And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 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. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
Acts 19:8-10
At first blush, it may appear that in two years, the Apostle Paul preached to every resident of Asia (approximately the current Turkey). The population at that time is estimated to be between 8 and 15 million people. Take the low estimate. Is it realistic to assume that Paul was able to take the Word of the Lord to every one of those 8 million residents personally in the two years? That doesn’t seem to me to be realistic. If we carefully examine Paul’s time in Ephesus, we find that initially, he was doing the work of an evangelist in the synagogue for about three months (Acts 19:8). He gathered up several believers from the synagogue and moved to the hall of Tyrannus. At his point, it appears that his work was mainly training believers and releasing them to become disciple-makers and church planters and probably doing some proclamation to unbelievers as well. Paul understood that to get the job done, workers in the kingdom had to be multiplied. He could not do the job alone.
We have one specific person whom God used to plant at least three churches that we know of, Epaphras. Epaphras planted the church in Colosse, Hierapolis, and Laodicea (Colossians 4:12-13). When writing to the church in Colosse, Paul refers to Epaphras as his “beloved fellow servant” (Colossians 1:7) and as a “faithful minister of Christ.”
How do we piece together Epaphras’s story? There is some speculation here, but it appears to me he was a businessman from Colosse (Colossians 4:12) who had gone to the major city of Ephesus to do business. While there, he heard the gospel, was converted, and learned from Paul in the hall of Tyrannus. At some point, he returned to the Lycos Valley and brought the gospel to his hometown, Colosse, plus Hierapolis, and Laodicea, two neighboring cities. During this time, apparently, all of the seven churches of Asia in Revelation 2 and 3 were established out of the ministry that flowed from the hall of Tyrannus.
Paul makes it clear in Ephesians 4:11-12 that his role as an Apostle was to “equip the saints for the work of ministry.” It was not and is not the job description of what I will refer to as professional Christians, i.e., ordained ministers, to proclaim the gospel to every resident in their sphere. The job of the professional Christian is to equip all the rest of the “ordinary” believers to do the work of the ministry. It is the ordinary believer who is to spread the gospel like a virus among their social networks so that every resident of our communities will hear the Word of the Lord.
I believe there were many Epaphrases, maybe hundreds over the two years Paul was teaching/preaching in Ephesus in the hall of Tyrannus. Missiologists today refer to this as the concept of multiplication. He was making disciples who make disciples who make disciples, etc. Paul was holed up in Ephesus while the Word was taken to all of Asia by disciples of Paul, who came to know Christ in Ephesus in the hall of Tyrannus.
After Stephen was stoned in Jerusalem and Saul (later known as Paul) stepped up his persecution of believers, many were scattered out of Jerusalem for their safety. But, “those who were scattered went about preaching the word’ (Acts 8:4). At this point, the professional Christians (the Apostles) stayed in Jerusalem; they did not go about Judea and Samaria preaching the word. The ordinary believers did.
We who are ordinary believers need to recognize that God has called us to carry the gospel to our own social networks, the people we know where we live, work, study, and play. God does not ask you to get a Master of Divinity or Bible College degree to proclaim the gospel. God has sent you to your social network with the gospel. You don’t have to wait for someone to tell you it is Okay. I guess I am telling you that now. You don’t have to wait for approval from someone in your religious hierarchy. Go, in Jesus’ name with the good news so every resident in your community can hear the Word of the Lord.
