If there are times in my life when I might wonder at the
wisdom of attempting to be an expositional preacher, then today might be one of
them. Today’s passage is not one
that I think lends itself well to an expositional approach. It is primarily a narrative, and as
such it doesn’t present an easy subject to get an outline from.
But nevertheless, I firmly believe that all scripture is
inspired by God and is profitable for rebuke, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness. And so I want to
try to understand with you why the Holy Spirit led Luke to include this
passage. And after thinking and
praying about it, I must conclude that it builds on our previous message from
last week. Last week, if you will
remember, we saw the power of the gospel over demonic activity. Now this week, we see the counter
attack by the devil’s forces.
If you recall, Paul’s preaching resulted in evil spirits
being cast out of many people in Ephesus.
About the same time, a traveling exorcism troupe by the name of the Seven Sons of Sceva rolled into
town and begin to practice exorcisms for profit, and in attempting to use the
name of Jesus and Paul the demon responded, “Jesus I know and Paul I know, but
who are you?” And the demon
overwhelmed these false religionists and sent them running out of town bruised
and bloodied and naked.
Now God used that to great effect in Ephesus, so that the
fear of God fell upon the city, so much so that the townspeople began coming
out in droves to burn their occultist books and materials. They burned what amounted to in today’s
money about one million dollars worth of books about the occult and
sorcery. And verse 20 says that
the end result of Paul’s preaching the gospel was that, “the word of the Lord
was growing mightily and prevailing.”
Now that is a great spiritual victory. That’s what we all hope for when we
preach the gospel. That is the
goal of the church, to see the word of the Lord growing mightily and prevailing
in the community, to see people confessing and repenting of their sins, to see
people being saved, bringing their idolatrous and occult practices and laying
them down and destroying them, renouncing them publicly. That is what we pray for, what we
strive for.
But from this narrative we see that when the church gains ground and has a
great victory, the devil does not necessarily roll over and play dead. We need to understand that we are
engaged in a spiritual battle. And
the danger oftentimes in the church is we think that because we are saved,
because Jesus triumphed over death and hell, that we have been guaranteed now a
trouble free existence. But the
truth is, that we are in a battle against the spiritual forces of darkness in
high places, and they never sleep, they never give up, because they know their
eternal destiny is at stake. And
so when we think we have achieved some sort of victory, and are ready to sit
back on our laurels and savor for a moment or two our winnings, the devil and
his cohorts are already mounting a counterattack. It reminds me of that bumper sticker I’ve seen on a few cars
which says, “Keep honking, I’m reloading!” When we are celebrating our
spiritual victory, the devil is actually reloading and getting ready to
counterattack.
I’ve seen this happen in the lives of Christians time and
time again. We see someone come to
Christ and get their heart right, renounce their sins and commit their way to
the Lord, and somehow there is this expectation that everything in the world
now is going to be in harmony.
Everything is going to click into place. All your problems are going to disappear. And in fact, the majority of the time
is that immediately the devil mounts a counter attack. And before you know it, the Christian
has fallen into sin, or become discouraged and if not for the grace of God they
will end up falling right back into the same pit they were in, or another pit
that is just as bad. We somehow
forget that very basic proverb, “when you think you stand, take heed lest you
fall.”
We should not be surprised when we find ourselves under
attack. Peter warned of that very
thing in 1Peter 4:12 saying, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal
among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing
were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of
Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may
rejoice with exultation.” In other
words, we need to expect persecution, trials, attacks against us, against our
loved ones, attacks against the church, because if they persecuted Christ unto
death, what should we expect as His disciples? And furthermore, when I say that Satan counterattacks the
church, I do not mean that he counterattacks the edifice of the church. He does not attack the brick and
mortar, but he attacks the people who are the church. We are the living stones that make up the church. And so he attacks us, he attacks our
children, our wives and husbands and friends. Satan attacks individuals who constitute the church.
So that is exactly what we see here in this passage. And I believe it is instructive for
that reason, that it should remind us to be prepared for the counterattacks of the devil, so that we are
not ignorant of his schemes, and that we should not be surprised when those
attacks come. But when they come,
we might remain steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord.
Now let’s look at this narrative and see if we can pick out
some common characteristics of how the devil counterattacks the triumphs of the
gospel. I believe this event
illustrates some common themes in the devil’s schemes.
First of all note as I pointed out earlier, that this counterattack comes on the
heels of a great victory in the church at Ephesus. Paul has been there about two and a half years at this
point. And as we saw, the word of
the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing in the community. The entire region was being turned
upside down. Paul’s fame had
spread to the point that even the demons knew his name, and false religionists
were trying to use Paul’s name for profit.
So as they reach this point there is a sense perhaps that
they can let Timothy and Erastus, two of the other ministers of the church,
leave and go into Macedonia to check on other churches. Paul himself is making plans to leave,
to go first to Jerusalem, and then he believes the Lord is directing him to go
to Rome. And he will eventually go
to Rome by the Lord’s will, in the Lord’s time. But he still has a few battles left here in Ephesus that he
isn’t aware of yet. They were
experiencing perhaps a time of peace.
A time of growth. A time
when they sat back and were thinking of plans for the future. And suddenly there is a great
disturbance that seems to almost threaten the very existence of the church and
it’s leadership. We see that
expressed in vs.23, “About that time there occurred no small disturbance
concerning the Way.”
No small disturbance is an understatement. It ends up being a city wide riot. The Way is just another way of
referring to the gospel. And a
riot breaks out in town because of the gospel. Now that speaks volumes about the power of the gospel. It caused a riot. This is no little riot in a back street
somewhere, but this thing erupts in the theater, which holds upwards of 25,000
people. So that is some kind of
riot.
Now what started this was the gospel had affected the
economics of the people of Ephesus.
We already saw how a million dollars worth of occultist books were
burned in the town square. And in
vs. 24 we see that a man named Demetrius, who was a silversmith that made his
living making idols of the god Artemis, rallies the other craftsmen of his
trade, and those who made their living serving the great temple to Artemis, and
he speaks to them a highly inflammatory message.
You should understand that the temple to Artemis or Diana,
same thing, was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. It was
supported by 127 pillars, each 60 feet high, and was adorned with great
sculptures. Kings and nations from
all over the world actually used this temple as a sort of bank for their
treasures under the protection of the goddess. So it was visited by people from
all over the world and as such the trade in idols and miniature copies of the
temple were a substantial part of the economics of the townspeople.
So there is this great temple, which served to supply not
only the religion but the
economics of the people of Ephesus. And when the spread of the gospel was perceived as
threatening their income, the townspeople revolted, resulting in a riot. They picked up two of the prominent
members of the church, Gaius and Aristarchus, and the whole town rushed into the theater, which as I said
earlier could hold upwards of 25,000 people.
Now I want to make a point here that I think is integral to
understanding the text, but isn’t immediately apparent in our English
translations. And that is that
Luke uses the word assembly several times in this passage to describe this
riot, this huge mob of people who have gathered in the theater. And the interesting thing is that the
Greek word translated assembly is the word ekklesia, which is the same word
elsewhere translated as church.
Luke is calling this mob, this riot a church. And I don’t think he does so without purpose.
I think the purpose of Luke choosing that word ekklesia is
because he is trying to contrast the church of our Lord with the church of the
devil. And even though the mob
does not seem to constitute what we normally think of as a church, I believe it
fills the bill on several levels.
I believe scripture makes it clear that worshipping idols is
equivalent to worshipping demons. Paul said in 1Cor. 10:19, “What do I mean then? That a thing
sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that
the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to
God.” Jesus said that Satan is the
father of lies, and so we see here that he even lies to his own people. He disguises himself under the title of
a false god, an idol, or a false religion, but in effect they are worshipping
demons. 1Tim. 4:1 Paul again equates false religion with demon worship saying,
“the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the
faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.”
So Satan’s church is not usually advertised as such. To the contrary, it is usually advertised
as an arbiter of truth. It’s
presented as a means to God, as a means of finding personal happiness and peace. And yet if it is not of Christ,
faithful to the word of Christ, then it is of the devil. And consequently, people that worship there are worshipping
the devil in ignorance.
So Luke through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is
indicating that this counterattack on the Lord’s church is actually of demonic
origin, fomented by idol worship and an idol’s temple which serves as the
church of Satan, and that brings persecution and trials against the church of
God.
Now we’ve read the narrative, and I don’t want to just
regurgitate that and call it exposition.
But rather I think it would be good to take some characteristics of this
event as illustrative of the typical type of counterattack to the gospel of the
church. What kind of
characteristics are true of false religion. What kind of characteristics are common to the
counterattacks of Satan on the true church of God.
First I would point out the monetary motives of false
religion. Demetrius clearly
appeals to the economic reasons for maintaining their religion. It was a source of great income for the
townspeople. They had a thriving
business as a result of the temple and idol worship. And so they were motivated by money. Jesus said that money and God are in
opposition to each other, saying in Luke 16:13 "No servant can serve two
masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be
devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
And love of money is true of false teachers today. They are always asking for money. They are always using the ministry to
defraud people of money. And such
were the excorcists we saw earlier in this chapter. Such are the televangelists who promise you blessings if you
will send in your offering, while they fly around the country in their private
planes. Peter warned about those
types in 2Pet. 2:1-3, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as
there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce
destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift
destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of
them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will
exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and
their destruction is not asleep.”
In their greed they exploit you… So that is the first characteristic of
false religion, the church of Satan, is money is their motivation.
Secondly, the false religionists appeal to the veneration of
edifices, statues, temples and tradition.
Notice how Demetrius appeals to the national fervor surrounding the
temple of Artemis, the international veneration of her religion, the
magnificence of their religion’s prominence in the world due to the splendor
and opulence of the temple.
False religions love to emphasize the brick and mortar of
their religion. They love their
great churches, their vaulted cathedrals.
They appeal to your awe to support those great architectural wonders, to
give to their building programs, their universities, etc. They focus on the physical structures,
but God isn’t there. Paul in his
message recorded in Acts 17 said, "The God who made the world and all
things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples
made with hands.” God dwells in
the hearts of righteous men and women, who are the temple of the Holy
Spirit. We are the true church. No building can contain the God of the
universe. But Satan loves to focus
our attention on edifices and property and statues, which are nothing more than
repositories of idols.
Then closely related to that is the appeal of pride. Demetrius appeals to the pride of the
craftsmen, the pride of the Ephesians for their great temple. The pride of the work of their
hands. But pride has no part in
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Unless
a man humbles himself even as a child, he will not be exalted in the kingdom of
God.
Then notice in vs. 28, the characteristic of demonic counterattack is anger. They were filled with rage. Christianity
makes people mad. Because people don't like to be confronted with their
sinfulness. And they don't like to have to face the fact that their entire way
of life and their entire system is wrong.
The more they have invested in the false system the greater their rage
against the authority of the Bible.
The gospel is not designed to be a theoretical exercise we
do on Sunday mornings only. It’s
supposed to impact your livelihood, your day to day life, the way you conduct
business. And when it does that,
you should expect people to get mad at you. A lot of churches spend a lot of effort to make sure that
they don’t offend anyone. But the
truth of the gospel is by nature offensive. We should not batter people to death with it, but neither do
we try to mitigate the destruction of the defenses it is designed to break down.
Then in vs. 29, we see another characteristic of the demonic
church’s counterattack is confusion. “The city was filled with the confusion.” Paul said in 1Cor. 14:33, “God is not a
God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” Listen, make no mistake; if a church is
a place of confusion, it is not a work of the Lord. It may very well instead be a place of the doctrines of
demons. God is not the author of
confusion in the church.
Paul said that because in the church at Corinth everyone was
running around with a word of prophecy, speaking in tongues, singing songs,
etc, and there was no order. So if
it is true that God is not the author of confusion, then conversely, the devil
is the author of confusion. And he
especially likes to confuse the gospel, to twist the word, to add new revelations
and prophecy to the word. To add
words of knowledge to that, and holy laughter to that, and barking like a dog
to that, and glitter falling from the ceiling to that, and people falling out
on the floor to that, and the whole thing is just one big batch of
confusion. And such is not of
God. Period.
In vs.32, we see another characteristic of the false
religionists, and that is ignorance.
Some were saying one thing and some were saying something else. And most of them didn’t even know what
they were rioting about. They were
just caught up in the euphoria. False
religion plays on people’s ignorance, superstition and emotions.
The Bible says that people perish for lack of
knowledge. False religions are
built on half truths and flat out lies, so there is no truth, no saving
truth. Jude warns that those false
prophets will be destroyed by the things that they do not understand. “But
these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which
they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are
destroyed.” The church of the
Lord, on the other hand, is built up on sound doctrine, and is unified in
doctrinal purity, being saved by the knowledge of the truth. God’s word is the truth. It only is reliable, and authoritative.
And the last characteristic of a false religion, of the
counter attack of Satan’s church, is closed mindedness. Notice that in vs. 33, the Jews put up
this guy named Alexander, who was probably going to try to make sure that the
riot wasn’t blamed on the Jews, but when he opened his mouth and they
recognized him as a Jew, the whole mob started shouting for two hours straight,
“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
They didn’t want to listen to anything. They wanted to just shut up any perceived opposition to what
they wanted to believe.
I can attest to closed mindedness being a hallmark of the
false religions. I’ve noticed that
such people often are unteachable.
They take their stand on a vision they have seen, or some word of
special revelation that they had, or on some experience that they had or what
some priest said. And it doesn’t
make any difference what the Bible may say to the contrary. They put tradition or experience above
God’s word.
Well, this huge assembly vastly outnumbered the
disciples. They out yelled them,
out chanted them, and just attempted to intimidate the church of Ephesus as
much as they possibly could. But Paul
wasn’t afraid of them though. He wanted to go in there and face them
and perhaps preach the gospel. I
would say that wasn’t foolishness of Paul. That was his assurance that God had promised to do certain
things in his life, and he was sure that God would keep his promises. God had indicated that he would go to
Rome. So Paul knew that if he went
in there and it turned bad, somehow God would deliver him.
But God had other plans to deliver His church. And we must remember that God promises
to deliver His church from the attacks of the devil, and even from false
prophets. Denominations may fall,
temples may crumble, church buildings may become vacant, but the word of God
will endure forever. Jesus said, “I
will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
So God used an unsaved man to dismiss the mob. He didn’t need to use Paul to do
it. God preserved Paul by having
what amounted to the mayor of the town come out to the assembly and quiet them
down by reasoning with them. He
assured them that Paul and his companions had not defiled the temple of
Artemis. He said they were neither
robbers nor blasphemers of the goddess Artemis. And then he ended up reminding
them that there were lawful ways to handle disagreements in the courts, and
they were subject to the judgment of the courts as well, if they did not
disperse and prevent a riot. So by
a miracle, the crowd disperses.
After hours of chanting and shouting and so forth, God brings about Paul
and his disciples deliverance.
Listen, we need to remember that the battle is the
Lord’s. He will fight for us. It
is His church. When we try to
fight in human means we end up ostracizing the very people were are called to
win to Christ. There are surely some things we are to
do. But for the most part we are
told to stand firm, to speak the truth in love, to be steadfast, immoveable. We are not told to form political
action committees or to seek to win over people through legislation or
force. But rather we should wait
on the Lord. Let the Lord fight our
battles while we stand by and watch.
Moses said that very thing in Exodus 14:13, “But Moses said
to the people, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD
which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen
today, you will never see them again forever. "The LORD will fight for you
while you keep silent."
We need to remember Eph. 6:12 which says, “our struggle is
not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers,
against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of
wickedness in the heavenly places.”
There is a good possibility that when John wrote 3John the Demetrius
that he mentions there is the same Demetrius that is leading the riot
here. If so, he eventually became
a Christian by the steadfast, faithful witness of the church. We need to remember that is the goal of
our endeavors as the church of Christ.
Satan will rage, and his assembly will attempt to dissuade
as many as possible to join their ranks, they will counterfeit the truth of the
gospel, but ultimately, the gospel of Jesus Christ will prevail. We need to stand fast in the word of
God, stand together as the church of the Lord, and be a witness to the truth of
God’s word. And when we do that,
the gates of hell will not prevail against this church. Let us be wise as serpents, and
harmless as doves, so that we may win the lost.
1Cor. 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast,
immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is
not in vain in the Lord.”
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