And [Paul] entered the synagogue [in Ephesus] and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the Kingdom of God.
This was Paul's mode of operation, to find the synagogue in whatever area he was in and preach to the Jews first.
But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people,
Not everyone wants to be saved, so these were hardening their own hearts, refusing to submit themselves to God. So they began to slander the believers.
he withdrew from them and took away the disciples,
So Paul left the synagogue and his students went with him.
reasoning daily in the School of Tyrennus.
So he begins teaching classes in an actual school.
This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
For two years he taught his students, the disciples. This shows that the more we know who God is and what He is doing, the more we will share with others so they can know God, too.
It only took two years for everyone in that whole area of the World to be exposed to God's Plan to love us. So they all had the opportunity to make an informed decision whether to accept Christ or reject Him.
Yesterday we read about Demetrius the silversmith who put his finances over his eternal future. All the people who were becoming Christians stopped buying his idols, cutting into his bottom line.
And, since Paul was also performing miracles that God used to verify his teachings, these seven sons of a chief priest named Sceva who were exorcists tried to ply their trade by riding on his coattails,
saying, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. ... And the evil spirit answered and said to them, I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you? And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. (19:13-16).This story got around, in both Jewish and Greek circles, so the fear of God was known by all, and the Lord Jesus was magnified (v. 17).
And many of those who put their faith in Christ were coming and confessing their demonic practices, and brought their books together to destroy them, burning them in a public bonfire. When they figured the cost of these materials, it came to "fifty thousand pieces of silver," or several million dollars today. (19:18-19)
So all these things together resulted in the message of the Gospel to be proclaimed to and understood by everyone who lived in Asia at that time.
This is incredible! This is the extent to which God wants His message to go out into the whole World. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9).
Jesus said that,
This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the World for a witness unto all Nations; and then shall the end come (Matthew 24:14).So we who know the Lord as our Savior are to learn in this school of life that we are living in, being in the World but not of it, to share our own testimonies of what God has done for us through His Son with everyone in our little worlds.
That is what Paul's students did, and his world was saturated with God's message. We need to do the same. It only took him two years. How long could it take us?
We have so many more Nations of peoples to reach, but we also have the transportation and technology to reach far beyond our own arms' length.
We can hop on a airplane and be anywhere in the World in just hours!
O my Father, please send all Your workers into Your fields that are fully ripe and ready for harvest! Father, Your little lambs that are still lost and searching for You need to hear Your voice spoken through Your children.
So many of those who are hurting and lashing out in their pain need to experience Your Love poured out upon them as Your children love their enemies. As we, Your sons and daughters, live our lives according to Your royal standards and have Your regal attitudes of humility and compassion and persistence.
Help us, Father, in our weaknesses and the worldliness that still clings to us, to be strong in Your strength, to gain the victory by the Blood of the Lamb and the by the word of [our] testimony (Revelation 12:11).
Lead us in Your straight way on that narrow path that leads to Light and Life. Hold fast to our hands, as the Good Father You are, so we will not pull away, or wander off, or veer to the right or to the left, or run ahead or fall behind.
Keep us always and continually sharing with those in each of our worlds, so that our boundaries will constantly be enlarged, and our worlds will overlap, covering the whole Earth with Your message of Love!
So that all Your children will be gathered together, and no one else will have any excuse.
And every eye will see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess in every language, Your glory and honor and wisdom and authority and strength and power in Your Son Christ Jesus, to the lifting up of the Father as the Highest.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
