Acts chapter 19 and verse 21. A little bit of a longer reading
this morning, but I trust that you will be patient with me. After these things were ended,
Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia
and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I have been there,
I must also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia two
of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus, but
he himself stayed in Asia for a season. At the same time, there
arose no small stir about that way, that is, the way of the
gospel or the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. For a certain man
named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for
Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsman, whom he called
together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs,
ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. Moreover, ye
see and hear that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout
all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people,
saying that there be no gods which are made with hands. so
that not only this our craft is in danger, but to be set at
not, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should
be despised and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all
Asia and the world worshipeth. And when they heard these sayings,
they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of
the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled
with confusion. And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus,
men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one
accord into the theatre. And when Paul would have entered
in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not. And certain
of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring
him that he would not adventure himself into the theatre. Some
therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly
was confused and the more part knew not wherefore they were
come together. And they drew Alexander out of
the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned
with the hand and would have made his defence unto the people. But when they knew that he was
a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried
out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians! And when the town clerk had appeased
the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that
knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper
of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down
from Jupiter? Seeing then that these things
cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and to do
nothing rashly. For ye have brought hither these
men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers
of your goddess. Wherefore, if Demetrius and the
craftsmen which are with him have a matter against any man,
the law is open, and there are deputies. Let them and plead
one another. But if ye inquire anything concerning
other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly. For we
are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar,
there being no cause whereby we shall give an account of this
concourse." And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly. Amen, may God bless to us this
reading. The account that we have here
of this riot in Ephesus shows how Paul's ministry and the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Christian faith indeed began
to affect everyday life in the towns and cities of the region. This event seems to have occurred
hard upon the heels of the incident with the Sons of Sceva that we
read about and the vagabond Jews that we read about on a previous
occasion. And it seems to have shaken the
whole city. It seems as if the religious
sentiments of the city were being raised in edginess. And what this shows us is that
when the gospel is preached and the gospel is received, it changes
lives. It alters things. It changes
lives and lifestyles. It changes hearts and it changes
behaviours. When the Lord Jesus Christ converted
the inhabitants of Ephesus and the area around about, the tradespeople
who made their money in crafting images for the worship of pagan
idolatrous gods found that their income was reducing because people
were not buying these trinkets. for they were now worshipping
the true God, and they had passed away from Diana of Ephesus. And they didn't like that, these
craftsmen. They didn't like it when the
problem of Paul's preaching began to touch them in their pockets. Ephesus was the centre of worship
of Diana of Ephesus, and that's what these people cried out in
their hours-long chanting. Demetrius, who is this silversmith,
he had heard Paul say, there be no gods which are made with
hands, and he knew that adoption of that idea, that principle,
that message was going to cost him money and therefore he fought
back against it. He gathered all those who made
money from making these idols and he made a speech that caused
a riot in the town. He was able to speak emotionally
and emotively. He was able to raise rage. He was able to get the crowd
worked up into a frenzy and then march them through the streets,
grabbing anyone that they could see that might be connected in
any way with these Christians and dragging them to the theatre,
perhaps with the idea even of feeding them to lions or something. These rioters caught some of
Paul's friends and dragged them there, no doubt planning to do
them harm. And when Paul heard about it,
he was ready to go to the theatre and defend them and defend his
position and undoubtedly preach the gospel also, which I think
is indicative of the bravery of the Apostle Paul. Sometimes
we forget that These men were men of like passions as unto
us. They knew what it was to be frightened,
to be fearful, to be anxious. They knew what it was to bleed
and to hurt and to weep. And yet here Paul demonstrates
a boldness in his willingness to go and stand before these
crowds of rioters. His friends, They told him, no,
you must desist, you can't do that. And perhaps that shows
the love that they had for Paul. They did not want to lose him,
ripped torn apart from part in such a crowd. It seems in the
end, in fact, that after venting their anger for a number of hours,
that in the midst of the confusion and uncertainty as to what this
whole thing was about anyway, The people were swayed from doing
things and cooler heads prevailed amongst the Ephesian leaders,
no doubt trying to calm things down, realising that if somebody
like maybe the Romans or the governor heard about this riot
in the streets, then he could hold them accountable and they
didn't have a good explanation as to why this trouble had taken
place. And so it was that Gaius and
Aristarchus and a man called Alexander were all freed from
harm. But I just want to draw a couple
of points to your attention here in this context. I want you to
realise that there is power and there is energy and there is
emotion in false religion. These people were followers of
an idolatrous religion and yet they were energized even to rioting. Here it was evidently idolatry
that was being followed by these people in Ephesus. But the truth
is that all religion that isn't true religion All religion that
doesn't worship the one true God through faith in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ is false religion and ultimately idolatrous
religion. But it is still powerful and
it is still emotive and it can still energize its followers. And just because it's idolatrous
or people are looking at a little image, it doesn't mean to say
that they don't believe it with all their heart and they wouldn't
lay down their lives for it. People are bound up in their
religion. We often talk about liberty. People have to be liberated from
their idolatrous religions. They are bound up in their belief
systems. They have heavily invested in
their belief systems. Perhaps they've grown up in a
particular church from being a child. Their friends are there. Their family is there. They've
spent years in that company. They've built their friendships.
They've built their acceptance. They're familiar with the language
of the group. They're familiar with the expectations
of the group. And these group pressures upon
them are immense. The formalities of their religious
practice, the procedures of their church, To give that up for somebody else's faith, for
somebody else's gospel, is costly. It's humbling. It's embarrassing. People don't like to admit that
they're wrong. So what can persuade a person
to make such a change? What is going to change the heart
of such an individual? How could these rioting idolaters
in Ephesus ever be convinced to follow after the gospel of
the Apostle Paul. What might convince someone to
leave their old way of thinking and adopt something completely
different, something radical, something revolutionary as far
as their religion is concerned? Only one thing. And you and I
need to remember this, only one thing can effect that change,
a divine miracle. It takes a miracle for a person
to leave off their old ways of thinking, their old beliefs,
and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It takes a complete change of
heart. It takes a transformation of
thought and of mind. It takes such an alteration that
is so far reaching as to allow and enable a thorough conversion
and a complete alteration of understanding and values. And that's what the gospel does.
That's why we believe in preaching the gospel. That's why we believe
in taking the gospel out and broadcasting it as widely as
we are able. That's why we believe that there
is value in presenting the Lord Jesus Christ to those who gather
periodically in the venues that we have access to to preach. Because we know this message
changes hearts, we know that the gospel can convince a man
against his will. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ changes hearts and changes heads. It shows a person that
he is a sinner without strength to change himself. And it brings
them, it brings them by making them willing. Something that
we could never do by the power of our eloquence or our reasoning
or our insistence. The Lord Jesus Christ, God the
Holy Spirit, makes men and women willing in the day of his power
to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and the great salvation which
he has provided. Only God can make such a change,
not a preacher, not me. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17 says,
therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. That takes the power of God the
Holy Spirit and converting grace. Amen.