Why Did The Ephesian Authorities Let Paul Go?

Tom:

This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment. We are in Acts chapter 19, Dave, we are at verse 37:“For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.Well, what’s that about?

Dave:

Well, they brought them into this conference, I mean, there were crowds of people from the city.They had been screaming, “Great is the goddess Diana of the Ephesians” and throwing dirt into the air, and it’s a riot.They have dragged in some men that they are angry with because they don’t seem to think people ought to worship Diana of the Ephesians.

Tom:

Dave, this is not unlike our news alert where we had this man in a small town in North Carolina passing out tracts.But here we have this town clerk, and he’s trying to make everybody happy, he’s trying to appease all the people.

Dave:

Apparently, he’s a man in charge, I mean, he’s got some authority.

Tom:

Right.So, he goes on to say, “Wherefore if Demetrius, and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies:let them implead one another.”“But if ye inquire any thing concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly.”So he wanted to quell the riot, which was all about money, right Dave?

Dave:

Yeah, reminding our listeners and viewers that they made a lot of money, in fact it makes it clear.There are a lot of craftsmen in town, a lot of people were making this goddess, all kinds of copies of this goddess.Tom, I don’t want to offend any Catholics out there, but it kind of reminds me of apparitions of Mary.You’ve got about a thousand different shrines in France alone for apparitions of Mary, but you’ve got shrines in Japan.You’ve got Our Lady of Guadalupe, happens to be an Indian Mary down there in Mexico.

Tom:

The visitors to that shrine are in the millions every year.

Dave:

I think about 20 million in a year.Well, which Mary is it?Which one are you talking about? I mean she comes in all kinds of nationalities, all kinds of appearances.It’s like the pictures of Jesus, I’m sorry, they’ve got every artist’s favorite depiction, and Tom, you remember the one that was in the Catholic—

Tom:

The National Catholic Reporter.

Dave:

Right, the National Catholic Reporter they had this contest to see who could come up with a picture of Jesus, and the one they came up with—I’ll let you describe it, Tom.

Tom:

It was horrendous, dreadlocks, couldn’t tell whether it was masculine or feminine, just outrageous, but something that would appeal to everybody.And that’s the idea here, we’re going to have the universal Jesus.

Dave:

So we’ve got all these copies.Each guy, each craftsman is making his own copy of, you know, what he thinks Diana of the Ephesians looked like.But anyway, Tom, as you said, the bottom line ismoney.It’s going to ruin their business, they can’t allow that!So, well then the town clerk—a different meaning for clerk than what we would have today—he says,Look, if Demetrius, a craftsman, they’ve got some complaint, these guys haven’t blasphemed your goddess.They just said there are no gods made by hands, but they haven’t said bad things about Diana of the Ephesians, and they haven’t robbed any churches around here.Now, if you’ve got a complaint against them come on let’s give it.And then he goes on—

Tom:

Well Dave, here’s the other side.It’s like all of these things are looking out for self interests.

Dave:

Of course.

Tom:

Verse 40:“For we are in danger to be called in question for this day’s uproar, there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse.”In other words, Hey guys, let’s not bring Rome into this, we certainly don’t want the law to come down on us.

Dave:

Well, that may calm them.“And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly” Verse 41, which ends Chapter 19.Tom, the Bible is so instructive.Of course, it’s God’s Word.Every incident, every story in it, we learn so much from it.I was thinking of Job the other day, the oldest book in the Bible a far as we know.Who is this guy Job?Or I was also thinking of Melchizedek, where did this guy come from?The priest of the most high God, he’s the king of Salem, and Abraham offers gifts to him, and he brings out bread and wine, Wow!I mean, the Bible is so fantastic, written by 40 different men, inspired of God over 1600 years, and it is all interwoven, you can follow things from Genesis to Revelation.

Tom:

Dave, wasn’t there someone who said something like, they were referring to the Bible, it said it was not a book that men could write if they would, or would write if they could.And the reason for that is, look what it says about the nature of man.This is not a good picture, or for example, the prophets, what they write about their own people, wow!It’s not a very good picture.But that’s our heart, isn’t it?In truth that’s what we are about, what the Word of God says.

Dave:

This is God’s Word, fantastic!

Tom:

Well, let’s pick up with Acts 20, verse 1:“And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia.”I remember in Chapter 19, they refrained him from getting involved in this uproar, unruly assembly.

Dave:

For his own protection.

Tom:

Right.“And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece.”

Dave:

Well, Tom, I want to go back to verse 1:Paul called unto him the disciples.He’s never been to this place before—well, he did spend a lot of time later, he comes back to Ephesus, he was there three years and he will talk about it.It’s amazing to me, Tom, how disciples are raised up everywhere.He writes to the Romans, the church of Rome, he hasn’t been there yet, and he hopes to come and give them a blessing and give them some instruction to them.How is this spread everywhere?God willing, and about a month I guess or maybe a little less, I can’t remember, I’ll be in Macedonia for some meetings.A very tiny country—

Tom:

You’re going to Albania.

Dave:

Albania is right next door to Macedonia, and it’s a very tiny country, very poor and right next to Greece, but the gospel spread.In fact, they said of Paul, These men who have turned the world upside down are come hither, praise God.And Tom, it thrills me!Everywhere I go in the world you find the same thing, there are people who love the Lord Jesus, they’ve been born again by the gospel, they believe the gospel, I mean, this has spread everywhere.It really is thrilling, and here Paul, you could say he was really the pioneer that God used.We don’t read too much about Peter, but Paul, he is going everywhere preaching the Word, and we are so grateful that it has been recorded for us word for word inspired of the Holy Spirit.