PT-1 Intro to Acts 19:21-41

SPIRIUTAL DIARY FOR 6/17/2018 6:49 AM

My Worship Time                                                                    Focus:  PT-1 Intro to Acts 19:21-41

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 19:21-41

            Message of the verses:  “21 Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome." 22 And having sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. 23 About that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the Way. 24 For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen; 25 these he gathered together with the workmen of similar trades, and said, "Men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business. 26  "You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made with hands are no gods at all. 27 “Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be regarded as worthless and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence." 28 When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" 29 The city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia. 30 And when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let him. 31 Also some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater. 32 So then, some were shouting one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together. 33 Some of the crowd concluded it was Alexander, since the Jews had put him forward; and having motioned with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly. 34 But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single outcry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" 35  After quieting the crowd, the town clerk said, "Men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell down from heaven? 36 “So, since these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and to do nothing rash. 37 “For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess. 38 “So then, if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against any man, the courts are in session and proconsuls are available; let them bring charges against one another. 39 “But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the lawful assembly. 40  "For indeed we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection with today’s events, since there is no real cause for it, and in this connection we will be unable to account for this disorderly gathering." 41 After saying this he dismissed the assembly.”

            In John MacArthur’s commentary on this section he entitles it “The Riot at Ephesus.”  We will probably take a couple of days looking at the intro to this section, and when we finish looking at these verses we will have completed chapter nineteen.

            As we have been looking at the book of Acts for around a year now and one of the things that we have seen in this book is that there has been much persecution of the early church, persecution that still goes on today in various places around the world.  One of the places that it is going on now is in the Central African Republic, something that I am a bit aware of because of people that I know who are in our Sunday School class who were actually born there as missionaries children and so we sometimes hear reports of what is going on there as they are being persecuted by Muslins who are tearing up this once calm country.

            In John MacArthur’s commentary he gives a brief paragraph on the persecution that we have seen in the book of Acts, and who it was who caused this persecution so I thought that since would be a good review that I would quote it:

“The early church faced persecution from its inception.  In Jerusalem, that persecution came from organized religion (Acts 4:1-31; 5:17-42; 6:9-15; 8:1-4).  In Antioch, it stemmed from prejudice and envy (13:44-52).  In Lystra, it was the result of ignorant paganism (Acts 14:8-19).  In Philippi, it was the reaction to a victory over the demonic realm (Acts 16:16-40).  In
Thessalonica, it came from an unruly mob, urged on by jealous religious leaders (Acts 17:1-9).  In Athens, the gospel faced the opposition of worldly philosophy (Acts 17:16-34).  In Corinth, as in Jerusalem, it came from Judaism, this time in a Roman court (Acts 18:5-17).  Wherever the church boldly and faithfully proclaims the gospel it faces Satanic opposition.  It comes as no surprise, then, that persecution also arose in Ephesus, stemming from a pseudo-religious materialism.  Hardened hearts, hypocrisy, and hatred energized the opposition to the gospel.”

            Dr. Luke talks about Paul’s plans in the first part of our narrative in these verses, and his plans are to travel to Rome by way of Macedonia, something that would be changed by the Lord, as the Lord would give him a free trip to Rome as we will see in the last chapter of Acts. 

            Let me just give an opinion of why our country has not faced great persecution like what we have read about in our study of Acts.  The United States of America actually began because of persecution of believers in Europe as people wanted to go where there was no persecution and so they headed to this vast new country.  We know that after the Revolutionary war that our forefathers set up a constitution for this new country.  I have to say that there was a great revival before this war; a revival that I believe helped the outcome of this war.  As the country went on religious freedom abounded.  Another great revival came before the Civil War, a war that about ended this country.  It was during the late 1800’s that our country began to send missionaries to other nations, as this was a golden time for the church here in America and also in England.  However what went up had to come down as materialism began to become more important than the worship of God.  We as a country have been a great light for the world to see, a place where freedom to worship has been going on for many years and perhaps that is why the Lord has not allowed great persecution to come here.  However there is persecution here now and this persecution will continue to come as long as the church in our country is a sleep or it continues to backslide, not paying attention to the Word of God. 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Abram” (Genesis 13:8).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where was Naboth’s vineyard?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/17/2018 7:31 AM