Wouldn’t it be great to have lived during the time of the early church and see the events in the Book of Acts unfold? It would be incredible to witness thousands of people come to Christ in one day, to see God answering prayer, and to experience entire communities transformed by the gospel.
These first Christians were sold out for Jesus. Living for Jesus was not easy in the early church. “A Christian [back then] had to be completely fearless, full of faith because they were constantly in trouble.” (Persecution & opposition.)
RECAP: Paul comes to Ephesus finds 12 men who knew only the baptism of John. Preaches Jesus to them, baptizes them in the name of Jesus, when he lays his hands on them, they receive the Holy Spirit and receive gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Paul preaches in the synagogue for 3 months and is run out. He goes to the hall of Tyrannus where he preaches Jesus for 2 years.
Acts 19:10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.
The 7 sons of Sceva. Acts 19:20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
Everything is going well for the church in Ephesus and it is growing and spreading in power. Even though Ephesus is the center of the occult for Asia, Where the temple of Diana-Artemis the goddess of fertility, virginity and child-bearing was. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and took 220 years to build. This magnificent building was longer than a football field, and was supported by 127 marble columns, each weighing 150 tons.
There was a lot of indulgence and sexual immorality among her cult members.
But, Christianity is taking hold.
Acts 19:21-22 After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.” 22 He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.
Why stay longer? (Paul wrote 1 Cor. While in Ephesus on 3rd missionary journey)
1 Corinthians 16:8-9 “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” Opportunity always arrives with adversity.
Acts 19:23-41
As we see=This success the church was enjoying brought with it, problems.
Over time more and more people are becoming Christians in the city of Ephesus and the province of Asia. As a result of all these people converting to Christ, the Temple of Artemis was suffering financially and so were the merchants attached to the Temple of Artemis.
The reason that there is a problem for the church in Ephesus is simple math. So let’s do the math. The more Christianity takes hold of people in Ephesus, the less the occult has a hold of those same people. The less people the occult has ahold of, the less people go to occult sites. The less people go to the Temple of Artemis the less idols they will buy from the Temple gift shops.
I want us to understand that Paul and the church aren’t inflicting this damage to the occult by directly attacking the occult. Paul and the church do not directly attack the Temple of Artemis do they?
Paul and the church are simply serving/ preaching Jesus. They had their priorities straight.
So let’s look at what those priorities were……Ready?
Priority number one – Serve/preach Jesus.
Priority number two – See priority number one.
Artemis was the most popular and the most worshiped god in all of Asia -world- and even so, Artemis was going broke.
It wasn’t going broke because of a direct attack upon it, it was going broke because of neglect…..
A silversmith named Demetrius does the math and calls together all those in related trades, in other words, all those who create/sell items for the Temple of Artemis. These people who are gathered to riot, they literally make/sell these little idols.
Archeologists still find these little pocket gods all over the ancient biblical world. These pocket gods were about the size of one of those little green army men we used to play with as kids. They were usually made out of brass and sometimes plated with silver or gold. The idea was that you could take your favorite god with you. They believed that somehow this little pocket god would protect them.
Ok, Demetrius gathers all these people together in the city amphitheater, which sat over 25,000 people and notice what is said: Vs24-26 A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia.
So, it looks like it is all about money, it smells like it is all about money, but it’s not all about money! (Worldly perspective-Spiritual perspective)
Yes, these people are upset that their personal economy is failing, and yes, these people are in fact correct that Jesus is at the root of their financial dilemma, but the reality is that this is not about money at all, IT IS ABOUT A CHANGE OF SPIRITUAL POWERS THAT IS HAPPENING IN THE REGION OF ASIA.
Before Paul arrived preaching the Gospel, the occult had total dominance in the region, now Jesus Christ is dominating the region. This isn’t about idols; this isn’t about economics; this is a spiritual battle being played out right before our eyes for the souls of men. (changing of the guard)
We know Paul will make it to Rome. And it was from Rome Paul writes his letter to the Ephesians. And in that letter, he reminds them of something very important:
Ephesians 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
I find it fascinating how the town clerk described the character of Christians in: Vs37 “You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess.” They didn’t trash the temple, protest their politics, or attack their idols. What they did do was simply preach the gospel of Jesus.
Conflict always arises whenever the gospel is faithfully preached in power. Because what is in the darkness the Gospel/Truth brings it to the light!!
Remember the simple math we talked about at the beginning of the sermon? The more Christianity spreads, the less influence the occult had. The more Christians there were, the less time and money people spent at the temples worshipping false gods.
The Temple of Artemis is dying, this occult center is on its way out. Years later, in 252 A.D., the Goths would invade Ephesus and burn the temple to the ground. It was never rebuilt due to lack of interest.
Notice: No matter how many times they gave Artemis glory and shouted out her greatness, she was powerless to do anything because she didn’t even exist.
This Scripture this morning highlights a simple, yet profound concept for us in our personal lives that extends to the church as a whole, serve Jesus, preach Jesus, focus on Jesus Christ first, because when the dominion of Jesus grows, when the influence of Jesus increases, the influence of evil will decrease.
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