What are the things that motivate you? What are the things that motivate the people around you? Motives are one of the most powerful things on earth, they can change the way that we view other people and impact the way that we see their actions. Today’s passage is one that has a lot of action. These actions ultimately reveal the motives of the people who are involved.
Our key passage is Acts 19:21-41, “After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “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. About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in no little business for the craftsmen. He called them together, along with the workmen in related trades, and said: “Men, you know 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 in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that that the temp 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.” When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and rushed as one man into the theater. 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 him a message begging him not to venture into the theater. The assembly was in confusion: Some where shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. The Jews pushed Alexander to the front, and some of the crowd 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 all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” The city clerk quieted the crowd and said” “Men of Ephesus, 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? Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to be quiet and not do anything rash. You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. If, then, Demetrious and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts 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. As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of today’s events. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.” After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.
We’ve been walking through the book of Acts. The last sermon in our series dealt with the supernatural, with the reality that there are forces in our world that we can’t see but according to the Bible they are very real. When these forces spill over into our lives they can have a profound impact on people. It caused a revival in Ephesus as the truth of God spread from person to person.
So then we pick up the story in verse 21 with, “After all this happened.” Paul decided that he wants to go to Jerusalem, but then he says something interesting, he says, “I must visit Rome also.” Look at the word “must” it wasn’t an option. Paul was a man driven by the Sprit. When he says that he must go to Rome it is because that is what he felt compelled by God to do. Isn’t it good to look at the life of a man and understand that his motives were driven by God?
This is something that people do a lot of. We look at what someone does and we assign them motives. The thing is that it is dangerous to assume what someone’s motives are. You’re talking about knowing what is inside someone else’s head and there’s no way that we can do that. We can’t know what someone else is thinking, we don’t know why they do the things that they do. This can cause us to thing better or worse of someone then they deserve. Paul again serves as an example. See we just got done saying that he was a man driven by the Spirit, but not everything he did was because God told him to. Notice that before this Luke wrote that “Paul decided to go to Jerusalem.” Who told Paul to go to Jerusalem? Paul did, that’s what he wanted to do. See we don’t always know why people do the things they do. Only God does and He will judge and reveals those motives as He chooses to.
So with the thought in mind that we can not always tell why someone does what they do, let us look at this passage and see what we can discern of the motives of the people in this passage. As we look at Demetrius the silver smith the most obvious motive we see is that of profit. We can understand his motives by what he does and what he says. First look at who he called together. Verse 24 says he, “brought in no little business for the craftsmen. He called them together, along with the workmen in related trades.” Demetirus was successful, most temple vessels would have been made out of simple metals, but he was a silver smith, he was the top of the food chain, there were a lot of people who made money off of him, and there were people who either made money off the people he was connected to or off of the same trade, so he used his influence to call all of these people together and tell them they have a problem. He says, “you know we receive a good income from this business, and you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and lead astray large number of people.” So he calls together the people that he has influence over because of the money that he makes for them, and then tells them that all of their profits are threatened. It’s not hard to see that part of his motive was profit.
But they were also driven by their religious beliefs. If it was just money Demetrius could have stopped there, if it was just money he might have stopped there. But he goes on verse 27, “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.” So there was a concern for the their goddess. This makes sense, Demetrius was obviously a very talented individual, he could have made money in Greece making a lot of things, but he chose to make things for the temple it shows his concern. It also tells us something interesting about people then and today. They were worried that if people didn’t worship their goddess then she would lose her “divine majesty.” Last week I mentioned it so many people act as if the Lordship of our God is a popularity contest, they think that if someone is not worshipped then they lose something. These men thought that their goddesses place came from their worship. Isn’t it good to worship the one true God who is on His throne whether we place Him there or not? It takes a lot of pressure off of us. What we have to do is obey Him and not worry about what happens next because He is in charge despite all of our failures and weaknesses.
There’s another lesson for us though with this truth. The first is that because the people around us see their faith as fragile we must be sensitive to the beliefs around us. You’ll notice that at the end of the passage the reason that the clerk is able to dismiss the crowd is because the Christians hadn’t done anything harmful or disrespectful to the temples and religions around us. If we want people to hear the truth that we have to share we can’t attack them, we have to love them and share with them when they are ready to hear.
Notice that the church here was called the Way. It didn’t sound like a religion for that time period because it wasn’t supposed to. It’s a subtle difference but their goal was not to attack the religions around them, it was to teach the truth of Christ to those who wanted to hear. That didn’t mean that they didn’t debate with those around them, remember that Paul’s usual practice according to Luke was to go to the Synagogue on the Sabbath and debate, what it meant was that the debate wasn’t the goal, sharing the truth was. It comes down to that word again, motives. Your motives determine how you will ultimately act.
This case was further complicated though because it was also the matter of civic pride. The temple of Artemis was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was four times the size of Parthenon, with pillars 60 feet high. It was 425 long and 225 feet wide making it larger than a football field. In fact it was the largest building in the Greek world. They were proud of their temple and just from an engineering standpoint they should have been. It was a large building that took years to construct and great time and money to maintain. So you see that what God was doing through Paul and others in this city was a treat on multiple levels. Demetrius probably wasn’t the only one to feel this way, but he was the only one to act on it.
So he calls the people together who are the most like to feel like him, the ones that he also has the most influence over and he explains the three reasons that they should stop what is happening in the city and silence Paul. In this passage we see not only the motives but also the strength of their argument. There is none. Demetrius doesn’t want to debate Paul, he doesn’t want to reason with him, he just wants to shut him up by whatever means are necessary.
So they begin to shout, they get the whole city into an uproar and they head to the theater collecting more angry people and a couple of victims along the way. If you’re wondering why they went to the theater rather than the courthouse that’s simple, the theater sat 24,000 people and was a place where 3 times a year they held a civic gathering. This was the best place for all of them to get together to discuss civic matters that disturbed the entire city, but here, they don’t want to have a discussion, they want to eliminate a threat. When they can’t find Paul they grab Gaius and Aristarchus, who were Paul’s traveling companions. Here we see again that in the beginning of the church it wasn’t just dangerous to be Paul or Peter, it was dangerous to be with them because it’s not that they were the threat but that the message that they had was a threat. Remember two weeks ago that Luke wrote that when people heard what was going on. Not that Paul preached a sermon and told them, but when one person told another person. That is always the way that the gospel travels the best. Yes my job is to preach and to teach here, but if we want to have an impact on our community and see God use this church in a mighty way then all of us must be open and looking to tell people outside of the church about Jesus. Sometimes we share and sometimes we just need to invite people here. When we do that yes some people will see us as a threat so we have to be sensitive, but other people and sometimes the same people will come to see us and our message as hope.
Like Demetrius they have motives that go beyond the surface and we must respect those motives. But as we read that the mob forms we also are given a chance to see the motives of Paul. Notice the mob has formed their grabbing people, their chanting worship to their false goddess and we read that “Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him.” In fact they had to beg him not to go. Listen when a mob forms and their angry with you, the last place you should probably want to be is where they are, but Paul wanted to go there. Why, because despite the danger Paul wanted the opportunity to address the crowd. See Paul’s attention was so arrested by the cause of Christ, sharing had so come to dominate his mindset that he didn’t see the mob or the danger, Paul just saw the opportunity. There were 24,000 people in one place that he could share Christ with, that’s what he saw. He didn’t see that they probably weren’t in the mood to listen he was sure that if he shared God would do something, that is devotion and that is faith. Sometimes we do have to temper those things, but we also need to have them. We need to see the person next to us who may not only need help, but they may need to hear about Jesus. Sometimes you never know that good that can be done or the door that can be open when you simply offer to pray with someone. We need to look for those opportunities, with love and with wisdom.
We also see the motives of the church and the love that they had for Paul. Notice that the disciples wanted to protect Paul. It’s why they stopped him from going and speaking. We’re told that some of them were civic leaders who sent him a note. They risked their dignity, perhaps even their position for him. That is the type of love that the church should have where we are willing to sacrifice for each other. It also speaks to the wisdom that sometimes we even need to give one another advice to find the best direction.
The other thing we so though is perhaps the saddest part of this story. Some people just wanted to be mad. Look at verse 32, “The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there.” They didn’t know what was going on, they didn’t know why they were there, but hey people were mad and upset so they wanted to join in. It’s easy to put ourselves here isn’t it? Sometimes I think we prefer to have something to complain about. It was interesting to watch the coverage of the election the other night commentators from both sides seemed to think that part of the results came from the fact that people tend to be unhappy with Washington and so no matter what party is in power eventually they will get thrown out. It may be human nature but it doesn’t have to be that way. We need to dwell on the good and not the bad, not only will it make this life happier, but being angry at side things robs our attention from what really matters which is following our Lord and helping people to know Him and to grow in Him.
So what was the result, well the city clerk was able to quiet the crowd and speak. He would have been not only the keeper of the town’s records but also the accountant for the temple. They listen to him because what affects the temple is going to affect him. He urges them to calm down and appeals to the things that they believe in to get them to do so. Why does he do this? Because he wanted to save the city. Notice that he says in verse 40, “We are in danger of being charge with rioting because of today’s events. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.” Rioting was a serious charge in the Roman Empire, one that tended to be dealt with swiftly and harshly because the Romans couldn’t risk having uprising in their empire. It was hard enough to administrate without disturbances like this one. So the city clerk quiets the mob and gets them to go home, not because he is trying to protect Paul and the church. Not because he wants to defend their rights or consider their arguments, he does so because he is afraid of what will happen if the mob doesn’t disburse.
Fear is a powerful motivator. Despite the reasons that Demetrius listed in his speech when you look at the actions that he was calling for and the results of what happened the real motive of Demetrius was fear. He was afraid of what would happen to him, his way of life, and all that he held dear if everyone became a Christian, he was afraid of change.
When people think about Christianity it does make them afraid, they do fear change because change is the unknown. When it comes to God this is somewhat justified, because when you accept Him, He calls you to change your life. But you don’t have to fear that change because what He is teaching you to do is to trust in Him. Yes tomorrow will be different then it would have been without Him. Yes, He will make you into a different person has He changes your hopes and dreams, but they will be better dreams then you had before.
Our mission is to help people to see that our hope and their hope is in Christ. It’s not just about receiving Christ as savior but about living for Him and growing to be like Him everyday. The best way that people can learn that is when they see what we do and know why we do it. You see, your motives show where your hope is. If your hope really is in Christ then it will show in what you do and why you do it.
