Paul's stay in Ephesus was one of his longest anywhere. And of all the places Paul stayed, we know most about this city, because large parts of it are still intact after excavation in modern times. The city was, and is, magnificent, especially the very amphitheater where the riot took place.

Notice first the strange (to us) and miraculous happenings in Ephesus, such as the healing power God placed in Paul's handkerchiefs and the wrestling evil spirit. We wonder about these "signs and wonders" and why we don't see more of them today. One way of looking at it is that these kinds of things tend to happen at the frontiers of the gospel, in new places and among new peoples. Many assert that we still see them on the "gospel frontiers" today.

After a very blessed two-year ministry at Ephesus, trouble erupted. Ephesus was the center of the worship of the goddess Artemis (or Diana); a magnificent temple dedicated to her remains even today as one of the wonders of the ancient world. But there was a business interest alongside the religious in all of this. Silversmiths evidently did bang-up business selling Artemis trinkets and statues, especially to tourists. Paul's success was apparently so significant that they thought it was threatening their livelihood.

At least that was the tack taken by Demetrius, a dealer in these trinkets who had lots of influence since many of the silversmiths depended on his business. There was evidently a downturn in the business, and he skillfully worked up these artisans by telling them the slowdown was because of Paul. He then whipped them into a patriotic and religious frenzy by invoking sympathy for the great city and the goddess herself, claiming that she will be "robbed of her divine majesty." Poor thing!

It worked, of course, and soon they were marching through the streets and into the great theater, shouting "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" We get a sense of the kind of man Paul was when Luke tells us that he wanted to confront this mob in the theater. He probably saw a great opportunity to preach the gospel, but his friends recognized the danger and begged him not to go.

The amphitheater became a scene of utter confusion; people shouted for hours, with many not even knowing what all the commotion was about. Finally, the city clerk got up in front of the rioting crowd and made an astute, politically correct speech. Appealing to the people's civic pride, he praised the greatness of the city as a "guardian of the temple of the great Artemis" (what kind of god needs a guardian?). He went on to assure them that everybody knew of her greatness and the greatness of the city, and since there were no formal charges being brought against anyone, they should all go home. As clerks are wont to do, he pleaded proper procedure.

This passage gives us a close-up picture of the context in which Paul was preaching the gospel. It's reminiscent of the great, city-wide campaigns Billy Graham held around the world, many of which became front-page news. The gospel has the power to capture the imagination of a society and challenge its deepest values and most revered institutions. And that's precisely where Paul wanted to take it. He went to the cities at the heart of the world's greatest empire and there proclaimed Jesus Christ as Lord.