Our two characters today are Demetrius, the rioter, and the town clerk, the rationalist. Both were once opponents of the gospel and both are still with us today! As then, so now, whenever the gospel is preached and souls are being saved, Satan will mobilize his forces in order to oppose and undermine.
Paul spent approximately two years at Ephesus during which time a remarkable local church was founded of believers possessing real ‘first love’ for the Lord. Furthermore, from Ephesus ‘all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus’. Unholy books were brought and burned by former idolaters and doubtless attendance at the idol temple slumped, as did sales of the idols used in worship. Satan was not going to stand by idly and witness such reversals to his cause!
This caused a reaction from Demetrius. He could do little on his own so he appealed to fellow workmates and pointed out that redundancy and financial ruin were staring them all in the face should nothing be done. Then, just as in the time of the Lord, a riot followed, working on the principle ‘he who shouts the loudest wins the day’. Satan has always exploited man’s presumption that the majority must be right and, as believers, it takes courage to stand against such tides. Always remember, however, that ‘one with God is a majority’ and that ‘greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world’, 1 John 4. 4. Just as the Lord stood alone in the face of opposition, so must we when the occasion demands – and yet not alone, for He is with us.
Enter the town clerk, the rationalist, afraid lest the exercise rebound and the people be charged with affray. His appeal for order and calm was based on the ‘solid fact’ that the goddess they worshipped was undeniably a gift from the gods, having fallen from Jupiter. Therefore, they should not fear in the slightest the messengers of the gospel, or its effects. Sadly, today rationalists around us are so busy articulately explaining away everything to do with God that they have no concern for their eternal souls and their needs. How we need to withstand every attack that is made against the gospel, whether coming from violent antagonism, rational scepticism, or any other quarter.
