SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/12/2018 8:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2
“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 talked about how long that Paul was able to speak in
the Synagogue at Ephesus, but in the end things were mostly the same as when he
spent shorter times talking to the Jews happened here and that is they became “hardened
and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people.” John MacArthur writes the following about the
word hardened saying it “is from skleruno,
a word always used in the New Testament to speak of a heart hardened against
God (Rom. 9:18; Heb. 3:8, 13, 15;
4:7). The imperfect tense of the verb
shows that the hardening was a process.
Over the course of Paul’s three-month ministry in the Ephesian
synagogue, some hearts gradually hardened against the gospel. When the truth is rejected repeatedly, it
hardens the heart, and the message of salvation becomes an ‘aroma from death to
death’ (2 Cor. 2:16). Their refusing to
repent and believe the gospel is classified as being ‘disobedient,’ since
belief is a divine command (Acts 17:30; cf. Mark 1:15).” (I know that I quoted more than the meaning
of the word in the Greek translated “hardened” but sometimes I just keep going
because of the things that MacArthur writes have so much meaning.)
We see the word “Way” in verse nine, and this word goes
way back in my walk with the Lord as I remember having on my backpack “One Way”
meaning that Jesus is the only Way.
However this word in the early church was an early title for
Christianity. “and asked for letters
from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and
women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem (Acts 9:2).” “23 About that time there occurred no small
disturbance concerning the Way (Acts 19:23).”
“14 "But this I admit to
you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our
fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is
written in the Prophets (Acts 23:14).” “22
But Felix, having a more exact knowledge about the Way, put them off, saying,
"When Lysias the commander comes down, I will decide your case’ (Acts
23:22).” Not only did these men with the
harden hearts from the Synagogue not want to hear any more from Paul, and the
message of life, but they went out and spoke badly about those who were
Christians.
Paul got the message from these men and so he did what he
always did when the Jews turned down what he was trying to give them and that
is that he “withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in
the school of Tyrannus.” So it looks
like there were some who had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Paul was
speaking in the synagogue as Luke identifies them as disciples that Paul took
away with him, and then he began to speak daily in the school of Tyrannus. MacArthur writes “Tyrannus may have been the
owner of the lecture hall or the philosopher who taught there. If he was a teacher,
his name, which means ‘our tyrant,’ may be a nickname given him by his
students.” Some NT manuscripts say that
Paul taught there in that school from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. F. F. Bruce writes the following:
“Tyrannus no doubt held his
classes in the early morning hours.
Public activity caused in the cities of Ionia for several hours at 11 AM
and…more people would be asleep at 1 PM than at 1 AM. But Paul, after spending the early hours of
the day at his tent-making (cf. Ch. 20:34), devoted the hours of burden and
heat to his more important and more exhausting business, and must have infected
his hearers with his own energy and zeal, so that they were willing to
sacrifice their siesta for the sake of listening to Paul.”
MacArthur goes on “Paul did
not go off duty at 4:00 PM but continued ministering well into the evening
hours (Acts. 20:31), no doubt instructing from house to house.”
In studying the book of Revelation, the 2nd
and 3rd chapters, we used verse ten to explain how six of the seven
churches began, and that verse states “This took place for two years, so that
all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” We know that Paul had a grueling schedule,
but at the same time it was greatly used of the Spirit of God to bring many
souls to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “David” (1 Samuel 17:13-14).
Today’s Bible
question: “According to 2 Peter 1:21,
how did the prophecy of Scripture originate?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/12/2018 9:34 AM
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