Money Causes A Riot Part 2 Series

Money Causes a Riot 2

Text: Acts 19:28-41

Introduction

1. Have you ever seen a mob on TV or movies? They are dangerous and can become murderous in an instant.

a. People in mobs are like cattle before a stampede. Ever see that? In the movie Red River, John Wayne and his men are moving cattle along the Chisolm trail, and the cattle are spooked by howling coyotes and such.

b. Then one of the men, trying to get some sugar, knocks down all the pans off the chuckwagon, and the cattle stampede, killing one of the wranglers watching over them.

c. Just before they stampeded, the cattle were tense, and the men knew it wouldn’t take much to set them off.

d. Mobs are like that. They’re tense, waiting for the slightest provocation to begin destroying whatever and whoever they want.

e. Mobs are not a good thing, in general.

2. Well, an angry mob was what the Christians in Ephesus faced, but God was with them and used those outside the church to keep things from getting ugly.

3. We have seen this, in a sense in our own lives, and we may face more of it in the future. But we need to trust God.

4. Reads Acts 19:28-41

Transition: The first thing we see is…

I. Dealing with Mob Rule (28-34).

A. The Whole City Was Filled with Confusion

1. Last week, we talked about the ruckus that took place in Ephesus, where the silver smiths were upset because the Christian stopped buying their idols of the goddess Artemis after listening to Paul’s preaching saying that these were no gods at all, and that the only true God was Jesus Christ. As a result, they got people all worked up and started a riot.

2. Here’s how the riot begins. In vv. 28-29 Luke tells us, “At this their anger boiled, and they began shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 Soon the whole city was filled with confusion. Everyone rushed to the amphitheater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, who were Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia.”

a. After Demetrius got everyone, all riled up, it says, “their anger boiled,” literally, they were “filled with rath,” at the Christians in Ephesus and what they considered the offensive message of the gospel.

b. They began shouting, “great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Soon this angry mob spilled out into the streets and affected the whole city.

c. Luke tells us that the city was filled with confusion, and people ran into the theatre to stage a large demonstration.

d. They couldn’t find Paul, so, they dragged two of his traveling companions Gaius and Aristarchus and dragged them into the theatre.

3. Next, Luke tells us in vv. 30-31, “Paul wanted to go in, too, but the believers wouldn’t let him. 31 Some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, also sent a message to him, begging him not to risk his life by entering the amphitheater.”

a. Paul wanted to go into the theatre to speak up for and defend his companions but also to have the chance to preach to such a large group of people needing Jesus.

b. But the other Christians in town wouldn’t let him go in, fearing he would be torn limb from limb.

c. In addition, some of the officials of the province, who were friends of Paul, sent him a message telling him not to go in for they were afraid for his life.

d. It appears that Paul had reached some influential people in the community, and they begged him not to enter the theatre.

4. Then in v. 32, Luke tells us some very interesting news. It says, “Inside, the people were all shouting, some one thing and some another. Everything was in confusion. In fact, most of them didn’t even know why they were there.”

a. Luke says that this mob was in a state of complete confusion.

b. One group would yell one thing and then another.

c. The word translated “confusion literally means “to pour together,” and carries with it the idea of being in an uproar.

d. In fact, things were so out of control that the people said, “wait, why are we here again?” This would have made Luke’s original readers laugh because Greek playwrights often made fun of human weaknesses.

e. Doesn’t this sound like the world we live in today? All the people on the left yell one thing, and then those on the right yell something else.

f. The result is that no one listens to each other, and the result is complete chaos!

g. We have all lost our minds! As Christian song writer Larry Norman wrote years ago, “What a mess the world is in, I wonder who began it? Don’t ask me, I’m only visiting this planet! This world is not my home, I’m just passing through!”