Ghost Town
Acts 19:23-41
3/12/06
PSCOC
NOTE: POWER POINT PICTURES WERE USED IN THIS SERMON WHICH GREATLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE OF THE SERMON ITSELF. I USED MANY PICTURES FROM WHAT IS LEFT OF EPHESUS AND ARTEMIS’ TEMPLE TO HIGHLIGHT THE ’GHOST TOWN’ CONCEPT. I FOUND MOST OF THESE ON-LINE, BUT IF YOU NEED THE ONES I USED CONTACT ME.
Introduction: Hearing voices of the past.
1. Listen carefully to the past when you visit a ghost town.
During the gold rush and western migration, boom towns popped up everywhere along the routes to California and other western destinations. These towns buzzed with excitement and anticipation of great things to come. Today, many of them are ghost towns, completely abandoned…now a historical curiosity. Have you ever visited one of these towns? You stand in the middle of an old dusty dirt road between old closed up stores and bars and listen carefully. If you listen through the silence, you can almost hear voices and activity all around you. You can hear the sounds of life in the 19th century. Horses and carriages, people discussing a price for clothing or food. Laughter of small children who are just excited to be there. These sounds fill our imagination of what used to be and causes us to wonder what happened.
2. Ephesus, the biblical ghost town.
Today, we are going to travel to a ghost town called Ephesus. When we get there we can see nothing but a muddy marsh and a few abandoned ancient dwellings. We do see one pillar sticking up from the marsh marking the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the temple of the goddess, Artemis. It is hard to imagine that this ruin in the marsh of modern day Turkey was once a booming city of over 200,000, and the center of imperial worship and the worship of the great goddess Artemis. It was an important seaport. It was a financial, cultural, and religious phenomenon of the ancient Roman Empire. (Time machine) With the help of the biblical writer, Luke, we return to that city when it was at its peak.
Move 1: The Ephesian skyline and Demetrius (23-27)
1. What Paul saw when he entered Ephesus.
As we travel with Paul into ancient Ephesus we see an impressive skyline. In America, we usually see the skyline dominated with financial institutions and huge corporate buildings. But when we enter Ephesus we see a skyline that is populated with religious temples and temples built for the imperial cult. As we walk down the main thoroughfare we see statues of the emperors. We also can see beautiful fountains. But it is not a religious city alone. We see the huge agora, full of people shopping in the ancient mall. But nothing dominates the skyline more than the gigantic temple of Artemis. It is the first structure ever constructed of all marble. It rises 60 feet in the air, but as we come close we see its dimensions are in its sheer mass. It is 425 feet long and 225 feet wide. It is supported by 127 columns. One look at this temple and we know this is what defines Ephesus.
2. Demetrius rallies the troops.
Now we understand why Demetrius, the silversmith, is so upset about the mission work of Paul. It isn’t that Paul’s teaching has singled out their temple, but the implications of there only being one true God and his only Son, Jesus Christ, can’t be good for those who make their living selling silver statues of Artemis. He is upset by the mass conversion that happened earlier and begins to count the potential cost. He makes a stirring speech to an anxious crowd. He even convinces them that Paul has made an attack on the temple and Artemis herself. (Read vs. 27, 28). There is nothing quite like combining religious insult with the prospect of financial loss.
3. The goddess, Artemis.
She was their primary god, one of the gods of Olympia. She was the goddess of fertility. If you wanted to really worship her you came to Ephesus. She and her temple were the center of life in Ephesus. You didn’t mess with her and her devotees defended her passionately. The city was responsible for the purity of worship of what was probably the most worshipped deity of their time. The temple also became the largest bank in the Roman Empire. In 356 BC, the temple was burned down by a man named Herostratus. Anyone who even spoke his name was put to death.
Move 2: Our skyline.
1. World.
We can come back from the ancient world of Ephesus for a moment and consider our own religious skyline. Our world is populated with thousands of religions and innumerable houses of worship and statues of idols. Some of these religions are new some of them older than Christianity. How can we claim that Jesus is superior to them all? Our world champions toleration and celebrates this diversity. We feel a lot like Paul might have when he strolled into Ephesus.
2. U.S.
No place in the world champions this religious diversity more than the U.S. Supposedly, a country founded on Christian principles now serves the god of toleration.
3. Palm Springs/Coachella Valley
When I first moved here, I looked at a directory of the places of worship. There were many kinds of Christian churches, but also many New Age, Christian Scientists, Jewish Synagogues, etc. We are not in the Bible belt! Yet, we also know that the true gods in our society are not statues, but pleasure and money. We worship ourselves by serving ourselves. How should we respond to this skyline of religious options? How did the Christians in Ephesus respond to the temple of Artemis?
Move 3: Great is Artemis of the Ephesians (28-34).
1. The Christians are hunted down and outnumbered.
Demetrius is quite persuasive. We are back in ancient Ephesus and watching from a safe distance. Sporadic but passionate chanting begins. “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” People are running around and getting others to join the mob, though they don’t even know what started the commotion. A murmur in the crowd says something has to be done about this Paul and the Christians, so they begin to hunt for them. They can’t find Paul, so they take two Christians that are his companions, Gaius and Aristarchus, and they rush into the impressive theater, which holds 25,000 people. Paul wants to come, but his friends won’t let him. So, there in the theater two Christians must face a raucous mob alone.
2. The assembly is unified in praising Artemis.
Mass confusion rules. Finally, the Jews, wanting to distance themselves from these Christians, push forward some guy named Alexander. He begins to speak and the crowd begins to hush. They realize he is a Jew. Wait a minute! The Jews only believe in one God. They don’t believe that Artemis is a god. Why should we listen to him? What was chaos becomes unity. A deafening chant can be heard throughout the city. “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” They shout in unison for two hours! These Christians are in trouble.
3. The crowd is dispersed, unfulfilled.
The city clerk is one of the most influential political figures in the city. So his presence silences the crowd, because they are hopeful that he will take action against the Christians. His response is basically two fold. 1. Artemis’ greatness and her place in Ephesus are indisputable (read v. 35). So, it doesn’t matter what anyone says about their God and the Christians haven’t directly harmed or blasphemed Artemis. 2. We are in danger of being charged with rioting, which was a serious offense in the eyes of Romans. The end result was that the crowd went home unsatisfied and the Christians were released. Luke was demonstrating that Christians were not the ones responsible for civil unrest in the Roman Empire, but in fact it was their opponents that often stirred up trouble.
Move 4: Artemis and the Ephesians, today.
1. Back to the ghost town.
So, here we are back to ancient Ephesus. If we are still and we listen hard, we can stand in the theater and still hear the ghosts of the past chanting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.” How great was Artemis? Here’s what’s left of her temple. There isn’t much more to the old city, just a theater to remember a commotion long ago. It isn’t a recent development. Here’s a conversation from the 1100’s.
1100 A.D.: A troop of Crusaders stops at a muddy little village in Asia Minor. Their leader looks around. Confused ,he dismounts. This place is not what he expected. He read in the ancient texts that this was a large seaport with many ships docked in its bay. It isn’t. The sea is almost three miles away. The village is located in a swamp. There are no ships to be seen. The leader accosts a nearby man.
"Sir, is this the city of Ephesus?"
“It was called that once. Now it is named Ayasalouk."
"Well, where is your bay? Where are the trading ships? And where is the magnificent Greek temple that we have heard about?"
Now it is the man’s turn to be confused. "Temple? What temple, Sir? We have no temple here..."
The temple was destroyed by the Goths in AD 262 and never rebuilt. How hollow do those chants sound now?
Move 5: Great is the Lord Jesus Christ!
1. Historical irony.
On that day thousands of people gathered to shout how great was Artemis and only two Christians stood in their midst. Now whose name is still proclaimed? The gospel of Christ prevailed. The perspective that we must gain through this historical fact is this: There will always be another Artemis and they too will crumble. Only the name of Jesus Christ will prevail in eternity. Yes, there are some religions older than Christianity, but there are none older than God and his eternal Son! When all is said and done, it is the name of Jesus Christ that will be shouted in God’s eternal kingdom, while others will be in ruins.
2. The earth keeps silent before the Lord.
Read Hab.2:18-20. There is no God like our God. We who are the people of God can live our Christian mission in confidence. We are the TEMPLE of the Holy Spirit! God dwells in us and his mission cannot be thwarted. There is opposition, but it will crumble. Our task is to hold on to the truth of the one living God and proclaim to a world that desperately needs to know. The opposition can get noisy sometimes, but it cannot be victorious. Jesus Christ has won the victory and we share in his spoils!
3. A future vision.
We traveled to the past, but now we travel to the future. Picture a heavenly kingdom and a gathering unlike any you have ever seen. Countless people and innumerable angels. We are gathered around a throne and at the center of that throne is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Gathered there are even those that were killed because they would not deny his name. Together they sing in unison “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power.” The singing of praise never stops. Great is the Lord God Almighty and his Son, Jesus Christ!
Invitation
Today, is the day to make the great confession, Jesus is Lord.
