The Third Missionary Journey - The Riot in Ephesus - Part 1

If you would, please take your Bible, turn to Acts chapter 19. We will be in verse 21 to 41, but we will not cover all of those verses by no means. Now, at this point, we are getting close to the end of Paul's ministry in Ephesus, but that does not mean that the ministry in Ephesus floundered or faltered. The church in Ephesus continued to succeed, not perfectly, but faithfully. The church in Ephesus was and continued to be a hub of great gospel success that impacted the entire region. We have seen that many churches came out of the work at Ephesus. There was a lot of gospel work that emanated out of the work at Ephesus.

But before we get into our next verses, I want us to look at the reasons why the work in Ephesus was so successful. We're gonna start here and end here tonight. From a heavenly perspective, of course, it was God's will that Ephesus become the great hub and flagship church of the region. This was all part of God's providential plan. I thought about it like this today in my study. God had a plan for the church at Philippi. He had a plan for the church at Ephesus. He had a plan. But from the human perspective, there are two reasons. Now, I see a secondary and a primary reason.

Because of the development of the work of the church, we have seen that Paul had many more helpers, assistants, and partners in the work than he did in the early days. Here in Ephesus, that was the case. He had Priscilla and Aquila, that great husband and wife team. He had Timothy and Erastrus, Gaius, Aristocartes, I said that wrong, probably Titus. Some of these we know very little about, and some of these we know a lot about. Titus and Timothy turned out to be Paul's best assistants and plant pastors. So they had to be a great help in the work at Ephesus. But notice the primary reason for the success in the work here.

Paul stayed for three years teaching God's word. In verses one to seven, we see that he taught in the synagogue every Sabbath for three months. That was a rarity. In verses eight to 12, we see that he taught every day in the hall of Tyrrhenius for two years. And it is safe to say that the last year, Paul did the same thing. Now, this is my point. And this leads us to a great lesson for us. Yes, this church was a strong church because of how God worked in them providentially. And because there were many great workers in the life of the church. We can say it like this. If they had a church staff, it was a good one.

But the church was strong because of Paul's faithful ministry for three years. And we'll come back to this at the conclusion of the message. In a way, it's safe to say that Paul pastored there. Pastored there. And you know, I thought about it yesterday. It's almost like Paul knew what Jesus taught in John 17 and what is normally called the high priestly prayer. I'm thinking specifically of verse 17. In chapter 17 of the gospel of John, that tells us that Christ has given his church the word and that God sanctifies his people through the word. And this sanctifying work is for all believers of all time.

So as we see, the church at Ephesus was committed to the consistent faithful teaching of God's word for the sanctification of the saints. Again, this is my point. The Ephesian church, the believers here were strong in the faith because of Paul's consistent and faithful teaching of God's word for three years. Again, I say it, he obviously was their pastor. And look at the lesson for us today. We must never back off away from the consistent and faithful preaching and teaching of God's word ever. If we ever back off of the consistent and faithful teaching of the word, we start heading towards death.

And I don't wanna sound arrogant, but look around at how many churches cancel. They seem to cancel. And notice they seem to cancel things like a Sunday night or a Wednesday night service and the preaching of the word, but they hold on to things like gospel scenes and rummage sales and things like that. If you want my opinion, I would say cancel the gospel scene and add back Sunday night teaching God's word. And look, if we do anything in the life of the church, we will add, not take away. And what I mean by that is this, we don't do anything that's fluffy. Everything we do has purpose. We don't do things just to do things. It all has purpose.

And what I mean by saying we would add, we have a spring revival and renewal where someone preaches and teaches. If we have anything additional, it will be word-centered. Of course, we have outreach events and evangelism, things like that. But if you'll notice, lots of times those things are word-centered. Think about our truck retreat with our children. They will be hearing the gospels, word-centered. Now, listen to your pastor here, church. Yes, you need rest. We all do. We're not God, we have to have rest. Yes, you need a Saturday. Yes, we need vacation time. Anytime I hear that you're going on vacation, I always say, go, have a good time.

We're gonna miss you. Look forward to you coming back. But we must make sure of something. Our Saturday, our rest, our hobbies, and everything else should not keep us from Sunday morning worship, small groups and Wednesday nights. Let's be careful not to let those things encroach into Sunday morning small groups and Wednesday nights. I know we all battle sickness, that's part of it. And I know sometimes that ox gets in the ditch. I think you know what that means. You know, if the car breaks down or the roof springs a leak, you probably won't make it to church. The ox is in the ditch. Years ago, I knew a man in the life of the church.

He always had an ox in the ditch. And I used to jokingly, but seriously say, he needed to shoot that ox because it always got him in the ditch. Really, that ox was his bad decisions. Now here we are after the miraculous and mighty events seen in verses 11 to 20. As we will see, things get more wild in Ephesus. You may say, pastor, what could be more wild than handkerchiefs that white Paul's face being used to heal the sick? You could say, pastor, what could be more wild than a demon possessed man beating up false Jewish teachers and they're running naked for the heals? Well, how about a riot?

How about a riot of about 25,000 people meeting in the biggest meeting place in town? Yes, they had a theater that would have held about 20, 25,000 people. I was a little curious and I did some research. The closest venue to Brookhaven that would hold that many, M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg, USM campus, it holds 36,000. In Jackson, the old Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium, it holds 44 to 60,000. I don't know why such a wide variety or a big disparity in the numbers. So a riot broke out in Ephesus, a big one, because the success in the work of the gospel had such a great impact on the culture. So this is the title of the message.

Again, the third missionary journey, the riot in Ephesus, the riot in Ephesus. And most of your Bibles have some kind of a heading there. Now let's read all of our verses, but we won't cover them all. Verse 21 to 41. Now, after these events, that would be the previous events, the great miracles, the mighty works that we had seen, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia to go up to Jerusalem saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome. And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

About that time, there arose no little disturbance concerning the way for a man named Demetrius silversmith who made silver shrines or statues of Artemis brought no little business to the craftsman. These, he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said, men, you know that from this business, we have our wealth. And you see, and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people saying that gods made with hands are not gods.

And there is danger, not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be.

counted as nothing, and that she may be even disposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship. When they heard this, they were enraged and crying out, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus. Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel, but when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples, that would be the believers, would not let him, and even some of the Asriarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.

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. Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward, and Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they cried out with one voice, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky, seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash, for you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilege nor blasphemers of our goddess. If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are procounsels. Let them bring charges against one another.

But if you seek any further, it should be settled in the regular assembly, for we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion. And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly. Now there's quite a lot here, but I want us to see how we'll cover these events. We will see, first of all, Paul's plans, Paul's plans, Paul's plans at his remaining time there in Ephesus, verses 21 to 22. Second, what caused the riot, verse 23 to 27, that's where we'll stop tonight. Third, we'll look at the riot, what that was like in verse 28 to 34.

And fourth, what stopped the riot, verse 34 to 31. Again, this will be a part one, a part two, we'll cover about half this tonight. So let's get into the verses, number one, Paul's plans, verse 21 to 22, Paul's plans. Here Luke gives us really a summary of some things. He finished up telling us about the mighty and miraculous. He is about to tell us about the great riot, but now he gives us a summary of Paul's ministry plans. Paul's time in Ephesus was coming to an end, and this had been the most productive and encouraging ministry so far.

Even though he did face danger and death in Ephesus, this was still a very encouraging time in his ministry. At this point, he had been in ministry some two and a half years. Now I want to make two observations here, I want us to see two specifics. First Paul's traveling plans and why. You see this in verse 21. Luke tells us that Paul was resolved. The King James, the legacy standard says he purposed. This means he planned, he purposed to go through Macedonia, Achaia, and then to Jerusalem and finally Rome.

Now if we look at our maps, every now and then I'll call you to do that, we see that Macedonia and Achaia were in the opposite direction of Jerusalem. And to see why he was doing this, we have to look at some other scripture. Simply the church in Jerusalem was suffering greatly at this time. Many were poor and were suffering and needed financial assistance. So Paul wanted to take them a love offering from these churches that he knew and he founded. So before going to Jerusalem, on his way to Jerusalem, he went into Macedonia and Achaia to take up a love offering for the church in Jerusalem.

And we see this in Romans 15, 25 to 27, 1 Corinthians 16 verses 1 to 4, and 2 Corinthians chapters 8 to 9. Now notice what this tells us. This speaks a great deal about Christian love, Christian unity, brotherly love among the churches. And this was spurred on by Paul. But Jerusalem was not Paul's ultimate destination, Rome was, the verse says. He had longed to visit the church in Rome, in the city. He wrote to them in the book of Romans verse 1 of chapter 1 saying that he longed to visit them to minister to them and to strengthen them. See there was a church already in Rome.

And he said in verse 15 that he was eager to preach the gospel to them and also to the lost in the city. But Paul's ambitions did not stop with the great imperial capital city of Rome. In chapter 15 of the book of Romans, he said that he wanted to go to Spain. Now the scriptures don't ever tell us, don't tell us if he ever did go to Spain, but I did run across some extra biblical writing that hints to the possibility that he may have ventured into Spain. But for now, he's there in Ephesus a little longer. We just see his plans. Second, notice Paul's sending plans and why. We have in verse 22 his sending plans.

Luke tells us he sent Timothy and Erastrus into Macedonia while he stayed in Ephesus a little longer. Now some scholars say at this point in time when he's in Ephesus, he wrote the book of 1 Corinthians. But notice why he sent them. Paul sent them to prepare the churches for his visit. No doubt as they went into the churches, churches like Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, they taught God's word, they encouraged the brethren, they told him all about the work in Ephesus. But they prepared the churches for Paul. They prepared the churches for this love offering work that would be taken to the Jerusalem brothers.

Maybe they were there calling them to save some money, to set some money aside, and to get ready to give, to get ready to give. So here we see Paul's plans and his desire to move on from Ephesus for two basic purposes. First, he planned to minister to those other churches. Ultimately, the churches in Jerusalem and Rome. And second, he planned to preach the gospel to the lost in Rome, maybe Spain, and some other places if the Lord would take him. But then we see he desired to take a love offering to the suffering church in Jerusalem.

Now there's a short lesson here that just really came to the surface for me as I was praying and studying through these verses. We see the church on the move here. Paul was on the move. The Ephesian church was on the move. These other churches were on the move. The gospel was always on the move. The work of the church was always going forward. There was always someone to witness to, someone to teach, yes, at times, some money to give. The church never sits still. And if we ever get to the place where we have a sit still mentality, we're going backwards. Just always remember the church is to be moving forward.

Now let's finally get started with the riot. And notice, most of our Bibles have a heading over the verse, verse 21, that says something like a riot in Ephesus. I looked at several of my copies laying around. I think there was one that didn't have a title there, but most do, most do. But let's notice number two. Notice number two, what caused the riot? What caused the riot? Now there is quite a lot here in verses 23 to 27, not just in how the riot got started, but as we will see, there is quite a lot we can learn, quite a lot we can apply to our time and our circumstances, although we're not facing a riot. And this is what I want us to do.

I want to make three observations here. I want us to see how this got started, what was taking place, and the root causes. There were two root causes, but really there was one. So first, how this got started, how this got started. Verse 23, Luke tells us that no little disturbance came about. Now I don't know about you, this is a funny way of saying it. It's a funny way of saying that a big disturbance came about, the text says, because of the way. And this term, the way, was used in other times in the book of Acts to describe the Christian faith and the followers of Christ.

I ran across someone this week that said maybe this came from Jesus teaching where he said

He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Maybe that's the case. So right off, Luke tells us that a big, big disturbance came about because of Christianity, the church, and the work of the gospel. But then second, what took place here? What took place here? Verses 24 to 27. Now I do want us to go back and put our eyes on those verses. Verse 24 to 27. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines or statues of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, that would be the craftsmen, with the workmen in similar trades.

And he said, men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see in here that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul is persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger, not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be disposed from her magnificence. She whom all Asia and the world worship, worship. Now, this is what was happening. The man who started off this riot was named Demetrius.

Along with others, he was in the business of making shrines out of silver of the goddess Artemis. And these shrines, these statues, were small household idols that were presented at the temple when the worshipers presented their offerings. Now, history and scholars tell us that Demetrius and these other businessmen were a part of trade guilds. They had trade guilds in their day, and they were not like trade unions that we know of. They were more like social clubs associated with their specific trade. They had trade guilds for bakers.

They had trade guilds for bankers, doctors, architects, all kinds of makers of different cloth goods, metal workers, stone masons, and so on. And some speculate that Demetrius was the head of the silversmiths guild. But this is what we have here. Demetrius, other silversmiths, and other businessmen who made their living, and they made a good deal of money directly or indirectly from the temple in the worship at the temple, they gathered together. And their business was no small business. History and scholars tell us they made a good deal of money, and this was an integral part of their worship and spiritual lives.

And this was no small worship either. The worship of the goddess Artemis was found all over and throughout the Roman world. Scholars and history tells us there were at least 33 shrines to Artemis found all throughout the empire at this time. But notice how this relates to the city and the people of Ephesus, religiously and financially. Ephesus was the home of the massive and elaborate temple of Artemis, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. And their temple was the center of Artemis worship. And with the silting up of the harbor in Ephesus, which we learned about previously, that changed the entire economy of the city.

As shipping and trade from the port declined, the temple and temple worship became the primary source of wealth, prosperity, and reputation for the city. Pilgrims or traveling worshipers came from all over the empire to Ephesus to the temple, especially for an annual festival to Artemis, which took place every spring. And not only did this make money for the silversmiths, who made all sorts of shrines for the very wealthy all the way down to the poor, but this brought in money for the entire economy. Many different merchants, many different business owners supplied food for these traveling worshipers. They provided lodging.

They provided offerings and sacrifices that they could buy and then take to the temple. So almost the entire economy of the city was tied to and dependent on the temple. But the temple was even more. The temple of Artemis was also a major treasury and bank of the ancient world. One commentator mentioned that merchants, wealthy merchants, kings, and even cities made deposits at the temple where their money could be safe under the protection of the deity. But let's back up a little. This is how the riot got started.

Demetrius, a silversmith, who was probably the leader of the silversmiths, who made a lot of money from the temple, he brought this complaint out in the public. But as we can see, he represented many in the city who felt this way. And next, let's look at the complaint that revealed the cause of the riot. Along with his fellow silversmiths and other tradesmen or business owners who had a dog in this fight, he declared that they all made their living and wealth from the temple, temple life, and worship. He then went on to say that Paul had persuaded a great many people to turn away from Artemis worship in Ephesus and all over Asia.

He pointed out that Paul had convinced many that gods made of hands were not really gods. He went on to say that there was a real danger that their trade associated with the temple and worship and associated with the temple in Artemis could be at risk. Listen to verse 27 in the Amplified. Not only is there danger that this trade of ours will be discredited, but also that the magnificent temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited and that she whom all of Asia in the world worship will be even dethroned and lose her glorious magnificence. Now, this leads us to the root cause. Third, the root cause of these events.

And there are two, but there's really one. Look back at verse 27 and see if you can find the root cause, the primary cause. Not only is there danger that this trade of ours will be discredited, but also that the magnificent temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited and that she whom all of Asia in the world worship will even be dethroned and lose her glorious magnificence. Luke tells us that Demetrius revealed his secondary and primary reason here. He declared that the temple and the great goddess Artemis could be discredited and that she could be dethroned and lose her great glory.

Simply, he said that worship of Artemis and worship at the temple could be affected. But that was not his primary reason for the uproar. His primary reason for anger was financial. He said that there was a danger that their trade could be discredited. And if the temple and the goddess fail, their trade, their income, their wealth, it fail as well. In his commentary on these verses, William Ramsey says, and it's real short, the most sensitive part of quote unquote civilized man is his pocket. It's true. Now notice that Demetrius did not say this, but he did.

He was saying indirectly that the gospel, Paul's evangelism and mission work and the great success of the gospel was a real threat to their pagan worship and wealth and income. I love what MacArthur says here of Demetrius and I'm quoting him. He says, Demetrius, a bitter opponent of the Christian faith was forced to confess that the preaching of the gospel was successful. And he goes on to point out that there was no other charge brought against the Christians, brought against the churches his concern and anger was purely financial. Again, Ramsey is right in saying the most sensitive part of quote unquote civilized man is his pocket.

So notice what calls this right in Ephesus. We could say that Demetrius was the spark that started the fire. Of course, the conditions, all of the city were right for the fire of this riot. Demetrius did not rise up and start this riot in a vacuum. The conditions were clearly right for this. But that is not the real cause of the riot. The gospel evangelism and the work of the church led by Paul had greatly impacted the people of Ephesus and the entire region. Many in Ephesus, both Jew and Greek had come to saving faith in Christ.

region both Jew and Greek had come to saving faith. And what happened? They left their life of sin, those who were evangelized, they left their paganism and not only did they burn their magic books, which we've seen, but they left Artemis. They threw away their idols. So many did this that it put a dent in worship at the temple. It affected the economy that was tied up with all of this. And we see this stated in the testimony of Demetrius and the other pagans of the city because they were right along in there with him. Now before we move into the rest of the verses, I want to look at some John MacArthur material that I believe we need.

And this is, I'm a John MacArthur, this is some of me, this is some things we've looked at before. It's really a conglomeration of his and mine. And I want to give us some very applicable teaching that comes out of what took place in Ephesus, things we've seen, things we're seeing, things we will get to. Right here MacArthur asks a question, what caused the success of the gospel in Ephesus? And the implications of this question are great. What this question shows us to me really shows us how we should operate as a church today. And notice how this comes together. Again the question, what caused the great gospel success we see in Ephesus?

Three things. First, the great gospel success in Ephesus can be attributed to one man's commitment and relentless labor for the work of the gospel in the church in the city. Now let me restate that. The great gospel success in Ephesus can be attributed to one man's commitment and relentless labor for the work of the church and the gospel in the city. Of course that was Paul. We've been seeing this. And we do know that God used many other people alongside Paul, but we see that it was Paul. Paul was the man that carried the burden of this work.

To quote John MacArthur here, he says, the key to his influence was not a charismatic personality, a clever marketing strategy, or political influence. In his farewell speech to the Ephesian elders, Paul reminded them, I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God night and day for a period of three years. I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. Of course, he's quoting Acts 28, 27, and 31. Simply, the great gospel success in Ephesus can be traced back directly to Paul in his unwavering commitment to his Lord and his preaching and teaching ministry for three years.

Now for us, our grace life wheel, we understand what it is. It communicates our basic structure and function. This tells us that at the very center of church life is the preaching and the teaching ministry of the Word. And look, church, we will not back off of that. We will not back off of that. Everything in the church revolves around the pulpit ministry and it emanates from it. We'll not cut back on that either. Our church will be built on and grow from the preaching and the teaching of God's Word from this pulpit, or we're going to fail. If that was good enough for the Ephesian church and the Apostle Paul, who are we to think otherwise?

Our church will be built on and grow from the preaching and the teaching ministry of God's Word here, or we'll fail. Second, the great gospel success in Ephesus can be attributed to a church that was purged of sin, the world, and worldliness. The great gospel success in Ephesus can be attributed to a pure and a clean church. MacArthur points this out. We saw this last week. Notice the order of these events in verse 18 to 20.

We see that the Word of the Lord concerning eternal salvation through faith in Christ was growing greatly and prevailing after the people of the church willingly and voluntarily cleaned their lives and their fellowship up with great personal and public sin. You see that? Question, do we see that our sin, do we see that our worldliness, do we see that our compromise could be grieving the Spirit's work in the Word of the Lord concerning eternal salvation through faith in Christ growing greatly and prevailing? Do we see that? Maybe we should begin a work of cleansing in our lives.

Maybe we should be praying and being in the Word and asking God to point out sin, compromise, sinfulness, worldliness in our lives. You see, look church, our Lord does not use dirty churches. Now He knows the church can't be perfect because we're sinners. Our Lord does not use willful dirty churches. We see that in Revelation chapters 1 to 3 in the example of the seven churches. Of the seven, five had sin in their midst and our Lord called them to repent and clean up. As a matter of fact, He told some of them, if you don't repent I'll come remove my lampstand. Go back and see who that was addressed to.

Again, it could be that our sin, our sinfulness, worldliness, compromise could be grieving the Spirit's work in the Word of the Lord concerning eternal salvation through faith in Christ growing greatly and prevailing. I do not think we have any public sin within our nature, within our church. I do not think we have any public sin, but do we have any personal sin? Third, the great gospel success in Ephesus can be attributed to the fact that the church used proper spiritual means. The gospel success in Ephesus can be attributed to the fact that the church used the proper spiritual means.

This is something that MacArthur pointed out and I love it. I'm taking what he said, I'm putting it in my words. Notice the church, and we will see this next week too, the church did not lobby the city authorities. They did not picket or protest the silversmiths and those other trade guilds. They didn't organize protests and pickets against Artemis outside of the temple. Notice when they had their annual festivals, which were pagan by the way, grossly immoral, in the spring they didn't go picket and protest those things. They did not try to be accepted and popular among the people. What did they do? It was simple.

They preached the word, they preached the gospel, they evangelized the lost. They preached the word and the gospel to God's people, the believer, and they evangelized and preached the gospel to the lost. MacArthur says, and I'm quoting, they preached and lived out the message and let the power of their changed lives confront and push out the old ways. I would add to that and say they preached and lived out the message and let the power of their changed lives and the gospel reach the lost. Now in closing, look at how this relates to us today.

If we are going to impact our lost family, our lost neighborhood, our lost city with the gospel, it will happen if we do it the Ephesian way, which is God's way. You see that? If we're going to impact our lost family, our lost neighborhood, our lost city with the gospel, it will happen the Ephesian way, Paul's way, which is God's way. I say this often, we are to be about doing God's work, God's way according to God's word for God's glory. You see? So this is the third missionary journey, the riot in Ephesus, part one, and we really haven't even gotten to the riot yet. The riot in Ephesus, part one. Let's pray.