Acts 19:32-41

Faithful, Always Responsible, Completely Trustworthy.

Hosea 10:12 “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.”

How do you sow righteousness? Break up the fallow ground…its time to seek the Lord, to study His word, to consult Him, enquire of Him. Practice prayer, follow, seek with application. Allow yourself to be consulted of God. Let Him speak. That He may come and Yārâ (Yaw Raw) direct, teach, instruct, Conf orm righteousness on us.

Riots, mobs, thousands of voices in the large theatre, confusion and chaos…all because a successful business plan was threatened. Rather than being set free from greed, Demetrius is consumed by it. What you worship, who you worship will consume you.

As Christians, you and I are called to be consumed by God, His word, His righteousness, and we are to sow this righteousness by seeking the Lord. Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Let Him consult with us, teach us, conform (Be similar in form or type; agree) us to His likeness. All this through the work of the Holy Spirit. Greed makes it impossible to know these things…such feelings all are born with, we all wrestle with our sinful flesh.

Let Jesus, and the miraculous work of our heavenly Father teach you daily, that He may purify the impulses of the flesh that lead to sin. No more confusion, no more voices shouting over one another, begging to drive you. Only the voice of our Lord, His still, Sure, True voice consume our thoughts, hearts, and continue His good work in each of us.

Acts 19:32–34 “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!””

This riot is conceived in greed and arrogance and gives birth to distortion, confusion and unrest.

All of those concepts are evidence of human, sinful nature. They are contrary to the Clarity, Peace and Rest that God brings. This riot is bad news. You see it by “Most of them didn’t know why they had come together”.

Dont Follow the loudest voices. They are merely repeating only what they have been told, with no real understanding behind what they are saying. You follow the game of telephone all the way back to master of deception. The enemy.

Some of the people in the crowd were Jews, and had prompted Alexander to make a defense.

The Jew’s didn’t bring Paul’s friends forward, so that lets us know that the Jews more than likely wanted to separate themselves from Christianity, to defend their beliefs.

When the crowd recognized that Alexander was Jewish, and His religion did not support the crowds worship of Artemis, they shouted over him and shut Alexander down.

There is no room for defense or dialogue with riot minded people. People who are more concerned with what they believe to be right. They don’t care for conversation, they want their truth as the only truth.

Truth. The minute you try and speak, or create conversation, or defend they bully you out from their loudness…They speak over you, and wont let you get a word out.

Loudness in this case ignorance is like a wild animal. Untamable, unreasonable…unwilling to see Truth.

BPM#1: Submit to the Lord, not the loud.

There is a lot of loud and ignorance out there. It over runs’ the unbelieving…unknowingly these people participate in satan’s attempt to lead as many as he can through the ignorant, chaotic, unreasonable “Issues”.

For the Ephesians, the issue was religious. Christianity was unacceptable to Demetrius and therefore it should be unacceptable to everyone.

We see it in our world as social issues, race wars, one group of lives matter more over others, murdering the unborn.

All Truth’s that are carefully distorted by satan. there is truth in those things, admirable things...but always at the expense of someone else.

God does not value one life over the other, He values all lives. Black to White, Big to Small. He created Man and Woman, of all colors, backgrounds, to be on the same ground. Not one elevated over the other…

These are but some of the issues that the world wants to control through chaos and confusion. Submit to the Lord, and not the loud. Let God teach you how about these things, let Him rain on you His righteousness and everything that comes with it.

Truth: the proof of our need of a Savior is found in the evilness of every human heart. Those of us who Jesus redeemed, and saved, restored and cleansed us from this sinfulness…continue to submit to the Lord…seek righteousness, seek God and find steadfast love.

Love that opens eyes and hearts to Truth. That everyone is created and loved by God.

In the loud, the chaos, the confusion, God speaks in still, small, where you have to listen for His whisper. You can’t listen if you are in the riot minded group of the world.

Acts 19:35–41 “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.”

The City clerk= Mayor. He is able to quiet the crown enough to speak to them.

The stone that fell, we know is not sacred…but a meteorite. Its cool, but not sacred. Just another reminder of how small we actually are.

knowledge helps us understand the difference. We can see the Truth surrounded by lies. Like you and I know that what these Ephesians worshipped was nothing more than a space rock, God helps us know the true difference from right and wrong.

You can trust that God will impart knowledge and wisdom to help you navigate and discern.

(36-37) There is no reason for your riot…there is no ground on which it stands. Truth always wins out.

Demetrius should have gone the route he knew all along, knowing it wouldn’t get him what he wanted.

the courts were open, the proconsuls were ready to hear the case in court.

If you really want to proceed, do it the right way.

This riot is going to bring serious consequences from Rome, you have rushed to conclusions, ignored the chain of command, ignored facts and have endangered everyone.

The false reason of the riot reveals the true nature behind it…there is no real cause for it, there never really is cause for a riot.

Upon closer investigation the Mayor finds no reason…Demetrius was being selfish and couldn’t stand to lose, and weaponized the loud, got a lot of people confused and angry to try and push what he wanted.

If you have an issue, do the right thing the right way….

We as Christians can apply that lesson without supporting idol worship, or rioting…It is a good reminder to us, so good that it is our:

BPM#2: Do the right thing the right way.

Invite God into every aspect of your life. Into your struggle, into your home, into the areas that feel so confusing and find that He brings peace, clarity all through His word. The Bible lays it all out for us, how to treat others, how to vote, how to behave, all of it!

God protects us in many ways, in the case for Paul and the Christians who follow the Way, the city clerk saw the Truth that there was no cause for the riot, and turned it against Demetrius…God used a city official…He has all in control.

God truly works out all things out for the good of those who love Him!

Seek Him! Plant righteousness and receive steadfast love…Submit to the Lord, do the right thing His way. Let God in and surrender a little more of you each day as He will draw near to you and help. Let His counsel change you…Magnify His Son Jesus Christ.