Great is the Lord Jesus Christ - Rhys Acton

We're going to get straight into the Word.

Is that okay? Yeah.

All right, in Acts 19, verse 32 to 34, this is what it says.

The assembly was in confusion.

Some were shouting one thing, some another.

Most of the people did not even know why they were there.

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 defense before the people.

But when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours, great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

A little bit of context here.

Acts 19 brings us to the Apostle Paul's ministry in the city of Ephesus.

It's a major city in the Roman province of Asia.

Not Asia as we know it today.

This would be modern day western Turkey.

And Ephesus was deeply centered around the worship of Artemis and her temple, the temple of Artemis at the center of Ephesus.

It's actually one of the seven ancient wonders, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, like the the pyramids and a few others.

This was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.

And this temple wasn't only a place of worship, it functioned as a major hub for tourism, for trade, for religious life.

And I've got a photo of what the temple would have looked like back then.

This is what it would have looked like.

So this is the temple of Artemis, an ancient wonder of the world.

This is what it would have looked like.

And against this backdrop, against this context of the city, Paul is preaching Jesus.

So you've got to understand Artemis worship, this worship of this God was centered around fertility, childbirth, prosperity, identity, security of the city.