Good Saturday April eleventh as we grow in faith from studying from God’s word.
Spiritual warfare-
Paul is in Ephesus which begins Paul’s third mission where he meets believers in the Lord like Apollos being a teacher of scriptures who loved Jesus but had not experienced baptism in the Holy Spirit but when told by Pricilla and Aquila he got baptized. When he meets this group of men who follow the Lord, he asks them if they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. They said they had not even heard about this baptism and only knew John’s teachings. Paul then teaches them about the gift that empowers one to have the counsel of God within them, so they are all baptized and Luke says God gave spiritual gifts for them to witness His power. Let’s read together from Acts 19:8-10 “and he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.” Paul’s in Ephesus, modern day Turkey, and Paul will spend some three years raising churches in this area. During these three years Paul will encounter many battles in spiritual warfare. Paul will speak later of such battles in his letters where he suffered for the Gospel. The gospel is the life the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The war here is denying the gospel. 1 Corinthians 15:12 “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” 2 Corinthians 1:8 “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.” Paul has been teaching in the synagogue, Luke says for some three months with no resistance, but then “some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude.” Hard hearts, the Bible identifies that this caused by a person’s unbelief. People must shut off the truth first, and over time as one continues rejecting the truth, just like calluses on the hands, hardness sets in and sometimes because one has chosen to reject God, He finishes the decision. John 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.” And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”Man has no excuse or will have any excuse before God, when judgment comes, all will have been given the opportunity to know the truth. So what we see here is we must have a heart to want to know God, and then remain open seeking Gods truths as we are doing, by studying the word. Paul after, teaches in the school of Tyrannus, which most likely was a school of higher thought and philosophies. Here Paul used the hall to share the gospel when it was available during the hours in the day. Again Paul finds a way to teach God’s word in spite. Have you? Remnant
