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 be talking about
the power of God’s Word, and 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 has 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.”
Now we come to try and 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 answer 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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