Reaching the City for Christ

It can be scary to stand firm in your faith in an environment that's hostile toward Christianity.

Often, though, that's where we can have the greatest impact. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg traces a line through the Apostle Paul's ministry in Ephesus. We'll see how Paul seized Gospel opportunities and how he responded to opposition. I wanted tonight to turn with you to a portion of Scripture which described for us the church of Jesus Christ reaching a city. And foundational to that process is what we discover here in this account by Luke, whereby we see the ministry of the Apostle Paul being exercised in the midst of an environment which was not exactly opportune for the gospel.

And what I'd like to do is to trace a line through this tonight, and hopefully it will be of guidance to us, encouragement to us, and perhaps strengthen us in some of our convictions, at least concerning the place of the proclamation of God's Word, which I believe is one of the unique ways that we as a church are able to reach the city. And so tonight, we look, then, at what we're told, beginning at the eighth verse, concerning the city of Ephesus. Those of you who know your New Testament will know that Paul spent the longest time in the city of Ephesus. Indeed, we're told that the impact of Paul's ministry in the city of Ephesus in verse 20 was that the Word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. Indeed, elsewhere the word is translated that there was a mighty movement of the Word of God, a kind of relentless tidal wave swept through the city of Ephesus, bringing people into the kingdom of God, stirring up the believers, enabling them to share their faith, and transforming their lives. Now, if we knew nothing other than that, we might be forced to assume wrongly that perhaps the people in Ephesus simply responded to the Word of God because they were sort of prone to it—that they were those gullible kind of people that you need to be if ever you're going to listen to the Bible preached, and certainly if ever you're going to respond to what is said. Now, the spread of Christianity not only in Ephesus but throughout the world buries such an idea. The spread of Christianity has not taken place in environments where there was a predisposition, if you like, to the gospel.

And certainly that wasn't true in Ephesus. When Paul writes to the Corinthian believers in 1 Corinthians 16, 9, he says that he hopes to come and see them, but he's going to be staying in Ephesus for a while longer because, and I quote him, a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me. So, on the one hand, he's confronted by opposition, and on the other by great opportunity. And we discover that God moves in just that environment. Now, I want you to notice in verses 8–10 the proclamation of God's Word. And let me ask three simple questions concerning this. In verses 8–10, we read of God's Word being proclaimed. First of all, where did this take place?

The opening sentence answers it for us initially. Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months. Now, that's not surprising, because that was his pattern. To go to the synagogue and to proclaim the Word of God to the Jews and to those who had become God-fearers and then were on the environment around it. In that environment, he spoke the Word of God to them. However, as he argued persuasively about the kingdom of God, some of them became obstinate in verse 9.

They refused to believe. They publicly maligned the way that is the whole approach of Christianity. And then you have a very short sentence, So Paul left them. There is a time for pastoral ministry to cease. There is a time when the proclamation of God's Word must inevitably come to an end, when a pastor will pick up and go. Often it is for the wrong reasons.

Often it is driven by desires for better or for different or for notions of the future. But there comes a time when it's right. And the time is right when, from those into whose care he has been given, there is an obstinance, there is a hardheartedness, there is a stiff-necked response, and there is actually a maligning of the way. And in one four-worded sentence, Paul closes the door of opportunity.

Does so unequivocally, does so without regret, and does so purposefully. And he moves on, still within the city, but now to a neutral place. Actually, he moves to a school.

It's interesting. He moves to the lecture hall of Tyrannus. And for two years he exercises a ministry in a school.

And a supplementary detail comes in one of the Greek manuscripts telling us that he taught in this lecture hall of Tyrannus from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. on a daily basis. They were ready and eager to receive the Word. And as he taught them in these hours, his proclamation was very clear. What did he proclaim? Verse 8 tells us, he proclaimed the kingdom of God.

The Jews were preoccupied with the notion that somebody would come and champion their cause. And Paul proclaimed to them the fact that the kingdom of Jesus Christ was internal, not external. What Jesus had said in John 18—"My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.

But now my kingdom is from another place." And Paul must have proclaimed to them not only the nature of the kingdom of God, but also the way of entry into the kingdom of God. And how repugnant it must have been to the Jewish people to be confronted with the notion of accepting this Jesus, whom they had heard had been crucified by some of their forebears. And so where was he? In a synagogue and in a school? What did he proclaim, the kingdom of God?

And what was the response? Well, I've already noted it for you in verse 9. There was obstinacy, there was a refusal to believe, there was a public maligning of the way. And so he, as it were, shook the dust from his sandals, he left them, and he took the committed ones with him.

Will you notice that? He took those who were the true followers of Jesus Christ. And these were the people that the impact on Ephesus was going to come through. And such has always been and will remain the way. He has always worked through small groups.

He has always worked with the committed core. And having taken the disciples, he then completed this lecture program, and in verse 10 we're told it went on for two years, and the impact of it was so tremendous that all the Jews and all the Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Now, it's interesting, isn't it, that here, shut up, in this guy's lecture hall was this man speaking amongst the people on these events, and yet the word began to spread throughout the province of Asia.

Why was that? Because God honored the proclamation of the Word. He honored it in the lives of those who listened, and those who listened went and spread it abroad. And the Word was not, Come and hear Paul. The Word was, Jesus is alive. The Word was not, Paul's a great speaker. The Word was, Jesus is King. The Word was not, We've got a big crowd. The Word was, Jesus needs to be followed.

And it was this Word that then began to spread. It just simply underlines what Paul says in Romans chapter 10. How can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?

And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And so we recognize the place, on a corporate level, of evangelistic preaching, if you like, and of the necessity of teaching those who are the believers. So the proclamation of God's Word in verses 8–10 is then matched by the manifestation of God's power in verses 11 and 12. You'll notice in verse 11 it's very important what we're told God did extraordinary miracles through Paul. And every time miracles take place, it's because God chooses to do them.

It's a preoccupation in our day with people who are supposedly miracle people. You see them on the TV all the time. At least you do. I don't. I've told you before, all those channels are tuned out on my television.

So I've now saved all of that. But in the times when I used to watch it, I used to be confronted by people and a preoccupation with people. But in the Acts of the Apostles, the preoccupation is always with God. God did extraordinary miracles through Paul. And a miracle is not a violation of a law.

It's actually an activity of law in the realm of laws that are higher than we know. A hundred years ago, people would have described as miraculous much of what we regard today as normal, simply because it was beyond their ken. And in the extraordinary events of verses 11 and 12, while they are a surprise to us and were perhaps surprising to those people, they were no surprise to God. And the miraculous power of God, which is manifested here in the bringing of these things, is quite incredible. They brought handkerchiefs, and they brought aprons that had touched Paul, they took them to the sick, and their illnesses were cured, and their evil spirits left them. Aha! You say, well, there you go! That's why the fellow's on the TV telling you to touch the TV with your hanky, and then send your hanky to him.

He'll touch it, send it back to you, and please send a minimum of twenty-five dollars with your hanky. Now, there's two things that are different. One, no money passed hands in relationship to Paul's activities. And two, Paul was an apostle, and whoever is asking you to send your hanky isn't. And what we have here in the Acts of the Apostles are the signs of the apostles. They are the foundational, verifying signs that God is at work, unique to this time and peculiar to these opportunities. And when we allow the rest of Scripture to speak to the whole miraculous activity of God, we will remind ourselves that the miracles of Jesus were never performed merely for effect. They were always performed to fulfill a certain purpose. And what we find here is that God simply intervenes in an extraordinary way in order to declare to these people that the wonders which they associated with their evil forms of religion, God could perform and beyond.

Indeed, if you like, he accommodated himself to the environment of the time. Campbell Morgan, who preached at Westminster Chapel in an earlier generation, says of this, God condescended to work not on a higher plane but a lower plane. For every miracle wrought in the material world is a miracle wrought on a lower plane than the miracles wrought in the spiritual world.

And when we think that out, we realize it's true. The greater triumph is not the healing of the body, it is the cleansing of the soul. That is not to denigrate God's miraculous intervention in healing at any point in history, but rather it is to give it perspective.

Because even if we are healed, we're still going to die, right? So the great miracle is that God could change a heart, could take somebody who was not seeking him and turn him around, could turn them the right way up. And that is the miraculous intervention of God. 2 Corinthians 5 17, If any man is in Christ, they are a new creation.

The old is gone, the new has come. And so Ephesus was reached for Christ as God's Word was preached and as God's power was declared. Thirdly, in verses 13–16, I want you to notice that when God's power was manifested, the evil one began to imitate God's deeds. And you'll read in 13 and following that some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed.

Nobody can just go out and use the name of Jesus as a kind of fetish. And they discovered that because the evil spirit answers from the man, and he says, Hey, I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who in the world are you guys? And the seven sons of Siva get such a beating that they run out of the house naked and bleeding, telling us two things. Don't mess with the devil except in the power of the Holy Spirit. And the devil is powerful, and these events are real. And so today and tonight, as we look on these events and as we see God at work, we may be assured of one thing, that whenever God's power is displayed, the evil one seeks to imitate God's deeds, seeks to explain it in natural terms, seeks to deny it in its very essentials, reminding us of what Paul says in Ephesians 6, that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

So we have the proclamation of God's Word, the manifestation of God's power, the imitation of God's deeds, and finally, in verses 17–20, the transformation of God's people. We cannot be naïve concerning the spiritual conflict that we face. And we face these very things in our own areas.

Do you realize that? Right on the main street sits the house, the shopfront of whoever the lady is that will answer your questions, will read your palm, will gaze into the silver bowl, will describe your future, will totally devastate and destroy your life if you choose to walk in that door. When revival comes to a city, those places will be shut down. See, when revival comes to a city, it's not that people will sing the songs a wee bit louder—they may. It's not ultimately that people will witness a little more strenuously—they may. But it is that the overt, antagonistic inroads of the evil one will be nullified. And that, you see, is a work which only God can perform.

So as long as those things exist in our towns and cities, I'm going to assume that revival has not come. And I'm going to pray that it might come. And I'm going to believe that this is the way whereby it comes.

And no other way at all. I wonder if some of us here tonight, in thinking this through, are then prepared to take upon ourselves the very burden to pray for revival. That is, to pray for a church that is moribund, that is corpse-like, that has the stigma of death upon it and yet still breathes intermittently. To pray that God would come by his Spirit and take his people and fan into a flame all that he desires to do. And then that, raising them up like a mighty army, he might defeat the powers of darkness.

For the little song reminds us that in the name of Jesus we have the victory. I want to say a word in passing as I draw to a close as well to any of you who tonight read your horoscope. Don't. To any of you who tonight at school are tempted to go to a party and play with Ouija boards, don't. To any of you who have crazy friends at school that want to read your palm and tell your future, don't even give the devil the slightest foothold. Those of you who have been involved in things like this at all will know that these are real and dreadful and devilish, horrendous potentialities. And only the naive, the foolish, those who are falsely brave will believe that you would tamper with such things.

And if you have stuff in your house that relates to this, and you are a believer, then take the way of Ephesus, describe for us in conclusion. What did they do? When God manifested his power so dramatically in this way, they brought the books. What books?

Whose books? The believers brought the books. It was those who had believed who suddenly had their eyes opened up to the fact that they were still involved and still had, if you like, implications that ran through their lives and through their daily routine that would tear down the work of God and would hinder the moving of his Spirit.

And they faced a tremendous cost. And so will all who are involved in genuine repentance. And then we read that as a result of the tremendous moving of the Spirit of God in the lives of the unconverted and then in the lives of the converted.

What happened? In this way, the Word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. The Word of the Lord will not grow in power nor in influence as long as the people of God continue to hold on to things from their pre-converted experience that are actually counter to God's purposes. And there are youngsters whose lives, whose minds, are permeated by godlessness while living in Christian homes.

And parents are wondering why they can never seem to make forward movement. There needs to be a trashing of that which would hold me back, and there needs to be a commitment to that which would take me on, no matter what it costs, no matter what it means, for the glory of Christ. When Bishop Ryle, the bishop of Liverpool, described Whitefield, who was involved in this kind of preaching in the eighteenth-century revival here in the United States, he said of George Whitefield, the great evangelist of the eighteenth century was a simple guileless man who lived for one thing only, and that was to preach Christ. If he did that, he cared for nothing less. Wouldn't it be lovely if it could be said of the chapel congregation, they were a simple guileless people who lived to proclaim Christ?

And if they did that, they cared for nothing less. How will we reach a city for Christ? In the proclamation of God's Word, in the demonstration of God's power, recognizing that there will be the imitation of God's deeds, and crying out for the transformation of God's people. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg, and as we're learning in this series, each one of us has a responsibility to evangelize, and one way you can participate in fulfilling Jesus' instruction to take the gospel to the whole world is by becoming a part of the truth partner team. The truth partner team brings sound biblical teaching from Truth for Life to a worldwide audience, and also makes it possible for people to freely access and share with others Alistair's entire online teaching library. By way of their partnership, truth partners are, in a sense, global evangelists. If you're not yet a truth partner, we'd love to have you join the team today.

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Box 398000 Cleveland, Ohio 44139. I'm Bob Lapine. If God is sovereign in fulfilling his plan of salvation, how does this affect our responsibility to evangelize? That's the question Alistair answers tomorrow. Be sure to join us. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.