Tuesday, June 12, 2018

PT-2 "Proclamation" (Acts. 19:8-10)


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 even 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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