Acts 19:21-41 (Week 33 - Life in the Spirit)

It has been a little over nine months ago now that we started this series called Life in the Spirit, where we have been going verse by verse all the way through the book of Acts, and you may remember, if you were here in the very beginning, we read about how Jesus, after his death and after his resurrection, he met with his disciples, and he told them to wait. He said to wait here in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came. And then we read about how the Holy Spirit did come, and the Holy Spirit came to dwell in them, and they were changed in a moment, regenerated, made spiritually alive. And then that new power that they had in them began to be expressed through them in the area of Jerusalem, and then Judea, and Samaria, and now we're seeing it spread, the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, spread all the way to the ends of the earth. We've been reading lately about Paul, who used to be Saul and had a dramatic conversion, a dramatic encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, and his life was transformed and changed, and the Lord sent him out on mission. He is on his third missionary journey, where he goes, and he tells people about what Jesus accomplished on the cross for them, how they could have their sins forgiven, and they could have new life in Him, and know they have the assurance of eternal life in heaven with him, and many responded. New churches were planted, and he's going back into those areas and discipling people, helping them learn more about God and their new life in Christ, and how this thing plays out in their everyday life. Paul, on this third missionary journey, is in Ephesus. We left off in Acts chapter 19 verse 20, where we were reading about all of the things that Jesus was doing in and through him, in the power of the Holy Spirit. And here's the way Luke starts off in verse 21 He says, after all this happened, after all that he just described that Jesus did in him and through him, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia, and after I have been there, he said I must visit Rome also. He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer. Basically, what Luke is doing here is just kind of inserting this parenthetical remark between verse 20 and where he picked up in just a moment in verse 23 and so he's kind of saying the Holy Spirit has laid it on Paul's heart to go to Jerusalem, but he's going to go through Macedonia and Achaia, and then eventually to Rome, and this is what we're going to see happen in the book of Acts as we continue starting next week, but now that he has made us aware of his travel plans. He goes back to talking about what was going on in Ephesus. He had said this is all that had happened. Then Paul began to think he would be moving on, but before he moved on and started doing this, Luke's going to tell us about something major that happened there in Ephesus before he leaves. Verse 23 Luke picks back up and says, about that time there arose a great disturbance about the way. Remember, the way is just another reference to Christians, to the church. Jesus said He's the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. And so now Jesus, dwelling in them, expressing His life through them, is leading them in a different way than most everyone else in the culture, so there was a great disturbance. He says he's going to tell us all about it. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. Okay, so if you were here last week, you may remember that one of the things that we mentioned about Ephesus, is it was the place where there was a temple of Artemis. It was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, and Artemis was a Greek goddess. Now I do need to mention here that there were actually two Artemuses.

There was one who was kind of more the classical Greek mythology goddess, also known as Diana by the Romans. She was the goddess of the hunt, that is not the Artemis that we're talking about here. The Artemis that Luke is referencing is Artemis of the Ephesians, and Artemis of the Ephesians was known as the goddess of fertility, and so most likely these shrines that are being mentioned here were just little bitty kind of shrines or statues of the of the temple that was built in honor of the goddess Artemis, and people would sell those, Demetrius would sell those. There were a lot of people who visited Ephesus. It was a big city. A lot of people would come in and out, and they would sell a lot of these, and people would use them to bring them good fortune and favor in specific areas of their lives. So Paul makes us aware of this, and here's how he goes on in verse 20. Five, he, referring to Demetrius, that he just mentioned, 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, and you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus, and practically the whole province of Asia, he says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. Now, there is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty. Okay, so, so let's just kind of think about this section overall. We're not going to go crazy deep into each individual verse this week, like we sometimes do, because I want you to just kind of see what life in the spirit looks like, and is happening for them, so that we can unpack it and figure out how it looks for us today. And what we're seeing in this section is that these people who were part of the church at Ephesus, people who had put their faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, had become new creations in Christ, they had been transformed radically. They were no longer who they once were. They were in Christ, they were saints, they were made holy, they were made righteous in all of these things. And then what we see is that there was an outworking of that, the outworking of this new life that they had began to change their behaviors and their actions and the things that they participated in, and one of the things that we're told here that they stopped participating in was the worship of idols. They no longer needed these shrines that they once bought, and there were so many people that were coming to Jesus, and their habits were changing. They weren't living their lives in a way that they used to live their lives, that it was beginning to affect the culture around them. Think about what I just said two years ago. There was no church in Ephesus. People put their faith and trust in Jesus. Their lives are transformed and changed. They're living their ways so radically and so differently than they had before. That people are worried that things are changing in the entire culture, and things will go out of business that needed to go out of business. Can you believe that? This is what the Holy Spirit was doing in and through them. He was influencing the culture through their new habits, their new actions, their new life in Christ. And people were noticing these guys are different, they don't do the same things they used to do, and that's going to impact us and it impacts us today as well. What we see is this general principle in this little section right here, guys. Jesus works outwardly through every single part of our lives for our good, for His glory, and to impact the culture around us. In other words, there is no, this is my Christian life, my church life, and then here's the rest of my life. There's no such thing as breaking it up into different sections. The Holy Spirit has access to and changes everything about us.

There is no place of no part of us, no action, no behavior, nothing that we're participating in that is off limits for the Holy Spirit to reach. He is at work outwardly through us to touch every single part of our lives, and he does it first and foremost for our good. He, he is the creator, he's a good God, he loves us and created us to enjoy him and be with him forever. So, as the creator, he's the only one who knows how created things were meant to function in this world. He's the only one who knew and knows how He created us to live our lives, the things that He created us to say and not say, to do and to not do, to engage in and to not engage in. And so, when we trust the Holy Spirit with all those areas of our lives. Then we're living our lives in ways that are in alignment with the way that He created them to be, and that's always going to be for our good. If we're living them in ways that are contrary to where the Spirit is leading us, and just things that we want to do, we're going to. Experience a counterfeit life, it's always going to fall short. You're never going to experience fulfillment, satisfaction, and abundant life. And so Jesus works first and foremost for our good. Anytime we see Him working outwardly in these ways to grow us up into who we've already become in Christ as new creations, it's a reflection of Him. So, therefore, there's worship. He gets the glory because it reflects who He is in His design for us. But then, as we saw specifically in this section, He also uses it to impact the culture around us as he works in and for our favor and for our good, and as he receives the glory and honor for those things, there's a way that he causes other people to notice, and sometimes they're going to get really ticked because it's affecting them in negative ways, or they think it is because it doesn't line up with things they want to do, or where they want to see culture go, or they want people to do things with them because they feel bad about those things, and it makes them all these kind of different things, and other times it affects people in a positive way, and they're drawn to what Jesus is doing, but this is the principle, and this is what life in the spirit even looks like for us today. We ask the question, Jesus, how do you want to impact every single area and aspect of my life? What does you expressing your life through me look like in my school life, in my work life? If the Holy Spirit touches my family life and neighborhood life, and if I invite the Holy Spirit into me playing sports, or whatever. My fun and social time is the way the Holy Spirit dictates the way that I use social media, the way that I interact with anything on the internet, entertainment things that I watch, the way that the Holy Spirit leads me in the music that I listen to, the way that I spend my money, the friends that I hang out with are the friends that I shouldn't hang out with. He has access to every area of our lives. He works in and through us to be able to lead us into all of those areas for our good, for His glory, and to impact the culture around us. And this is what's happening in Ephesus, is impacting culture through the way that he has changed them, and now we get to see how it plays out. Verse 28 when they heard this, what Demetrius had said to them, they were furious and began shouting, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Soon the whole city was in an uproar, and the people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, people's traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theater together. Verse 30, Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him, even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent a message begging him not to venture into the theater. This theater was a massive theater.

It was a place that would hold, according to some, up to 25,000 people, and there would be games and other events and things that the community could become a part of. And so we don't know if there were 25,000 people there, but there must have been a large following for them to be moving in that direction and ahead in that way, and as we saw in this section, I mean, they're furious, they're shouting, they're in an uproar, they even seize, like they force, they take hold of Paul's traveling companions, and in Luke says Paul wants to go in and save them to go to their aid, or maybe even to share the gospel. I mean, knowing the Apostle Paul, he's like, "Give me a microphone if I'm going to share the good news of Jesus, and they're like, "Paul, if you step out there, you're going to die. And that was probably no joke, because I mean, we've seen something similar to this already in the book of Acts, Acts chapter seven. You remember some religious, I mean religious leaders, Jewish religious leaders got caught up in an uproar. They were furious at Stephen, gnashing of teeth. They started throwing stones at him until they murdered him. We're told Paul was even there, gave his approval to it at that time, but this is how different he is now. He's on the other side of those things. So, these people probably saved Paul's life. Here, Luke goes on in verse 32 and says the assembly was just in confusion, like some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people didn't even know why they were there. It's probably very true, with a lot of riots and mobs and things. And so, verse 33 the Jews and the crowd pushed Alexander to the front, and they shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people, but when they realized he was a Jew, they shouted in unison. For two hours, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Can you imagine doing that for two hours? Exhausting. I mean, this is how impassioned they were, and how much they were caught up in an uproar, and now unified around what it is that was going on. Here's, here's what we see, though. Not only, not only are the Christians in Ephesus changing things within their culture, with like their new actions, their new habits, their new behaviors, the things they were no longer participating in. What we see here is that they were beginning to question this common allegiance that they had around Artemis, this, this was Ephesus, Artemis of the Ephesians of Ephesus. This was this defined their community. Everyone there pledged allegiance to Artemis. They, they were loyal to Artemis. She was the one they worshiped. They needed her favor. This was a way of life. But now these Christians belong to Jesus, and they had a new allegiance, a new loyalty, a new devotion to Him, and to Him alone. Not only was this Ephesus part of the Roman Empire as well, and we know there was an expectation to bow down to Caesar, and they wouldn't bow down to Caesar or anyone else. They had a new allegiance to Jesus Christ as the creator and the Lord of all, and the only one worthy of devotion and honor and loyalty and allegiance, and so the principle that we see even today, this was life in the spirit for them. Then it's life in the spirit for us. You guys, Jesus changes our allegiances, our loyalties, and our devotions, there will be people in culture, there will be things before we came to know Jesus that we pledged allegiance to, that we were loyal to, that we were devoted to, that people are right now that no longer become part of our lives, people that will pledge allegiance to and be devoted and worship things like money and power and fame and in politics and pleasure and all the things, because the Holy Spirit life in the spirit will lead us to worship Jesus and Jesus alone. Our allegiance is not to a certain friend group that we used to have. Our allegiance is not to a political party. Our allegiance is not to some other religious group. Our allegiance is not to a denomination. It's not to anything other than Jesus.

There will be people, there will be groups, there will be denominations that maybe Jesus leads us into, but we never worship those things and pledge allegiance to those over and above Jesus, because there could be things that happen within those that cause us to go, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's not from the Holy Spirit in the direction that He's leading us, and so otherwise we're so pledged to allegiance and devotion that no matter what choices they begin to make we start aligning ourselves with them over and above what Jesus is leading us to do, so this is not something that we can do and entertain, it's not something that they're doing or entertaining, it's other people are mad, this is part of who we are in this culture, and where we live, and you guys are no longer loyal and devoted, and and now they're trying to force all these things on them. Finally, somebody comes to their senses. Verse 35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said, "Fellow Ephesians, doesn't all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, and of her image, which fell from heaven. That's a reference. It was a meteor, a meteorite that fell and maybe broke up, or whatever, and there were pieces and fragments, or the thing looked like what they pictured Artemis, the goddess, to be. And so this meteorite fell from heaven, and that's why they began to worship her. Verse 36 Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to calm down and not do anything rash. You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. These guys haven't even done anything wrong. You guys are all fired up and furious, and whatever, and they honestly really haven't even done anything wrong. He says, verse 38 If then Demetrius, who started this whole thing, and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, there are courts that are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. And then Luke finishes up and says, as it is, or this guy does, the city clerk, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what happened today. In that case, we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no. Reason for it, and after he had said this, he dismissed the assembly. Rome, of course, was very strict about keeping the peace, making sure things were in order. The city clerk is going, we're going to get into huge amount of trouble here, because the riot, because the things that they were doing, which is a little bit ironic. I mean, it starts with Demetrius in the whole passage trying to charge Paul and these guys with disrupting the culture, and now it's ending with them disrupting the culture, and the ones that he's saying, you guys are going to have to calm down here, because we're the ones that are going to get in trouble because we're in a rage and rioting and all the above, but we see him having to pull them out of is what I want to turn your attention to, because what we see here is that these guys, based on the way that Christians were now living their lives in the culture, the things they were doing and not doing the allegiances they pledged to, or didn't pledge to, now were affecting them so much that they got so angry, I mean, furious, in a rage, seizing people, yelling, forcing, demanding all of this stuff, and yet, How do we see the Christians reacting? Not in that way, they're not participating in any of these behaviors, there's no yelling back, there's no mention of them trying to get any revenge, not trying to fight back in any way. Why is that? Because of life in the spirit, because Jesus, through the Holy Spirit changes us, and as He works outwardly, He leads us to respond differently to people who oppose us, who threaten us, who don't agree with us, who don't live their lives the same way that we do, who call us out and challenge us, try to punish us. He leads us to respond differently.

The Apostle Paul, who's involved in this, and, as we've said before, writes numerous letters to these churches that he's either planted or comes to know in discipling them. He actually talks about this in one of his letters, called Romans, to writing it to the Church of Rome. He spends a certain number of chapters talking about going from being in Adam to being in Christ. This, this new transformation that happens in life in the spirit, that's so different than before. And then, when he gets to chapter 12, he begins to talk about the application of that. And here's what he says: Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with some people. No, everyone, right? Everyone, take, do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, 'It is mine to avenge. I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he's thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. And then he just sums it up: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Is this not what we see happening in Acts chapter 19? These are the things that are in alignment with who you are as a new creation in Christ. These guys were trying to live at peace, even with those who were opposing them, they weren't trying to repay evil with evil, they were overcoming evil with good. Once again, there's certainly a general principle there for us. Again, Jesus changes our attitudes towards people who oppose us. I don't know if maybe it's just me. It seems like right now that when I look out at things on social media, I hear from things on the news and other ways that Christians are reacting, churches are reacting. It seems like there's this kind of this movement right now, where we as Christians are being trampled on our rights, the things that have happened to us, and it's just not right. It's not fair. And so there's this, there's this new attitude of like we're going to step up and fight back, and I'm talking, we're going to fight fire with fire, and we're going to yell and scream if they're yelling and screaming at us, and we're going to put those people in place, and we're taking back what is rightfully ours, and all of those kinds of things, and people are going, yeah, that's the way we ought to live this thing, and then we come back to scripture, and we start reading things like this, inspired by the Holy Spirit, that if your enemy. Hungry, you should actually feed him, and then you should give him something to drink, and you don't overcome evil with evil, but you overcome evil with good. Jesus will lead us to react differently than the culture does to people who oppose us. We think of Jesus when he was opposed, and when he was arrested, when he was hanging on the cross. He was led to pray for those people, to ask them for forgiveness, ask God to forgive them. This is the way He works in and through us. He will change our actions, our reaction to the people who oppose us, the things that are going on lead us to serve our enemies and, and to bring people to pray that even our enemies will come into the kingdom, not that they'll get what's coming to them. This is the way the Holy Spirit works out through our lives. Three general principles throughout this whole section: number one. Jesus changes every aspect of our lives through the Holy Spirit. Nothing is off limits to Him. Everything that we're involved in, He wants access to, and He will guide us in the ways that He designed them to function and work for our good, for His glory, and to impact the culture, Jesus changes every aspect of our lives. Number two, He changes our allegiances, the things that we were pledging our allegiance to, devoted to, or no longer what we will pledge our allegiance to. It goes to Him, and He will change our actions towards others, especially those who oppose us.

I remember when I was in college, I've shared before. I was involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. There was a huddle director, a guy that was our athletic trainer. He was single, he was in his early 30s, could have been doing anything with his life. He was free, right? Go live it up, and he said, 'No, no, I'm here. God's given me this job to disciple young men in college, and so he would invite us into his home. He would feed us meals, we would study the Bible together, we would talk about the gospel, and I just remember the light bulb kind of going off when I was meeting with him about this kind of thing that we're talking about today. Like, the Holy Spirit changes every aspect of my life, and I just remember going, whoa, this is this is way bigger than my sins being forgiven, and me getting to go to heaven whenever I die one day. I mean, if this is true, if the Holy Spirit touches every aspect of my life, then that means that that will affect the way that I do my schoolwork. The Holy Spirit wants access to my schoolwork in the way He leads me to do my school work. The Holy Spirit wants access to who it is that I date. He will lead me to a certain kind of person to be in a relationship with later on, it will be a certain kind of person that he is leading me to marry and spend my life with. The Holy Spirit will affect the way that I treat my body, the way that I spend my money, the friendships that I choose to have or I shouldn't have. He will shape every aspect of my life for my own good, for his glory, and to impact other people around me, and I remember just going, okay, it's, it's all yours, Jesus. I'm no longer who I once was. You have access to every part of me, and that's our response for all of us to declare that we, we turn it all over to you, Jesus. I give you my relationships, I give you school, I give you work, I give you my body, money, friendships, I give you the music I listen to, the movies that I watch, the social media that I'm involved with, I give you my allegiances, my devotion, my loyalty, my actions, and my behaviors towards anyone who opposes me. It's all yours, Jesus. Use it for my good, your glory, and to impact people around me. This is our response today as the church. Can you imagine if we all made ourselves available to that in the Holy Spirit sends us out into the culture here. Imagine one day someone like Demetrius standing up and going, "Gosh, those people in Colonial Hills, like everybody is being reached all throughout Tyler, they're no longer doing these things and watching things they shouldn't be watched, and now we're not making any money in this area, and we can't in this area, and someone is frustrated because of the way that the Holy Spirit empowers us to live our lives in alignment with who it is that He created us to be for our good, for His glory, and. To do something in our culture, imagine what that would look like. Would that be fun to be a part of? Well, then let's do it. Let's make ourselves available to Him every aspect of our lives, and what He's leading us to do in all of those. So, let's pray and offer ourselves up to Him in this moment, will you do it with me together?