What Should Motivate Us? (Acts 19: 21-41)

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Welcome:
Today, we're diving into Acts 19:21-41 with a focus on understanding the various motivations that drive us. Our episode is titled "What Should Motivate Us." We'll explore the story of Paul and the different characters in Ephesus, reflecting on what truly motivates us in our daily lives. Stay tuned as we uncover insights that can help us align our motivations with our calling to serve Christ.

Show Notes for "What Should Motivate Us" (Acts 19:21-41)

Episode Summary: In this episode, we delve into Acts 19:21-41 to explore the motivations behind the actions of different individuals and groups in Ephesus. Paul’s journey and his ministry provide a stark contrast to the motivations of others, such as Demetrius the silversmith and the city officials. By examining their motives, we reflect on our own and seek to align them with our calling to serve Christ.

Key Points:

1. Paul’s Motivation:
2. Demetrius and the Silversmiths:
3. The Crowd’s Confusion and Mob Mentality:
4. Civic Leaders’ Self-Interest:

Reflection on Our Motivations:

1. The importance of regularly examining our motives to ensure they align with our mission to serve Christ.
2. Recognizing when our actions are driven by less noble reasons and striving for purity in our service.

Reflection Questions:

1. What motivates you in your daily life and service to others?
2. How can you align your motivations more closely with Christ’s example of sacrificial service?
3. In what ways can you guard against the influence of crowd mentality and ensure your actions are based on truth and understanding?

Application:

• Regularly reflect on your motivations and seek to purify them through prayer and self-examination.
• Strive to serve others with the same sacrificial love demonstrated by Jesus and Paul.
• Be mindful of the influences around you and remain grounded in your faith and understanding of God’s word.

Thank you for joining me today I hope it encourages you to examine your motivations and align them with your calling to serve Christ faithfully.

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• 12:08 (Cont.) What Should Motivate Us? (Acts 19: 21-41)

Transcript

What should motivate Us.  (Acts 19: 21-41)

Transcript:

How can we stay motivated? Actually, I believe the answer to that question is a bit complicated. Because there are different motivations, and no single motivation drives us all the time. So, we need to explore this subject in more detail than just asking what motivates you.

There’s a story in the book of Acts, about Christianity’s expansion from Jerusalem to Rome. In the course of telling that story, the actions of several different people and groups reveal something about motivation from the bibles point of view.

What I'd like to do is review that story and point out the possible motivations of the people involved, and ask the question: which of these motivations describes you in a particular situation?.

Turn with me to Acts Chapter 19, starting at verse 21.

21 After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.” 22 He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.

(Acts 19-21-22)

In these opening verses, Paul had purposed to leave Ephesus and go through Macedonia and Achaia to Jerusalem, and then to Rome. Macedonia was where cities like Thessalonica and Philippi were, and Achaia was the province in which Corinth was. 

So, Paul is planning to revisit these cities where he had established churches. Notice that Athens is not mentioned.

It was during this trip, that Paul wrote the book of Romans and First and Second Corinthians. From these letters to those churches, we know he was also collecting an offering for the poor in Jerusalem. So, it’s clear from the New Testament that part of his purpose in revisiting these cities was to collect this offering. But ultimately, his end goal was to go to Rome.

Why was Paul doing all this? It seems he had big plans, but not plans for personal gain, but plans to minister to others both financially and spiritually….

Paul sends two of his ministers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia ahead of him while he stayed in Asia for a while. What stands out is that these were people who originally came and helped to him. This shows that Paul's motivation was ministry, even to the point of sacrificing those who would support him so they could go and minister to others.

The greatest example of this is Jesus Christ, who himself did not come to be served but to serve. One of the themes developed about Jesus in the four gospels is that He came to be a servant, even to the point of sacrificing His life for others. This is in fact the theme of the entire Gospel of Mark. 

This essence of spirituality involves serving others and making sacrifices. While there is much more involved, this is certainly a significant part of what it means to follow Christ.

The Apostle Paul himself gives us other example of service when elsewhere he says, " Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her." So, Christ is the example of sacrificial service, which becomes the model for the way men are to love their wives and how we are to love one another.

It's evident from all Paul said about his experience that his motive was ministry. He was collecting an offering for the poor in Jerusalem. 

At this point, the story tells us about a great commotion in Ephesus caused by a certain man named Demetrius.

23 About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. 24 A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. 25 He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”

28 When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 

(Acts 19: 23-28)

OK, at this point, the story tells us about a great commotion in Ephesus caused by a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Diana and was profiting greatly from it. 

Here’s the background to what was going on here in Ephesus:

As I have previously mentioned, the city had a temple dedicated to Diana, a goddess of fertility represented by a many-breasted statue, which led to much sensuality and lewd sexuality in the city. Ephesus was also known for its huge buildings, including a stadium, a library, and a sort of ancient stone slab newspaper, with news was inscribed on large stone slabs.

One other notable feature of Ephesus was the footprints in the stone sidewalks, guiding sailors to the brothels. 

This was a city steeped in sexual immorality and Paul came along preaching that those gods made with hands, like Diana, were not true gods. Many people heard this and converted to Christianity, hurting the business of those in the business of making and selling idols.

Demetrius, the ancient equivalent of the modern-day president of the Silversmiths Union, gathered the tradesmen and warned them that their trade was in danger of falling into a deep recession and He argued that if the spread of Christianity continued, not only would their trade suffer, but the temple of Diana would become a run-down ruin and the whole city would suffer.

The Temple of Diana was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and was a crucial part of Ephesus’s identity. Demetrius's motive was clearly money, as he and others enjoyed their wealth and feared losing it. 

The silversmiths in Ephesus were motivated by money, leading to a city-wide uproar.

When the tradesmen heard Demetrius, they became even more angry, crying out, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" This all caused a massive riot, seizing Paul’s companions and filling the city with confusion.

Now, in the first place, the people were confused. They didn't understand what was going on. But what causes people to get confused? Then a sort of a mob mentality took hold of the crowd and they rioted.

But why are they confused? Because they always thought something else….

I'd like to suggest that when you're following the crowd, you end up confused about many things you shouldn’t be confused about because you haven’t been thinking straight or examining the facts. People do that a lot. We take somebody else's opinion without thinking and certainly without checking the facts. It can become easy to follow the crowd. We can easily adopt a mob mentality and go along with what everybody else does.

Although confusion dominated the scene, a few things are clear. The commotion was initiated by members of the local Silversmith Union. They contended that the rapidly growing Jesus sect, what they referred to as, “The Way”, was creating a serious threat to the economic and religious interests of the community. They saw Paul is someone who was spreading separatist doctrines that could hurt tourist traffic to the Temple of Diana. This would cut off the sale of silver idols, affecting the livelihood of the local craftsman's union."

This kind of confusion was widespread. 

Someone once said confusion is the result of jumping to conclusions rather than digging for facts. And that’s what they did. Some were motivated by money, some just by a mob mentality.

Now we have a riot on our hands. What are we going to do to quell the riot? Several things were attempted. 

29 Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theatre together. 30 Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. 31 Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theatre.

32 The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. 33 The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander to the front, and they shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defence before the people. 34 But when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: “Fellow Ephesians, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven? 36 Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to calm down and not do anything rash.

(Acts 19:35-36)

Paul wanted to go before the people. The text talks about a theatre. It was in fact an amphitheatre, and the ruins of that Roman amphitheatre in Ephesus still exist to this day. It was a large venue with a seating capacity of 24,000.

The disciples said, "Are you out of your mind?" and wouldn’t let him go. I’d really like to know how they stopped him, but apparently, they did.

This was a very serious situation that could get out of hand quickly. In verse 31 we see that some of the officials of the region, who were his acquaintances pleading with him saying that he would not venture into the theatre.

There were different levels of government at this time. The ultimate authority was the Roman government. Below that was the provincial government, sort of like our state or county government. Below that was the city government. This verse refers to the state government, which was responsible for what went on in this Roman province. It was they who said to Paul, "Don’t go to the theatre." They were motivated by saving Paul's neck but their own interests as well because they could see that this could escalate and attract Roman intervention.

Next, a Jewish fellow named Alexander tried to stop the crowd. The Jews put him out there to clarify that this wasn’t inspired by the local Jews. But when the crowd found out he was Jewish, they shouted him down for about for hours.

Finally, the city clerk, a significant city official, addressed the crowd. It was the city clerk’s job to authorise lawful assemblies. He quieted the crowd and made arguments for why they should disperse.

He said, "People of Ephesus, everyone knows that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, whose image fell from heaven." This was a widely held belief, even noted by some extra-biblical writers, I mentioned this yesterday.

So, he says in verse 37

"37 You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. 38 If, then, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. 39 If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. 40 As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what happened today. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.” 41 After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly. (Acts 19:29-41)

This is an unlawful assembly, a riot, and if word gets back to the Roman authorities, we are in danger. And by the way, that is exactly what Demetrius said back up in verse 27. He said not only is our trade in danger, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised, and her magnificence destroyed.

So, the city clerk argues, "This is not a lawful assembly, and we could be in danger of a Roman response to this, he immediately then dismisses the assembly.

I would like to suggest that his motive was also self-interest. It was his own interest above anything pertaining to anybody else. He’s the city clerk. He’s got more to lose than everybody else put together. It’s his neck on the line for all of this. So, he is saying to the crowd, "Disperse. This is not a lawful assembly. There are lawful ways to handle this."

It's interesting to note that everyone involved had different motivations. The silversmiths were motivated by money. The majority of the city's population was motivated by a mob mentality. And the civic leaders were motivated by self-interest, aiming to protect their own positions and avoid trouble with the Roman authorities.

Paul, on the other hand, was motivated by ministry. He was out there trying to minister to the people in Ephesus and to collect money to give to the other believers who were struggling in Jerusalem.

We can see a clear contrast in motives. While others were driven by personal gain, fear, or confusion, Paul was driven by his mission to serve others. This story illustrates the complexity of human motives, even among those who follow Christ. It’s a reminder that we, who know the Lord, can be motivated by ministry, but we can also be deceived into thinking that our motivations are always pure when they might not be.

We should examine our motives regularly. Just as Paul was motivated by a pure desire to serve, we also should aim to let our love for Christ and our desire to serve others be our primary motivations. This involves a constant process of self-examination, recognizing when our actions are driven by less noble reasons, such as seeking approval, following the crowd, or personal gain.

By continually examining our motives and allowing Christ's life to guide us, we can ensure that our service is genuinely for Him and not for other, less worthy reasons, like the crowds here.

In conclusion, let's remember to regularly examine our motives, ensuring they align with our calling to serve Christ. As we grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, let His life motivate us making our service pure and pleasing to Him.