Walking down the main street of Ephesus today in western Turkey is an amazing experience, as you are able to view the ancient well preserved ruins of two thousand years ago, but it was not always such a peaceful city.
Disturbance and tumult hit Ephesus as the whole economy was challenged.
Paul’s prolonged dynamic preaching, teaching and healing ministry caused uncontrolled confusion, from one section of the city. There was a riot. Why?
Why should there be such disruption, when Jesus Christ was radically transforming and changing lives for the better?
The silversmiths, who made their money making idols, began to lose trade as people turned to the living God. They had been on to a good thing, but Paul’s influential and effective presence had touched their pockets. Sin was being challenged in a new surprising way and there was a fierce reaction. That is quite normal.
When a man comes to faith in Jesus Christ he has no need for idols, nor does he have any desire to worship objects.
Demand for silver trinkets fell. Business was bad. Income was down. Anger boiled. Tempers flared.
Ephesus witnessed two hours of uproar, with incessant shouting and chanting slogans.
As long as faith is confined to a building or kept personally, private, and quiet, others might tolerate it, and smile sweetly at you, but when the power of Jesus Christ challenges a community, making society examine its morals, and in a way that touches the accounts, there can be an explosion of rage. The record of what actually happened is accurately recorded in Acts Chapter 19 in the New Testament part of the Bible.
The city clerk sought to deal with the disorder. He had some job on his hands, pacifying the citizens, calming down the commotion, and struggling to disperse the demonstrators.
It is comparatively easy to pray for revival or renewal, but when God answers these prayers and moves so authentically, some become sufficiently furious to fight.
Writing about this incident later on, Paul described it as like fighting wild beasts. Now that is strong but only goes to indicate how violent the opposition was.
God kept His servant safe on this occasion, but Paul was never able to return to Ephesus.
Sandy Shaw
Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children’s Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org entitled “Word from Scotland” on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.
His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.
Sandy Shaw
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