Paul knew that people would only be saved if they understood the gospel message (Romans 10:14). So his time in Ephesus was focussed on ensuring that as many people as possible heard the good news about Jesus, God the Son, the Saviour of the world. As a Jewish teacher, he would always go first to the synagogue. They honoured the Scriptures which spoke prophetically of Jesus; so there was a natural starting point for the gospel, for those who wanted to listen and understand.

Three months of patient and persuasive argument led some to believe. But many did not. They rejected the Biblical evidence that Jesus was the Christ (Messiah) and publicly attacked Paul's teaching. It was not possible to continue the mission in the synagogue, so Paul hired a lecture room in the adjacent building. There he discipled the new believers in the Christian faith. The change of venue was effective for the gospel mission, just as it had been in Corinth (Acts 18:6-8). As it was not a synagogue, Paul was free to evangelise and teach, discuss and disciple, and work with the Lord in growing the church for two years.

Paul's strategy was intentional. He refused to be silenced by religious opponents, took the new believers next door and started a Bible School. Many people heard the gospel as they passed through Ephesus, at the western end of the Silk Road trading route from China and India. It was the major sea port of the region and what happened in the city was known in the whole of, what is now, western Turkey. As time went on, so many heard Paul explain the way of salvation through Jesus, that everybody in that area knew something of Jesus and the gospel. That was what he intended, and what he achieved through God's help.

Yet, in many places today, churches are content to go through religious routines which comfort believers. But without intentional evangelism there will be no church when the current believers have died. Intentional mission is the heartbeat of the apostles because Jesus had commissioned them to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). Indeed, Paul was not content unless he was making the gospel known (1 Corinthians 9:16). So, ask the Lord to give you a new heart, to repent of not caring about sinners going to hell; to see Christ-less people as perilously lost; to have a deep desire that they should know the gospel; and to start to tell them how they can be saved (Psalm 51:10-13) (www.crosscheck.org.uk)