Demetrius's livelihood was primarily in supplying the people with silver idols with which to worship Diana of the Ephesians. After Paul came to town with his message....stock in that company began to crash. Chaos and a riot resulted....and Paul was ushered out of town. Think for a moment of some of the mega-billionaires today who make their billions in selling us their wares. How do you think they would react if Christianity in America stopped giving them their time and their money?
Idols....metal or wood....are out of style in modern times....but idolatry in itself has transcended the mere owning of an idol just as the automobile passed the horse and buggy. What I'm going to say here is probably not going to be well received in the Christian community. We've got 'trans' people being celebrated in the White House and drag queens in schools....and I'm going to bring this up! But compared to the idolatry that we ourselves are involved in....drag queens are but a small pimple on a body covered with boils and infections of every possible kind.
Money is made on this idol that I'm about to mention....but that is not the main problem....although if these idols wind up getting....'thrown in the fire'....then yes there will will be an economic outcry....and persecution....but the main problem is that we are....just about all of us....priests in worship to this idol.
Paul was vexed as he walked around Athens....with temples everywhere....as the God of the universe was evident even in creation itself....if only they would look! We have our own temples literally everywhere....in one form or another in every town in America. They might have a roof on them and they might not. The altar is always in the middle....with the people seated and facing it from all directions.
High school temples are the most numerous....followed by college and university temples....and then the big....Temples of Artemis....the professional stadiums and arenas.
Sport has become our top idol. I hear it all the time while traveling...and heard it last week in South Carolina....someone asked where I was from....I responded with 'Pittsburgh'....and they immediately went into a Steelers chant.
Sport dominates our lives. Every city in America is involved in one way or another....and every major city has one or more professional teams. Players point to the sky. Golfers give credit to God for taking everyone's attention off of the Lord's Day! Madness....21st century madness.
This wasn't a Renaissance in the past century....nor was it an Enlightenment of any kind. It was economic growth producing an abundance of potential fans if only given a team of some sort to root for. It started innocently....athletics....running the race....exercise....and it still can be edifying if we use it properly.....but it grew into a monster. Just about all the professional sports today are a disgrace. How does a person get a $100 million contract for doing something with a ball....for half the year? It's insanity. From Friday Night Lights to Monday Night Football to Super Bowl Sunday to March Madness to a 162 game MLB season to two major professional championships decided in the last few days...to eight 'majors' of this or that....folks....we don't give God one-tenth of the time we give to either playing or cheering for sports....maybe not a hundreth of the time....and yet not only do we not recognize this as idolatry....we think it's a blessing from God....in appreciation of who we are!
Note: Folks....I would enjoy being on a golf course on occasion if I could hit that stupid ball straight. I would still be running if my knees were stronger. Our son has season tickets to his favorite college football team...and I love seeing the photos that he sends of him and his son....and I on occasion....when they are in the playoffs....might sit down and watch a Penguin game....if it wasn't on the Lord's Day....and a nephew right now is trying his hand in the beginnings of professional baseball....but we must guard against letting anything take control of us! Everything in moderation....film in moderation....exercise in moderation....even family in moderation....everything in moderation except glorying in the only one of whom there is true glory....Jesus Christ!
Addendum: Did you know that Paul made an error in one of his letters....he got something wrong? I think that he did....maybe even in two letters! I'll ask you to pause to consider that. OK...pause over. I'm not talking about his letters or epistles that are part of God's Word! That is all truth....praise and everlasting thankfulness to God for that! Sola Scripura! Are we to believe that Paul never sent any other correspondence during his life....not even one back to Tarsus asking if he left his keys back there? Paul the man was not perfect.....nor were or are any of the great men and women that God has blessed his church with....so neither was Spurgeon perfect....(although I don't think I've spotted that error yet)....and neither was R. C. Sproul. I'm adding this addendum because we all know that R. C. was a big Steeler fan....and joked about it often enough on his radio programs....the result being that surely many were not only not warned about professional sports on God's day....but were given an excuse. No....this wonderful teacher....this man that God had blessed so greatly in making the precious truths of the Bible easier for us to understand....was not perfect....thank you Lord for your wisdom in not letting us look to any man as perfect! And if these great men were not perfect....how much more should that make us look inwardly?
