Friday, February
1, 2019
While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them. “No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” “Then what baptism did you experience?” he asked. And they replied, “The baptism of John.” Paul said, “John’s baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.” As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all. Then Paul went to the synagogue and preached boldly for the next three months, arguing persuasively about the Kingdom of God. But some became stubborn, rejecting his message and publicly speaking against the Way. So Paul left the synagogue and took the believers with him. Then he held daily discussions at the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for the next two years, so that people throughout the province of Asia—both Jews and Greeks—heard the word of the Lord. Acts 19:1-10(NLT)
I learned a little theology from
Fisher Humphreys sitting in his classroom, and from his book Thinking
About God[2]. From the introduction of that book:
The word
theology is used in several different ways today, and it is a waste of time to
argue about how it ought to be used. What
I can do is to tell you how I intend to use it. I use it to mean thinking about God. When we are thinking about God, we are doing
theology.
This was Paul’s mission after he
met Jesus on the Road to Damascus, to help his fellow Jews (and anyone who would
listen) think about God.
One of the greatest realities of
the theological minefield is that it’s really hard to discuss some One you (and
everybody else in the universe) have never seen. Frankly, it’s even harder to teach theology,
apart from Holy Scripture…which is why I try to stick with what Scripture
reveals (to me) and be generously open to hearing what Scripture says through
other people. if you want to help people
avoid stepping on the landmines of false ideas about God you can’t just spout-off
in deep, theologically-big words, fuzzy metaphysical concepts and academic bore
sessions; you must also be a good listener.
If you listen, people will always tell you what bugs them in their hunt
to know God better.
Paul invested about three months
mixing it up with the synagogue crowd at Ephesus. As always, there were those who just wanted a
good argument. Paul obliged, but
eventually understood those people just didn’t want to hear it. The truth about a God of love, and the
sacrifice of Jesus which proved that love, just wasn’t going to crack their settled
(and hardened) idea of God.
So, Paul narrowed his focus and
took leave of the synagogue. He took
with him the dozen men who had hearts to hear and learn of God. He invested the next two years at Ephesus deepening
their faith and understanding, teaching them from his well of experience with
God how to reach their community. They listened,
avoided the landmine of stubbornness, and God gave the increase.
Division, when there is no meeting
of the minds, is not a bad thing. Just
as those who tend vineyards will prune away dead branches and protect the vines
from rot and disease, so God sometimes isolates us from the dangerous influences
in our walk with Him. He keeps us from
stepping on landmines, so we’ll still have theological legs upon which to walk
in this world, but not of it![3]
For You Today
If you’ve taken the time to go
this far with me this morning, you’re already thinking about God; you’re
already doing theology. As
you do that it’s a good idea to keep your mind, ears, and heart open; that’s
the best way to hear God. He still
speaks to people, you know – and that’s a good thing when you walk in the minefield
of this world.
Go to VIDEO
[2] Insight
Press, 1974
[3] From
Jesus’ high priestly prayer: They do not belong to this world any more
than I do. John 17:16(NLT)
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