Thank you. The Apostle Paul had an amazing personal testimony, certainly an attention-grabbing story.

So why wasn't that his go-to opening for sharing the gospel?

We'll hear the answer today on Truth for Life and find out what made Paul's ministry so

effective.

Alistair Begg is teaching from Acts chapter 19.

He begins today in verse 8.

The people in the synagogue would have been sitting up straight.

They would have been listening expectantly.

The arrival of Paul was something that they looked forward to.

It was something that they had been hoping for.

And they were not going to be disappointed by his approach to them. He doesn't come in and tell them tall stories. He doesn't come in and fill them with anecdotal material that might

be easy to absorb. But Luke tells us that he comes in, and for three months, he speaks boldly,

you will notice the verb, and he argued persuasively,

and he did so concerning the kingdom of God.

Now, again, I want you to note that for Luke to refer to him as dealing with the kingdom of

God is not to suggest to us that he had set aside, as it

were, speaking about Jesus, his life and his death and his resurrection and so on, but rather

to speak about the kingdom of God was just another way of describing what he was doing,

because it was impossible for him to explain the nature of the kingdom of God, except

that he explained it in terms of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.

We should bear in mind, too, that the Jewish mind had a clear understanding of God's

kingship. And indeed, if you know the Bible at all, you will know that God

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