The Culture-Confronting Gospel

INTRODUCTION

If you are well-versed in the world of finance and investment, you will know some of the terms I am about to throw out this morning:

Bond

Diversification

Asset

Dividend

Bull Market

Bear Market

Index Funds

Roth

Rollover

Whether you have been investing in stocks for many years or you got on Robinhood in 2020 and bought some GameStop or DogeCoin or you just watch CNBC everyday—you probably know a good bit of what these words mean.

But if you really know your stuff, you will also know that there are these things called sin stocks.

These are publicly listed companies that you can invest in, who make their money off of things that are considered to be unethical or unsavory by large portions of our society.

These would be things like:

The tobacco industry

The cannabis industry

Adult nightclubs

The online gambling industry

The alcohol industry

The Casino industry

This is not a term made up and used by churches and preachers—this is an insider term used by those who work in the field of finance and investment!

A quick Google search will bring up a December 2023 article from Yahoo Finance entitled: The 12 Best Sin Stocks to Invest in 2024

In April 2022, Forbes published an article called: 9 Sin Stocks for Your Watchlist

We live in a fallen world that is engulfed in sin.

In the Garden, God made a covenant of works with Adam and Adam represented all of humanity in that covenant.

If you do the work of not eating from this tree, and you keep my law, you will live and find rest.

If you eat from the tree and break my law, you will surely die.

Adam rebelled against God and ate from the tree and since he was our representative in the covenant, we all fell with him and in him.

Sin and its results spread to all of us.

Romans 5:12 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

And in this fallen world, where every person is born depraved and sinful and adversarial toward God, sin has become an industry.

The entire Western world admits it by naming certain types of publicly traded companies, sin stocks.

There is money to be made in the vices!

We have talked about some of the so-called sin stocks of the 21st Century.

This morning, we get a glimpse into one of the sin stocks of the 1st century.

The scene we are studying in Acts 19:21-41 will show us the event that closes out Paul’s lengthy, meaningful period of ministry in Ephesus.

His time is brought to its end by a squabble over a “sin stock,” and the impending danger is too great a threat to the Kingdom goals that he has.

Let’s read about what takes places. These are the very words of God.

Acts 19:21–41 ESV

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.” And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. 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. 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.” When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s companions in travel. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky? Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.

I want to briefly walk through the passage this morning to make a few things clear and define a few words and then we will have two points of application today:

1. We can expect offense from the culture because the Gospel confronts their idol-loving hearts and wallets.

2. We should not add to the offense of the Gospel, knowing that the Gospel itself will bring this sort of offense.

EXPOSITION

I’ll break our study of the text up into four sections this morning:

Verses 21-22: Luke’s commentary on Paul’s travel plans and his ultimate desired destination in his mission work

Verses 23-27: We meet this riot-inciting, blue-collar union worker named Demetrius

Verses 28-34: We see a crowd who is out of control

Verses 35-41: We see how control is restored

PAUL’S MISSIONARY PLAN AND GOAL (v. 21-22)

We start with verses 21-22.

Paul’s missionary work in Ephesus is coming to an end. It has been a significant work that has seen the Gospel spreading through Ephesus and beyond into the province of Asia.

But it hasn’t been easy.

While the details don’t make it into Luke’s narrative, Paul tells the Corinthians of some pretty harrowing situations he found himself in.

In 1 Corinthians 15:32, he mentions getting into altercations with some wild beasts

And then he says this in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9

2 Corinthians 1:8–9 ESV

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

Burdened beyond our strength

Biblical proof by the way that God does indeed give us more than we can handle!

As he enters into year 3 in Ephesus, he is making plans for future work.

The Spirit is leading him to go to Jerusalem, by way of Macedonia and Achaia and then to go to Rome.

We don’t know why but almost as soon as Paul makes these plans, he changes gear and sends Timothy and Erastus ahead of him instead.

Timothy is the same Timothy that joined Paul and Silas in Acts 16. The Timothy Paul wrote two of his 13 letters to. His true son in the faith.

Luke mentions Erastus. He was actually the city treasurer in Corinth at one point.

There was actually an inscription about him discovered outside the theater in Corinth that said he had generously laid the pavement outside the building at his own expense.

Like Gaius and Aristarchus, who we see later in the passage, Timothy and Erastus are important members of Paul’s mission team.

Paul, himself, will stay in Asia a bit longer—a plan interrupted by the scene that plays out with Demetrius.

But make no mistake that Paul’s face is now turned to Rome.

It is similar to what Luke says about Jesus in Luke 9:51

Luke 9:51 ESV

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Once Jesus sets His face toward Jerusalem in Luke 9, the whole gospel starts driving toward Jesus’ mission to die for His people at Calvary.

Similarly, Paul’s face is set toward Rome. He must see it. He must go to the heart of the Gentile world.

Everything in Acts is now driving toward Paul getting to Rome.

DEMETRIUS STARTS A RIOT (v. 23-27)

Luke says that no little disturbance arose concerning The Way (v. 23).

Once again—the Gospel is causing a stir.

In this case, Demetrius the silversmith is concerned about the impact that the growing movement of Christianity is having on his bank account.

He gathers up others in his trade.

He would have belonged to a guild, similar to a union, with these other artisans.

One of their biggest money-makers was producing miniature silver replicas of the Temple of Artemis.

This would be Similar to how you can buy little Lincoln or Jefferson Memorials from gift shops in Washington DC.

Demetrius and his colleagues, were producing these trinkets, and they were being sold to travellers and citizens of Ephesus, alike.

To understand what is happening in this text, you must understand something of this pagan temple structure.

The Temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World--measuring 450 feet long, 225 feet wide, and 60 feet tall. It was also home to over 127 columns.

It also served as the common bank of the province of Asia.

Artemis was important to the Ephesians because she was the goddess of hunting and wilderness and vegetation.

Most importantly, she was the goddess of child-bearing. Daughter of Zeus and Leto.

The people of Ephesus would have seen her as important to both the economy and the ability to procreate and populate.

They believed that her image in the temple came down from heaven like a meteor (as v. 35 says).

In verse 25-26, Demetrius expressed concern that their wallets are going to take a hit because of the way the Christian Gospel was transforming the city.

This is why Luke says the commotion is about THE WAY in v. 23—the problem is specifically created by the effect of Christianity.

A great many people have been converted to Christianity. (v. 26)

They would have been compelled and taught to not buy devotional objects and idols that represent false deities or remind them to worship false deities.

Compelled by God’s Spirit convicting them. Taught by God’s Apostle who was correcting them.

Like any Cross-bearing disciple, the Asian converts were learning that Christ demands exclusivity.

We saw this firsthand in last week’s text, when the pagans were coming and burning their sorcery books, which were worth a load of money.

In verse 27, Demetrius expresses concern for the worship of Artemis and the cult of Artemis itself. Artemis was considered the “leader of the city.”

He says she is worshipped throughout Asia and the whole world.

Inscriptions found by archaeologists in Asia Minor, Spain, Greece and Gaul prove his words true.

Now, is Demetrius really concerned about the honor of Artemis and the ongoing worship of her?

That is debatable. A cynic might say that he is just using this religious reason as a tactic to start a movement against Paul and the church.

Either way, he is likely banking on the fact that the city would come to the defense of their goddess leader and he is correct.

A CROWD OUT OF CONTROL (v. 28-34)

If he wanted a crowd that is out of control to be stirred up against Paul and his team, he got one.

The silversmiths begin to chant “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians,” in response to Demetrius (v. 28).

This ultimately sends the city into chaos (v. 29).

The people rush to the theater—a structure that can hold up to 24,000 people and they drag Gaius and Aristarchus with them.

These are Macedonian men traveling with Paul.

Gaius is described as being from Derbe in Acts 20:4. He is likely called Macedonian because he joined Paul’s team from somewhere in Macedonia.

Aristarchus is from Thessalonica. We will see him again a couple more times in Acts and he is mentioned by Paul in Colossians and Philemon as a partner in ministry.

Paul shows his courage and boldness. He wants to go into this riotous assembly and help them, but some of the Asiarchs, who think of highly of Paul don’t want him going in there (v. 30-31).

Asiarchs were municipal magistrates in the province of Asia.

They would bring motions to city councils and dedicated buildings and commission statues. They were dignitaries.

Their feelings toward Paul shows that in his time in Ephesus, he has made some friends in high places.

In verse 32, we see things are wild inside the theater. Unhinged.

Everyone is shouting different things and a lot of the people who got swept up in it aren’t even sure why they are there.

Some in the crowd ask this Jewish man named Alexander to get up and address the scene (v. 33).

We aren’t totally sure what he endeavors to do.

He is put forth by the non-Christian, Jewish people in attendance.

Maybe they want him to get up and say, “Hey—don’t confuse us with these people who follow Jesus.”

But when they realized he is a Jew (v. 34), they starting shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” and it goes on for two hours.

Imagine that. Two hours of chanting.

Sadly, it may not be very hard for us to imagine it.

We’ve seen plenty of out of control crowds on our televisions and phones over the last five years or so.

CONTROL IS RESTORED (v. 35-41)

The town clerk, who is like the CEO of the city, quiets the crowd. This guy is the city administrator. He is the link between the citizens and the Roman government.

And he is the one that gets things back to a manageable situation.

In verse 35, he tells them to ignore any claims that the city could be divided from Artemis. Everyone knows the two are synonymous.

In light of this, don’t start a riot. Don’t do anything rash that can’t be undone. (v. 36)

He essentially says, “Chill out.” “Simmer down now.”

In verse 37, he reasons with them that Gaius and Aristarchus have done nothing wrong.

They haven’t robbed the bank in the temple or blasphemed the goddess.

They have not been disrespectful or degrading.

Make note of this verse because we are going to come back to it.

And then he goes on to say that if Demetrius, or anyone else has an issue against anybody, use the legal system in place (v. 38).

They could take it to trial with the Roman proconsul in a private lawsuit.

And if Demetrius and company don’t want to do that, they can wait on a meeting of the regular governmental assembly, which could pass judgment on the behavior of resident aliens in the city (v. 39).

The regular assembly would be a real, civic assembly with order and authority.

But what cannot happen is a mob that is out of control (v. 40).

Rome did not put up with riots.

If there was commotion with no justification, the crowd would be met with the might of Roman military force and authority.

And then, in verse 41, he dismisses them.

His reasoning prevails and they are sent home.

But the dismissal of the mob doesn’t necessarily make things peachy for Paul.

Paul definitely must leave now because he isn’t going to take the chance of being dragged into court or a civic assembly.

This will lead to him closing up his ministry and leaving and heading to Macedonia as he had planned to do in the beginning of the passage.

APPLICATION

Now what does this have to do with us today? What can we learn from what we have seen in this account from Luke?

Well—it has a lot to do with us.

Like Paul and Gaius and Aristarchus, we live in a fallen world.

And in this world, there are men like Demetrius, who see the impact the Gospel has on people and societies and culture and they will have none of it.

THE GOSPEL OFFENDS

So here is our first point of application this morning:

1. We can expect offense from the culture because the Gospel confronts their idol-loving hearts and wallets.

Verse 23 is key for us as we seek to understand this.

The major disturbance in the city concerns the Way.

Throughout Acts, “The Way,” has described both a message and a people.

The message of the Way is the message of Christ the King, the promised Messiah, and His redeeming work.

The message of His life, His death, His resurrection and His ascension.

The message that He will one day judge the world.

As Apollos is described in Acts 18, Luke said this:

Acts 18:25 (ESV)

He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.

But it has most often described the people who believe in this Messianic message:

Acts 9:1–2 ESV

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

In Acts 19:23, on the heels of people burning their books of divination and large amounts of people coming to Christ after hearing of the situation with the Sons of Sceva, the church and its message has caused a problem.

Just as sin can impact societies, so can righteousness.

As people are converted and seeking to walk in the footsteps of the Apostles and worship Christ with the a sole devotion, the culture of Ephesus was feeling the effects.

Demetrius, seeing people convert and leave behind Greco-Roman gods for the One True God of Scripture and smelling the smoke from evil books being burned, senses trouble.

If they’ll burn their books, won’t they toss out their trinkets?

If they’ll forsake Artemis, won’t they forsake her temple?

Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a lot of time and money invested in the sin stock of Ephesian pagan worship.

They literally cannot afford to see it fall by the wayside because of the Way.

Understand—this is what the Gospel does.

It offends idol-loving hearts because it comes for the throat of idolatry.

It offends those who make money from idolatry, because it comes for the source of their income.

And the world, which 1 John 5:19 says lies in the power of the Evil One, cannot bear it.

They won’t sit back and watch Babylon crumble.

They are going to attack Zion.

Allow me to give an example from our own Western culture: the industry of transgenderism and LGBTQ-ism, in general.

TRANSGENDER INDUSTRY

So as to not assume you may know terms, let me define transgenderism.

According to Dictionary.com, Transgender means to possess a gender identity not congruent to the sex you were assigned at birth.

I don’t have a ton of time to break down the fallacies of the entire idea, but I will simply say that this dictionary definition assumes that there is a difference in gender and sex.

And that is right in line with what has become taught in our culture.

The philosophy of the age says:

Gender has nothing to do with chromosome, hormones, internal reproductive organs or external body parts.

Instead, it has to do with your internal identity and your physical presentation and who you are attracted to.

If your identity and presentation and attraction don’t match your body parts, well—you can do something about it.

I was born in 1984.

In my lifetime we have gone from:

questioning what sexual practices are acceptable

to questioning if the institution of marriage should be re-defined after thousands of years of human civilization

to questioning, “What is a man?” “What is a woman?”

To quote Voddie Baucham, “We are in trouble.”

So with these developments in mind, consider this:

The US Market for gender re-assignment surgeries and hormone treatments is at 1.9 billion dollars, according to Yahoo Finance.

It is expected to rise to $5 billion by 2030.

So then, do you think it’s all passion for supposed “gender-affirming care,” that is driving the radical transgender agenda in this country?

The United States, which is far more permissive than most Western countries on this issue, saw over 17,000 children between the ages of 6 and 17 receive puberty blockers from 2017-2021.

It was only 17,000 plus according to CNN.

You might ask, why would do this to children? With so little research and with the research we have yielding scary results like an increased risk for cancer?

Well there are probably a few answers to that question, but let me throw some more dollar figures at you:

Without insurance, this sort of hormonal treatment costs between $4,000 and $25,000.

Again—you can do the math.

So then, on one hand, we see hardened responses to the Gospel because there is a darkness of the human heart that wants to rebel against God and reject His Word.

But one of the ways that darkness manifests itself is in a Demetrius-like response to protect the idols that produce the cash.

“Gender-Affirming Care” is not just about expressive individualism. It is about industry.

We can expect that as we proclaim the Gospel and hold the cultural line for the sake of children and adults like, we will be met with the vitriol of the world’s crowd.

For from this business, they have their wealth.

After all—remember our “sin stocks,” you’ll find it fascinating to know that in the world of finance, the opposite of “sin stocks,” are “ESG stocks.”

These are stocks that have a positive impact on the Environment, Society and Governance.

ESG scores evaluate how a company prioritizes sustainability. How much of a positive impact they have upon the world. How much they invest in matters of justice.

91% of Fortune 100 companies report on their efforts to be LGBTQ-affirming in their ESG reports.

Somehow, this warped mindset regarding gender and sex has become the the image of ethics in the investment realm.

The more you support things like “gender-affirming care,” the higher your score and the further you are from the dirty title of “sin stock.”

In our backwards society, what should be called a sin-stock has become the essence of virtue.

Suddenly we start to understand why so many companies have jumped on the PRIDE month bandwagon each June.

So in light of these things—we should not be surprised to see a Demetrius response from the sin-deformed world.

The world knows that orthodox Christianity, preaching an orthodox Gospel, is in direct confrontation with five-minute old gender ideologies that are born out of a worldview that says, “We get to define reality.”

When our Gospel collides with their godlessness, we should expect a level of confrontation.

And when that confrontation impact bank accounts, we can expect a commotion.

DON’T BE UNNECESSARILY OFFENSIVE

But understanding this—understanding that the very nature of a Gospel that calls for us to cast off all man-made opinion and to surrender to the authority God is going to bring offense, we don’t need to add to the offense with unnecessary offense.

Understanding that there are many in the world who will be willing to fight us with one hand on their wallet and another on a sword, we don’t need to be bringing our abrasiveness to the table.

2. We should not add to the offense of the Gospel, knowing that the Gospel itself will bring this sort of offense.

Look at verse 37.

Acts 19:37 ESV

For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess.

The pagan city administrator is able to stand up and defend the Christian brothers on the basis that they have not been sacrilegious or blasphemous regarding the goddess.

The Greek word for sacrilegious literally translates to “robbing temples.” This is how the NIV translates it.

In other words, he is telling them, “These men have not trounced on temple by trying to rob it.”

Furthermore, they had not been aggressively disrespectful of Artemis.

They haven’t been mocking or malicious in their words and actions.

Instead, Paul and his mission team have simply witnessed to the truth of the Scriptures.

This is what he has been doing on all three of his missionary journeys throughout Acts.

Even in Acts 17 as he speaks to the men of Athens, he is not overtly offensive toward them.

He simply proclaims the truth of God’s Word and lets the truth do the provoking.

Paul gets mocked in Acts 17, but he isn’t mocking anyone.

This is where being law-abiding citizens who are obedient as we can be to the magistrate and who love our neighbors as we preach to our neighbors, will serve the Gospel well.

Romans 13:3 ESV

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,

And then, in the same line of thought, Paul says:

Romans 13:8–10 ESV

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

As Peter writes to Christians who are actively suffering for their faith under the thumb of the Roman Empire, he says:

1 Peter 2:13–15 ESV

Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

You want to silence the ignorance coming against you in the culture, suffering Christian?

Peter says, “Do good.”

Later in the letter, as he calls on the church to be ready to give a defense for the hope within, he again calls for a certain flavor in the defense:

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Gentleness: Could also translate to humility

So a gentle meekness devoid of pride

Respect: We have the fear of God in mind as we deal with people, knowing we will answer to Him for how we treat and esteem others

And knowing that how we treat others directly reflects the sort of love we have received or have not received from Him

It is clear what is called for biblically when it comes to our demeanor and disposition as we dispense the Gospel.

We don’t want to be Christians who shrink back from preaching the truth because we are afraid to offend.

But we also don’t want to be people who are unnecessarily rebellious toward the authorities God has put in place.

We want the Gospel we preach to be clear and to be understood as a threat to godless idolatry and ideologies in this world. Let’s not be confused with the culture.

And yet, let’s not act in such a way as we preach that our words are perverted by own sinful pride and aggression.

We do not want to fear man over God.

And yet, we want to be respectful and gentle because we fear God.

You might say—how do we walk this tightrope? How do we preach things that the lost world finds so offensive, without being unnecessarily offensive?

Well the answer is the same as it always is for you and me, brothers and sisters—we must look to Christ.

He is the Happy Warrior.

He bids the children come to Him, while rebuking Pharisees who would mock a child’s ability to contribute to God’s Kingdom.

He eats with the tax collector and the sinner, while calling on them to forsake everything and follow Him.

He respectfully converses with Pilate mere hours from his crucifixion, but he calls the liar Herod a fox.

He dies for people of every stripe, but He will judge the world in righteousness.

He is full of grace and truth.

And he will make a Happy Warrior of His children.

He will clothe us with compassionate hearts and yet lace up the unyielding Gospel on our feet.

He is the Image we must be conformed to and He is our model in this balancing act.

CONCLUSION

In Revelation 18, as Christ judges the world and it comes crashing down, there is this imagery of the seafaring men, who made their money on the industry of the ocean, weeping.

They are holding a funeral for the world they loved and the money it afforded them.

Revelation 18:17–18 ESV

For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.” And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?”

They lost their sin stock.

We have to read a text like that and understand that for men like Demetrius, judgment is coming.

Whether they cry out now or later, they will see their industry burn.

Therefore, we must call them to repentance.

We must not be afraid to sound strange or look strange as we stand on the Word of God and hold the line.

And we need not add the offense of our own personalities and opinions to the Gospel that already provokes.

Let us be faithful church.

Let us be like our Happy Warrior.

And may the Demetrius’ and those who chant the names of this world’s false gods repent.