SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/11/2018 8:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1
“Proclamation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 19:8-10
Message of the verses: “8 And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. 10 This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.”
We are today and will be for a few days talking about the power of God’s Word, and in this
section we will see the power of God’s Word in the proclamation of it by the
apostle Paul.
How do we unleash the power of God’s Word? Well the first thing we do is to proclaim it,
which is what we see Paul doing in these verses from Acts 19. When Paul was first with the Ephesian Jews as
seen in 18:19-21, he established a cordial relationship with them and so once
he came back there what he found was the door still open and as seen in verse
eight “he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three
months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.” John MacArthur writes “The imperfect tense of parresiazomai (‘speaking out boldly’)
emphasizes the continual nature of
Paul’s proclamation. Boldness
was a hallmark of apostolic preaching (Acts 4:29) and Paul’s desire for
ministry (Eph. 6:19).” Paul in his
preaching held nothing back as he was uncompromising confrontational. We see in verse eight that this went on for
three months. Now as we have been studying
the book of Acts for almost a year as we begin out study on the 17th
of June last year, and then when we got to the part of seeing the missionary
journeys of Paul we have seen that he
always begins by talking to the Jews in each town that he visits, but the point
that I want to make is that I don’t believe that he ever spent as much time
speaking to the Jews as he did in Ephesus as we see he did this for three
months, a very long time. We don’t
really know how many of the Jews became believers, but they certainly had the
chance to do so as they listened to Paul.
We see that Paul was reasoning with the Jews and he was also persuading
them about the kingdom of God, something that all Jews look forward to. MacArthur writes “Reasoning is from dialegomai, from which the English word dialogue derives. Paul did not merely lecture, but again was
responding to their questions and challenges.
‘Persuading is the present participle of peitho, and means ‘to convince by argument’ (cf. Acts 28:23). He was obviously in the midst of a whole
congregation of unbelieving Jews. Yet he
unflinchingly and directly challenged their whole religious system, calling
them to repent and believe in Jesus as their Messiah and God.”
I want to try to answer a question that was raised in my
mind as I have been reading over this passage for the last few days, and that
has to do with what we read in verse eight were we read that Paul was “reasoning
and persuading them about the kingdom of God.”
What was Paul talking about when he was persuading them about the
kingdom of God? We know that in the Old
Testament that God promised the children of Israel a kingdom and then in the NT
book of Revelation we see that it will last for 1000 years: “1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven,
holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold
of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand
years; 3 and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over
him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were
completed; after these things he must be released for a short time (Rev.
20:1-4).” As Paul was preaching about
the kingdom of God we know that it encompassed more than what we read about in
Revelation as far as the length, for I am not even sure that Paul knew the
length of the promised kingdom for Revelation was not written yet as it was
written around 90-95 A. D. Paul may have know how long the kingdom would last,
but if he did he never wrote about the length of it. MacArthur writes “To teach the kingdom of God
is to teach the things concerning Christ and salvation (cf. Acts 28:31) (‘preaching
the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness,
unhindered.’) and righteousness (Rom. 14:17) (‘for the kingdom of God is not
eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.’) It is to teach how to enter the sphere of
salvation and live there in communion with God.” Well I think that this answers my question of
what Paul was teaching when he was teaching about the kingdom of God.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: As I look at what
Paul was doing while speaking and teaching and persuading the Jews for three
months I know that to be an effective witness of Jesus Christ I have to be
persistent, but not to be degrading. I
know that the gospel is offensive; as people do not want to admit that they
were born sinners and continue to sin because they were born sinners, and that
sin is offensive to the Lord, so this can make a person uncomfortable for sure
and even make them become offensive in their reaction to the gospel. However God is just and will not allow a
person into His heaven without having been washed in the blood of the Lamb, for
the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died for me on the cross so that I can have
eternal life with Him. 2Co “5:21 For He
hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him.” That is
what is called the great exchange.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to talk to Mike, my brother in law,
about his need for the Savior, and so I pray as I have prayed for him for over
35 years that the Holy Spirit of God will open up his heart today as the Lord
willing we will be playing golf with two of my friends who have a great desire
to see people come to know the Lord.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Beyond the river
Shetharboznal” (Ezra 6:6).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was the youngest son of
Jesse?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/11/2018 9:14 AM
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