THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM (Acts 19:8-10)

Who is the most influential Christian of all time?

It’s not Jesus, because Jesus was not a Christian. Jesus is not a follower of Christ. Jesus is the Christ.

Nor is it any of the 12 apostles. It’s not even Peter, the leader of the 12 apostles (although surely he’s the second most influential).

It’s Paul, the man who started off as Saul of Tarsus, lover of the Law of Moses and hater of Christ and Christians. Jesus Christ turned him into the greatest, most impactful Christian who has ever lived. Paul wrote more books of the New Testament than anyone else, he planted more churches than anyone else, his theology is more formative than anyone else’s except Jesus himself, his example of zeal for the gospel is more astonishing than anyone else’s, and his willingness to suffer in the cause of the Kingdom shaped the Christian fascination with mission and martyrdom more than anyone else other than our Lord Jesus himself.

When we read his words to the Corinthian Christians, “follow me as I follow Christ,” we take him seriously. We want to follow our brother Paul, too.

So this morning we’re looking at three verses that summarize Paul’s two-year ministry in the city of Ephesus. If you’re already a Christian following Paul as he follows Christ, there will be things to learn. If you call yourself a Christian but you don’t want to follow Paul as he follows Christ, you’ll have the great opportunity to change your perspective. If you’re not a Christian at all, you’ll be able to learn some things about what it means to really follow Jesus Christ the way Paul and the other first generation of Christians did.

We are now in Paul’s third missionary journey. He began once again in Antioch of Syria. He has again crossed Anatolia—what we now call Turkey—and he is again in the city of Ephesus, one of the largest and richest cities in the Roman Empire. It is a city in which he has been wanting to plant a church for years. Now, at last, he’s in Ephesus for us significant stay. Now he can get to work.

Acts 19:8-10  ⁸ And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Let’s quickly make four observations about the Paul’s time at Ephesus.

1. Paul’s priority at Ephesus

“The Jews first, then the Gentiles”

⁸ And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

“The Jews first, then the Gentiles” was Paul’s priority every place he visited. You might remember his first visit to Ephesus, near the end of his second missionary journey. We read about it in the previous chapter. He could only stay for a couple of days, but in those few days he visited the synagogue and at least opened up the conversation.

Now he is back to fully engage the Jewish population of this great metropolis. First the Jews, then the Gentiles. This is the same priority he learned from Jesus himself: first the Jews, then the nations.  T&R&E Matthew 15:21-28

This was Paul’s priority, because it was how Jesus was thinking: first the Jews, then the Gentiles. Of course, we should always remember that God’s heart has been for the nations, ever since Babel. The plan that he put in place beginning with Abraham thousands of years before Christ came was a plan for all the families of the nations. This priority was nothing new.

So what does that have to say to us today? Now, 2000 years later, the followers of Jesus no longer have to go to the Jews first to share the good news of Jesus the Messiah. In many ways, the Judaism that rejected the gospel of Jesus when Paul preached it so long ago has developed into a deliberate and comprehensive refusal to accept Jesus as the King of the Jews and accept followers of Jesus as fellow Jews.

Actually there is a lot of water that has gone over the dam in these many centuries, and much of it is pretty bitter. Persecution has flowed both directions. The unbelieving Jews began it during the first generation. We’ve read a lot about it here in the book of Acts. Yet Christian persecution of Jews has been fierce and repeated across these millennia. We have avenged their abuse a thousand times over—which is exactly what our Lord told us not to do.

What we need to do today is recognize that today’s Jews are also children of Abraham, and descendants of the Jews among whom and for whom Jesus the Messiah was born and lived and died and rose again. We need to reject anti-Semitism, especially in light of what has been happening around the world and even in America over the last view weeks.

Do you remember that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about that pair of Jews who were gunned down in Washington DC? Did you know that one of them, the young man, was a messianic Jew, a Jew who believed that Jesus was and is the Jewish Messiah? And did you know that the government of Israel officially and publicly recognized him as a Jew? To my knowledge that is the first time that The modern nation of Israel has recognized a Christian as a Jew or in any way acknowledged that Christianity is a form of Judaism. Now we just need to get them to see the Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism. Jesus is the Messiah of the Jews and the Lord of the nations.

We need to refuse to tolerate Anti-Semitic feelings or thoughts or words or deeds. We need to also refuse to be silent about Jesus the Jewish Messiah. He was their Messiah before he became our Lord. He is still their Messiah and king, whether they realize it or not. They need him, and he is calling to them.

The way we respond today to the priority that Paul learned from Jesus and from the Father is to remember this truth and adjust our thinking and our choices to it.

2. Paul’s strategy at Ephesus

Paul’s strategy at Ephesus was the same as it was everywhere else: speak the truth about Jesus to anybody and everybody who would listen. Of course, as we get deeper into chapter 19 and then into chapter 20, we’ll see plenty of preparatory actions and follow-up activities. But at the heart of it all is just this one simple thing: preach the gospel. I think it’s worth taking a moment to notice how he pursued this strategy during the time that he was there. Let’s notice four descriptions of how he spoke.

      a. He spoke boldly

⁸ And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 

Here he doesn’t have just a few days like he did at his first visit. Now he has weeks and months, so he begins aggressively and comprehensively demonstrating that Jesus is the Christ from the Old Testament and from the realities of who Jesus was and what he did. He is not being passive, or gentle. He is boldly declaring that Jesus is the Messiah and that there is no reasonable way to come to any other conclusion about Jesus than that he is the promised Messiah. No holds barred. He spoke boldly.

     b. He spoke intelligently

⁸ And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 

The apostle Paul was a highly educated Hebrew scholar, and he put all of his scholarship, along with all of his passion for Jesus and for his fellow Jews, in the service of intellectually dismantling the refusal of the old covenant rabbis in Ephesus and everywhere else accept the clear truth about Jesus Christ and his new covenant for the Hebrews and the nations. He spoke intelligently.

     c. He spoke persuasively

⁸ And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him,

I hope you see that Paul was not simply trying to put his erudition on display for the crowd in Ephesus—or Back in Corinth, or Athens, or Antioch, or Jerusalem itself. His singular focus was on persuading his own people, the Jews, that Jesus was their Messiah. That was the whole point. He spoke persuasively.

     d. He spoke persistently

⁹ But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Do please notice this. He spoke every Sabbath for three whole months until enough opposition arose in the synagogue to convince him nobody else was going to listen. When that happened, he did not pack up his bags and head to the next city. He gathered together all of the followers of Jesus that the spirit of God had created over the previous three months and started holding lectures in a hired hall where he taught and explained the gospel of Jesus to anybody who would come and listen. You can be sure that some Jews showed up there to oppose him as well, along with some gentiles who were followers of the Greek gods or no God. That didn’t stop Paul. He went on the teaching and preaching Jesus for a full two years. He spoke persistently.

Now. I am perfectly aware that there may be somebody in the room thinking this, “Am I really supposed to speak boldly and intelligently and persuasively and persistently like Paul did? It was all I could do just to graduate from high school!”

I feel you.

No, I am not suggesting that you or I should be or even could be exactly like Paul. He was clearly a unique case. But what I am suggesting is that most of us could be bolder than we are when it comes to talking to people about Jesus. And most of us could stand to learn a little bit more about what we believe so that we could speak a little bit more intelligently about the Lord we love. And I’m definitely saying that we should care passionately about whether people actually listen to us and put their faith in Jesus, so we should seek to persuade them the best we can by what we say and even more by how we live for Jesus. And you can be absolutely sure that I am saying that you should never ever ever give up talking to people about Jesus we must persist.

No, we don’t have to be just like Paul. But will you join me in following Paul as he follows Christ? Will you commit yourself today to growing as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, and growing as a maker of more disciples for the Lord Jesus Christ? Can you tell the Lord today that you’re gonna take one step toward being a better discipler? And after that one little step, take another.

3. Paul’s message at Ephesus: the kingdom of God

I sure hope you see this. Paul’s message at Ephesus, the thing he was preaching and teaching, was not the four spiritual laws, although God has used that little pamphlet to help a lot of people get closer to Jesus. Nor was it salvation by grace alone through faith alone, although we certainly see that glorious doctrine in the letter he wrote to the Ephesians a few years later.

⁸ And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 

What Paul was boldly speaking, reasoning, and persuading about was the Kingdom of God. So often we evangelical Christians in America think a gospel is all about us, our forgiveness, our fulfillment, our happiness, and our joy. Gloriously, the gospel does lead to all those things and more. But those are not what the gospel is primarily about. The gospel is the good news that God has sent his Son into the world to be the king. The very word Messiah means anointed one. In the context of Old Testament Judaism, that means the son of David the anointed, the one seated on his royal throne to rule his people with justice and rule the nations with a rod of iron.

You might have heard someone teach or preach that the gospel of the Kingdom was what Jesus preached in the gospels, but the gospel of grace is what his followers preach ever since his resurrection. However that is obviously, drastically wrong.

Think about this for a minute. Scores of times in the four gospels, John or Jesus preaches the good news that the Kingdom is at hand. We know now that the Kingdom arrived when the king arrived—specifically when the resurrected king Jesus ascended to heaven and sat upon his throne at the Father’s right hand. That was what happened in chapter 1 of the book of Acts. Now listen to these passages:

Acts 1:3 [Jesus] presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God

Acts 8:12 But when [the Samaritans] believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Acts 19:8 [Paul] entered the synagogue /in Ephesus] and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

Acts 20:24-26   ²⁴[Paul said To the elders of the Ephesian church] But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. ²⁵ And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. ²⁶ Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all

Acts 28:23 When [the Roman Jews] had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.

Acts 28:30-31 [Paul] lived [in Rome] two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

From the beginning of the book of Acts all the way until the end, the good news of the Kingdom of God was the gospel that was preached.

We absolutely need to keep this at the forefront of our understanding of the gospel. The gospel that John the Baptist preached was the gospel of the Kingdom. The gospel that Jesus the Christ preached was the gospel of the Kingdom. The gospel that all his apostles including Paul preached was the gospel of the Kingdom. If the gospel we preach is not centered on the Kingdom of God, it’s not the biblical gospel.

Do you remember the Commission that our Lord Jesus left to us?

All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of every nation, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And look, I am with you even to the end of the age. If our gospel is limited to telling people that they can have their sins forgiven and their skins saved from the flames of hell if they’ll just pray the prayer we tell them to pray, it’s not the gospel at all. That’s a false gospel. The real gospel always points to the new believer to the king and his Kingdom, to the Lord and his lordship.

No, we absolutely do not teach that people must earn their salvation by obeying Jesus their King. We teach them that they receive their salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ the King alone. Then they live out their salvation by obeying Jesus the King.

And that is not all, by a long ways. We find our peace and security in knowing that the Christ is our king. We find joy and pleasure and shouting that Christ is king. Have you not listened to the songs we sing? We’d love to call Christ our king! We live to call Christ our king! If we love people, we will not tell them anything less than that Christ is king.

Oh, and there’s still more. It’s becoming popular once again to suggest that the Kingdom of God and his Christ is all about mercy for the weak and food for the hungry and help for the poor. Some are actively and openly trying to suggest that the Christianity that is good for the world is just compassion and generosity in general, and that we don’t even need to talk about Jesus. In fact, it might make things easier if we don’t have to say anything specifically about Jesus. All we need to do is help people.

That is rank insanity. Everything Jesus and his apostles say about help for the poor and the week and the downtrodden, about equality and justice for the marginalized, they say in the context of allegiance and obedience to Christ the King, as part of the family known as the church of Christ the King. There is no religionless Christianity, no matter how hard some public intellectuals try to move us in that direction. That’s colorless, empty, vapid, foolish blasphemy. Christ is king. That is all. Everything else flows from that.

Paul’s message at Ephesus was the Gospel of the Kingdom. That had better be our message too!

4. Paul’s results at Ephesus: saturation evangelism

¹⁰ This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

• speak the gospel to make disciples who will speak the gospel to make disciples
• keep doing that until you’ve filled your town
• accomplish the goal, fulfill the priorities

Paul’s priority at Ephesus

Paul’s strategy at Ephesus

Paul’s message at Ephesus

Paul’s results at Ephesus

what God wants us to do

• make disciples, grow disciples
• 3 circles