Acts: The Expansion of the Church
Session 12
Estimated reading time: 26 minutes
Dealing with Idolatry
This chapter will actually be Part 2 of the time spent in Ephesus during the third missionary journey. We will be talking about “Dealing with Idolatry.” We will begin in Acts 19, with a review of a few verses we read in the last chapter, however we did not discuss very much.
Acts 19:18 APNT
And many of those who believed came and declared their faults and confessed what they had done.
This is talking about how people had been working with magic, the occult, and different kinds of sorceries. These types of activities were very prevalent in Ephesus, if you recall from the previous chapter. We talked about the entire culture in Ephesus was built around the worship of Diana, as well as the practice of magic and the occult. So these sorcerers, it goes on, it says in verse 19:
Acts 19:19–20 APNT
And many sorcerers also gathered their books and brought [and] burned them before everyone. And they counted their price and the silver amounted to five thousand [pieces].
And so with great power the faith of God grew strong and increased.
Verse 20 is like a summary sentence of verse 19. They burned their books dealing with sorcery and destroyed all the things associated with magic and incantations. Those are the kinds of books they burned during this time. It says, “they counted their price and the silver amounted to 5,000 pieces.” I had previously stated that would have meant in our day and time about $500,000. However, I reviewed that and discovered that 5,000 in Aramaic can also be translated 50,000. That is also what the Greek says: it is 50,000 pieces of silver. One piece of silver would be equal to a day’s wage. If you figure as an average of $100 a day; in our culture that is actually a fairly low rate wage. However, at an average wage, you multiply 50,000 times 100. That is actually 5,000,000: $5,000,000.00 worth of books!
These books were not simply inexpensive, dime novels they were throwing in the fire. These were books that were hand copied and were treasured. They would have been passed down from generation to generation, and were prized possessions that had magical incantations in them. Only those who studied sorcery knew what the symbols meant. This is what they were burning. Here is an extremely important point which we will talk about later. In these kinds of situations, when you have books or materials that has so much invested in it pertaining to the occult, magic and magic spells with different words used in incantations, you cannot simply give them away. You cannot simply have the attitude of; “Oh well, it does not matter. I will just give it to somebody else.” These are the kinds of books that need to be burned. We will see why in a little while. We will continue and read verse 23.
Acts 19:23–24 APNT
And during that time a great uproar occurred about the way of God. (Sometimes it is called the way of God or the way of the Lord.)
And there was there a certain worker of silver, whose name was Demetrius who was making shrines of silver for Artemis (Who is also Diana.) and he brought great profit to his fellow craftsmen.
Demetrius was a “certain worker of silver” or a silversmith. In the last chapter, we talked about the little silver amulets were of Diana. She was a goddess who has a moon over her head, and has many breasts. She was a statue that was in the temple. Looking further at this, when the verse says, “he made shrines of silver,” he actually crafted a picture of the temple with an image of Diana in the middle of it. A person would have an amulet of the temple depicting all the columns, with the image of Diana in the middle of it. These amulets were made in various sizes as well. They were made small enough to carry in your pocket or larger ones that could be put in your home. These craftsmen were making a lot of money making these shrines. It is really interesting because in archaeology, there have not really been any silver images found of Diana. There are quite a few terracotta ones. If you want to have fun sometime, you can go on YouTube and take a virtual tour of the ruins in Ephesus that are there now. There is also a video screen image of what the buildings would have looked like during the time of Paul. It is really fascinating. In that video, and in many different places, you can pull up a picture of what Diana really looked like. She was not pretty at all.
I discovered something very interesting about Diana or Artemis. Her Canaanite name was Ashtaroth, who was also Baal’s consort. Baal and Ashtaroth were the god and goddess that were worshipped by the Canaanites, about which God was constantly very angry; to the point He told Joshua to kill all the Canaanites, because of the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth. I have read a lot about the kinds of things the Canaanites did. For instance, they buried their babies in the walls of their houses. They were really focused on the fertility and the promiscuity of that whole worship. Diana or Artemis was that same goddess, with a different name and a slightly different history.
A good question: what is an idol? I found a definition in a Bible dictionary that is fairly descriptive. It states, and idol is, “an image or anything used as an object of worship in place of the true God.” An idol could be anything. It could be music. It could be our job. It does not need to be an idol like a little statue with a temple around it and columns in it. In our culture, an idol could be a piece of clothing. It could be a title. It could be a position. Anything used as an object of worship is an idol. I think that is the key part of it. It is not that having beautiful things or having nice clothes or even a position or a good job is wrong. None of that is wrong of itself. However, when it becomes an object of worship, no matter what it is in our lives, then it becomes an idol.
I want to read from Deuteronomy because we are going to focus for a few minutes on objects particularly, because objects can carry different kinds of things on them. Again, objects of themselves are not necessarily good or bad. However, they can carry negative influences on the object when it is “called devoted to destruction.” We are going to read it from Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 7:25 ESV
The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. (Now see, this is also something along with the books. These are the things that need to get burned: a carved image of a god.) You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.
Those are the criteria about whether something is a cursed thing or an object has something evil about it or associated with it, and why you should burn it. Let me read that again.
Deuteronomy 7:25–26 ESV
The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.
And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.
This is the reason why we need to go through our houses, even though this is Old Testament. It is about the law and is the explanation of how to determine whether something was a good object or bad object. It is still the same today, because the adversary has not changed. He uses objects or things in our possession to do this same thing. If the object itself is devoted to destruction, then it needs to be burned or destroyed. Why? Because when you bring it into your home, then it has authority and power the enemy can use against us. That is the main reason.
I will give you some example of some objects. What kind of objects are we talking about? As a reminder, no object, I do not care what it is, is evil or good of itself. However, when it is devoted to destruction then the enemy can use it. Those are the items that we need to be aware of in our homes, our friend’s homes, or our family’s homes. We can help by walking by the spirit to ask God; “Is there something in my home that the enemy can use?”
Examples are owls, frogs, even little geese. There is a particular kind of goose which has a blue ribbon around its neck that is actually a god in history. There are a lot of people now who are collecting this particular kind of goose. Some other examples are kokopelli dolls, which are very prevalent in Colorado, New Mexico, and in Arizona as well. They look like a sprite with a little flute. One might be tempted to think there is nothing wrong with that. However, it is also a god. It is the same one that was used with Pied Piper of Hamelin. It looks like it is a happy god, but it is the jesting god. As a result, that is what it causes. When somebody puts it on the door of their house; they are inviting that spirit to come in. Another example is dreamcatchers, or different American Indian objects. Again, not every American Indian object has evil associated with it. However, the dreamcatchers particularly are, because they are circles that have an entryway for the spirits to come into that dreamcatcher. Masonic symbols and Masonic items: rings, books, anything to do with Masonic temple worship, and all of the subsidiary type of organizations that are similar. The Freemasons were very adept at using symbols to be the key to control, power, and evil. These are just a few examples. There are many others. There could be something with a wreath. There could be something with dried flower arrangements. It could be any object actually, for instance, a good luck charm that somebody would wear around their neck, magnets.
As I am showing you these things, you can start to see how the New Age movement that is popular in our culture today is very similar to the time of Ephesus. As we look at it initially we might think; “We do not have any magic or incantation books laying around in our house!” But, wait a minute. There are people who deal with the New Age concepts such as crystals and perhaps some; remember I said some, acupuncture. They are right on the edge of this magic, the same thing. Someone can be involved and live in Sedona, for example. Sedona is a vortex that is used by spirits and the center for the New Age. You would have to be walking very, very carefully in order not to be affected by that.
It is not something to be afraid of or to get all weird about and think there are spirits behind every object. Then we go to extremes and think: “Oh, no, what are we going to do? We will have to throw everything away. We cannot keep these pictures. We should not have these records,” or whatever else. It could have us begin to question if there are any good objects. However, that is not the point. The point is, there are objects that have doorways for spirits to come in. When you get rid of them, it is amazing how free things change in the environment of our homes.
I will give you one example of an incident that occurred when I was in Romania. I did not actually witness this directly. There was a young girl, probably four or five, who had a chronic crying. She was crying for a very long time. I do not remember exactly how long. Many people had ministered to her, prayed for her, laid hands on her, and all these different things. Nothing was improved at all. There was a group of people sitting in the living room. The minister, who had been visiting, looked down and saw a crystal vase underneath the coffee table. It was a beautiful object. It had facets on it and sparkled. It was a prized possession of the people in this home. When he saw that object, he said, “That is the doorway. That is where it is.” When they took the vase out and smashed the crystal, the girl stopped crying immediately. It was so direct. Often you cannot see it that directly. However, when we are careful about what is coming into our homes and watching over it, then it is a good thing. It is walking by the spirit that really tells the difference. We can continue to reading.
Acts 19:24–25 APNT
And there was there a certain worker of silver, whose name was Demetrius who was making shrines of silver for Artemis and he brought great profit to his fellow craftsmen.
This [man] gathered all his fellow craftsmen and those who worked with them and said to them, “Men, you know that all our trade is from this occupation. (You just see him being really stuffy; “I’m the big guy and I know what I’m doing!”)
And you have also heard and you have seen that this Paul has persuaded and turned away, not only the citizens of Ephesus, but also a multitude of all of Asia, saying that those are not gods that are made by the hands of men.
Paul was saying the gods that were made by hands were not the true gods. He was leading and preaching to them about the true God and about the Lord Jesus Christ. People were getting rid of their shrines, their amulets, and their books. Five million dollars in books is a lot of money! This had obviously affected the sales of the little silver shrines.
Acts 19:27 APNT
And not only this business is being shamed and brought to nothing, but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis (Diana) is counted as nothing, and also the goddess, whom all Asia and all the Gentiles worship, is despised.
The first thing was; “We are losing money.” The second thing is; “Diana, who is our object of great worship.” That is the definition of an idol: it is an object of worship! She would be despised and all Asia worships her. It was the money and the power that comes with money coming into the central city of Ephesus; that is what he was able to stir up the people about.
Acts 19:28–29a APNT
And when they heard these [things], they were filled with fury and cried out and said, “Great is Artemis (Diana) of the Ephesians.” (Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!)
And the whole city was stirred up. And they ran together and went to the theater…”
Remember when I was describing the street that went to the theater: the huge street that was 100 feet wide, paved with marble, and went from the harbor all the way to the theater. You can picture all the people coming from all the side streets to that main street, and becoming a huge mob that went all the way to the theater. The mob was filled with rage. It also says they were filled with confusion. Remember James 3:16, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” That is exactly what is happening here. They were filled with rage!
Acts 19:29 APNT
And the whole city was stirred up. And they ran together and went to the theater. And they seized [and] took along with them, Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonian men, the companions of Paul.
Aristarchus was from Thessalonica. Gaius was from Berea, so they were from Macedonia. They were also the companions of Paul. The crowd had not found Paul, but they found the two men who were with Paul; and they took them by force. You can see from this, if you have ever seen a mob at all, where it carries through and becomes like a wave. The following paragraph is a description of how this might have looked. This is from “The Teacher’s Commentary on The Acts of the Apostles.” This is an out-of-print commentary also, but it is really fabulous.
The illiterate artisans, soured by reduced wages or want of employment, were
roused into a state of frenzy and full of rage. They sallied forth into the streets
to wreak vengeance on an object of their blind fury. The living mass rolled along,
and thousands of idlers, whom the gains had attracted to Ephesus, swelled their numbers at every step, and the whole city was soon in a state of confusion.
This is a great explanation of this scene! It is as if, all of a sudden, the crowd becomes as sea and mass of people rushing to the theater.
Acts 19:30 APNT
And Paul wanted to enter the theater, yet the disciples prevented him.
The disciples knew what would happen when that mob got together. They had the games, 25,000 to 50,000 people in that theater, watching bloody games. They knew this was enough of a mob, if Paul went in there, he would not be coming out alive. Because of this, they prevented him from going in there.
Acts 19:31 APNT
And also the chiefs of Asia, because they were his friends, sent [and] begged him not to give up his life to enter the theater.
It is so remarkable how they protected him. They stood up for him and did not allow him to go in there? However, Gaius and Aristarchus were in there. What was going to happen to them?
Acts 19:32 APNT
And the crowds that were in the theater were very confused and were crying one thing and [then] another, for many of them did not know why they had been gathered.
That is pretty much a summary of a mob mentality. By the time it all starts going, with everybody all riled up, they do not even really know why they are riled up. It reminds me of the westerns. You probably have seen the western shows where there is the sheriff wielding the shotgun. The mob is coming towards the jail and the sheriff is just standing there holding the shotgun, as if saying, “You cannot go any farther than this.” When the crowd approaches him, he asks them, “What are you here for?” Then they look around and say, “Well, we don’t know. What are we here for?” By the time they got there, they forgot why they were so upset. This is just a funny way to explain it. Nevertheless, this was not a funny scene at all! It became extremely confusing with the multitude of people milling around. One was crying one thing. Another was crying another thing. However, nobody really knew what the commotion was all about. They did not realize that it was really about the commerce for Demetrius and his fellow silversmiths. Now we can read verse 33.
Acts 19:33–34 APNT
And the people of the Judeans who were there put forward a Judean man of them whose name was Alexander. And when he stood up, he waved his hand and wanted to make a defense to the people.” (He attempted to get people’s attention, but he was a Jew. Continuing on, it says…)
And knowing that he was a Judean, all of them cried out with one voice [for] about two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.” (Great is Diana of the Ephesians.)
“We do not want you. You are just as bad as all that Paul guy. Just get out of here!” They would not listen to him at all. They then started this mantra, a chant; which is also very typical of a mob scene. You have most likely seen pictures of Tiananmen Square in China or descriptions of times when there was mob rule. There is usually some sort of chanting taking place after a while. They continued chanting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians” for two hours. Can you imagine? One would think, by the time they had chanted wildly for two hours that they might be getting hoarse. “Great is Diana of Ephesians! Yeah, great is Diana of Ephesians. Great is Diana of Ephesians. How many times are you going to say that over and over and over again?” After all of this the ruler of the city came. He was like the mayor, and must have been respected. At least he was recognizable as a person who had authority in the midst of this mob. He was similar to a mayor; or sometimes called a scribe or the clerk of the city. The point is that he was well known to the people.
Acts 19:35 APNT
And the ruler of the city quieted them, saying, “Men, Ephesians, for who are the men who do not know that the city of the Ephesians is the priestess of the great Artemis and her image that came down from heaven?”
He began to tell them what they already wanted to hear. In order to get their attention and get control of the crowd; he began telling them; “You are great worshippers! You are wonderful! You are just awesome!” Interestingly enough, he said nothing about how great Diana is. “Of course, she is great. She came down from heaven. She is the priestess of our city.” At that point, the mob decided they would listen to him.
Acts 19:36–38 APNT
Therefore, because no one can speak against this, you ought to be quiet and not do anything in haste,
for you have brought these men [here], although they have not stolen from the temples, nor reviled our goddess.
Now if this Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a controversy with someone, behold, the proconsul [is] in the city. They are craftsmen, [so] they should go near and judge one with the other.
He basically turned the tide. He is like the sheriff we talked about in a way. “What are you complaining about? Let’s hear it out. You have this complaint. Let’s take care of it this way.” The proconsul was the Roman governor of the city. If you started mentioning his name, it would be like saying; “I am taking you to the president.” Or, “I am taking you to the highest sheriff of the land. Perhaps we ought to rethink this situation, continuing a mob scene in the middle of the theater.” In this manner, he was really able to quiet the people and turn their thinking away from that mob scene and start being a little bit more logical again.
Acts 19:39 APNT
And if you are seeking something else, let it be settled in a place that is given by the law for an assembly,
Now the people were worried about whether they were going to be arrested. As soon as a mob figures out that they could be arrested for what they are doing, they disband. They simply disappear. This is basically what happened here in the theater, because the next verse says:
Acts 19:40–41 APNT
“Because now we also stand in danger of being accused as troublemakers, because we are not able to give a reason for the crowd of this day, because we have been assembled needlessly and made an uproar without a cause.”
And after he had said these [things], he dismissed the crowd.
They just went away, realizing that perhaps this situation was not worth it. ‘It is not our dime we are worried about. We certainly are not the ones making all the money. What are we worried about?’ This would be similar to some of the Russian pogroms, where at times the crowd or the mob would come together. They would realize it was not their fight, nor did they get anything out of it either. When logic finally sinks in, then the crowd dispersed. That is basically the scene that happened in Ephesus. It really is pretty amazing.
Acts 20:1–2 APNT
And after the uproar had subsided, Paul called for the disciples and comforted them and kissed them and left [and] went to Macedonia.
And when he had gone about those regions and had comforted them with many words, he came to the country [of] Greece.
Paul had already wanted to go to Macedonia and had planned to. This incident facilitated it happening earlier than he thought it would be. In some ways, there was pressure for him to move on from a physical standpoint; having this riot, having the crowd be all stirred up. Even with this pressure, I am certain he would have asked God if it was time to go.
Because if it was not time to go, then God would certainly have taken care of him. However, God said, “Yes, it is time to go.” So then, they left there, and went to Macedonia, where Timothy and Erastus had already gone.
At this point, they were going back up to Macedonia. As a reminder, the cities in Macedonia are Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. Eventually Paul would be traveling towards Jerusalem. That was his plan. He wanted to go to Jerusalem, to bring money for the saints there, and then he wanted to go to Spain. While he was in Macedonia, he wrote
2 Corinthians. This is the letter he writes when he received the report back from Corinth that the people have repented and are getting their lives back together and things are greatly improved in Corinth. He then wrote 2 Corinthians and handles a few other questions that had been reported to him from Corinth. Then he actually went to Corinth for the third time, right after that, and spent three months there. While he was in Corinth, he wrote the book of Romans. When you read Romans, and especially at the end of Romans, the people he is referring to at the end of chapter 16 of Romans, are people who were with him in Corinth. They were sending greetings to the believers in Rome.
Romans 16:21–23 APNT
Timothy, a worker with me, greets you, and Lucius and Jason and Sosipater (There is Sosipater), my brothers.”
I, Tertius (There is a man named Tertius.), who wrote the letter, greet you in our Lord.
Gaius, my host and [a host] of all the church, greets you. Erastus, the steward of the city, and Quartus, a brother, greet you.
Those were some of the people who were with Paul at this particular time in Corinth.
As a summarization here, what happened to Ephesus? As we continue, it turned out, Paul actually never went back all the way into Ephesus from this time; but we will look at Acts chapter 20. When he came back through, he went to a little town called Miletus, which is near Ephesus. When he arrived there, many of the believers came to greet him there. He tells this summary in Acts chapter 20 about what he actually did while he was in Ephesus. I think it is a really great summary.
Acts 20:25 APNT
And now I know that you will not see my face again, all of you for whom I have traveled [and] preached the kingdom.
How did he know that he was not going to see them again? God told him, at least in part. Paul was not thinking he was going be imprisoned. He was thinking he was going to Rome, and then he was going to Spain. It seemed very likely that tour would take many years and because of this, it would be almost impossible to come go back to Ephesus.
Acts 20:26–30 APNT
And because of this, I witness to you this very day that I am pure from the blood of all of you
For I have not refused to make known to you all the will of God. (Wow! Could we really say that when we were preaching and teaching? That we made known all the will of God? That is pretty amazing!)
Watch, therefore, over yourselves and over all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, to feed the church of God that he purchased with his blood.
(At this point, Paul is giving a charge to the leaders of Ephesus.)
I know that after I am gone fierce wolves will enter among you without mercy on the flock.
And also, from yourselves [there] will rise up men speaking perverse [things] to turn away the disciples to follow them.
Those are harsh words that are a little hard to take. If the leader who you respected came and said, ‘Grievous wolves are going to come among your flock and tear it to pieces, even if you are watching;’ that is what was going to happen.
Acts 20:31–35 APNT
Because of this, you should be vigilant and remember that [for] three years I did not stop, by night and by day, admonishing each one of you with tears.
And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace that is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance with all the holy [ones]. (He is commending them to the word of his grace. Does that not sound familiar about commending them to the grace of God?)
Silver or gold or garments I have not desired.
And you know that these hands ministered to my necessity and to those who were with me.” (Who were the people with them? Priscilla and Aquila. They had worked together in Ephesus in their craft. That is why he can say this.)
“And I demonstrated everything to you, that so it is right to labor and to care for those who are weak and to remember the words of our Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘He who gives is more blessed than he who receives.’”
He uses himself as an example in saying, “I worked with my hands. I worked as a craftsman with Priscilla and Aquila so that I would not need to be accountable to you. So I could be free to preach.” Now that was Paul’s situation. He said it is better to give than to receive. In the sense that it was better for him to be free to preach what God wanted him to do, and go where God wanted him to go, and not be obligated to people.
Acts 20:36–38 APNT
And when he said these [things], he kneeled down and prayed and everyone with him.
And there was great weeping among all of them and they embraced him and kissed him.
But they were most anguished about that word that he said, that they were not going to see his face again. And they accompanied him as far as the ship.
What Paul said was exactly what happened in Ephesus. Originally and through the end of the first century, there was a great move. It continued to be a great move because of people releasing themselves from the spells, the magic, the worship of Diana, the prostitution, all of those things. Unfortunately, gradually there came in “wolves” that took over, so that by the end of the Apostle John’s time in Ephesus, the church had started to disintegrate. Ephesus was still a main Christian center though through the 4th or 5th century.
Now there is one last thing: this Demetrius guy. There is another mention of the name Demetrius in the Bible. It is in 3rd John. We will look at that really quickly. In 3 John, verse 12, John is writing to Gaius, who is a man from Corinth, and he says:
3 John 12 APNT
About Demetrius, there is a testimony from everyone and from the church and from the truth. And also we bear [him] testimony and you know that our testimony is true.
I want to leave you with some questions. Is this the same Demetrius the silversmith? Did he actually ended up getting born again to become a wonderful example of a Christian man?
Is it possible that by the time John wrote the 3rd epistle of John, this same Demetrius was a leader in the church of Ephesus? Is it true or is it not? We do not know!
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