I recall seeing this expression in places of business when I was younger, though I don’t recall seeing it as much lately. The expression was, “We aim to please.” Do you remember that?
To aim at something means to make it your focus or your intention. You intend to hit that target. In the aforementioned case, if you aim to please, you intend to please or focus on pleasing your customer.
When you’re shooting a bow, slingshot, gun, or anything that shoots a projectile, you should aim at something.
Have you heard the expression, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time?” Well, that’s not actually right. Sometimes, if you aim at nothing, you don’t hit nothing. Sometimes, you hit something that you shouldn’t, such as the neighbor’s cat (though some of you may have been aiming at the neighbor’s cat).
Today’s sermon is entitled “Aim to Proclaim.”
We’re going to learn that it was Paul’s aim to proclaim the gospel, and it should be our aim as well.
Let’s pray together then dive into this passage together.
(prayer)
Ok, let’s look at our passage and see three ways that Paul proclaimed the gospel in Acts 19.
First , . . .
I. We must proclaim to believers.
Let’s look at the first part of this passage together. Look at verses 1-7:
1 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
“No,” they told him, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 “Into what then were you baptized?” he asked them.
“Into John’s baptism,” they replied.
4 Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Jesus.”
5 When they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy. 7 Now there were about twelve men in all.
Ok, let’s get some context for what’s going on here.
What we just read was happening while Apollos was in Corinth. Luke is giving parallel accounts of what was happening with Paul and Apollos.
You may recall from Acts 18:21 that Paul told the Ephesians that he would be back if the Lord willed.
Well, apparently, the Lord did will that to be so, because Paul was previously in Galatia and Thyatira. Then, he went back to Ephesus.
So, Paul is back in Ephesus, and Luke says in verse 1 that Paul found some disciples.
There is some discussion among experts about whether these were disciples of Jesus or disciples of John the Baptizer.
I must say that the way the word is used so naturally, I believe it likely refers to disciples of Jesus.
We also see in verse 2 that Paul references a time when they believed, which surely refers to belief in Jesus.
Yet, as with Apollos in chapter 18, it is clear that these disciples have an incomplete and insufficient understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. These disciples had not been baptized into the name of Jesus, only into John’s baptism.
Here’s a little review of what we learned last week:
The baptism of John was a symbol of repentance and submission to God.
However, the baptism of Jesus is a symbol of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it is a sign of our submission to Jesus as our Lord.
So, when the disciples heard about the baptism of Jesus and the receiving of the Holy Spirit they wanted that. So, they were baptized into Jesus and they received the Holy Spirit when Paul laid hands on them.
Now, I want to bring some clarity here. We need to be careful not to build entire doctrines of the faith on verses like these.
You see, some people will point to this and say, “See, the receiving of the Holy Spirit is separate from the receiving of salvation in Jesus.”
However, what is more likely here is that we encounter a group of followers of God who believed in the coming of the Messiah but had an incomplete and insufficient understanding of what salvation in Jesus really meant.
When Paul explained the gospel more fully to them, they became more complete in their faith, believed in Jesus fully, were baptized into the name of Jesus, and received the Holy Spirit.
We don’t understand everything about what is happening here, but we do understand this: The New Testament does not allow room for someone to be a child of God devoted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, who is without the Holy Spirit. There is no such thing.
Don’t be deceived. Don’t be discouraged. If you are in Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God is in you.
These disciples in Ephesus learned this because Paul took the time to proclaim the gospel more clearly to them.
So also, as we learned in chapter 18, Apollos learned more about this same topic because Priscilla and Aquila took the time to proclaim the gospel more clearly to him.
Listen, church: We must continue to proclaim the gospel to one another.
We must continue to sharpen each other, encourage each other, rebuke each other, challenge each other, motivate each other, and develop each other by proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to each other.
We exist, among other reasons, to love the church. One of the ways we do so is by proclaiming the message of Jesus to one another.
We must proclaim to believers.
Second, we see that . . .
II. We must proclaim to unbelievers.
Look at what we see in verses 8 and 9:
8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly over a period of three months, arguing and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some became hardened and would not believe, slandering the Way in front of the crowd, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples, and conducted discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
We see Paul’s missionary pattern play out again in Ephesus: He goes to the synagogue first to proclaim the gospel to the Jews and any others who will gather there.
However, we see in verse 9 that some “became hardened and would not believe, slandering the Way in front of the crowd”
Remember, “the Way” was one of the early descriptions of those who followed Jesus.
So, some of those gathered at the synagogue became hardened against the gospel message, wouldn’t believe it, and made fun of those who did believe it.
Let this be a reminder to us, church: Not everyone who hears the gospel will believe. There is a reason they are called “unbelievers.”
Let me ask you a question: Do you think Paul ever thought, “Well, I know a lot of these people won’t believe. It’s really not worth it to proclaim to them”?
I mean in every area where he ministered, Paul witnessed a pattern of rejection, and sometimes downright hostility.
However, let us not miss this, church: In every area there was also a pattern of people being saved.
Church, we must not be discouraged and we must not be distracted: The gospel must be proclaimed to unbelievers.
As we learned in the earlier part of Acts, from the Apostle Peter in Acts 4:12, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
Brothers and sisters, we must be equipped, we must be motivated, and we must be ready to proclaim the gospel to unbelievers.
Finally, . . .
III. We must proclaim boldly and widely.
Let’s read the rest of our passage for today. We’ll read verse 9 again to get the full context:
9 But when some became hardened and would not believe, slandering the Way in front of the crowd, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples, and conducted discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.
Ok, let’s get some history and geography correct here.
When Luke says “Asia” in verse 10, he’s speaking about Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey.
I’ve been to Turkey; I can tell you that it’s a pretty big country.
Also, we’re not sure exactly what the lecture hall of Tyrannus is, but it was probably either owned by Tyrannus or he was one of the prominent teachers there.
So, Luke says that Paul gathered in the lecture hall of Tyrannus and preached the gospel for two years.
Notice that Paul preached to both Jews and Greeks (non-Jews) so much so that the gospel reached far and wide, all over Asia Minor.
Luke says, all the residents of Asia heard the gospel. More than likely this was an expression to mean that it reached all over Asia Minor, rather than meaning literally every single person personally heard Paul preach.
However, the impact of Paul’s commitment to declare the gospel impacted an entire region of the ancient world. Of course, this was in addition to all the other preaching that Paul had done, starting in Jerusalem and Antioch, and spreading out from there.
As Jesus said in Acts 1:8 “ . . . you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Paul proclaimed the gospel far and wide.
So, let us proclaim the gospel in Bartow, let us proclaim the gospel in Polk County, let us proclaim the gospel in the United States, and let us proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth.
May we proclaim the gospel far and wide.
Let this bottom line summarize what we are learning today:
Bottom Line: Followers of Jesus must aim to proclaim.
At what are you aiming in your life? Success? Acceptance? Pleasure? Love? Power?
You might say, “I’m not really aiming at anything in particular, Pastor Matt.” Well, remember, if you aim at nothing, you may hit the wrong thing.
The Apostle Paul made it his aim to proclaim. In fact, he said this in 1 Corinthians 2:2 “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
What is your aim?
Challenge yourself this week in this one way.
Weekly Challenge #1 – Aim to proclaim this week.
Starting with just this week, and then hopefully building from there, make your aim to proclaim the gospel message.
We had a sweet old man in my previous church, Mr. Paul. Mr. Paul made it his aim to proclaim Jesus every single day. If he didn’t share the gospel with somebody, he’d go down to Walmart before he went to bed and share the gospel with somebody.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we had a church full of Mr. Pauls. Our community would be radically changed if we all made our aim to proclaim, every day, for the glory of God.
Will you make it your aim to proclaim this week?
(Gospel presentation)
(closing prayer)
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