In Ephesus, as this silversmith named Demetrius rallied lots of people together, he made a profound claim which stirred up a riot. Acts 19 tells us he said: You know my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 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 gods made by human hands are no gods at all…” (Acts 19:25,26)
But Demetrius was mistaken about one significant thing. His error was his claim that Paul had led these people ASTRAY. In truth, Paul had led them to experience Jesus and Jesus was delivering them from their idolatry bondage! These people were now living in a sin-forgiven relationship with crucified, resurrected, ascended, living Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit of God was alive in them! They had NO need for idols or anything which reminded them of the false gods they had previously worshipped. In fact, those things were distractions and so these Christians not only stopped buying them, they destroyed them! Pause. Is there anything you collect, anything in your house which distracts you from Jesus?
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