My God has put death to death. What can yours do?

The Fruitful Garden of the Lord

(Acts 19:21-27, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 17, 2013)

[21] Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” [22] And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.Paul had enjoyed an amazingly fruitful ministry in Ephesus. The time was drawing near for him to move on. In preparation for that transition, Paul sent two helpers ahead to modern Greece. His eventual intention was to travel to Rome, but it would be several years before he arrived in that capital city. First he would travel northwest to Macedonia and then to Achaia, From there he would make his way to Jerusalem, and then see how God would lead him to Rome.

[23] About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. [24] For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.

After his companions had gone on ahead into Macedonia, the events took place that would signal the end of Paul's daily ministry in Ephesus. Paul's troubles came from the success of the message of Jesus Christ. Every culture is challenged when the proclamation of the gospel is fruitful.

The reason is that the gospel is not merely a spiritual system. It is a way of life. Think of Paul's letter to the Ephesians as an example of the kind of teaching that Paul was doing. In that letter, three chapters of Christian thinking flow forth into three chapters of Christian living. The Christian faith is not merely a weekly assembly to share ideas. It is a Way. That Way disturbs individuals, marriages, families, working relationships, and whole societies.

In the case of Ephesus a man named Demetrius saw that Paul's preaching and teaching was a threat to the way of life in Ephesus that was not only his livelihood, but his pride and joy. Christianity will never speak well of false gods. Christ confronts the idols of every land where His Name is proclaimed.

The contest in Ephesus was between the God of the Jews and the many-breasted fertility goddess, Artemis of the Ephesians. As long as Judaism was a system of laws and ceremonies or even of traveling exorcists and secret scrolls, it would be a fringe faith that could easily be ignored. But Paul was preaching a different kind of Judaism of eternal hope about the coming of Jesus, a King, who was establishing a resurrection kingdom. His teaching was winning converts and changing lives. Also, God was doing extraordinary kingdom signs by the hands of Paul.

[25] These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. [26] And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. [27] And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”Paul's teaching did not allow for the worship of silver figurines of a false goddess. Neither did any other Jewish teaching. This had not been a problem in the past because the former way of Judaism had never attracted so many disciples.

The way of the God of Israel has always insisted on the obedience of faith, not only that certain beliefs of the heart were required. When Israel was traveling through the wilderness, a sabbath-breaker was put to death in the camp of Yahweh. God insisted that He alone was Lord over time, of work, of wealth, and of His people. He called on those who worshiped Him to love Him with all their being and with all their possessions.

This same God was ordering the life of His servant Paul, moving over the next several years through suffering and weakness from Ephesus to Greece to Jerusalem and then to Rome. This Father of glory was also the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. He called His Son to the cross, and Jesus obeyed. Now this Jesus, with all the authority of the Father, was calling His church to speak and to live the life of the kingdom in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Paul, who had been a persecutor of the way, had now heard the call of Jesus and was giving his life to the obedience of faith.

Demetrius and the silversmiths had a very different faith. They intended to keep Ephesus and the world the way that it was. This silly Jewish teacher, Paul, had to be stopped.

What was at stake? Their wealth and their entire way of life. They were dedicated to the gods that their hands had made. They worshiped objects. They came to Artemis for fertility and life, and Artemis did not seem to demand much of them.

But now Artemis, who had fed them so well, needed them to stand up for her. Demetrius sent forth the call. Would the men of Ephesus allow their trade of shrine-making to fall into disrepute? Would the massive temple of Artemis that drew visitors from all over the world be counted as nothing? Would Artemis herself be deposed?

Who was Artemis really? Paul writes in Ephesians 3:10 that it was the plan of God that His ambassadors be sent forth into the Gentile world, not only to bring a message to people, but also that “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to rulers and authorities in heavenly places.” He went on to say that this work of testifying before men and angels was happening “according to the eternal purpose that he realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Earlier he had revealed the content of that eternal purpose as “a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him (Christ), things in heaven and things on earth.”

Beyond the false fertility goddess who promised life to Ephesus and the world was a system of demonic lies that only brought death. What Paul proclaimed, and the church in Ephesus was called to follow, was a Savior who died in order to bring us life from the only true God.

Behind every false promise of life, behind every idol of the heart and every religious object that calls us to bow down before it for the blessings that can only safely come to us through Jesus, is a false spiritual entity that needs to be deposed from our hearts and from this world. Through the church the announcement of the victory of Christ reaches even to the ears of those beings in realms that we cannot see.

Are the thorns of the cares of this world and potential riches just part of a busy life that keeps you and others around you from a more serious engagement in the Word of God, or is the battle more personal than that? Who is the deceiver behind the deceitfulness of riches? What fallen angel would like to choke the life out of the Word implanted in those who are destined to be the fruitful garden of God?

Old Testament Passage: Numbers 15:32-36 – Sabbath-breaker executed

Gospel Passage: Matthew 13:7, 22 – Seed among thorns

Sermon Point: Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven confront every society's “normal” way of gaining wealth, their pride and joy, and more generally their idolatrous way of life.