It's good to be with you this morning.
I was a student at Princeton long ago.
I had the privilege of studying God's work on the campus.
And I found out through some strange archival resources that there was a statue in Jadwin
Gymnasium, which would be like the Payne Whitney of Yale, that was called the Princeton student,
but it had once been called the Christian student.
The statue was originally made to remember a graduate of the class of 1879, a man named
Earl Dodge, who had been the captain of the football team, the president of the Christian
Student Association at the time, and a prime mover in what became the worldwide student
movement called the Student Volunteers Movement that sent thousands of students to missions
around the world.
The statue was of an athletic-looking man, half in football garb, half in academic gown, with
books tucked under his left hand and his eyes up in a visionary gaze.
On the pedestal it said, to mark the birthplace of the worldwide union of Christian students
in the work for Christ.
And it was commented that the ideal set forth by this figure represented the heart and center
of Princeton tradition and Princeton faith.
Well, in 1929, on the night of graduation, a gathering of students with a bunch of ropes pulled down the statue.
Well, actually, the ropes weren't strong enough.
They broke the ropes.
But an enterprising lad went out and grabbed a tow chain from a local towing company, came
back, and they pulled the statue down, and it sent shockwaves through the campus.
The toppling signaled to others the end of a Christian era and marked a cynicism, if not irreligion,
among students, though some who were involved in it interpreted it more as a beer-fueled prank.
Yet, probably as well, they recognized it was born of a resentment of the ideals that that statue held.
It was seen as an end of the age, and people wondered, will Christianity ever again rise at Princeton University?
Will there ever be an ongoing presence of the gospel at that school?
I don't know if you've thought that recently, whether it be the uproar about the Indiana Religious Freedom Act,
the challenging of the accreditation of Gordon College in Massachusetts,
or the recent Pew report that reported the decline of religious affiliation in America.
It feels like there's a lot of bad news today about the state of the church,
about the health in America and its place in broader society.
Maybe it's easy to feel like the sky is falling.
Change of pace is rapid, out of control, and a little scary.
Well, friends, we aren't the first ones who have faced things like this.
Turn with me to Acts 19.
We're going to be looking at a passage this morning, starting in verse 21.
As you're turning there, let me remind you where we're at.
Paul has been in Ephesus now for the whole chapter.
He's encountered the disciples of John the Baptist and instructed them more fully about Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
He's encountered the sons of Siva who came to try to usurp the name of Jesus for spiritual power and found themselves running naked away from the encounter.
And we see the church refined and humbled by this encounter.
And they come and they burn their magic books and their traditions.
And it leads us to our passage this morning.
Acts chapter 19, verse 21.
Let's read it and then we'll pray together.
Now, after these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and to go to Jerusalem, saying,
After I've been there, I must also see Rome.
And having sent to 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, the silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.
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 a 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 deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.
And when they heard this, they were enraged.
And were 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 would not let him.
And even some of the Asiarchs, 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.
Most of them did not know what they had come together, 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 all 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 Ephesus 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 sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess.
If, therefore, Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone,
the courts are open, there are proconsuls.
Let them bring charges against one another.
But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly.
For we are really in danger of being charged with rioting today,
since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.
When he had said this, said these things, he dismissed the assembly.
And after the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples.
After encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for this word.
Thank you for the account of your church and the advance of the gospel.
God, we pray you would open our hearts and our minds to understand and receive what you have to say to us today.
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, it's an interesting story, isn't it?
And one of the most interesting things about it, if you look carefully,
we've been reading the book of Acts for a long time.
And who's been the major character since chapter 9?
Paul.
Paul's doing this, and Paul's doing that, and Paul's doing these things, and this is what we have.
And suddenly, we have this account where Paul is almost completely sidelined.
Not only that, but the other person that we've seen over and over again,
who is the major actor in the book of Acts as the church advances and as the gospel goes forward?
It's God, and God by His Holy Spirit.
And did you notice?
Not one mention.
Not one mention of the Lord or of His Spirit.
So what are we to make of this account?
What are we supposed to say?
Well, I think that as we read this in its context and as we will explore it together,
we will see that this passage for us is meant to encourage us to say that God will continue
to make His gospel advance, even in the face of the most excessive gospel-provoked opposition.
Let's look at it together.
The story unfolds really in two pieces.
The first part is this gospel-provoked response, this overreaction as we'll look at it.
And the second part in verses 35 through 39 is the intervention by which this provocation,
this riot that happens, is calmed down.
So first, the confused and excessive response.
Look with me in verse 23.
Remember, as we begin this, the silversmith Demetrius gathers his tradesmen together and he says,
men, we are in trouble.
Our trade is in trouble.
Because this troublemaker, Paul, is preaching a gospel that says that the very things that we make
do not have value.
That handmade gods are no gods at all.
Now, why would he do this?
Why would he bring this charge?
Well, I think it's actually connected to what you saw at the very end of the last section that Nick preached on last week.
But I want you to look again with me.
Verses 17 through 19.
Fear fell upon the church in Ephesus and in the whole region.
And many of those were now believers.
And they confessed and divulged various practices of magic arts.
And they burned their books.
And the value of it was excessively high.
Do you remember Nick counted?
It was like more than a lifetime's worth of wages in one single event of people coming together to unload these things.
They didn't even sell them to their neighbors who might have used them.
They destroyed them in the fire.
The gospel had been sown deeply.
Paul had been there for two and a half years.
Reasoning.
Teaching them.
About Christ.
And about this God who was a living God who did not live in temples made with human hands.
Paul's preaching had changed their hearts.
And not only their hearts but their practices.
It had gotten to the point where suddenly Demetrius and his cohorts were starting to feel the pinch.
It reminds me of an account that I read of the Welsh revival in 1904.
J. Wynor notes this.
That after the revival drunkenness was immediately cut in half.
And many taverns went bankrupt.
Crime was so diminished that judges were presented with white gloves.
Signifying there were no cases of murder, assault, rape or robbery or the like to consider.
The police became unemployed in many districts.
Stoppages occurred in the coal mines.
Not due to unpleasantness between management or workers.
But because so many foul-mouthed miners became converted.
And stopped using foul languages.
That the horses that hauled the coal could no longer understand the workers.
Oh friends.
Isn't it a sweet thing to hear of how the gospel can transform our hearts and our lives?
Isn't it encouraging?
This is what God is up to in the world.
That the gospel is meant to have this transforming power.
That out of the overflow of an individual heart being transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his son.
Lives are changed.
And destructive practices and evils that are socially recognized dry up in the lives of those who have been taken hold of by Christ.
Friend, this should be great encouragement that this is the gospel we have trusted in.
That it will do these kinds of things.
But it is also a challenge for us.
How deep is the gospel?
How deep is the gospel gone in our hearts?
How has it changed not just what we profess or where we go on Sunday mornings.
But the things that we trust in when things get hard.
How does it change how we spend the resources not just of our money.
But of our time.
And of our love.
How does it change how we date.
How we pursue a career.
How we love our parents.
The gospel.
When it does its right work.
It provokes a response.
And this is what Demetrius sees.
Demetrius sees that the gospel is making a huge inroad into his business.
When it talks about business.
He's talking about profits.
He's saying we are losing money because these people are becoming Christians.
And we need to do something about it.
And the response.
Starting in verse 28.
Is huge.
It is in fact excessive.
When you read this.
It reminds you of mob psychology.
If you've ever read about mob psychology.
You've read descriptions of when mobs form.
They become completely irrational.
Look at the description of what happens.
They become enraged.
And they were crying out.
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
Great.
That makes sense.
They're reaffirming their cultural and religious identity.
We are built around the worship of Artemis.
This rock fell from the sky.
And that rock is now in our temple that we worship.
This great goddess.
Who benefits us and brings us all these blessings.
We've built this huge temple.
Five times greater than the Parthenon.
In Ephesus.
To worship this goddess.
And so they're reaffirming their cultural, social and religious identity.
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
But then they go out.
The city was filled with confusion.
They rush down what seemed to be the main street.
Like rushing down Chapel Street.
And crowds are pouring into the streets following them.
They get to the theater.
Which probably held 25 or 30,000 people.
And look at verse 32.
It's so funny.
It's a just.
Some said this.
Some said that.
Lots of people didn't even know why they were there.
But they were all crying.
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
The description is meant for us to see how excessive.
How irrational we get when our idols are threatened.
When the depth of our identity seems to be at stake.
When who we are suddenly feels like we might lose it.
It's slipping out of our fingers.
Friends, I wonder if you recognize that in yourself at all.
I know I do.
I can think back to a pretty ugly scene in my own ministerial life.
A while ago, I was a leader of a team on a campus.
We were having conflict among us about some of the direction we were meant to go.
And I opened.
I actually opened to 1 Corinthians.
Which we were just reading this morning in Sunday school class.
And I was talking about what the nature of the true gospel ministry looks like.
And being cross-shaped.
And I started to teach.
And one of my staff team members interrupted me.
And just said, well, I don't think that's right.
As a matter of fact, I think you're just using this to justify yourself.
And regardless of the rightness or wrongness of her interruption.
The idol of my authority, my identity as a pastor, as, well, as a campus worker at that point,
felt very threatened.
And I responded in an extremely ugly manner.
I at first attacked.
And then I shut down.
And then I left.
It was not a pretty scene in my life.
God has used it much to teach me and to humble me since then.
But when our idols are threatened.
When the things that we think shape our identity.
Give us significance.
Suddenly you're at risk.
We respond excessively.
And we see this in our culture too, don't we?
We see this.
We see this in this scene.
We see it throughout church history.
We see it today.
How perilous it can be to identify with the way of Jesus.
Because Jesus will always come and subvert the dominant paradigm.
Jesus will always come and overturn our cultural assumptions.
Jesus wants to go deep and take hold of the very core of who we are.
And reshape it around Him.
So that all these other things
become at least secondary to a primary identity.
To a primary significance of knowing Christ and being found in Him.
Not having a righteousness of my own.
But having one that is received by faith.
And maybe this is a time just to say,
if you're here this morning,
if you're exploring Christianity,
and your gut reaction is,
it is completely illogical.
It is,
I cannot believe that reasonable people would ever consider this.
Consider if that might not be an overreaction of your heart.
Be careful if you find yourself with that kind of heart reaction to the gospel.
And I urge you to take time to be patient
in exploring what the true gospel really is.
This crisis,
this story,
tells us about how the gospel provokes this huge reaction in Ephesus.
Such that it's this mob that's out of control.
Paul wants to go in.
The disciples say,
no, you can't do it.
As in fact,
even the Asiarchs,
who are the civic leaders of the area,
say,
Paul,
you don't want to go in there.
It is out of control.
Alexander,
who is a Jew,
was put forward
probably trying to distinguish himself
from the way of Paul and the gospel
because even though the Jews were known to also be anti-idolatrous,
they would never attack the way it,
Paul has been accused of attacking or undermining the worship.
And so,
he tries to stand up.
And what does he get?
He's shouted down for two hours.
Two hours of,
great is Artemis of Ephesus.
Two hours of a mob simply yelling.
And you think,
what a perilous place it must be.
If you've ever read stories of pioneer missionaries,
I can think of one.
Hudson Taylor goes into a new city,
begins to establish a place for ministry.
And the rumors in the city start to abound
that they're kidnapping children
and gouging their eyes out and eating their flesh.
Completely illogical,
completely irrational responses.
Mobs circle the compound.
They ended up burning the place down
only by God's miraculous intervention
were the missionaries saved.
And you know at times,
God doesn't always save those
in those circumstances.
Sometimes,
He doesn't even do that.
And it brings us to the question,
what are we then to do
if following Jesus
is this perilous?
If we are going to walk this road
of provoking
these excessive responses
from our culture,
from our world,
what are we then to do?
How do we keep going?
Well,
at the height of the crisis,
God intervenes.
And He intervenes
in a surprising way
for the continued advance
of the gospel.
Because suddenly,
this fever pitch is gone.
The town clerk shows up
and He quiets them.
And He works through
this very savvy,
very political speech.
Men of Ephesus,
how can you think
that our greatness
could ever be threatened
by this puny preacher
and his little band of followers?
We have a rock from heaven
that we worship.
We will never lose our glory.
And these men,
these men are not
burning down our temples.
They're not publicly going around
decrying Artemis.
Which is a side note,
is an interesting note.
It's probable that Paul
would preach in Ephesus
as he did in Athens.
Not decrying those other gods,
but simply saying,
no,
there is a true
and a living God
who does not live
in a temple
made by human hands.
And then he goes on
and he says,
and look,
if you have a problem,
the courts are open.
We have civilized ways
of dealing with these things.
And the danger
which Demetrius
started out with saying,
the danger is
this way
which is undermining
our societal well-being.
The clerk says,
no, no, no, friends.
The danger is Rome.
Because if Rome comes in
and finds that
we are out of control,
then we will be
under their thumb.
It's not even
a very good argument
sometimes.
Right?
And yet it's persuasive.
And as you read it
in the context
of the whole book of Acts,
we must see
this is the hand of God
working
through
unexpected means
in a surprising way.
God
will continue
the advance of the gospel.
The gates of hell
will not prevail against it.
You might ask,
why do you say that?
Well,
if you've been
paying attention carefully,
you've noticed
that I've left out
the first two verses
and the last verse
that we read
when we read this passage.
Look with me
back at verses 21 and 22.
Luke,
as he's telling this story,
begins by saying,
now after these things,
Paul resolved
in his spirit
to continue
the advance
of the gospel.
That's my summary of it.
He said,
I'm going to go back
through Macedonia
and Achaia.
I'm going to do
a collection
that I'm collecting
for the church
in Jerusalem
which is suffering.
Then I'm going to go
to Jerusalem
and then I'm going
to go to Rome
and Rome,
as we understand
more broadly,
is Paul's launching place
to go to Spain.
Paul's thinking
the gospel advance
is going to go forward.
And I can't quite leave yet,
so I'm sending
my brothers ahead of me
to do the collection
and I'm going to stay
in Asia.
And then Luke launches
into this whole thing.
And at the very end,
with an unfortunate
section break
in the ESV,
when the uproar ceased,
Paul sent for the disciples.
He encouraged them.
He said farewell
and departed.
With all this riot,
with all this uproar,
people might be thinking,
oh no,
what's going to happen?
Are people going to stop going?
Is the gospel advance
going to be set back?
Is suddenly this going to
make people afraid?
Is it going to squelch
the fervor
and the ongoing progress?
And Luke just says,
no.
No.
God intervened.
God intervened
and the gospel advanced.
So two applications for us.
Firstly,
friends,
I want you to see
that the nature of the gospel,
the nature of the gospel
is a gospel
that is inherently subversive
to every thought process
of this world.
Every identity we build
that is outside of God.
Every significance
that we find
that is apart from God.
Every meaning
that we find in life
that excludes God from it.
God is going to invade
that with the gospel.
And He's going to
pierce and penetrate
to the very core
of our being.
He's going to say,
don't take a little
metal shrine home
to make you feel
like you can connect
with God.
Don't take that little thing
to build your civic
and social identity.
because the God
of this world
has come
to you.
And He has taken hold
of your hearts.
And you don't worship
a God
who lives in
a temple made with hands,
but you worship a God
who has made your heart
His temple.
And He has come
to live in you.
And He's come
to make you His.
And He loves you.
And He delights in you.
And in that,
in that gospel then,
we find our truest identity,
our real meaning
and significance.
We find the depth
of what we were made to be.
And so the gospel
is always subversive
and will provoke responses.
But the second thing,
the second thing
about the gospel
is that we have a God
who intervenes for us
in surprising ways.
We're about to go
to the table,
celebrate communion,
Lord's Supper.
friends,
is there any
other way
that we could remember
more clearly
that this is the very nature
of the God
that we know?
A God who comes
to intervene
in our most
dire circumstances
when the riot
of sin
and the fallenness
of the world
seemed to be
at complete mastery.
God
Himself
took on
human flesh
and stepped
into this world
and He walked
this world
to show us
His kingdom
and His righteousness
and then He stepped
to the cross
and identifying
with us,
He intervened.
He said,
I will die
the death
they deserve.
I will quell
the rage
of judgment
against sin.
I will quell
the riot
of this broken world
with my broken body.
This is the God
who intervenes
for us
and this is the God
that we worship.
So, friends,
if the cultural winds
are blowing,
if our parking lot
ends up
condos
or who knows
what,
whatever our
particular fears
are today,
we can trust
in this God
and we can
dig deep
into this gospel.
Let's pray.
Amen.
God,
we do confess
that, Lord,
there are times
when we do
fear.
We fear
that we have
come to the end
and we will be
overwhelmed
that the responses
of the culture
to our Christian
faith will
defeat us
and overcome
us.
Lord,
we fear
that our own
weaknesses
will be
our undoing.
Lord,
we fear
that the gospel
will not advance
but in fact
is encountering
defeat after defeat.
Lord,
in the midst
of that,
you come
and speak
words of hope
and encouragement.
Lord,
that you will
see your gospel
advance.
You will build
your kingdom
and that we
can be of
good cheer
and have
courage.
Lord,
we pray
for that
this morning.
And Lord,
as we go
to the table,
Lord,
will you remind
us that this
is the place
where we stand
at the foot
of the cross.
Lord,
for here
we have
our surety.
Here we have
our greatest
confidence.
Here we know
that you are
a God
who will not
abandon us,
who will not
leave us,
but a God
who will intervene
for us
to save us
and to make
us yours.
We pray
these things
in Jesus'
name.
Amen.
Let me invite
those who are
going to serve
to come up.
Amen.