Demetrius Stirs up a Crowd

Long before any Greek settlement existed at Ephesus, the people of Asia Minor worshiped a mother goddess. The attributes of this goddess and beliefs concerning her were later incorporated into the worship of the Greek goddess Artemis, known as Diana to the Romans. Her cult was extremely popular in the Greco-Roman world, and many people were devoted to her as the goddess of fertility, the goddess of the hunt, and the goddess of death. Ephesus was one of the centers of Artemis worship, and there were more than thirty temples devoted to her across the ancient world. The grandest of all these temples stood about a mile and a half northeast of Ephesus proper. This immense structure was larger than an American football field and boasted 127 columns, each sixty feet high. It was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and provided a boost to the local economy because many silversmiths and others would create figurines and other tokens to sell to those who made pilgrimage to the Ephesian temple.

Many people in Ephesus heard the gospel gladly and believed, but not everyone celebrated the message of Jesus. As we see in today’s passage, the conversion of people to faith in Christ and their subsequent abandoning of idolatry threatened the livelihoods of all the craftsmen who earned their living by making objects associated with the worship of Artemis. This led a man named Demetrius, a local silversmith, to gather the artisans of idolatry and argue that something should be done. Paul’s preaching that the gods made by human hands are no gods at all not only was harming their trade but could even depose Artemis as the patron deity of Ephesus and Asia. Demetrius called for action to be taken lest their income, reputation, and civic pride be undone (Acts 19:23–27).

Demetrius and the others should have recognized that any deity that could be undone through the message of Christ is really no deity at all. Idolatry, however, blinds people to the truth. When people reject the one true God, they do not become less religious or indifferent to the concepts addressed by religion. Instead, suppressing the truth, they turn to false religion, creating gods in their own image and willing to stop at nothing to make sure that these gods are not threatened (Rom. 1:18–32). The history of world missions shows us that false religion will not be put down quietly and that the gospel will attract opposition wherever it is faithfully preached.