SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/22/2018 9:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The Characteristics of the Riot”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
19:28-34
Message of the verses: “28 When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" 29 The city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia. 30 And when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let him. 31 Also some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater. 32 So then, some were shouting one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together. 33 Some of the crowd concluded it was Alexander, since the Jews had put him forward; and having motioned with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly. 34 But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single outcry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"”
We begin with verse 30 this morning talking about how
Paul wanted to go into the assembly. We
can see how courageous Paul was in wanting to go into the assembly in order to
rescue his friends, but as we read on in this verse we see that cooler heads
prevailed as “the disciples would not let him” go into the assembly for his own
protection, after all this riot was in some ways about him for Demetrius
mentions Paul as the one who has been causing the people in the silver guild the
most problems.
Now as we look at verse eight. I was having a slight
problem with the word “Asiarchs” and so I did some digging in my Online Bible
Greek Lexicon and found the following:
“Each of the cities of
proconsular Asia, at the autumnal equinox, assembled its most honourable and
opulent citizens, in order to select one to preside over the games to be
exhibited that year, at his expense, in the honour of the gods and the Roman
Emperor. Thereupon each city reported the name of the person selected to a
general assembly held by some leading city, as Ephesus, Smyrna, Sardis. The
general council selected ten out of the number of candidates, and sent them to
the proconsul; and the proconsul chose one of these ten to preside over the
rest.”
Now as we look at this verse we see that “some of the
Asiarchs were friends of him [Paul] and repeatedly urged him not to venture
into the theater.” So we have some of
the disciples and these men urging Paul not to go into the assembly. John MacArthur quotes Everett F. Harrison as
he writes about Paul having prominent individuals who were friends with Paul:
“The very fact that such men
of prominence and wealth were Paul’s friends reveals with utmost clearness that
they did not regard him as dangerous or as carrying on an unlawful
activity. Here is positive proof that the
imperial cult (the worship of the Roman emperor) had not yet come to the point
of opposing the Christian cause. The
action of Gallio (18:14-15) may have been influential in making the officials
of the province [the Asiarchs] favorable to Paul.”
From verse 32 we see that the situation in the theater
was growing worse as it looks like many of the people there did not realize why
they were there as we read that the “assembly was in confusion.”
Further showing that “the majority did not know for what
they had come together,” we see that in verse 33 “Some of the crowd concluded
it was Alexander, since the Jews had put him forward; and having motioned with
his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly.” It is possible that Alexander was a Jewish
believer, but that is not known for sure, or he could have been a spokesman for
the unbelieving Jews, which probably is more reasonable to be true. In 1 Timothy 1:20 we read “Among these are
Hymenaeus and Alexander,
whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.”
The problem in identifying him as the
same one is doubtful, due to the commonness of the name.
The problem with Alexander speaking to this assembly was
that they found out that he was a Jew, and once they found this out the crowd
began to say “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” They wanted nothing to do with the God of
Abraham, or Jesus Christ whom Paul spoke of.
The irony of this was that as Jesus said “whoever has seen me has seen
the Father.” This shouting went on for
two hours, and I do find that hard to believe, but that is what Luke says so it
must have been true.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: One has to at
least admire the enthusiasm that these people in the assembly had for their
false god, and I would hope that I as a believer would also have enthusiasm in
talking about the greatest thing that has ever happened on planet earth and
that is that Jesus Christ provides salvation for all who will accept his saving
grace, realizing that they are a sinner without anything that they can do on
their own.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will continue to watch
over my wife’s father as he is now in a different nursing home where he has a
much larger room.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “He had paid a great sum of
money for his citizenship” (Acts 22:28).
Today’s Bible
question: “According to Revelation 1:7,
how many eyes shall see Christ when he returns?”
Answer in our next SD. 6/22/2018 10:34 AM
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