Deep and Wide: Education Overflowing as Evangelism from Ephesus -- By: A. Boyd Luter

Journal: Faith and Mission
Volume: FM 19:1 (Fall 2001)
Article: Deep and Wide: Education Overflowing as Evangelism from Ephesus
Author: A. Boyd Luter


Deep and Wide:
Education Overflowing as Evangelism from Ephesus

A. Boyd Luter

Acting Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dean of Faculty
Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies
The Criswell College
Dallas, Texas 75246

Introduction1

By the time the Apostle Paul settled in Ephesus for ministry purposes just after the midpoint of the first century A.D.,2 concerns about the great city’s harbor silting up from the deposits flowing down the Cayster (or Little Meander) River had existed for well over two centuries.3 In spite of this, Ephesus had grown to become the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire.4 Relatedly, it is not too much to say that much of the breadth of success of Ephesus as a city was dependent on maintaining5 the necessary depth in the harbor that would allow access to seafaring craft.

Analogously, in Paul’s ministry from his Ephesian base of operations, as described in Acts 19–20, the astounding breadth of evangelistic and cultural impact was a direct result of the depth of the daily educational enterprise going on in the school of Tyrannus. Not just any kind of “education” would have sufficed; however, to fuel the Pauline mission centered in Ephesus, which is widely understood to be his most productive site of ministry.6 Rather, the following presentation argues that Paul’s model demonstrates that in-depth, heart-inflaming education can ignite widespread, life-transforming evangelism, with a far-reaching cultural impact.

The Focusing of Paul’s “Great Commission” Ministry

Paul’s overarching missionary goal was the fulfillment of Christ’s Commission, particularly as articulated in Matt. 28:19–20. Acts skillfully makes the reader aware of that priority by showing Paul, as he undertakes his three missionary journeys, consistently involved in evangelism (i.e., “going”), then the “baptizing” and “teaching” of the converts, the three “steps” for making disciples commanded in the Matthean Commission. If anyone is tempted to take this extensive evidence as mere coincidence, though, Luke tellingly employs matheteuo, the verb rendered “make disciples” in Matt. 28:19, in Acts 14:21, its only use outside t...

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