally be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of [not Demetrius, but] the devil.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [aka Alexander and the unbelieving Jews], but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”

God has called us for this time in this society.  If we truly live for Christ, then we will tick off the enemy every bit as much as Paul and the Ephesian Christians did in their day.  The real problem is not those other people.  The scheme of the devil, and people working with him, is to pit us against one another.  He gets a wedge between us and baits us into attacking one another.  Gentiles and Jews, men and women, rich and poor, black and white, the list of ways to be divided is unending.  These spirits are even now contemplating new ways to split us up further.  God help us because our enemies are the spiritual powers that want us offended and playing the victim.  They want us pointing to everyone else and saying that they are the problem.  They want you doing anything but repenting of your own sin.  In fact, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus tells us that we have a moral duty to deal with our own sin first, so that we can then properly help our brother or sister. 

The people are not your enemy.  In truth, they are POWs.  It is free men who lay their life on the line who go and free POWs.  Is it worth it to lose three people in saving one POW?  Let’s look at it another way.  How can three free guys enjoy their freedom when they know that there is even one POW in chains?  They would rather die trying to save the POW, then enter into the slavery of pretending that POW doesn’t exist.

For Christians, to die is gain, so we should never let the threat of death hold us back from the Lord’s work.  Christ has broken the threat of death forever for us.

When a person takes you to court, or publicly defames you before others, it hurts, but it is also a challenge from Jesus.  Will you love this person for me?  Will you attempt to set them free?  Yes, they may chew it up and spit it back in your face, but that is the honor we have.  We get to share in the honor of being persecuted for Christ.  Sometimes the honor of delivering a POW happens.  Some dare to believe in Jesus as Christ and are set free.  May God help us to keep our eyes on the real battle!

Mob Restrained audio

The Acts of the Apostles 74

Subtitle: A Riotous Crowd in Ephesus

Acts 19:21-31.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 4, 2024.

It almost seems to be par for the course that a mob would be stirred up against the Apostle Paul.  He had ministered in the city for around two years.  Yet, the impact that he and the believers has been making begins to stir up the pagans, those who worship the false gods.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Spirit leads Paul (21-22)

Paul is not a man who is focused upon his flesh, or doing whatever he wanted.  This is in contrast to how the average American lives their life.  Even as Christians, we can tend to treat God’s stuff as a list of things that we have attached to our lives.  As long as God is in the boat, we can drive as we please.

Yet, Paul had become a believer in Jesus by seeing his inability to righteously lead his life.  He was a man who had learned to pray about the Lord’s will and had come to a place of faith regarding the will of Jesus by the help of the Holy Spirit.  In short, we need to learn to capture the vision of what God desires to do through us for the Kingdom of Christ.  When we gain insight into God’s plan, we can reach a place where our will merges with God’s.  At least, our will becomes as harmonious with God’s will as is possible in our mortal flesh.

The book of Acts demonstrates that the early Church was led, empowered and helped by the Holy Spirit.  We are intended to continue that pattern through reading the word, praying and seeking His will.  We then commit ourselves to doing that will by faith.

We are called to die to the self-led life and to come alive to the Spirit-led life.  We should spend time in prayer asking this question.  “Jesus, what is the best use of my life?”  Along these lines, we have good counsel given to us from the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:17-20.  In general, we don’t seek to leave commitments when we become a Christian, but rather seek to redeem them.  If I married someone for ungodly reasons before I became a Christian, I shouldn’t seek to make it right by leaving them once I am a believer.  Rather, I stay in the relationship, but now I operate out of a desire to be used by Christ to minister to the other person.  I am the same person in the same situation, but now it is Christ living through me by the Spirit of God.  At least, this is the vision put in front of us.

No matter what great things we may be trying to accomplish, if they are not surrendered to God’s will, we are going after empty things, vanity.

In verse 21, Luke gives us insight to the road ahead.  Others looking at Paul’s choices and actions may believe that Paul makes some mistakes and gets himself killed in the end.  However, Luke shows us that Paul was being led by the Spirit of Christ, even when it led him to his death.

Paul’s plan would be to go back through Macedonia (northern Greece, e.g., Phillipi, Thessalonica), down to Achaia (southern Greece, e.g., Corinth), then to Jerusalem, and after that, “I must also see Rome.”

God sometimes has a necessity to certain things in our life.  In fact, we may not like some of them.  Think about Jesus on the night he was betrayed.  He wrestles with the Father in prayer over the coming cross.  In his flesh, it is something to be avoided, but his spirit is yielded to the will of the Father.

Yet, even when God has things that we must go through, not all of them are actively caused by Him.  God did not cause Judas to do what he did.  Judas did these things of his own volition and inability to guard his heart.  Yet, God worked the sin of Judas into His plan and purpose for Jesus.  God’s grace is always supplied for us to do his purpose and plan.

In verse 21, it literally says that Paul “purposed in the spirit.”   Some translations take this to mean within his own spirit, and thus, they sometimes translate it without the word spirit.  To them, this is a statement about internal dedication to a plan of action alone.  However, it doesn’t say in “his” spirit.  I believe it is far more natural to understand Luke’s phrase to be pointing to Paul’s determination having its source in The Spirit [of God].   When Paul is later warned by the other prophets that he will be taken prisoner if he goes to Jerusalem, it will be clear that Paul’s insistence to keep going was not a lightly made decision of his own flesh.  It was one made in the Spirit, with the help of the Holy Spirit.  The “must” concerning Rome is not a “must” of Paul’s flesh, but of God’s will in his life.  However, it has also become Paul’s desire and act of faith.

We should remember Acts 9:15-16.  At Saul’s (Paul’s) salvation, Ananias gave him the message of God, that he would be a “chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.”  Most of us will not testify before anyone of such great stature.  But, which is more important, witnessing to kings or a peasant?  Both are extremely important to that individual and can change an eternity of experience.  The Lord also told Ananias that, “I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”  I believe Paul’s prayer life had experienced such revelations from the Lord.  He knew what was ahead and the suffering involved.

It is not that God’s purpose is to make us suffer, per se.  Yet, nothing for God can be done in this fallen world without encountering it.  We encounter personal suffering when we deny our sinful flesh and follow the Spirit of God.  We also encounter suffering from people intent on serving self and from spiritual forces.  To live for God is a battle with self, the world, and the devil.  Yet, we should not fear this suffering.  We suffer for the Lord who suffered first for us.  This is our honor, but also bonds us deeper with the Lord as we grow to understood the love that compelled him to the cross.

With this plan to go to Macedonia in mind, Paul sends Timothy and Erastus ahead for several reasons.  They most likely carry correspondence from Paul to various churches, and would be able to see for themselves the response to such in each church.  Also, they would be giving the churches a heads up and enabling them to prepare for his coming.  We are told that he stayed in Asia “for a time,” after sending them.  I would gage this as a matter of months in light of the two years mentioned earlier.

A commotion occurs (23-31)

We saw earlier that friction in the synagogue had led to Paul and the believers in Jesus separating.  They met in the Hall of Tyrannus.  Whenever a mob occurs, there is a trigger event, whether it justifies a mob or not.  We have seen uprising against Paul before, and they pretty much led to his leaving town every time.  In Thessalonica, it was a mob instigated by Jews who would not believe in Jesus as Messiah.  However, it will be by Gentile pagans here in Ephesus.  Paul’s ministry and the growth of the church was noticeably impacting the religious economy of Ephesus.

Ephesus was famous for its temple to Artemis (the Latin form is Diana), but more on that later.

We are told that the commotion is “about The Way.”  Luke uses this term for the early Church again.  He will use it a total of eight times in the book, of which this is the fourth.  Saul of Tarsus had been a man arresting people of “The Way” in Acts 9:2.  In this case, Paul is part of The Way [of the Lord] and others are seeking to arrest him.

This commotion is stirred up by a silversmith in Ephesus named Demetrius.  It says that he was a maker of “shrines.”  These silver images were typically of a particular Greek god, but sometimes depicted a scene from their mythology.  They could be used within public shrines, but rich people would also buy them for personal shrines.  The fame of Ephesus for its Temple to Artemis would also make a shrine created in Ephesus more valuable and costly.  Demetrius makes his living crafting these shrine objects for rich people.

When we make our money out of something, even when it is a religious thing, we are easily led into sin.  Even Christians can do God’s things in a way that reflects anything but the image of God, and the Lord who bought them with his blood.  This would only be compounded in a person who serves a false god.

Demetrius gathers the silversmiths of the city and makes a speech.  Even if he didn’t intend to create a mob, the mob quickly takes over, and Demetrius is no longer in control.  He was the “releasing of water.”  He only began the strife, but the building up of pressure would grow to become greater than the initial action.  What is his message?

First, he reminds the group that they make their money through the trade of these images.  Second, he points to the fact that Paul has been persuading people to turn from these shrines.  This leads to the conclusion.  If Paul continues, our trade (aka financial interests) will be in danger, AND, the great temple of Artemis will be despised and its magnificence destroyed.

Notice how Demetrius shrewdly connects their personal, financial interests to the great glory of Ephesus and the temple of Artemis.  Essentially, he depicts the glory of Ephesus as being in danger, so any true Ephesian would refuse to allow this.  Ephesus had been famous for its temple to Artemis for over 500 years at this point.  Who wants to be the generation that jeopardizes that?

We should recognize that this same persuasive argument can be made by politicians.  We can have our financial interests conflated with the glory of the United States of America.  We can be told that our sons need to go over seas and die on a foreign field or America will diminish.  In truth, it generally is about the lower motive of profit, and not for the average citizen.

At this point, we have some descriptions of the crowd by Luke.  In verse 28, he uses the phrases, “full of wrath” and “cried out.”  In verse 29, he uses the phrases, “rushed into the theater” and “having seized” Paul’s companions.

This mob action is very different from a peaceful protest.  There is no sense of control and order.  However, even a peaceful protest can be easily pushed into a mob by actors of ill-intent who know how to manipulate crowds.  Our Republic was founded upon the idea that people need to be able to lodge protest against improper governance.  Typically, this is done through the courts, but not always.  Large groups of people can get the attention of governors far quicker than a single lawsuit.  This feedback mechanisms, if done appropriately, can serve to help redress grievances.  Yet, Christians should be wise in such plans and participation.  We need to be led by the Holy Spirit and not by a worldly person (Christian or otherwise) who uses persuasive arguments to bring about our joining them.  There are many manipulators who love to see a crowd because they are already set up to twist the narrative in a direction that works for them.

Paul finds out what is going on, and he wants to address the raging mob.  However, the believers in the city and some of the officials of the province of Asia talked him out of it.  Ephesus was the seat of the provincial rule of Asia.

Was this a lack of faith on the part of these believers?  Can’t God protect and use the Apostle Paul speaking to a mob in Ephesus and calming it?  Yes, God can do anything.  However, I believe that Paul would have done so if he really felt the Holy Spirit was urging him to do it.  Between the counsel of these two groups, and Paul’s  understanding that God wasn’t necessarily telling him to do it, the decision that Paul will not address the crowd.  Even though Paul is a man led by the Spirit, that doesn’t mean every thought that pops into his head is from the Holy Spirit.   Paul sees the greater wisdom of restraint.

If you enter such situations with the thinking that you need to prove that God is with you, then you may make foolish choices hoping He will back you up.  It is a better policy to pray about every endeavor and do that which God clearly leads you to do.

The Lord Jesus had been raising up a church in Ephesus over the last several  years, but we see here that the spiritual enemies of Jesus didn’t like it.  Whether it is the spirit of Artemis or not, Demetrius is also a man being stirred up by spirits that don’t like what Paul is doing.  Demetrius is not the main problem.  Perhaps, Paul could see himself, before he was saved, in these raging men.  We can be too easily offended by what people do, and lose sight that the real problem is the devil and his angels who are able to use people as tools. 

Yes, the devil uses people.  However, God is also looking for some people who will trust Him and fight the greater battle against the spiritual forces that hold our enemies captives.  May God help us to find and help to deliver those who can be saved from the kingdom of darkness.

Riotous Crowd audio