Anatomy of a Riot 2

want to pick up this morning where we
left off last week which is anatomy of a
riot part two the scripture passage as
you might recall as Acts chapter 19 the
story is quite a lengthy story runs from
verse 23 to verse 41 last week we really
effectively looked at the first 34
verses this morning we will look
together at the concluding verses from
35 to 41 let's read it together
this is the word of the Lord the city
clerk quieted the crowd and said men of
Ephesus 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
therefore since these facts are
undeniable you ought to be quiet and not
do anything rash
you have brought these men here though
they have neither robbed temples nor
blaspheming our goddess if then
Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have
a grievance against anybody the courts
are open and there are pro consoles they
can press charges if there is anything
further you want to bring up it must be
settled in a legal assembly as it is we
are in danger of being charged with
rioting because of today's events in
that case we would not be able to
account for this commotion since there
is no reason for it after he had said
this he dismissed the assembly join me
father again as we turn to your word
we're mindful of the fact that most of
us here have probably never participated
in a public riot or even perhaps a
public demonstration and yet as we've
been seeing there are elements of in
this story that are not unique to public
riots or demonstrations they they show
up in any kind of interpersonal conflict
that we all engage in periodically and
so I pray this morning that as we
continue to look at this story that
you'll give me the words that I need to
clearly express the burden that is on
your heart I believe and that Lord each
of us will will be open to just
receiving your wisdom and your grace so
that at the end of the day in a world
convulsed with the turmoil of conflict
your people joined together by faith in
Jesus and the power of your Holy Spirit
may truly serve as the salt of the earth
and the light of the world will be
careful Lord to give you the glory
through Jesus Christ it's in his name
that we pray amen last week looking at
to this passage in Acts chapter 19 the
riot at Ephesus we looked at three of
four elements that I believe are just
very helpful for us to understand
together
let me quickly review them first of all
the riot was occasioned by the success
of Paul's ministry in Ephesus verse 23
about that time there arose a great
disturbance about the way and the way we
saw last week is New Testament language
for the followers of Jesus who are
living by his teaching as opposed to the
teachings of the
world and it's an incredible affirmation
of Paul's ministry that it was so
successful that it became a threat to
the whole culture of the city would that
God's people were so vitally alive today
that our very presence would stir up our
communities because they feel threatened
by the presence of Jesus wouldn't that
be great well we're a long ways away
from that and that's a sad commentary on
the fact that we've lost our salt and
we're not always the kind of light that
we need to be the riot was occasioned by
the success of Paul's ministry and then
we saw the riot head a ringleader
his name was Demetrius Demetrius was a
silversmith it didn't take him very long
to figure out that if the gospel
continued to have such a success in
Ephesus it was going to cost him and his
fellow tradesmen a lot of business so he
called them together he warned them
about the prospect of losing business
and then for good measure he threw in
the fact that the goddess Artemis was
going to be threatened and that of
course stirred up the rest of the city
because now everybody's religious life
was on the line and so the third thing
we saw is that the result of all of this
was a city-wide riot verse 23 soon the
whole city was in an uproar and they
rushed as one man into the theatre I was
really struck last week when we were
watching The Raven Earl on video how
huge that theater was weren't you I
brought along just a couple of pictures
to refresh your memory this thing had
seats for 24,000
people and had standing room for another
thousand and just to show you the size
of that here it is with people in it you
see how tiny they are compared to the
whole thing the whole thing is dug into
a hillside and I'm always astonished at
their ability to to fine-tune the
acoustics in a day and age where they
had no PA systems it's not amazing
I mean sometimes we think the ancients
were primitive and didn't know much but
don't you ever kid yourself they were
smart and they knew things that
sometimes we still haven't really caught
on to so the whole city was in an uproar
and for two hours however many there
were in that theater shouted at the top
of their lungs great is Artemis of the
Ephesians can you can't you feel the
hair stand on the back of your neck when
you imagine that kind of fervor
expressed for that many hours well that
brings us then to the fourth observation
of the fourth element in this story that
I think is significant for us and that
is the fact that the city clerk manages
to get the crowd under control and I
asked you to do some homework last week
trying to identify four elements that he
used to do this by Sunday night I
already had an email from one of the
couples here outlining all four elements
that I had picked see if it matches
yours assuming of course assuming like
you did your home our first thing I want
us to note about the city clerk in
attempting to quiet the crowd he affirms
their belief in their goddess Artemis
the city clerk quieted the crowd and
said men of Ephesus doesn't all the
world know
but the city of Ephesus is the guardian
of the temple of the great Artemis and
of her image which fell from heaven now
that's really interesting because nobody
quite knows what that means people think
that in ancient days meteorites were
assumed to be a gift from the gods and
there is a theory that perhaps the
worship of Artemis was associated with
some kind of stone that came from heaven
or else somebody who started a rumor
that Artemis was from heaven people
don't really quite know but those are
the theories then he goes on to say in
verse 36 since therefore since these
facts are undeniable you want to be
quiet and not do anything rash these
facts ESA's are undeniable and the
relevance of this to us as I pointed out
last week is that the reality of life is
that when our most fundamental values
and securities are being threatened
whether physically emotionally or
spiritually the result is anxiety and
the degree of anxiety that we experience
depends on the one hand on the severity
of the threat whether we were imagined
and our own ability to cope with it we
all have varying degrees of resistance
to things that come at us the more
traumatized we've been in life the
earlier in life we have been traumatized
the thinner our skin is in certain
instances and the more likely we will be
bowled over by stimuli that are coming
at us if you've ever had a panic attack
you know the horror of that feeling that
said we all have trigger points and if
we get pushed far enough
to the place of terror far enough to the
place of losing our sanity our safety or
our security the result is terror and
turmoil that overwhelms our system now
Valerie will probably talk about this a
little bit more next week when she
brings the Mother's Day message but
brain science in recent years has
determined that whenever we face a
traumatic experience brain chemicals are
released that that hinder our ability to
think logically and rationally the
higher functions of our brain gets shut
down for the purpose of just getting out
of here and surviving and as I said if
you've ever had a panic attack or know
of somebody that's had a panic attack
that your your whole system is just
flooded with a lot of people think
they're having a heart attack when
they're having panic attacks because
their whole body is just under such
terrible stress they'll often go running
to emergency and are often just you know
dismayed to discover there's nothing
wrong it's just an emotional reaction to
a situation that is overwhelming and
overpowering when that happens for that
anxiety to settle two things have to
happen first of all there has to be the
passage of time depending on how many
chemicals have been released and how
sensitive your system is and how flooded
your your body is that needs to settle
down and that can take anywhere from
hours to days in this particular
instance you'll notice the city clerk
allowed them to go on for two hours
because there was no way that he could
stop them until that energy had been
dissipated and it reminds me in the
olden days of when Motors cars or
tractors and carburetors remember that
and you'd flood the car or you'd flood
the carburetor and all you could do is
didn't help to crank it you just had to
wait until it all drained out somehow or
another before it could kick it takes
time takes time to get come back to your
senses but there's a second thing that
needs to happen and that is that fears
need to be allayed you need to know that
you're okay and that the threat is going
on and so that's what he does here the
Clerc men of ephesus doesn't all the
world know that the city of ephesus is
the guardian of the temple of the great
arguments and of our image of fell from
heaven
since these facts are undeniable you
ought to be quiet and not do anything
crash very important principle here if
you ever find yourself in a situation
where either your emotions are so ramped
up that you're practically out of
control or you're in a relationship
where something has happened and the
other person's emotions are so high that
they are overpowered by the emotions
then what are the things that we need to
learn in those kind of situations is
that that is not a rational place I want
to ask you to put your hand up but how
many of us here haven't ever found
ourselves in relationships sometimes
very intimate relationships where
there's no use in talking anymore
because the more you talk the worse it
gets isn't that true it's like well the
reason is when your system is flooded
it's no longer rational so in those
instances we need to give time for those
chemicals to wear off for those emotions
to settle down and then once the
emotions are settled down we need to do
everything we can to affirm the safety
and the secure
of where that person finds himself or
herself does that make sense that's
what's happening here two hours have
passed by and the cloud the crowd has
run out of energy they're ready to
listen now he can quiet them and now he
tells them look I know you're worried
about Artemis I know you're worried that
your whole way of life is going to
disappear Artemis is a big girl she can
look after herself and she can look
after you settle down
that's the beginning of how he quiets
the crowd very interesting I think the
next thing that he does then is he
reaffirms the real issue what was the
real issue in Ephesus was at Artemis
no it wasn't Artemis Artemis got brought
into the picture because Demetrius and
his craftsmen were smart and there is a
connection between their miniature
temples of Artemis that they make and
the worship of Artemis but the real
concern was the business and I would be
greatly surprised at demetrius for such
a religious person that he carried
diddly-squat about Artemis it was a
convenient tool to get the whole city up
in turmoil and so what the city clerk
does here is he brings it back to the
real issue and he says the real issue is
not that you have to worry about
Artemis being attacked because these men
that you've dragged into the theater
Gaius and Aristarchus who were
companions from Macedonia that we're
going with Paul they have instead of ad
theme about our goddess verse 37 you
have brought these men here though they
have neither robbed temples nor
blaspheme our goddess two principles
here that apply to all of us
relationally that
I think are really helpful and that is
this number one when feelings are
stirred up whether in our own lives or
in somebody else's life we are ready to
believe almost anything did you know
that remember what the text says earlier
about all these folks in the theater
verse 32 the assembly was in confusion
some were shouting one thing some
another most of the people didn't even
know why they were there they didn't
even know why they were there they were
caught up in mob psychology why because
when there is a lot of emotion going
around and when you have been stirred
emotionally you believe just about
anything my experience about this and I
have more than a little experience in
this field is that when people are
troubled about a certain thing they
can't always identify why it is that
they're feeling what they're feeling
they come together they don't know why
they'll come together they just know
there's got to be something wrong
because you wouldn't have this many
people upset if there wasn't something
really wrong right so now nobody can
live with feelings that don't make sense
now it's going to be carefully what
happens and we all do this we try to
create a narrative that explains why we
are feeling what we are feeling we
become open to what Valerie and I like
to call the whisperers the enemy comes
along and he feeds us a storyline you'll
see how this happens in your own life if
you're mad at somebody or somebody has
hurt you and you begin to dwell on that
hurt now you look at them through the
eyes of hurt and you begin to line up
everything they have ever done
everything they have ever said and you
start fitting it into a narrative isn't
that true
and before you know it I've had people
tell me later on that they carry on
conversations with me in their head and
they have me saying things that I would
never ever say in a lifetime to anybody
and then they're mad at me because
they've had that conversation how do you
defend yourself against that be careful
what emotions are stirred and don't buy
every story you might ever hear because
they will be slanted to get you to side
with a person who's telling you the
story I have been astonished over the
years the stories that people will
believe without any evidence of truth
and they do it sometimes in the name of
fearing God so that's one thing that
happens here when our feelings are
stirred we create a narrative that suits
our storyline the second principle then
as I said earlier is that once the
emotions are settled down then the
people are ready to hear the facts and
that's that's what the city clerk does
when he says they haven't said anything
bad about the goddess the reality is far
removed from what you have gotten
yourself excited about let's face the
truth
so what we have here is that he
reaffirms the real issue the real issue
is Demetrius and his people are afraid
of losing business it's not that we're
going to lose Artemis or that our city
is all of a sudden going to lose its
rightful place in the Empire with our
our responsibility for looking after
thank you third thing that he does are
you interact with your homework so far I
mean wasn't really difficult if I can
figure its act like you could figure it
out he warns against the danger of
social unrest
verse 40 as it is we are in danger of
being charged with rioting because of
today's events in that case we would not
be able to account for this commotion
since there is no reason for it we are
in danger of being charged with rioting
now if there's one thing that governing
authorities fear the most it is a
popular uprising and the reason for that
is that a popular uprising threatens the
social fabric of a society and it also
threatens the position of those who are
in leadership don't know if you ever
thought about this but the social fabric
of a society is very fragile thing and
it hinges on the contractual
relationship between those who are in
positions of leadership and those who
follow one of my favorite lines is that
he leads were no one follows only thinks
that he's a leader he's only going for a
walk you can't lead without people
following and the contractual
relationship between leaders and
followers boils down to something like
this
the people need to know that the leaders
love them care for them and will do
everything that they can to provide
legitimately and protect them that's the
function of leadership that's the
function of authority authorities on the
other hand need to know that they have
the loyalty this
mission the the willingness to follow on
the part of the followers and where that
contractual relationship is honored and
works to some degree or another you have
you have social rest because the the
authorities can punish wrongdoers and
society is a good in a safe place
but we all know that we live in a very
imperfect world and what happens often
is that that contract gets broken and
you have public demonstrations against
authority figures you have you know in
Brazil two weeks ago 35 million workers
all stayed home one week or one day to
prove to the government that they had
the power Venezuela riots in the streets
because there isn't enough bread and
whatever else to go around those become
very threatening situations and when you
get into a situation where your social
fabric is broken and the people and the
government are at odds with each other
guess what happens
you got riots you get demonstrations and
depending on the nature of those riots
and those demonstrations two things are
going to happen number one the
authorities are going to try to crack
down because their position is
threatened the social fabric is
unraveling think riot police think
military Koos think you know whatever it
takes to suppress the public and we've
seen lots of those in our own lifetime
if that doesn't succeed because it
doesn't always succeed guess what
happens the mob takes over in either
case now listen to me well because we
are privileged and blessed to live in
democracies where we can change
governments every for you
at the ballot box that's what preserves
our sanity because four years is about
as much as anybody can take of anybody
governing in this day and age out goes
the one and in comes the other
eventually that will get worse
believe you me because people become
increasingly uncomfortable because there
are no longer common values that bind
our societies together that's a whole
other story but in either case what
happens when the social fabric gets
broken you get social chaos and
depending on the nature of the
Revolution a ton and a half of bloodshed
you know that in the last century alone
the rise in the fall of communism in
parts of the world have cost an
estimated 100 million lives twenty to
twenty-five million in the Soviet Union
65 million in China alone with the
Chinese Revolution and then multitude of
millions in smaller nations add them all
out put it somewheres between 90 and 100
million by most conservative estimates
when the social fabric breaks down
horror descends and all you have to do
today is look at the conflict in Syria
it's got the whole world convulsed in
turmoil and how many lines have been
lost and how much blood has been shed
and how much damage do these things do
for years and years and years to come
see sometimes it's necessary to make
societal changes but I love what the
British author GK Chesterton had to say
about this this is a quote that is
actually a condensation of a longer pair
of
laughs that he wrote he said and these
are great words of wisdom he said don't
ever take offense down until you know
the reason it was put out that need
don't ever take offense down until you
know the reason that it was put out
there's one thing that the Romans
excelled at let me just back up a moment
here because I'm getting ahead of myself
it's so important to understand that
change sweeping changes in society while
sometimes necessary are extremely
painful and extremely costly and it's
much harder to tear something down that
it is to build it up and so be very
careful please be very careful that one
movements start up that try to change
things you don't know where it's going
to lead I mean I just thought of this
the other day with reference to the
social changes that are taking place in
society
we're re-engineering sexuality we
re-engineering married very engineering
gender issues for thousands of years
biblical norms have been accepted as
creational norms in society and now all
of a sudden we're wise enough to throw
all of those old fences away because we
want to have freedom and we want to
enjoy ourselves
nobody knows where it's going to lead to
and I can tell you it's not going to
lead very good art a very good place
because the Lord has his own ideas of
how life is supposed to function I
thought of this too the other day when I
was reading the scripture you know we
don't often think of David in the
psalmist often talks about how great and
good the law of God is and most of us
were kind of you know a little bit of
rebellious of
being told what to do but the law of God
is God's provision to keep us safe and
to keep society functioning and to the
degree to which we just throw that away
to that degree we are inviting chaos and
I'm old enough to know it's a lot easier
to get into a lot of trouble than it is
to get out of trouble and if you haven't
yet discovered that you'll discover that
soon enough so that's what happens here
one final point then he encourages the
city clerk does the complainants to
follow due process if then Demetrius and
his fellow craftsmen have a grievance
against anybody the courts are open
there are pro consuls they can press
charges if there is anything further you
want to bring up it must be settled in a
legal assembly so notice how he works
here first he affirms their belief in
Artemis then he brings them back to the
real issue which is Demetrius then he
warns them against the danger of social
unrest and then he encourages them to
follow due process Demetrius and his
fellow craftsmen have a grievance there
are the courts and if there's anything
their own Empire prided itself in it was
their system of justice you couldn't
just bring accusations against anybody
particularly if they were Roman citizens
you had to go through a judicial process
whereby charges could be filed
accusations could be made defense could
be heard and you had neutral authorities
to one degree or another making the
decision for you that is God's Way of
preserving order in society and keeping
injustice from gaining control later on
Paul uses this the full advantage
because remember and you'll see this as
a story goes on the Jews are determined
to kill Paul it's not just the Gentiles
that want to
the user after him all the time if you
read the rest of the book of Acts and
what saves Paul's hide in each instance
is that he is a Roman citizen he appeals
to a Roman sense of justice and
ultimately ends up in Rome appealing to
the Emperor and presenting his case
their authority government is what God
has instituted for writing to the Romans
later on says everyone was submit
himself to the governing authorities for
there is no authority except that which
God has established and the authorities
that exist have been established by God
see the alternative the alternative is
vendetta's and vengeance in societies
that do not have a strong central
government are tribal in nature and when
their tribal in nature the offense of
the one becomes the offense of the other
and it's an eye for an eye in a tooth
for a tooth and you get societies that
bogged down like like what we see in
Syria today and in other countries what
are the most foolish things in my
judgment that the Western world has ever
done was try to impose democracy of
Middle Eastern nations that are rooted
in tribal patterns of leadership doesn't
work and produces chaos and an
incredible amount of lunch at God says
he establishes authority and authority
when it's functioning the way that it
ought to be functioning is used of God
to resolve conflicts in a just and
fashionable way and that's why Western
democracies of judicial systems we of
course we have police and yes they're
not always perfect but there are a lot
better than the alternative because the
alternative always means that whoever's
got the biggest mouth the loudest voice
and the most money and the most
influence
wins the day the city clerk says use the
judicial system
Demetrios and there you can file your
charges and hear your defense that's why
some years ago in the conflict that we
as a congregation had with classes we
didn't just ignore their ruling though
we felt unjustly done by we appealed it
to our denominational Synod to the
Judicial Code Committee which consisted
of lawyers and pastors who were able to
have a judicial hearing whereby
accusations could be made charges could
be leveled defense could be made and you
know the rest of the story by and large
they supported our position over against
classes that we were wrongly done by and
even in those areas where we had some
questions and disagreed we chose to
submit to their leadership because you
cannot build the kingdom of God on a
principle of rebellion does that make
sense God once our hearts yielded even
Jesus yielded to Pontius Pilate
Jesus yielded even to the religious
leaders of his day because he understood
that when all was said and done even
when human authorities failed you as
sometimes they do God doesn't want and
he watches over you and he will
vindicate and he will raise you up as he
raised up Jesus that's some of the
lessons I think that we learned from the
you