Written by: Paul Duncan – Agape

Acts 19 v 23-24
And during that time, there was some serious trouble in Ephesus about the Way of Jesus. A man named Demetrius, who worked with silver, made little silver models that looked like the temple of the goddess Artemis. Those who did this work made much money. 

Notes
The temple of Artemis of Ephesus was known as one of the seven wonders of the world: 425 feet long, 220 feet wide, 60 feet high, with pillars of marble inlaid with gold. It was filled with works by the great artists of the Greek world.

People came from all over the world to see this temple and its rites, and they bought little pottery or silver models of the temple as souvenirs. At some of the bigger temple festivals, up to 30,000 people might be present.

We read today that a man named Demetrius made some of these souvenirs while there was “serious trouble in Ephesus about the Way of Jesus”.

Getting into trouble for doing wrong is one thing - we can understand this and expect it - but getting into trouble and almost causing a riot for doing what is right is another! Yet Jesus said in John 15 v 20: "If people did wrong to me, they will do wrong to you, too."

Does your faith in Jesus sometimes cause a stir or lead to embarrassing moments? Does your faith in Jesus lead you to face persecution or trouble sometimes? If it doesn't, should it? Have you ever been persecuted for your faith in Christ?

Acts 19 v 25-27
Demetrius had a meeting with them and some others who did the same kind of work. He told them, “Men, you know that we make a lot of money from our business. But look at what this man Paul is doing. He has convinced and turned away many people in Ephesus and in almost all of Asia! He says the gods made by human hands are not real. There is a danger that our business will lose its good name, but there is also another danger: people will begin to think that the temple of the great goddess Artemis is not important. Her greatness will be destroyed, but Artemis is the goddess that everyone in Asia and the whole world worships.”

Notes
In today's passage we get a glimpse of what was really going on and how devious people can be. Demetrius and some of the other tradesmen were finding that God's work through Paul was affecting their pockets.

But Demetrius was a good deal more subtle than to say it was about money. Instead, he put forward three motives for his concern: "our business will lose its good name"; "people will begin to think that the temple of the great goddess Artemis is not important"; and “Her greatness will be destroyed”. While these things Demetrius said were true, they didn't, however, reveal his real motive: money.

Today it’s often the same when we take a stand for Jesus. There can be many examples of this, like refusing to lie for someone, or refusing to let them copy your licensed computer software. Your faith in Jesus may well cost you more money, or cost other people more money, if you choose not to be dishonest. Will you tell the truth even if you end up financially worse off?

Recently I took the car into a local garage to get some minor work done. When I returned later that day I was told one price for "cash in hand", or one much higher if I paid with a cheque!

There wasn't hundreds of pounds of difference in the price, it was only a little thing and no one would know. But often big things start with lots of little things, so I wrote a cheque! Ask yourself: "Do I honour God in the money area of my life?"

Acts 19 v 28-30
When the others heard this, they became very angry and shouted, “Artemis, the goddess of Ephesus, is great!” The whole city became confused. The people grabbed Gaius and Aristarchus, who were from Macedonia and were travelling with Paul, and ran to the theatre. Paul wanted to go in and talk to the crowd, but the followers did not let him. 

Notes
Have you ever wondered about things that are not in the Bible? I have, and still do! For example, I would love to know how Gaius and Aristarchus felt. Paul, the main man, was not around, so these guys who were known to be Paul's companions got dragged off by a furious mob into this enormous theatre.

There probably weren’t too many friendly faces there! What did they feel was going to happen to them? Were they afraid? Would they be stoned, whipped, imprisoned? Would Paul arrive and save the day? I wonder what they were praying - we don't know, as Luke the writer of Acts didn't say!

Later in Acts we do see how God delivered them from the situation that they found themselves in. I am sure that they did not know how God would work, but they did know that he is faithful.

What would you have prayed if you were in their situation? Would you have called down fire from heaven? Would you pray for grace to face certain death?

You don't know what you will face today. What will your prayer be for today? Why not stop, pause and commit yourself and this day to Jesus?

Acts 19 v 31-32
Also, some leaders of Asia who were friends of Paul sent him a message, begging him not to go into the theatre. Some people were shouting one thing, and some were shouting another. The meeting was completely confused; most of them did not know why they had come together. 

Notes 
I get the impression here that Paul heard of a big crowd of people in the theatre and thought, "What a great opportunity to preach the Gospel!", intent on getting to speak to the crowd. As an evangelist, Paul was always looking for opportunities to talk to people, so a big crowd must have been a God-given opportunity to talk about Jesus (after all, this was Paul's raison d'etre, or reason for being).

During all his time (nearly two-and-a-half years) in Ephesus, Paul had made some good friends and they offered him some good advice. I am sure Paul did not want to hear what they said. It wasn't, "Go for it, God will be with you" - in fact, it was the opposite.

Do we have good true friends who will tell us things that will stop us in our tracks? We all need to have these sorts of people in our lives.

If you have these types of friends, why not stop and thank Jesus for them? If you don't, ask God to provide you with this type of quality friend. Maybe you could be this quality friend for someone else.

As it says in Proverbs 18 v 24: "a real friend will be more loyal than a brother".

Acts 19 v 33-34
The Jews put a man named Alexander in front of the people, and some of them told him what to do. Alexander waved his hand so he could explain things to the people. But when they saw that Alexander was a Jew, they all shouted the same thing for two hours: “Great is Artemis of Ephesus!”

Notes
I don't know if you have ever found yourself in a situation similar to Alexander: up in front of a group of people trying to explain your point of view. As you have read, Alexander didn't have much success!

Part of my job is to go into school to take RE lessons and run lunchtime discussion groups. The bit I enjoy the most about RE lessons is the question and answer session at the end (though I didn't think so when I first started to work in schools). The kids fire questions at me, one after another, and just as I start to answer the first question, they ask me another question, then another, and another.

There are a few reasons behind this phenomenon. One is to see if I really have an answer. Another is to try to catch me out, or get me to contradict myself. Some of them want to look good in front of their friends. Others are just trying to get my attention.

Whatever the reason is that they ask their question, as it says in 1 Peter 3 v 15: "Always be ready to answer everyone who asks you to explain about the hope you have".

Whenever we get into situations where we are explaining what we believe, we need to remember that success is not winning the argument, but rather winning the person.

Acts 19 v 35-37
Then the city clerk made the crowd be quiet. He said, “People of Ephesus, everyone knows that Ephesus is the city that keeps the temple of the great goddess Artemis and her holy stone that fell from heaven. Since no one can say this is not true, you should be quiet. Stop and think before you do anything. You brought these men here, but they have not said anything evil against our goddess or stolen anything from her temple.”

Notes
Some people think that what Christians believe is barking mad – it’s just quite simply foolishness. I have a good friend with whom I have great conversations about God and 
Jesus. Sometimes he says, "As a scientist, I can't see how you can believe what you believe."

Now, first of all he's not a scientist, he's a PE teacher; but rather than arguing about that,
I am endeavouring to get him to see the inconsistencies in the "science" he believes in -
that his “science” can't explain everything, and that the Bible is a book of the "Whys?" of this life rather than the "Hows". We need to think, "What is the question behind their question?"

Sometimes I think if Richard saw a miracle right in front of his eyes then he would believe, yet I only have to look at the Bible to see that this does not generally convince everyone. Just look at the nation of Israel. They had miracle after miracle, but how many of the them made it into the promised land? How faithful a people were they through the period of Joshua and Judges? We need to realise that there is no one thing that will convince everybody.

Becoming a Christian is about choice, and people make choices based on the strangest things sometimes. Our responsibility is clear: we need to stay close and intimate with Jesus; we also need to be salt and light in the world. Our friends need to see that we are not religious but people they can't quite put in a box - that we have something about us that others can see and want.

Acts 19 v 38-41
“If Demetrius and those who work with him have a charge against anyone they should go to the courts and judges where they can argue with each other. If there is something else you want to talk about, it can be decided at the legal town meeting of the people. I say this because some people might see this trouble today and say that we are rioting. We could not explain this, because there is no real reason for this meeting.” After the city clerk said these things, he told the people to go home.

Notes
We see in this passage an example of God protecting His people. We don't know if the town clerk was a friend of Paul's; if he was, it is not obvious from how he spoke. But God is able and willing to use all means to protect his people, including non-Christian officials.

Once I was on an evangelistic project to a closed country that was strict about not bringing Christian material in. I had been given special training on how to hide our material in my luggage so it would not easily be found. One of the things that country was keen to stop was videos, but as my baggage went through the X-ray machine, there was the video on the screen as plain as day for all to see. The customs man was looking at the screen but seemingly did not see this obvious video in the middle of my suitcase, and I and the video made it through.

Think through times when you have been aware of God's protection and thank Him. Maybe this causes you to think of times when you feel God didn't protect you and you got hurt. Talk to Him about these things. If you feel let down by God there is no point hiding it. He is not afraid of our feelings.

You may also need to talk about how you feel to a close friend or a mature Christian whom you respect in your church. It's important to work through these very real feelings in order to move on, so that you are able to trust God your Heavenly Father completely.


word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes