God’s Word for You
Acts 19:23-27 Idolatry
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, November 20, 2020
23 About that time a big disturbance broke out about the Way. 24 There was a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, who brought quite a lot of business to the craftsmen. 25 He gathered them together, along with workers of similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that we have a good income from this business. 26 You also see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and pulled away a large number of people by saying that man-made gods are not gods at all. 27 There is a danger that not only this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and she will be robbed of her majesty—she, who the whole of Asia and the world worships!”
When Paul had been in Philippi, he drove out a demon from a slave girl who had been telling the future, ruining the income of her owners (Acts 16:16-19). Now something like that was happening in Ephesus as more and more Christian converts were turning away from their idolatry.
This Demetrius was probably the head of a trade guild, a man who was influential and brought business to many other craftsmen. Archaeological evidence in the city shows that a great many idols and small shrines to Artemis were made of terra cotta or clay. The more expensive silver shrines made by Demetrius were probably melted down to make other things, including coins, in later years.
Artemis was worshiped in Ephesus as a fertility goddess. In May every year there were celebrations and athletic games similar to the Olympics held in her honor. It was a time when the craftsmen made a lot of money, and the gospel Paul was preaching threatened all this.
The accusation leveled against Paul had three points:
(1) Their trade would come into disrepute. Their income would drop. The financial problem of Christianity coming to a heathen place was often a problem that caused outrage.
(2) The temple of the goddess would be discredited. Rather than being a place of worship, it would be a mere sideshow. People were flocking to Paul, and visitors to the games and celebrations would be interested in this new teaching. People would stop buying souvenirs and silver or clay shrines to the goddess.
(3) The goddess would be robbed of her majesty. A goddess who is not worshiped is nothing at all; yesterday’s news. There would be no point to her temple, which would be in danger of being converted to something else or being pulled down altogether. There would be no point to the lucrative trade in selling miniatures and shrines.
There is no objection made by the craftsmen that the goddess might stop blessing them, that the land or people might become infertile. There doesn’t seem to be any real faith or belief by the craftsmen. If the people wanted to worship a goddess (“the whole of Asia and the world worships her!”) then that was good for business—that was their attitude.
The sin being exposed here is idolatry. In ancient times, idolatry was a matter of which god was worshiped. Were there any atheists at all in Egypt, or Philistia, or Babylon? Everyone believed in a god of some sort, the gods of Egypt (Exodus 12:12; Jeremiah 43:12) or Dagon of the Philistines (1 Samuel 5:2) or Bel in Babylon (Jeremiah 51:44). The exceptions are where the people are so far away from the will of God that they throw walls of sin and shameful things around their hearts. This is what we see in Sodom where there were not even ten righteous people, but hoards of rapists (Genesis 19:4-5). And this is what we find here in Ephesus, where the religion of the poor people is exploited by parasites of every kind.
Our Lutheran Confessions address the sin of idolatry according to the definition of the God who is worshiped, because there are many people who reject the triune God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our Augsburg Confession summarizes the Bible’s teaching this way: “There is one divine essence (being), which is called and which is truly God, and there are three persons in this one divine essence, equal in power and alike eternal: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit” (Article 1,1-2). We learn this from the Holy Scriptures, especially passages like these:
“When the Counselor (Holy Spirit) comes, whom I (the Son) will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me” (John 15:26).
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name (note that “name” is singular, but three names follow) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26). And there are more like these (2 Corinthians 13:14; Deuteronomy 6:4; John 10:30, etc.).
Today, idolatry is also exposed when people tear away the work of salvation from Christ and set in on the shoulders of men and women, telling them that their own works amount to the righteousness God demands from us. This robs Christ of his divine work, and therefore of his divinity. It makes Jesus and his apostles out to be liars. Luther explains in the Large Catechism: “To have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe him with our whole heart. As I have often said, the trust and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. If your faith and trust are right, then your God is the true God. One the other hand, if your trust is false and wrong, then you have not the true God. For these two belong together, faith and God. That to which your heart clings and entrusts itself is, I say, really your God” (First Commandment, par. 2-3).
“Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you” (Deuteronomy 6:13-14). “Fear the LORD and serve him with faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:14). There are many passages like these that urge us to turn from idols and turn only to the true God. When Christians say, “I believe in God,” we mean that we believe everything the Bible says about God, especially that all of God’s promises have been fulfilled and that Jesus Christ is our Savior from sin and from death. In Jesus, we have everlasting life. May God help us to show that faith with our lives.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.