Preaching Christ to Hostiles

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Preaching Christ In A World Hostile To Truth

          Christianity was birthed into a very hostile world. Judaism brutally persecuted Christians. The pagan world of the Roman Empire hated the very idea of Monotheism, a creator God, an absolute moral code in the written Word of God, and salvation as a gift of God's grace. Christians suffered extremely during nine waves of persecution from the Roman Emperors. Nonetheless, thousands upon thousands of souls trusted in Christ and were "born again" of the Spirit of God.

          In the early part of the 4^th century, Emperor Diocletian died, leaving succession to his throne in dispute. Two forces rose. One led by Constantine of the West (Britain and Gaul) and the other by Maxentius in the East. Maxentius marched his forces toward Constantine's and they met at a little river in Italy at a place called the Milvian Bridge.

          Constantine made a vow the night before the battle that if he won, he would become a Christian. He claimed to see a Cross in the sky (probably the Baal tear drop cross of the occult) with the Latin inscription: hoc signo vinces - "In this sign conquer." In AD 313, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan declaring that Christianity would be the favored religion of the Roman Empire.

          Constantine was a Baalist. His deceit was similar to Satan's attempt to tempt Christ (see Luke 4:5-8). Constantine made a political decision to make the world Christian when all he really did was Christianize paganism. Constantine made Christianity the state religion, but it would become a new kind of Christianity, not Christ's kind. Many Christians accepted this escape from persecution and traded their purity and faithfulness to Christ for it. They traded PURITY for PEACE!

          Constantine took all the Temple Priests (Pontifexs) and declared them Christian. He then declared himself Pontifex Maximus. The priest craft was born and the "deeds of the Nicolaitanes" now became the dogma of a perverted church. Pagan Temples became Christian Basilicas (a name which really means heathen temples). Armies were marched into rivers and baptized by the Emperor's edict. Pagans were immediately declared Christian converts upon their baptism. However, these converts did not really change any of their beliefs, did not know or understand the Gospel, or even know Who Jesus was in any real sense of what the Bible teaches about Him. They were very similar to most of the converts to Christianity of these last days - Christianize pagans. Most modern Christians would better be categorized as Neo-hedonists as they consume their lives upon pleasure seeking. This was the corrupt Christianity created by integrating with paganism where the absolutes of biblical doctrine and the expectations of a holy God are completely divorced from any relationship. This made Christianity a mere religion dominated by clergy ruling over laity with very little connection to the Word of God. How different this all is compare to what we read in Acts 19:1-10.

"¹ And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, ² He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. ³ And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. ⁴ Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. ⁵ When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. ⁷ And all the men were about twelve. ⁸ And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. ¹⁰ And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks" (Acts 19:1-10).

          When we understand the battle for souls that went on in the city of Ephesus, it is little wonder that we find the great warfare of the believer text addressed to that local church in this city (Ephesians chapter six). Paul spent two years and three months winning souls and establishing a local church in this large city.

          The Word of God tells us the first three months were spent "disputing and persuading" Jews in the synagogue at Ephesus. Paul was "persuading" them to believe that Jesus was their promised Messiah (Acts 19:8). The word "disputing" is from the Greek word dialegomai (dee-al-eg'-om-ahee) and is the word we get our word dialogue from. It means to reason, discuss, converse, and/or dispute.

          Every day for three months, Paul went into a very hostile crowd of people and presented the message of the "kingdom of God." I would imagine the Kingdom of God to which he referred was the same Kingdom Christ spoke to Nicodemus about in John chapter three, which was a spiritual kingdom into which a person could enter only by spiritual birth by grace through faith in finished work of Jesus Christ.

          On Paul's entrance into the city of Ephesus he found twelve men (Acts 19:7) who were disciples of John the Baptist. In other words, they were saved Old Covenant believers who had placed their faith in the coming Messiah. Paul's question to them, (Acts 19:2) is to be understood as, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" If they believed before Pentecost and had not yet heard that Jesus was the Messiah and that He had finished the propitiatory work of redemption on Calvary's Cross, they would not have been Holy Spirit baptized or indwelled by the Holy Spirit (this was part of the historical transition between the Age of Law and the Age of Grace dispensationally - this does not apply today).

          The applicational truth to the context of Paul's question is directly related to the obvious lack of spirituality in these men in reaching this city for Christ. They were saved men, but because they had not received the baptism with the Spirit into the body of Christ, and had not received the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, they were without the power of God evident in those who had received the Spirit. Paul understood that this was abnormal and so begins to question these men about their conversion experience. A professed Christian who does not manifest the fruits of the Spirit and power with God is an abnormal Christian (if he is a Christian at all).

          That is the backdrop upon which the rest of Acts 19 is painted and the foundation of the overwhelming work of God accomplished in the city of Ephesus. Paul was their leader, but it was not the work of one man that God blessed in turning this city to Christ. It was the work of Paul in junction with these other twelve men. These twelve men were Paul's original work force of ministry in this city. Once these men became New Covenant believers, they immediately began to preach the Gospel. This was true of future converts as well.

          After three months of trying to persuade the Jews of the synagogue, the "multitude" (majority) of the Jews was led astray by various ("divers," v. 9) leaders. These unbelieving leaders "hardened" themselves to the teaching of Paul and spoke "evil" of the "way" of salvation that Paul preached. Paul took the disciples (the original twelve of the former disciples of John the Baptist and the new believers who came from the synagogue) and went to the school of Tyrannus. He never changed his method or his message. He just went to a different crowd.

          Acts 19:9-10 tell us that Paul spent every day of the next two years from the 5^th hour until the 10^th hour (from eleven in the morning until four in the afternoon) teaching, reasoning, and persuading men to trust Christ and become disciples. This fact reveals a great deal of truth to why Paul and the disciples were able to win almost this whole city to Christ.

          Normally, the work day of those who worked at a trade would end at about the 5^th hour of the day. The rest of the day would be given to home chores, rest, and recreation. Tyrannus would have finished his work day lecturing at eleven in the morning. Paul probably worked at making tents until that time of day to support himself. Paul took the time normally devoted to home life, rest, and recreation to do mission work (of course Paul was not married and had no children). The reason why this whole city came to know the Lord was because this kind of commitment became the pattern of life for all the believers at Ephesus. The impact of this kind of dedication and commitment was so effective (Acts 19:10) that in the space of two years "all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks." Those that were truly saved were busy trying to reach others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They sought to bring others to Christ in the same manner through which they came to hear, understand, and were "born again."

          That is quite a remarkable statement. Asia was a land mass covering about 275 miles East to West and about 300 miles North to South (about the size of the state of Wisconsin). Ephesus alone was a city of about 500,000 people. What does that mean? Paul did not do this all by himself. People were being saved, baptized, and discipled. Than they began to lead people to Christ and disciple them. Even if we rule out the provinces of Phrygia and Mysia from the Asia Luke referred to, it is still an almost overwhelming accomplishment. The Gospel spread across Asia like a grass fire (this does not mean everyone was saved, but that everyone heard the Gospel). This is a good example of multiplication evangelism.

          The present population of the earth is about seven billion (7,000,000,000) souls. This number increases at about three souls per second. If we could have an evangelistic team go out that got the same kind of results of the day of Pentecost (3,000 were saved and added to the church) everyday of every year for 2,000 years, they would have won only 2,190,000,000 souls to the Lord (and most of them would die every generation).

          If we start with twelve like Paul did at Ephesus, and every Christian would win just one person to the Lord each year and then disciple that person to be able to do the same (win and disciple one person each year), in 30 years the 7 billion population of the world would be saved and living for the Lord. Why didn't this happen when Paul was working at the synagogue?

• There were people in leadership who hardened themselves to the truth (Acts 19:9).
• Those people spoke evil of what Paul was teaching and what he was trying to accomplish.
• Therefore, the majority refused to believe and so Paul could not expect God to bless when the nucleus were unbelievers.
• God does not require a large base to build from, but He does require a solid base of dedicated, well trained (discipled) people committed to doing the work of the ministry. If Paul would have stayed in the synagogue, it would have required a continual preoccupation with internal struggles for leadership and doctrinal truth.

          God blessed Paul's choice. Paul spent two years after leaving that Jewish synagogue perfecting the saints to do the work of the ministry. Those perfected saints did the work of the ministry. They did the work so zealously and effectively that the very pagan culture, and the economy based upon it of this perverted city, was threatened with destruction almost ending in a city wide riot (Acts 19:26-28). Yet, it was out of this environment of hostile resistance to the message of Christ that the Church of Ephesus grew and grew and grew until it literally dominated the whole culture.

          Somewhere during the history of the Church, many professing Christians began to adopt a philosophy of a non-offensive kind of Evangelism. It is a silly notion at best, but it has dominated much of Christianity to the place where no one wants to talk about specific sins, no one wants to talk about condemnation or Hell. It is silly because no one wants to tell someone else his religion or religious beliefs are contrary to the Word of God and that he is still lost in his sins. In other words, this kind of so call Christianity tries to take confronting someone with the truth of God's Word out of Evangelism. Dialogue has become an agreement to disagree. Where has this methodology taken Christianity?

          An easy going, soft sell Christianity does not have had any impact on a society. Christians have ended up sequestering themselves into some little back ally of the city, ignored, and privately ridiculed. On the other hand, true Christians need to put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) and take the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and confront a lost world with the doctrine of condemnation and God's answer in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. True Christians must daily take up their Cross and enter into each day understanding they are going onto a battlefield to wage war for souls and with evil. This has always been the kind of Christianity empowered by God and unstoppable by the world.

          There are three things we must willingly and intentionally do (more about being) if we want to impact our world for the cause of Christ. We cannot even expect to wage spiritual warfare for souls (let alone win that warfare) without these three practical realities!

1. We must have the power of God on our lives. This is the most crucial. The power of God is absolutely dependent upon a holy life lived in fellowship with God through the regular confession of sin (I John 1:7-9).

When Paul found the twelve disciples of John the Baptist in Ephesus, he immediately recognized they did not have the power of God in their lives. The power of God was made available to every believer in Jesus through the baptism with the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:13) and the indwelling presence of the divine nature (II Peter 1:4). Today these things are an already accomplished reality in the life of every person born again of the Spirit of God. Therefore, if the fruit of the Spirit and the enabling power of God are not evident in a believer's life at least one of two things is true.

1. The person is not saved.

2. The person is living in selfish carnality stifling and grieving the Spirit of God in his life.

God cannot empower the life of the person who refuses to live separated from worldliness and unto serving Him doing the "work of the ministry."

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (I John 2:15).

2. We must be willing to assure that the enemy knows us by name (Acts 19:13-15).

The wicked sinners of this world are not the enemies of Christianity. They are the ministry of Christianity. The enemies are the demons who lead people into temptations and destroy lives through sin. When you are a person with a real life of faith and a real walk with God, you are a person with the power of God in your life. When you speak the Word of God, the demons will tremble in fear.

"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4).

Any person who tries to take on the forces of evil without the power of God in his life is a fool. However, the Christian who thinks he can be neutral is even a greater fool.

3. We must be willing to abandon the foolish things of this world and commit to stand with the righteous against all forms of sin (Acts 19:17-19).

When we come across people who profess faith in Christ, but never move away from their past practices of life, or abandon their worldly practices, we should not attempt to reconcile their profession with real salvation (II Corinthians 5:17). All the main verbs in Acts 19:18-20 are in the imperfect tense. That means what they did was progressive and repetitive. Instead of people asking once, the imperfect tense would mean the people kept on asking. This is one account where they kept on bringing the things they recognized as worldly and carnal and burned them to show they were serious about living for the Lord and waging war for souls. The 50,000 pieces of silver translates into a day's wages for 50,000 people. In conservative measures, that would be about 2^1/2 million dollars in today's economy.

          What were the results of this threefold covenant in righteousness of these Christians at Ephesus? Acts 19:20 - "So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed." What does that mean? Spiritual battles were waged and souls were won to Christ. Every Christian was taught how to realize the spiritual potential within himself just waiting to burst forth through a holy, separated life of dedicated commitment.

Are you willing to:

1. Do what is necessary to have the power of God released through your life?

2. Do what is necessary to stand up and be counted so the demons will know you by name?

3. Do what is necessary to cast off the carnal and worldly practices of your life regardless of the cost?