Covenant and Kingdom

INTRODUCTION

We are back in Acts this morning and as we get started, this would be a good time to review where we are at in terms of Paul’s missionary journeys.

We haven’t been with Paul in a few weeks, so let’s remember where he is at and where we are at in the timeline of Acts.

PAUL’S MISSIONARY JOURNEYS

Paul’s first missionary journey began with Barnabas, back in Acts 13. (SHOW FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY GRAPHIC HERE)

They launched out from Antioch and from there they went to Cyprus, the place Barnabas was from.

And then their journey took them through Pamphylia and Galatia.

Upon reaching Derbe, they turned around and went back home through the route they came, in order to strengthen the believers in these places they have ministered.

So they go from Lystra, to Iconium, to Antioch in Pisidia, to Perga, and then Attalia, and then they finally landed back in Antioch.

This was all in 47-48 AD.

After the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas’ partnership ends over a disagreement regarding John Mark.

So Paul’s second missionary begins with him taking Silas and launching out from Antioch again in Acts 16. (SHOW SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY GRAPHIC HERE)

This time, Paul goes through Galatia and passes through Asia.

He receives his Macedonian Call in Troas and then spends most of the 2nd missionary journey in Macedonia before going to Achaia, briefly stopping in Ephesus and making his way back to Antioch, by way of Jerusalem.

This morning, we begin Paul’s third missionary journey (SHOW THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY GRAPHIC HERE)

He is arriving back in Ephesus for a long-term stay.

He is beginning a significant work in Asia Minor.

I walk us through all of this today because I want us to see how the Gospel is on the move, the church is on the rise and the Kingdom of God is advancing.

And this is due in large part to what God is doing through Paul’s ministry.

Back in Acts 1:8, Jesus promised the disciples that they would receive the Holy Spirit and that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

What we have seen in all of Acts is that Jesus’ words are coming to pass.

The New Covenant is being preached—beginning in Jerusalem, spreading to places like Cyprus, Macedonia and Achaia.

The Kingdom is forging ahead as souls and being saved and Kingdom outposts are being established in these new churches in these places.

And men like Peter and James and John and Paul, are fulfilling their calling as witnesses.

As Luke’s passage brings us to Ephesus in Asia Minor this morning, we will see that all of this is continuing to happen.

We will see:

1. Paul is preaching the New Covenant and so are we today (v. 1-7).

2. Christ is advancing His Kingdom and He continues today (v. 8-10).

And though we live in a different time and we are different servants, but we are ultimately doing the same work, laboring for the same Kingdom advance and seeking to fulfill our calling.

Acts 19:1–10 ESV

And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all. And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

PAUL IS PREACHING THE NEW COVENANT (v. 1-7)

We begin this morning with our first teaching point:

1. Paul is preaching the New Covenant and so are we today (v. 1-7).

While Apollos is ministering in Corinth, Paul has come to Ephesus.

Ephesus was one of the largest cities of the Mediterranean world

There were over 200,000 people in the city

It was prominent because the governor of Asia lived there

As Paul arrives there, he finds some men that Luke calls “disciples.”

Now, cards on the table, I don’t think these men are New Covenant believers.

Paul’s conversation with them will reveal that.

But Luke calls them disciples because upon meeting them, this would have been Paul’s initial assumption about them.

But in verses 2 and 3, Paul begins to examine them and there are some red flags in terms of whether or not these men are truly disciples of Christ.

First of all, when Paul asks them if they have received the Holy Spirit upon believing in Christ, they say they haven’t even heard of the Holy Spirit! (v. 2)

This is very different from Apollos who is described as being fervent in the Holy Spirit in Acts 18:25...

This prompts Paul to ask a follow-up in verse 3 when he says, “Into what then were you baptized?”

They say, “Into John’s baptism”—referring to John the Baptist. (v. 3)

OLD TESTAMENT BELIEVERS

Now, I think that when we look at these guys in Ephesus, we are once again made aware that the book of Acts is taking place at a very unique time in the biblical timeline.

The fact that these guys have not heard of the indwelling of the Spirit and they were not baptized in the name of Triune God, but into John’s baptism, would tell us that these are likely Old Testament believers.

Paul’s 3rd missionary missionary journey is taking place from 54-57. This is about 25 years after the death of Jesus.

And that means that Acts 19, like the rest of the book, is unfolding in this time where there was an overlap of the Old Covenant and the New.

These men are disciples of John the Baptist.

John the Baptist is the final Messianic prophet who is pointing forward to the Messiah to come.

He is, in a lot of ways, a pivot point between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

In the Old Covenant, God’s covenant of grace—His promise to save His people and be their God—was being progressively revealed.

The Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant—they were all pointing forward to the New Covenant to come and the Messiah who would inaugurate it.

As Old Testament saints were hearing the Word of God and trusting in it, they were obeying His commands—including their participation in the sacrificial system—and they were looking forward in faith to the Anointed Christ who was promised.

Now, as you come to the first-century, after 400 years of prophetic silence, there is this prophet coming out of the desert—which was the traditional place for the prophets of God to receive the Word of God—and he is signaling both the end of something and the beginning of something.

Matthew 11:11–14 ESV

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.

On one hand, John signals the end of Old Covenant expectation, as he is the greatest and final Old Covenant prophet.

He doesn’t just foretell of the Messiah, he participates in the coming of the Kingdom by baptizing Him and proclaiming Him as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

But on the other hand, John signals the coming of the New Covenant.

John’s baptism was symbolic. It found its roots in the baptism that Gentiles would undergo as they were fully converted to Judaism.

When Jews came to John and were baptized, they were saying, “We have been living like Gentiles and we repent.”

And this repentance was in anticipation of the Messiah to come.

This is the only baptism the men in Ephesians 19 had received.

And this means, they were still waiting on the Messiah.

They had met the forerunner who came and preached in the spirit and power of Elijah and offered a baptism of repentance to prepare the way for the Messiah, but they seem to be ignorant of the Messiah Himself.

Again—this is very different from Apollos, in chapter 18, who taught accurately concerning Jesus.

These guys are essentially Old Covenant believers, trusting in God’s Word, but unaware that the Messianic promises of God’s Word have come to pass in Christ.

They are ignorant of the fact that John’s own prophecy has come to pass:

Luke 3:16 ESV

John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

The One who baptizes His people with the Holy Spirit and His enemies with fire, has arrived.

And there are people being baptized in the Spirit, upon belief, all over Judea, Achaia, Asia and Macedonia.

They just hadn’t heard about it.

You won’t meet people in this exact situation today.

These guys are representative of the unique time that they live in.

PAUL’S CLARIFICATION AND PROCLAMATION (v. 4-5)

So Paul tells them the good news.

The One who is so worthy that John said he isn’t even fit to untie His sandals, has come.

The One whom John’s baptism was pointing to had already, lived, died, resurrected and ascended on high.

His name is Jesus.

The Luke 3:16 prophecy has come to pass.

I think that the work Paul is doing here is very different from what Priscilla and Aquila are doing with Apollos.

Apollos was a New Covenant believer who needed greater theological accuracy.

He knew who Jesus was and he had saving faith in Him.

Paul is proclaiming the New Covenant to these guys.

He is telling them that Christ, who inaugurated the New Covenant by pouring out His blood on the Cross for His people, has already come.

They needed to become New Covenant believers.

This is evidenced by the fact that they are baptized, unlike Apollos, who we can assume was already baptized, even if he wasn’t explaining the meaning of baptism with theological precision.

And this baptism is in the name of the Lord Jesus.

They are no longer looking forward to a Messiah to come.

They are looking backward in faith to a Messiah who came, just like we do.

THE EVIDENCE OF SAVING FAITH (v. 6-7)

And what is the evidence that these men, of whom Luke says there are about twelve, had become believers?

They speak in the same tongues that the Apostles did at Pentecost and that others have spoke in throughout the book of Acts.

They being prophesying in human languages that they do not know—telling of truth of God.

Now here is what this does not mean and what this does mean.

WHAT THIS DOES NOT MEAN

If you listen to a Pentecostal talk about this passage, they will point to it as a proof-text for their doctrine of a second baptism of the Holy Spirit.

All orthodox Christian should affirm the baptism of the Holy Spirit upon salvation.

1 Corinthians 12:13 ESV

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

And Paul tells the Ephesian church that the Spirit is a down payment—an assurance of the inheritance to come. He refers to the baptism of the Spirit as a sealing.

Ephesians 1:13–14 ESV

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

But Pentecostals and some other groups, claim that there is a 2nd baptism of the Holy Spirit that results in speaking in tongues—and by tongues they usually mean some sort of prayer language that does not resemble any known human language.

It is—for lack of better term—babble.

And they will point to this passage and say, “See—the Ephesian disciples believe and are baptized and then they speak in tongues after Paul lays hands on them.”

They want to build an entire theological premise off of a few verses in Acts.

The problem with this view is that there is no consistency in Acts regarding the coming of the Spirit, the timing of conversion, the timing of water baptism, the laying on of hands and speaking in tongues.

From Pentecost to the Samaritans in Acts 8 to Paul’s salvation in Acts 9 to Cornelius in Acts 10 to the men in Ephesus, here in Acts 19—you cannot identify a pattern.

And this is because Luke doesn’t intend to present a standardized pattern for these things.

Instead, Luke is aiming to show how the Gospel is advancing into the nations during this unique time.

To take this one instance and build an entire new teaching about the Holy Spirit that has no Scriptural backing in the rest of the New Testament, is to impose a viewpoint on the Scriptures.

WHAT THIS DOES MEAN

So then, what is happening here?

The same thing that was happening in Acts 2, Acts 8 and Acts 10.

As believers are receiving the Holy Spirit, it is evidenced by them speaking in foreign languages, which serve as a proof that they have truly received salvation.

They are truly a part of the church.

God’s Messianic promises have come to them and they are soundly saved.

And they are empowered by the same Spirit who dwelt in the Apostles, to be witnesses to the end of the earth.

In Acts 2, we saw Jews who know Jesus speaking in tongues.

In Acts 8, we saw Samaritans believe in Jesus and speak in tongues.

In Acts 10, we saw full-on Gentiles believe in Jesus and speak in tongues.

And now, in Acts 19, we see Old Covenant believers, ignorant of Jesus, learn of Him, believe and then speak in tongues.

William Marty is correct when he says that we don’t see anymore speaking in tongues after this, because Luke has now shown us that pretty much all the possible groups that could believe, have believed.

The witness of the Gospel has expanded, just as Jesus promised.

The phenomenon parallels the experience of the Jews who believed at Pentecost, the Samaritans, and the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. This group of disciples served as an exemplar of yet another group, those saved in an Old Testament sense but who had not heard the full story of Jesus. Now that all of these representative groups had received the Spirit, there was no further reference to speaking in tongues in Acts.

William Marty

So then, what we know is that the speaking in tongues is there demonstrate to the early church that the sort of New Covenant proclamation Paul is doing in this passage, is making inroads in all of the world. The ends of the earth.

This is why we can say that this gift of tongues is not normally operating in the church today.

It is not normative because with the Word of God in our hand and the church expanded all over the world, there is little need for the evidence of tongues.

I don’t rule out that God will still use it, but we should not expect to see it after this first generation of the church.

DIFFERENT TIME, BUT SAME WORK

And that speaks to the fact that we don’t live in the same time as these Ephesian men who became Christians or the Apostle Paul.

This was indeed a unique time in redemption history.

But at Pentecost, in Acts 2, as Peter stands up to explain why foreign tongues are coming out of the mouths of Jewish men, he refers to the prophet Joel.

He says:

Acts 2:16–17 ESV

But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;

The last days refer to the time in between the first coming and the second coming of Christ.

You and I are living in those last days.

The same last days that Peter and company saw begin as Christ inaugurated the New Covenant, we are still living in.

And we are doing the same work that Peter was doing. The same work that Paul is doing in Acts 19.

The same ministry Hudson Taylor did in China.

The same ministry Elizabeth Elliot did in Ecuador.

The same ministry that Mac Hutton and Gene Cornett did in this pulpit in this church’s own history.

We are talking about New Covenant proclamation.

We are still going forth in the Spirit’s power, heralding the Good News of the promise of God fulfilled in the New Covenant of Christ’s blood, calling people to faith in the resurrected Lord and baptizing them in His name.

We are still witnesses of this New Covenant to the end of the earth and we are making disciples of all nations.

What a privilege to walk in a long line of proclaimers, extolling God’s revealed promises finding all of their Yes’s and Amen’s in Christ.

Years ago, I took a tour of the US Capitol with my wife.

On the tour they showed up the Old Supreme Court Chamber on the ground floor of the North Wing of the US Capitol.

The justices met there from 1810 to 1860.

Inside, there was a plaster of Lady Justice, not wearing her usual blindfold, and she is looking right at the US Constitution.

I was struck by the continuity of it all.

We still have Supreme Court justices coming and sitting in a different room, carrying on the same work, of seeking to execute justice according to the Constitution.

This is much like us, except we have a better document.

We get the privilege of clocking in just like the Apostle Paul and doing the same work in a different time.

CHRIST IS ADVANCING HIS KINGDOM (v. 8-10)

This brings us to our second point this morning:

2. Christ is advancing His Kingdom and He continues today (v. 8-10).

To draw this out, we look to verse 8, where Luke says that Paul goes into the synagogue and speaks boldly, which means freely and without fear.

He is doing the same thing he did at the synagogues in Athena and Thessalonica.

He is reasoning with them, which refers to a formal instruction that probably even included question and answer sessions.

And he is persuading them. He is convincing them.

And in particular, Luke says his reasoning and persuading is focused on the Kingdom of God.

This term “kingdom of God” only appears four times in all of Acts.

When Luke refers to the kingdom, he is talking about how God’s promises are coming true through the sovereign, majestic reign of Jesus Christ.

The “kingdom of God” is the reality of the fulfillment of God’s promises concerning Israel’s restoration and the salvation of the world—a reality brought about by the life, death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus, Israel’s Messiah and Savior of the world, and a reality that grows as a result of the Spirit-empowered work of the apostles and the churches.

Eckhardt Schnabel

And what that means is that Paul is not just teaching general doctrine or general truths from the Old Testament.

He has a laser focus on how the crucified, resurrected and exalted King Jesus must be believed and proclaimed.

The Messianic expectation was always that the Christ would reign. God’s Anointed One would rule the world.

Paul is showing them that He is.

He suffered as the prophets said He would.

He resurrected as the prophets said He would.

And He is ruling and reigning over the entire Universe and over His people, just as the prophets said He would.

He is the King.

Even as Paul is preaching in Ephesus to the Ephesian disciples or to the Jews in the synagogue, the King is building His Kingdom.

Soul by soul.

Regenerated heart by regenerated heart, the spiritual reign of the Messiah is spreading.

As His reign spreads, local churches are established—kingdom outposts that serve as embassies for His kingdom in this fallen world.

These kingdom outposts are made up of ambassadors for Christ, who represent Him in the world, until His Kingdom-building ends, His people are all gathered and He returns to rid the earth of His enemies and His majestic reign is fully realized on the New Earth.

Luke wants us to know that this work is underway and that ground is being taken for the Kingdom.

So he uses this phrase in four specific locations in Acts.

Acts 1:3 ESV

He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

He uses it here, before the Apostles are commissioned to be His witnesses to the end of the earth, to show what sort of work they are doing.

It is Kingdom work.

They are witnesses for the King, proclaiming His suffering, His resurrection and His exaltation, and calling people to repent, lest they perish for rejecting the King.

Acts 8:12 ESV

But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

He uses it again in chapter 8, when the Samaritans are receiving the Gospel en masse, to show that the Kingdom is not just made up of Jewish people, but also Samaritan people.

The Kingdom is advancing into Samaria just like Christ said it would.

The witness of the Gospel is expanding beyond the borders of Judea.

We’ve seen it here in Acts 19:8 this morning, as the Kingdom is invading the hearts of the Ephesians in Asia.

Asia is the focus of much of Paul’s third missionary journey.

Whereas he only passed through on the 2nd missionary journey, his proclamation is powerful and bears fruits when he comes back through and goes from city to city.

Luke invokes the “Kingdom of God” phrase again, in order to show that King Jesus is claiming Asian hearts as His own.

You even see this in verses 9 and 10.

There are some who are stubborn and hard-hearted and they reject Paul’s Kingdom proclamation and continue in unbelief.

They don’t believe in King Jesus.

They reject His message and they reject His right to rule and reign over them.

In continuing in unbelief, they continue as His enemy.

They demonstrate their unbelief by speaking evil of the Way—or the message of Christ’s saving work—before the congregation in the synagogue. (v. 9).

So Paul withdraws from them and notice what Luke says—he took the disciples with him.

After three months of reasoning and persuading and speaking boldly, there are a group of people who are believing in Christ, submitting to Him as King and they go with Paul to the hall of Tyrannus.

Tyrannus was likely a guild hall or a lecture hall.

Paul is either getting access to it in the off-hours or he is renting it out.

Either way, for two years, he does the same sort of formal instruction there, discipling believers and leading new converts to Christ.

The work is so profound that Luke says all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. (v. 10)

There is an Asian awakening here as the King Messiah, Jesus Christ, is bringing lost soul after lost soul into His sheepfold through the Apostle’s preaching.

And then you see it at the very end of the book. Paul is in chains in Rome—the very heart of the ancient world.

Acts 28:31 ESV

proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

King Jesus’ promise at the beginning of the book has been fulfilled.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the earth.

If the “end of the earth,” is a description of Gentile nations, then we will end Acts with Paul in the center of the Gentile world, still proclaiming the Kingdom with the same boldness we see in Acts 19.

It is all just as Jesus said.

His Spirit has empowered the proclamation of the Kingdom and thousands of hearts have turned from their sin, trust in the King’s saving work and they have left the domain of darkness and entered into the Kingdom of the beloved Son.

WINDSOR CASTLE

I mentioned touring the US Capitol a number of years ago. I was able to your another famous building when I was 16 years old. I went to Windsor Castle, which has been a home to British monarchs dating back to 11th Century.

The castle itself has been built over seven different periods of construction.

William the Conqueror began building it in the 11th Century.

Henry II converted it to stone in the 12th Century.

Henry III built a royal palace inside the castle in the 13th Century.

Edward III made it one of the most expensive buildings of the Middle Ages.

Charles II reconstructed much of the interior in the 17th Century.

George IV renovated it in the 19th century.

And then finally Queen Elizabeth II added to it in 2012 with her Diamond Jubilee Garden.

It is amazing to think about one castle—one structure—being build by all of these different monarchs over a 1000 year period.

The Kingdom of God is much like that castle, except it has not been built by multiple monarchs.

It has been built by One.

It is the Jesus proclaimed by Paul in v. 4.

It is the Jesus whose Kingdom is proclaimed by Paul in v. 8.

It is the Jesus whose Word is proclaimed by Paul in v. 10.

And God’s Son is still building His Kingdom today.

Many would deny it.

They would say that Christ does not exist.

And yet, if you look at the worldwide church, which is expanding day by day, it only proves our Lord to be correct in what He says in Matthew 13.

Matthew 13:31–33 ESV

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

A mustard seed is very small. 1-2 millimeters in diameter.

But it grows into one of the largest shrubs in Palestine.

Mustard plants could get up to 15 feet high and were so big that many birds could live in them.

Similarly, the Kingdom is like yeast that multiplies quietly and permeates everything it touches.

People can try to deny that Christ’s Kingdom is permeating this world, but how else do we explain that which began with a Prophet from Nazareth and twelve unremarkable men, growing into a confession of faith held by millions upon millions of people throughout the world, both now and in the past.

If you are trying to understand how this has come to be—just look up.

Christ of the New Covenant rules the earth.

And soul by soul, church by church, His rule and reign is plundering Satan’s domain.

And you and I get to be a part of this.

As He builds the Kingdom, He places the piercing tool of the Gospel of the Kingdom in our hands and He says, “Go shatter the darkness. Let me use you to plunder the house of the strong man. Let me use you to build my Kingdom.”

DISTRACTIONS AND DEVASTATIONS

We get so distracted by all of these tiny things in our lives.

We become devastated by the big things in our lives.

And in the distraction and the devastation, I think we can often grow forgetful of the privilege.

We get to be New Covenant proclaimers.

We get to be Kingdom builders.

We are different generation than Paul, but we are doing the same work.

We are serving the King and advancing the Kingdom.

Whatever has taken your eyes off of this wonderful task and this high calling, let us get back to the reality of things today.

Church work is no burden.

Evangelism is no burden.

Prayer is no burden.

Neighborly love is no burden.

This is our calling.

To proclaim a covenant and build a Kingdom.

Let us hear the words of Paul to young Timothy:

2 Timothy 4:5 ESV

As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Let us be clear in our thoughts. Persevere in our hardship. And let us do the work.

Fulfill your covenant-heralding, Kingdom-building calling.

Just like Paul and the great cloud of witnesses that has gone before us.