Acts 18 :1-22

--- Acts chapter 18, follow along with me as I read.

I'm going to have you stop there. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, open our hearts to the ministry of Your Word. As always, we come to You with a humble heart that desires to hear from You, desires to receive from You, because we believe that every time we get into the Scriptures, there's something here for us. And so we pray that You would make us truly receptive and open. We ask You, God, to humble our hearts before us. And we thank You Lord, that You are always so willing to fill our hearts with good things. Do that today, we pray, in Jesus name, amen. You're probably wondering why I stopped at verse 22. That's actually where Paul's second missionary journey ends, and that's why we're stopping there. We'll pick up the rest of it next week, but it almost goes immediately into the third missionary journey. And I didn't want to get started with that here today and then stop and have to carry on. So we'll cover the third missionary journey together. But you'll remember that in the last chapter, the apostle Paul found himself in Athens, Greece, a very interesting city. And he spent his time just wandering around picking up conversations in the marketplace with whoever would engage him. And eventually we were told in that chapter that some philosophers started to talk with Paul, and he eventually received an invitation to go to the Areopagus and to share his thoughts there. And we talked about what the Areopagus is, what it's all about last week. And it was there that Paul set out the revelation of the one true God because he was talking to cultured pagans there in Athens. ---

They didn't know anything about God. They didn't know anything about the Bible. They didn't know anything about the Hebrew Scriptures, and so he started very simply just sharing simple truths and so forth. And we dealt with how, last week, how that's an important distinction to make when you're talking to people that don't know anything about God or anything about the Bible. It's fruitless to start just quoting a whole bunch of books and chapters and verses to them when they don't even know what you're talking about. And so we have to start with truth, and then once they respond to truth, then we can get into the Word. And we can say, let's get into the Bible. Let's talk about what it says and so forth. Chapter 18 begins with Luke telling us that, “After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.” And as we've been doing each week, well whenever Paul is moving to a new place, I've been showing you the map so that you can get an idea of where that is. Up on the screen you can see a big red arrow that points to Corinth. You can see that it's just south of Athens. You can also see that the two cities are connected with a very small, narrow, land bridge called, an isthmus. And that was, and they were both very important ancient cities.

This is the interesting thing. When Paul was there 2,000 years ago, they were already ancient cities; both Athens and Corinth, that were already ancient. In fact, Athens was already declining, its glory days were behind it. Corinth didn't really resemble Athens at all. Athens was the center of education and philosophy and Corinth was the center of… Well, it was a center of commerce and retail, but that brought a lot of people from a lot of places into Corinth and they brought their religious ideas. The city of Corinth boasted no fewer than 12 temples, pagan temples I might add. One of which was the most popular to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, who was the goddess of sexual pleasure? You can imagine what worship of the goddess Aphrodite involved male and female prostitutes were the commonplace everywhere around the city. In fact, the whole city was really known for its moral laxity. In fact, it became a byword. If you wanted to insult someone back in those days, you would call them a Corinthian. Even if they'd never ever set foot in the city. In fact if you were a drunkard, they would call you a Corinthian. Doesn't matter if you've ever lived there. Because the name became synonymous with all kinds of sexual, sinful immoralities, and so forth. This is the city that Paul was venturing into. I mean, it's like, this is like Las Vegas on steroids. All right? I mean, this is like turned up. And to say it was a sinful place is an understatement. And here's Paul. I'm going to go to Corinth and share the Gospel. And we're all sitting here going, what in the world were you thinking, Paul? Why would you go to a place like that to share the Gospel? First of all, you go to a place like, and by the way, Corinth is very similar to the United States of America today. But the reason you go to a place like Corinth to share the Gospel is because Jesus died for sinners, right? But the second thing, second reason you go to a place like Corinth is something that I didn't figure out until I was in my older years. I didn't know this as a young man. But I realized as I grew in the Lord that there was an interesting dynamic that goes along with a culture that lives in moral laxity. In other words, that lives in a state of just doing whatever you want, whenever you want, morally. Sex with as many people as you want, and all, and just the break neck, do it...

I didn't realize as a younger man, that when people live that way, they eventually choke on it. And it's an interesting sort of a dynamic. And the reason I say they choke on it, obviously that's a metaphor. But, the reason is because, you see, God created our bodies, and our bodies were not created for sexual immorality. And you can get too much. And what you once considered to be fun and pleasurable literally, literally, begins to destroy your life. It begins to destroy your life. It usually starts with taking away some, your comforts, eventually your family. And if a person doesn't stop and repent, eventually your life. Eventually your life. And so I can see why Paul went to Corinth. These are people who are literally choking on their sin. And when that happens, people are often ready for answers and they get sick to death of being sick to death, frankly. And it's there, we go in with the Gospel and sometimes there's some pretty incredible opportunities to share the life of Christ in a culture like that. And again, that's the culture we live in today. Here's what's interesting. Paul actually wrote about this whole idea of just living for the flesh. And he wrote about it in his letter to the Romans. Now here's what's interesting. We think that Paul wrote the letter to Rome from Corinth. And if that's the case, then he would have been observing everything that was going on in that city as it relates to the sexual immorality, and perversity, and he would've begun to start talking about it. And let me show you what he actually says. He said, Romans 1:24-27 (ESV)

And I wanted you to see that last statement particularly, because what Paul is talking about there in that last statement is what I'm referring to when I say that the culture begins to choke on their own sin. And Paul words it like this, “…receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” Some Bibles say, “…for their perversion.” You see, eventually your body is going to revolt. When you try to abuse it and live in a way that is contrary to what God created your body to be and to do. And you might be sitting here thinking, gee, pastor Paul, this is all very depressing. Is there any hope? Oh yeah, there's always hope. The hope lies when people realize where they are, and they come to their senses, and they turn away. It's just like the prodigal son. The Bible literally says, he came to himself, which means he came to his senses. (Luke 15:17) And he said, this is ridiculous, the way I'm living. I'm dying. I'm literally starving to death because he was living in the way that he was. And that's what some people do, thankfully. In fact, here's what's interesting. Some of the Corinthians used to live the kind of a lifestyle that Paul is describing in Romans chapter 1. They were living that way before they heard the Gospel, and then they heard the Gospel. And some of them responded to the Gospel because they were sick and tired of living in a way that was contrary to God and they were choking on their sin and they turned to the Lord. And how do we know that some of the Corinthians lived that way? Because Paul said so. Check this out from 1 Corinthians chapter 6. He says,

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (But then he goes on to say this) And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. So is there hope? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Some of the Corinthians were living in this way that Paul said, had they continued on that way, they would not inherit the kingdom of God. But they didn't continue on that way. They stopped. They repented. They confessed their sin, they turned to the Lord. And what happened? They were washed, sanctified, justified, and made children of the living God. Guys, this is the good news. This is the good news that we can turn from our sin. And don't let anybody ever tell you that there are certain sins that you just can't come back from. I'm sorry, that's not supported by the Bible. My Bible says in

And yeah, sometimes I have to go back and see if, “all” is still there. But I'm always comforted by the fact that word remains, “all unrighteousness.” All. And so here you have these Corinthians living in this breakneck, sexual, perversion landscape. And Paul comes with the Gospel, and some of them respond, and they come to faith in Jesus Christ. And now they're children of God. And it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. There's always hope. Luke tells us in verse 2 that Paul “found a Jew named Aquila, (we’re told that he was) a native of Pontus, (which is Asia Minor. He had) “come from Italy with his wife Priscilla,…” Who by the way, we're not sure if she was a Jew. It doesn't say that. It says that Aquila was a Jew, not Priscilla, necessarily. She may have been, we don't know. But they had been booted out of Rome of Italy by the emperor and so they made their way to Corinth. And we actually historically know what that was all about. You can go back in the annals of history and you can find out that in 49 A.D. Claudius Caesar ejected all of the Jews from Italy. He said, I don't care where you go, just get out of here. And the reason he did that was because the Gospel of Jesus Christ had actually made its way to Rome. We don't know how. We don't know who brought it. Paul hasn't been there, but somehow, someway, the Gospel got to Rome and Jews. Yes, Jews started responding in faith, coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but other Jews who stubbornly refused to believe, got very angry about the fact that their fellow Jews were coming to Christ, and they started a riot. Well, Claudius Caesar had to figure out what to do about it and he was not a man who was going to put up with riots in his kingdom. So his solution to the public unrest was just to boot them all out. He kicked all the Jews out of Italy whether they were involved in the rioting or not. It didn't matter. You're gone. You're out of here. And that's what happened to Aquila and Priscilla. But what a blessing it was for Paul to meet up with them because we're told that he connected with them in verse 3 because they were “of the same trade,” which is they were tent makers. Now the Greek word that is translated, tent maker, it essentially means, a craftsman of leather so it could go beyond just tents, okay? But Paul had been a tent maker from his earliest days, and so he joined with Aquila and Priscilla and worked with them. And the reason he did that of course, is that he needed to support himself. He would go into the synagogue on the weekends, talk to the Jews and whichever, any Greeks that happened to be there too. But he had to work during the week to buy food, to have a place to stay, and so forth so since he was a tentmaker, he just worked with Aquila and Priscilla. Here's what's interesting about this, this whole idea of working while you're a pastor is still to this day called tentmaking. When a pastor is bi-vocational and has to work full or part time while pastoring, we call him a bi-vocational pastor. And It's hard work. It's hard work. It's hard work to pastor a church, period. But it's harder work to pastor a church and work full time, and have time to study the Word, and share the Word on the weekends, and minister to people and so on and so forth. But you know, there's a lot of bi-vocational pastors here in the United States. I don't know if you're aware of this, but the average Sunday attendance of Christian churches in the United States is 65 people. That's the average. Okay, That means there are some less and some more. Obviously, we know that. 65 people come to church in the average American church each week. That's hardly enough people to support a pastor when they've got, building maintenance, and all the other things that go along with just maintaining church property, or something like that. So there's a lot of pastors out there who are bi- vocational and that's a hard way to live. Luke tells us in verse 4 that, Paul “reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.” You might have noticed that this is not the first time Luke has used the word, reasoned. Paul “reasoned in the synagogue.” And that word, if you look it up in the Greek it's where we get our word, dialogue. And it can just mean that. It can just mean he dialogued, he talked with the Jews. But it also carries this idea of using reason. And that's why the text here says Paul reasoned with them. And that's something that we need to do when we're sharing the gospel with people. We need to use reason and not emotion. And, as you've heard me say many times, and not your opinion. When you're talking to people about God, the Bible, heaven, hell, salvation, whatever the topic of interest may be, the worst thing you can do is start off by saying, well I think. Because they're going to come back and they're going to go, well I think. And you're going to just have this tit for tat conversation where it's your opinion against theirs. And one of the things that Paul did when he was talking to the people in Athens, is he spoke truth from the Bible, even though he didn't necessarily mention the Bible itself. He spoke truth that was based on the revelation of God's Word, right? In other words, he didn't say I think. He spoke authoritatively, because from what he was saying, there was a foundational basis of understanding from the Word of God. And eventually when you're talking to people about the Lord, they, hopefully they'll say to you where do you get that? Let me show you. Now you can open up the Bible and begin to reveal the authority on which you base your beliefs.

But again, don't start a conversation by saying, well I think. Because then you put it in the realm of personal opinion, and your opinion, I hate to tell you this, isn't worth much. In fact, it's worth nothing. Because…, and the person you're talking to, their opinion is worth the same. And you can respect it as, and say I respect your opinion, but in the end, it's just their… And I wouldn't tell them their opinion's worth nothing, but I'm just telling you because I know you can handle it. Okay? Yeah. Anyway. Reason it’s so important that we use reason. Our God is a God of reason. He longs to reason with you and me. He longs that we would reason with others. He made us reasonable creatures. Do you understand that is one of the elements that sets you apart from your dog or your cat? You as a human being have been made in the image of God and part of that is reason. The ability to reason and to look at a situation logically and reasonably and say, this is what is obvious from this. Even God, when he speaks to the people of Israel, he calls them to reason. Let me show you this from Isaiah chapter 1. He says,

“Come now, let us reason together says the LORD: (and He begins to talk to them about their sins) though your sins are like (how they’re now) scarlet, they shall (but if they would just reason with Him, they could be forgiven and their sins would) be as white as snow; (and so forth) though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” God calls us to reason and to be reasonable people and to reason with others when we're sharing the Gospel. Verse 5 goes on. We're told that “…Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia,…” And then look what it says there in verse 5. It says, after that, “Paul was occupied with the word,…” And you know what that means? That means he stopped tent making. It means he just spent his entire week. Instead of tent making, he just devoted himself to working the Gospel. You might say pastor Paul, how do you know that? The best way to interpret Scripture is with Scripture. And the reason we know it is because we have, it's told us in other sections of the Word of God. In fact, when Paul wrote to the

Corinthians later on, he related this very time when he was there and then Silas and Timothy showed up. Let me show you this from 2 Corinthians chapter 11, it says,

And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, (he said, and that means, I went out and worked my own job. I didn't ask for any money. He said) for the brothers who came from Macedonia (and then he's talking there about Silas and Timothy) supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. Paul had a deal with the Corinthians where he didn't accept any money from them, but he did accept money from other churches. In fact, when Silas and Timothy got to Corinth, they brought an offering from one of the churches. Do we know which church? Yes, we do. From another area of Scripture. Check this out from Philippians chapter 4. Paul writes,

Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, (in other words, came to Greece) no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Paul says right here, it was you Philippians. The church in Philippi that gave a gift to Silas and Timothy, which they brought to Corinth, gave to Paul, and Paul was able to devote himself full time to ministry. And by the way, that's why a church ought to support their pastor. I've said this many times. Churches don't pay their pastor for what they do. Churches pay or support the pastor so they can do what they're called to do. So they can do it freely. That's why. All right. And so that's what Paul was able to do.

We know that there in Corinth, Paul first went to the Jews with the message of life in Christ, but verse 6 tells us, “And when they opposed and reviled him, (it says) he shook out his garments…” Now, I want to tell you here, some of you guys might have a different Bible translation on your lap. In fact, if you have the New King James on your lap, your Bible says, “and they opposed and blasphemed.” And, you don't blaspheme men, you blaspheme God. But here in the ESV it says, “they opposed and reviled him,” meaning Paul. So you say why the difference? The difference is the Greek literally means they cursed. They opposed and they cursed. The New King James translators are assuming that they are they cursed God and that's blasphemy. The ESV translators are saying they cursed Paul and that's the difference. That's not blasphemy. All we really know for sure is they cursed. Okay? And so that's why you have a difference and I wanted to explain that. As far as shaking out his garment against them, that was a common gesture of rejection. Paul was essentially saying, if you reject the message of Jesus, I reject you. And I'm just going to move on and share it with people who will receive it. In fact, he said, “Your blood be on your own heads!” I'm going to go to the Gentiles, and he did, in fact, he set up right next door to the synagogue. That's an interesting statement, isn't it? But not all of the Jews rejected Paul's message. We see in verse 8 that a man by the name of “Crispus, (who is in fact) the ruler of the synagogue, (and that simply means he took care of the synagogue, it says he) believed in the Lord,…” In fact, not just him, but his whole family. They came to faith in Christ. “And (also) many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.” And so people are coming to faith in Jesus. Now let me ask you a question. What usually happens to Paul when people start coming to faith? That means crowds start showing up. And when crowds start showing up, the Jews start getting jealous. And when the Jews get jealous, they stir up trouble. Right? I mean we've seen it over and over again. Paul has to be thinking. It's just a matter of time before this thing spills over. And the hatred and the jealousy and all this stuff just goes up in flames. And I think he got fearful. I really do. We don't think much about the apostle Paul being a fearful man but he is human.

And so what we're told in verse 9 is that, “…the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid,…” So my question to you is, why did God say to Paul, do not be afraid? Maybe because he was afraid. I don't think God throws away any statements that He makes. And so I think that there was a very real chance that Paul was stressing about some possible boiling over of the Jews. But God said, don't be afraid, just keep speaking, don't be silent. I'm with you. He said, nobody's going to attack and harm you. And you'll notice He didn't say, nobody's going to attack you and leave it at that. They might attack you, but they're not going to harm you. He says, for “I have many in this city” so don't worry about it. And so Paul responded to that vision by staying in Corinth for 18 months. That's a long time for Paul to stay anywhere. So verses 12 through 17 Luke recounts for us and we read it here already. An attempt by the Jews to get Paul into trouble when a new proconsul came into power. But it backfired on them because he didn't want to hear what they said. The Jews called him together, hauled Paul in before him, and they said, this guy is teaching things about God that are unlawful for us. And Gallio said, I don't care. And you know what? Gallio was right. He was put there by the Roman government to keep Roman peace. He was not put there to take care of every issue that might happen between people. So he was actually correct by saying, I don't care. Go deal with this yourselves. We call it freedom of religion, frankly, but when the government doesn't get involved. But anyway, so it backfired on him, and Paul was able to stay for several days longer. Verse 18. Finally, it says that he “set sail for Syria,” and that means Paul was heading back to Antioch, where he came from. And it says he took “with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae (which is just a few short miles from Corinth) he had cut his hair,…(because) he was under a vow.” You might be reading that and going, what's that all about? It refers to a Jewish vow. The Jews had all kinds of vows. And some of which required the person taking the vow to not cut their hair for a period of time. And then usually after the vow, they would cut their hair and offer it as a sacrifice to the Lord. And it was just an expression of devotion.

And you might be thinking to yourself, why is Paul doing this? I mean, he's a Christian now. He's not under the Jewish law so why is he involved in Jewish rituals and regulations? I don't think Paul had any problem with it because it was just simply an expression of his own personal devotion to God, and he didn't consider it a requirement of his salvation. Did you catch me? What is required for you to be saved? What's the Bible say? We put our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, right? Is there anything else that's required? No, there is not. We are saved by grace through faith, and this not of ourselves. In other words, there's nothing else you can do. What we receive is the gift of God, lest anyone should boast, right? This from Ephesians 2. So what's the requirement for being saved? Putting my faith in Jesus. Paul had put his faith in Jesus. He knew he was saved. He knew how he was saved. And so you see, taking part in a Jewish ritual or vow was no big deal to Paul because it wasn't a requirement. He knew that it wasn't a requirement. This was not necessary for salvation so he was free to do it if he wanted to do it. Have you ever run into a Christian who was keeping vows, or following, or keeping rituals, or Jewish traditions? You've ever run into someone like that? I have lots of times. And they might say something like our family, we keep the Passover or, we keep the food laws. Or we go to, we rest on the Sabbath, on the Saturday, the Sabbath. And my first question to them when they say that is, oh, cool. Why do you do that? You see, I don't care that they do that, but I just want to know why. And if they come back to me and they say it's commanded of us and we have to do it in order to be right with God. Now we got a problem. Because what they just communicated to me is, it's a requirement. You see? And what they did is they added to what is required to be saved. Faith in Jesus Christ and keep the Sabbath, keep the food laws, observe the Passover, whatever they've added, right? It's only a problem if you've added it as a requirement. If you want to, if you want to rest on the Sabbath, on the seventh day Sabbath, I don't care! Knock yourself out! Just don't go around telling people that if they don't do it, they're not right with God. Because what you've done then is you've added a requirement. You want to keep the Passover? Fantastic! Knock yourself out! I don't know where you're going to get a lamb, but that's your business.

The point is, if you're doing it out of your simple devotion to God, you're free. You're free to do that. You're free to express your devotion to God however you want to. Paul expressed his devotion to God through a vow. It was a Jewish ritual. Great. No problem. He did not consider it a contradiction, because to him, it wasn't a requirement. You with me? It all comes down to the requirement. It all comes down to how is a person saved? We're saved by putting our faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Boom. Add to that, you got problems. Do things as a devotional expression. Oh, then you can do anything you want to do. I don't care. Do it. That make sense? All right. Verse 19, “And they came to Ephesus,…” Now by the way, this is Paul's first time coming to Ephesus. He has been kept from going to Ephesus up to this point. But now they got there. Let me show you on the map where Ephesus is located. I put a little line there from Corinth to Ephesus which I've circled on the map, so you can see the trip. And you'll notice here in verse 19, it says, “…he left them there,…” Them is Priscilla and Aquila. He left them behind in Ephesus. While he himself spent a little bit of time hanging out with the Jews in the synagogue reasoning with them. And by the way, we're going to find out next week that Paul leaving Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus was a God thing, because not long after Paul left, a young man by the name of Apollos showed up from Alexandria, and he was a powerful speaker, but he was missing some information about Jesus. And Aquila and Priscilla pulled him aside and shared with him further about the Gospel and he became a very powerful tool used by God. But anyway we're told here that when the Jews asked, I'm in verse 20. “When… (the Jews) asked… (Paul) to stay for a longer period, he declined. 21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus. 22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch.” And that's where Paul started from. And so this is what ends his second missionary journey. And when we take up Acts next week, we'll get in to the third one. And we'll see what doors God's going to open for Paul, and what drama he's going to have to endure, and what adventure. I have a deep respect for what that man did. I mean the, putting his life on the line every day. I think of myself, and you know, God called me to pastor a church here in Ontario. What a cush job! I'm sitting here on this padded stool every Sunday, telling you guys about Jesus and teaching the Word. Man, I tell you, I think about Paul and all the things he endured. What a guy! What incredible devotion! Anyway, let's stand and we'll close in prayer. If you need prayer this morning, come on up front after we're done and we'll be more than happy to pray for you. We got some folks that are set aside to do just that. Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the power of the Word to bring life changing truth. Lord, I thank You that the cross is for sinners, for people who are literally choking on their sin. And when they realize it, Lord, I pray that we would be right there, not with condemnation, but with hop, with hope that they can be washed and cleansed, sanctified, and justified through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Help us, Lord God, to share that message without apology, without embarrassment, because therein lies the power of God to change lives. And I pray, my Father God, that before we hear the trumpet that we would be busy sharing that message and allowing the power of the Gospel to transform hearts. We thank You. We praise You. We worship You. King of kings and Lord of lords, our soon coming Redeemer. The Spirit and the Bride say, come, even so, come Lord Jesus. It is in Your name that we pray, and all God's people said together, amen. God bless you. Have a good rest of your Sunday.