Good morning and Happy Aloha Friday! It looks like we’ve got a little more rain moving in this afternoon, what a joy to see all this great rain here in North Texas in early September. Being a native Texan, I’ll take this over the normal early September weather, where it’s over 100 every day!
I’ve got a busy work day today with a conference call followed closely by a business lunch in Dallas and then back across to Fort Worth to grab Margie and then onto dinner with one of our Pastors and his wife. After dinner we’re going to a Friday night worship service at a church in Southlake. Margie and I love our home church, but I strongly recommend you get out and check out other churches every opportunity you have. We love to worship while we’re on vacation, we have been blessed by some really awesome churches all over the world! We’re also blessed with so many awesome churches and Pastors right here in North Texas. Folks, believe me, its not like this all over the world. In fact, on Maui there were only 7 Baptist churches in Maui county and Maui county covered 3 whole different islands! I have that many Baptist churches within walking distance of my house! Oh, the need for Jesus and good churches at the ‘ends of the Earth.’
This morning we’re in Acts chapter 19 and there’s only 28 chapters in the book so we’re only a week away from finishing Acts and moving into the book of Romans. You know, even at only 5 minutes a day we are flying through books! Today we find Paul immediately going back out of his home city of Antioch to begin his third missionary journey. His first stop is Ephesus. Remember back at the end of chapter 18 that he didn’t stay long in Ephesus but sad he would return to them “if God wills”. (Acts 18:21) Well, here he is back in Ephesus for one of his single greatest ministries.
Paul follows his usual pattern when he goes into a new city and starts out preaching in the synagogue. He preaches boldly in the synagogue in Ephesus for 3 months until “some became stubborn and continued in unbelief and started speaking evil of the way before the congregation.” (Acts 19:9) The mood turns violent so Paul splits.
The evil in the synagogue that drives Paul out prompts him into his single greatest missional preaching tenure. He sets up shop at the Hall of Tyrannus and “this continued for 2 years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 19:10) This is likely when the seven churches of Asia came into existence; because of this 2 year preaching ministry Paul had here at the Hall of Tyrannus in Ephesus. Tyrannus was actually a school in Ephesus and on the school campus there was a hall or meeting place. When the hall wasn’t being used Paul would use it, probably by renting it. Paul also wrote a few of his early letters during this 2 year period. In fact, he even mentions his 2 year preaching time in Ephesus in the letter to Corinth. 1 Corinthians 16:8, “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” I’m guessing the many adversaries he mentions were the ones that “spoke evil of the way before the congregation” in Acts 19:9 above. Also, you’ll want to note here that we see Christians mentioned as being in “the Way”. The newly formed churches had no names and especially no denomination, it was simply called “the Way”, which references Jesus saying in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the truth, and the life; no man comes unto the Father, but by me.”
At this time we’re told what great miracles that was being done through Paul at this time. Acts 19:11, “And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hand of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that touched his skin were carried away to the sick and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.” What are the handkerchiefs and aprons mentioned here? Paul was a tentmaker in a very hot climate, he was sweating a lot throughout the day. These were literally sweat rags he would wipe his brow with. People would grab these stinky, sweaty, dirty rags and run off with them to heal their sick family members. The was also a message in this to the Ephesians. There were mystery religions in Ephesus that used perfectly white, perfectly clean cloths in their religious ceremonies. God was rebuking these religions and practices by using dirty, sweaty cloths to heal people. God 1, mystery religions zero.
Following these miracles, we see that other Jewish ‘exorcists’ try to reproduce Paul’s miracles by also using the name of Jesus. They try to remove an evil spirit in the name of Jesus and it backfires on them. The evil sprit does comes out, but it goes into everyone one them and they all go running out of the house naked and wounded. Ouch. This little episode greatly rocked Ephesus and we’re told in Acts 19:17, “and this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.” A lot of sorcery came to light as a result and those who practiced it brought all of their black art books to the town square and burned them. Wow, talk about repenting!
The rest of chapter 19 deals with Demetrius the silversmith and the riot of Artemis. Here it is in a nutshell. Demetrius was a silversmith, more than likely the president of the local Ephesus Silversmith Guild. He and his fellow silversmiths were making a killing on selling little silver statues of Artemus. Artemus was a Greek goddess and she was also associated with the Roman Goddess Dianna. In the KJV it says he made idols to Dianna but in my ESV it reads Atremus. They would have used both names in the day since Ephesus was pretty much half Roman and half Greek.
The temple of Atremus/Dianna was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the largest Greek temple ever built and it was a sight to behold. But what was really the sight was what went on around it and in it. It was a place of gross immorality, things that even today would be reviled. Because of the grandness of the temple and the attraction of the sin, people flocked from all over the world to see it. When they did they would want a souvenir to take home. (somethings never change right?) It reminds me of when we went to New York City years ago. There were little figures of the statue of Liberty for sale everywhere!
Now Paul’s preaching was having a huge impact on Ephesus and people were turning away from idols and idol worship by the tons. The silversmiths saw their business falling faster than a dog on roller-skates and they got really mad. There is one truth that will never change. If you want to get somebodies attention, hit em’ in the pocketbook.
The guys form a mob and for a few hours the mob screams, rants, yells and threatens anybody and everybody. Its pure, angry chaos. In fact Acts 19:32 says “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.” Sounds like most of the weekend protests at our nations capital! Paul wanted to speak to them but he would have been ripped to shreds, so his buddies convince him to stay back. Eventually a city official tells them that if they have a legal issue with Paul they should file a claim in court, if not they need to disperse. The whole message here I think is one of mob mentality. We see it so much in God’s Word and it’s this same mob mentality that hung Jesus on the cross. Mob mentality is some of the worst behavior humans can offer up. It reminds me of the quote from George Carlin, “Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.” So true.
This wraps up Acts 19, we’ll be in chapter 20 tomorrow. I hope you join me again and I hope that your personal 5 minutes in God’s Word today speaks to your heart and you carry that message with you wherever your feet take you today!
God bless the message of Jesus and may it reach our world today!
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