Small Craftsman Warnings

In the world of Paul, there were thirty-three centers for the worship of Diana, or Artemis. She was one of the most popular goddesses, and the month of May was dedicated to her.

But of all the centers for the worship of Diana, Ephesus was the chief. And the temple of Diana in Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the world. And during the month of May, people used to travel from all over the Roman Empire, bring their families, just like going to Disney World, and they would go to the temple of Diana and they would bring her gifts and they would worship.

The temple of Diana was central to both the theology and the economy of Ephesus. In years after this event, I can imagine fathers and mothers saying to their children, Oh, we'll never forget the Diana festival of the year 56. That was the year of the big riot.

I noticed in our Chicago newspapers today they are remembering that eight years ago we were all snowed in. Well, the parents would say to their children, just remember it was ten years ago that we were involved in that mob in Ephesus. During the French Revolution, a mob was running down the street and a man was following after them and a policeman called and said to the man, Don't follow them, they're running into trouble.

And the man kept on running and called back, I have to follow them, I'm their leader. I'd like us to look at this mob. They had a leader.

They were running somewhere. That theater, that outdoor theater that they went into, seated 25,000 people. Can you imagine 25,000 people herded into that theater shouting for two hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

I want us to look at this mob from three different viewpoints, because each viewpoint will give to us a new insight. I want us to look first of all behind the mob. What caused this scene? Then secondly, I want us to look beneath the mob.

What was governing the lives of these people? And finally, I want us to look beyond the mob. What was left when it was all over? First, let's look behind this mob, this crowd, and get an insight into Paul's ministry. Paul had caused this riot.

If the Apostle Paul were applying to a mission field today, to a mission board today, and if he honestly filled out the multitudes of sheets of application form, they'd never accept him. They would say, now tell us about what you have been doing. Well, I've been in prison several times, and I've been stoned, and I've been in shipwreck, and once in the city of Ephesus I caused a riot.

I can just see the board looking over his application and saying, well, how can God bless a man like that? He did. The thing that lay behind this mob was the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Now, it shows me four characteristics of his ministry.

Number one, he had a positive ministry. Paul didn't march around in front of the temple of Diana with posters. He wasn't a picket.

He didn't organize protests against Diana. All he did was positively preach the word of God and tell people that Jesus was the Son of God, the Savior, and if they would trust him, they'd be born again. That's all he did.

Day after day, week after week, for three years, Paul positively taught the truths of the word of God. Now when you teach positive truth, you run into negative reaction. If Jesus Christ is the true God, then Diana has to be a false god.

If Jesus Christ does not live in temples made with hands, then the beautiful temple of Diana has to be a phony. And if the only way to be saved is through faith in Jesus Christ, then what good can Diana do you? His was a positive ministry, and simply by teaching the word of God, the word spread from life to life. I read here that the word of the Lord grew in verse 20.

So mightily grew the word of God. How does the word of God grow? It just jumps from one life to another life. Paul's ministry was positive.

I have never felt it necessary to parade, to put up posters, to carry banners. I've never felt it necessary to go out in front of these places. Other people may.

Paul didn't feel it was necessary. Paul just simply said, here's the truth, and the truth went to work. A positive ministry.

Secondly, it was a courageous ministry. For him to stay three years in Ephesus took a great deal of courage because he had opposition. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus, and in the 16th chapter of 1 Corinthians he said, I'm going to tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.

Now, most of us would have said, there are so many enemies in Ephesus, I'm leaving as soon as I can. But he didn't. He stayed in the big city.

Now I thank God for people who believe in ministering to the city. We'll be having our Home Missions banquet this week, and our emphasis is going to be on Home Missions. I trust that Home Missions is where your heart is.

Somebody has got to be ministering to the multitudes in America, and the light that shines the farthest is going to shine the brightest at home. A courageous ministry. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul wrote, I fought with beasts in Ephesus.

Thirdly, it was a respected ministry. When this mob broke loose, Paul wanted to go in, and they stopped him. It was a wise thing.

Paul's heart went ahead of his head. But some of the officials, some of the political leaders of Asia, sent him a message and said, don't go in that theater. Paul was respected by the political leaders of that city.

You see, a person doesn't have to be a crank or a fanatic to reach the top. Paul's ministry was not only to the needy people in the marketplace, his ministry reached into the office buildings, his ministry reached into the political centers of that area, and men were converted. A very positive ministry usually becomes a respected ministry.

If Paul had been marching around in front of the Temple of Diana, throwing mud on those 127 pillars, putting up posters, he would never have reached these people. They respected him for his honesty. But I notice finally that though it was a positive ministry, and though it was a courageous ministry and a respected ministry, it was a very controversial ministry.

Paul created a citywide riot. Now this has been true of Christianity since the days of Jesus. You remember when they arrested Jesus and dragged him before the officers, the crowd said, he stirs up the people.

You can't have anybody stirring up the people, that's not good. In the book of Acts, no sooner had the Holy Spirit come upon the Church than they began to stir things up. They were arrested, then they stirred things up.

Wherever the Apostle Paul went, there was either a revival or a riot, and sometimes both. He went to Thessalonica, and they threw him out of town. They posted bond against him.

He went to Berea, and they threw him out of town. He comes now to Ephesus, and a riot is the result. This is the history of the gospel.

Now you must remember that this was not a political riot from Paul's point of view. It wasn't even a personal riot. The thing that really caused this riot was the conflict between truth and error.

Twenty-five thousand voices for two hours shouting a lie will never make it the truth. And here's one little voice saying that Jesus is the true God, and that is true. So the conflict really was between truth and error.

As I read this passage and meditated on it, I thought to myself, why aren't we causing riots today? Why doesn't the world get angry at us today? What is wrong with us that at some point in time we don't get people concerned? I wonder if the reason may not be this. We are so much like the world in our thinking and in our acting that we don't disturb them anymore. Let them go ahead and make their idols.

Let them go ahead and have their illegal businesses. Let them go ahead and poison people. That's perfectly all right.

We'll just get together and sing our hymns and enjoy our fellowship and let the world go to hell. Paul didn't have that philosophy. Paul was concerned.

I think probably today one weakness among us Christians is that we are afraid we may cause some trouble. Now we don't deliberately go out and break windows to become martyrs. We don't do that.

We don't go out and say, slap me in the face, I want to have a good testimony Wednesday night. We don't do that. But you know, if we do what Paul did, if we are courageous and we just share the truth and live the truth, and when you share the truth you are fighting error, before long somebody is going to get angry with you.

And all the way through the Word of God you're going to find people who got upset because God's people stood for what was true. They saw Isaiah in half because he stood for the truth. They threw Jeremiah in the dungeon because he stood for the truth.

They chased David from cave to cave because he stood for the truth. They published blasphemous cartoons in Punch magazine about Charles Spurgeon because he stood for the truth. The newspapers had a great time laughing at Billy Sunday, but he stood for the truth.

And here in the city of Chicago they called D.L. Moody crazy Moody. I wonder how many of us at Moody Church are called crazy today. I wonder if the world is saying, you know, those people are so nice, they don't bother us at all.

God help us. So we have some insight into Paul's ministry by looking behind this mob. Now let's look beneath the mob and get some insights into the hearts of people.

This particular mob of people is a perfect illustration of society today. My friends, I want you to look at this mob of people. First Demetrius gets his workers together and all the allied workers with him, and he makes this fervent speech about Diana of the Ephesians.

They get stirred up. They come streaming out from their union hall and they're screaming, great is Diana of the Ephesians before a mob gathers. It's probably the month of May dedicated to Diana.

And then they start going down to the theater and away go the hearts of people. As you read this, you can't help but shake your head and say, my oh my, what are the forces that control people today? You don't find the Christians in this mob, or they got a hold of a couple of them for scapegoats. Paul wanted to go in to give his testimony.

He would have lost his life. The last mob he jumped into, they stoned him to death. God raised him.

What are the forces that control society in Chicago or New York or Keokuk or any other place? Well, there are several of them. You can see them here. Most people, number one, follow a leader.

These people weren't thinking for themselves. The workers got together and instead of saying, wait a minute, Demetrius, maybe Paul is right. Is it possible that down through the years we have been deceived? An image fell down from Jupiter.

I'm not even sure there is a Jupiter. And what is this image? Maybe it's just a meteorite that came down. Maybe Paul is right.

But nobody stood up and said that. They said, oh, here is our great peerless leader, Demetrius, and he's the expert. And if the experts are wrong, oh, where are we? While Wilbur and Orville Wright were flying their newfangled flying machine, the experts were writing books saying that it couldn't be done.

The experts have been wrong more than once, and here's one that was wrong. But you see, people like to follow a leader. They especially like to follow a leader who can get them all stirred up.

I notice that the second thing here is they follow the crowd. First there's a leader who gets them all worked up, and then this leader builds a crowd. And most people like to follow the crowd.

They say, well, 25,000 people can't be wrong. Well, they were. I hope that you are not naive enough to believe the polls.

It's rather interesting to see the surveys that are made on the surveys. Some years ago, a book was published by World Publishing called The Permissible Lie by Sam Baker, Sam Sinclair Baker. Reader's Digest was going to publish the book and decided not to.

It was a little bit too dangerous. The Permissible Lie, it's about the whole business of propaganda, how the minds of people in the United States of America are controlled by radio and television and advertising and demagogues. As I read that book, I thought to myself, my, that sounds like Ephesus back in the year 56.

They followed a great leader. You're watching television and here comes a hockey player and he says, you ought to shave with this kind of shaving cream. What does a hockey player know about shaving cream? Now, if he's selling hockey sticks or ice making machines or band aids, I might listen to him.

Or here's a movie actress telling you about coffee. What does she know about coffee? Just because there's somebody important doesn't mean I have to listen to them. But people do.

And they rush down to the stores to hurry up and buy these things. Because after all, the important people buy them. And the crowd buys them.

Numbers. Don't be influenced by numbers. Fifty thousand Frenchmen can be wrong.

Don't be influenced by noise. For two hours, great is Diana of the Ephesians. Don't be influenced by unanimity.

Here were 25,000 people for two hours all shouting the same thing. My, they must be right. They were dead wrong.

So people today follow leaders and they follow the crowd. Everybody's doing it. Thank God everybody isn't doing it.

You'll have to forgive me for this, but I am of a certain disposition that if everybody is doing it, I'd be just mean enough not to do it. Thirdly, the crowd, they follow their emotions. I notice the emotions that are involved here.

First there's fear. We're going to lose our jobs. We'll lose our money.

We'll lose the central place of Ephesus in the worship of Diana. He appealed to their patriotism. He appealed to their pocketbook.

That's always a good appeal. Oh, we're going to lose money. Whenever somebody says it's not the money, it's the principle of the thing.

It's always the money. And this Paul is saying, Diana is not a goddess. How can you stand for this? Can't you just see their emotions getting worked up? And it went from fear to rage.

They became angry. That's what turns a crowd into a mob. They get angry and they start looking for some scapegoats.

And they saw some Jews. And of course the Jews didn't worship Diana of the Ephesians and they were going to make a scapegoat out of the Jews. Then they found a couple of Paul's friends.

They were going to make scapegoats out of them. Now don't don't laugh at them and say, well, these are ignorant pagan people. This is the way people act in Chicago.

They're looking for a scapegoat. Try to find somebody to blame. Emotions get stirred up and people don't think.

I notice in the fourth place they listen to propaganda. Propaganda is the use of fact or lies to manipulate people. Manipulate.

Get them to do what you want them to do. This Demetrius knew how to write speeches. He used loaded words.

Our craft is in danger. The great goddess Diana, the great temple, the great city of Ephesus. He appealed to every emotion he could find.

He pushed every button he could push. He knew just what words to use. That's what separates truth from propaganda.

It would be a tragic thing for me to stand in this pulpit week after week and use loaded words to get people worked up against something. It's amazing as I preach in different places the things that churches are talking about. You go to some churches and the only message is how short or long are your skirts.

I think that women ought to dress modestly, but I don't think it's necessary for me to take an hour's time on Sunday to get people all worked up about hymn lines. There are some ministries that think that the only way to be successful is to get a mob shouting about something. That's not ministry.

That's demagoguery. All Asia worships the goddess. Are we going to allow our great goddess to be heard in this way? Propaganda.

But basically, at the bottom of the whole thing was the love of money. They followed the crowd and they followed their leaders and they gave vent to their emotions and they listened to propaganda, but basically it was the love of money. Did you ever notice in the book of Acts how the gospel always comes into conflict with money? In chapter 1, they talk about Judas who sold the Lord Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

In chapter 2, the Christians shared everything they had and had all things in common. In chapter 3, Peter heals a beggar and he ceases to be a beggar and becomes a producer. In chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira cheat God and they die.

All the way through the book of Acts, he comes to Philippi and here's a couple of men who own a demon-possessed girl who tells fortunes. I can't imagine somebody making money by degrading somebody else. And so Paul casts the demon out of this girl and they lost their income.

But that isn't what they went and told the judges. They said, these men are preaching laws that are contrary to the laws of Rome. They didn't say anything about losing their money, but that's what the cause was.

Whenever somebody said, it's not the money, it's the principle of the thing, it's the money. And these people were afraid of losing their money. I'll tell you, my friend, I would rather be broke and believe the truth than to be rich at the expense of the truth.

These men were making money by superstition. These men were pulling the wool over the eyes of the people. Unfortunately, this is what runs the crowd today.

And by the way, we've got to be very careful that the churches don't get this way. Moody Church should not do something just because other churches are doing it. Jump on the bandwagon, follow the crowd.

Some great leader tells us to do something. It doesn't mean we necessarily have to do it. Finally, let's look beyond this mob.

We've looked behind the mob and learned something about Paul's ministry. It was positive and it was courageous. And the Apostle Paul was respected and he was controversial.

We have looked beneath this mob and we've discovered the forces that run people's lives, following leaders, not following truth. Following the crowd, being impressed with numbers, getting all worked up emotionally, listening to propaganda, and basically money. Let's look beyond the mob now and get an insight into the church.

Did you notice that this group was called an assembly? In verse 32, the assembly was in confusion. Verse 39, let it be determined in a lawful assembly. That word assembly is the same as the word church.

Isn't that interesting? This mob of people assembled in this theater is called ecclesia. An assembly, a called-out group of people. So in Ephesus there were two assemblies.

There was the assembly of the Lord Jesus Christ, the church, and there was this assembly of worked-up people believing a lie. Now my point is this. Ephesus is gone.

Oh, there's a little village over there, but you won't find the Ephesus that Paul was in. The theater, some remains of it are still there. Demetrius is gone.

We wouldn't even know Demetrius lived if it hadn't been for Paul. He would have lived and died and been forgotten. These people are all gone.

Diana is gone. I haven't met anybody lately who says, I can hardly wait to go see Diana. Her temple is gone.

Everything they were making noise about is gone. Paul is still here. Jesus Christ is still here.

The gospel is still here. The word of God is still here. The church is still here.

That says to me that this world around me that's making a lot of noise about nothing, don't worry about it. It'll be gone someday. Paul's concern was to win these people from lies to the truth.

Paul's concern was to win them from superstition to faith. That should be our concern. The church is still here.

Diana is gone. Paul is still here. His letters are still here.

Demetrius is gone. That assembly is gone, but God's people are here. You know why? The church of Jesus Christ is built on truth.

Their religion was built on lies. It's awfully hard to get somebody to change religions. Somebody may be here right now who says, Well, Pastor Wisby, I was raised this way or I was raised that way, and you aren't going to get me to change.

It sounds like Demetrius and his silversmiths. All I'm asking you is this. What you are building your life on, is it the truth? The clerk got up and he said, Now, everybody knows that Diana was given to us by Jupiter.

They do? Can you imagine 25,000 people believing this kind of rubbish? You take off of your library shelf a book of Greek and Roman mythology, and it's just like the comics. It's funny. They're stealing each other's wives and getting mad at somebody else's children.

It's ridiculous. This was what they believed. But it's not any more silly than some of the things people are believing today.

All I want to know, my friend, is this. Are you building your life on that which is true, or are you building your life on that which is false? 25,000 people shouting a lie won't make it the truth. A million people believing a lie will not make it the truth.

How do we know truth? We have truth in Jesus Christ. He said, I am the truth. We have truth in the word of God.

Thy word is truth. That's the reason the Church is still here. Although the Church has had its ups and downs, the Church is still here.

The Church doesn't depend upon propaganda. If it does, it's not pleasing to God. The Church depends upon persuasion.

Paul went to Ephesus and he persuaded people. He laid the facts out before them. He didn't force them.

He didn't twist them. He didn't manipulate them. He just laid the truth out, and the Holy Spirit of God convinced them.

You can't build a Church on propaganda, slogans, heated rallies. I think it's time some of us got more worked up than we really are, but you build a Church on truth. You build your life on truth.

An interesting thing happened in this conference this last week. I got there just in time to preach Sunday night. Their service begins at 6 o'clock, and we lost an hour going down.

The next day, a businessman came to me, a very well-dressed businessman came to me and said, I want to talk to you. So we sat down. He said, Sunday night, while you were preaching, I got saved.

Now, he didn't come forward, didn't raise his hand, but he got saved. He said, just while I was preaching, God spoke to his heart, and he got saved. He had a copy of the Living Bible.

He said, you know, I've been reading this ever since. I can't put it down. And for the first time in my life, all of this makes sense to me.

I said, tell me about yourself. He said, I was raised in the, and he named the church he was raised in. It's a church that preaches the Bible, as far as I know.

But he said, nobody ever told me about this. Here was a man who, in an instant of time, discovered truth. Truth went to work in his heart.

He gave his heart to Jesus Christ. The church doesn't depend on propaganda and lies. It depends on persuasion and truth.

It doesn't depend on raging. It depends on love. Paul, in the city of Ephesus, just went from place to place loving people.

We're going to see in Acts chapter 20. He went from house to house loving people, Jews and Gentiles. The tragedy is, he came face to face with superstition, stubbornness, money, politics, and they tried to crush him.

It didn't work. When Paul left Ephesus, he left behind a church. And that church won people to Jesus Christ.

We don't have time to go into it, but it's worth thinking about. The church that Paul planted in Ephesus was not influenced by the culture around it. It was contrary to the culture.

The people saw a difference. I trust that we as God's people today are not molded by the culture around us, the same values that they have, the same superstitions that they have. Paul wrote to the Romans and said, Don't be conformed to this world.

Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold, but be transformed. And Paul was a transformer, and because Paul was a transformer, Paul was a troublemaker. Most churches don't want pastors who are troublemakers, but when you read the history of the church, you read that many men were troublemakers.

Why? By going out and breaking windows? No, by preaching the truth of the word of God. So this passage leaves us with two questions. Question number one, what are you following? Are you following the crowd? Are you following some expert? Are you following your worked-up emotions? Are you following propaganda? Are you following some superstition? What are you following? You better be careful what you're following, because it may lead you to the wrong place.

There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Secondly, is my faith disturbing anybody? Am I any kind of a disturbance at all? I don't mean by this, and you know I don't mean by this, causing trouble deliberately. But as the result of my life and my testimony and my faith in Christ, does anybody get upset? They did back in Paul's day.

The whole city got upset, because Paul was denying their lies by preaching divine truth. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

No, no. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. And he had a name on his vesture and on his thigh, which read, King of kings and Lord of lords.

And when you see him, there's no comparison. And you don't need Diana of the Ephesians, or whatever else you may be trusting. All you need is Jesus Christ.

Our Father, we pray that our faith might disturb us. Deliver us from complacency. Deliver us from the status quo.

Disturb us, O God, and help us to disturb others. Help us, O Father, by our love and by our witness to the truth, to create problems for other people who are believing lies and superstition and following the crowd. Father, help us as a church to be dangerous.

We pray, Father, that we'll not earn the plaudits of a godless world. We pray that we might be worthy of their criticism and their opposition. Even as the apostles praised God that they could suffer, they were privileged to suffer for the name of Jesus.

O God, deliver us from a religion of pious respectability. Help us instead to have the kind of Holy Spirit power that makes a difference. And we pray, Father, that we might be the salt of the earth and sting the wounds.

That we might be the light of the world and cause the vermin to run when the light begins to shine. Father, we're in the same battle that Paul was in, but he did a much better job of it. Forgive us, take us, deliver us from conformity, and help us to be transformers to the glory of Jesus Christ.

I pray for those here today who need to leave the crowd and quit believing lies and come to Jesus Christ. Help them to do so. The only Savior, for we pray it in His name and for His sake.

Amen.