Introduction
On the Sunday before I went on holiday, I preached from Acts 17 about the time when the Apostle Paul was in Athens and he preached to the people there about the true God who made all things and who determines all things and who calls on all people everywhere to turn away from their false gods and to worship him. And Paul went on to tell them that God has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. And the man he has appointed to judge the world is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world as one of us; and who gave up his life on the cross to pay for our sins; and who was raised from the dead to give us life. Whoever comes to God through faith in Christ will not be condemned when Christ comes to judge the world, because whoever believes in him passes from death to life. But whoever does not believe will be condemned when he comes again.
And after Paul preached to the Athenians, some of them sneered. They did not believe what he said about the true God and about his Son, Jesus Christ. But others were intrigued and wanted to hear more. And some others believed.
And it seems that wherever Paul went on his missionary journeys, he encountered the same kind of mixed response, with some people believing the good news and others wanting to hear more and others refusing to believe. And very often those who refused to believe were hostile towards Paul and his companions. In Lystra, for instance, Paul was stoned by those who did not believe and left for dead. In Philippi, Paul and Silas were whipped and beaten and jailed. In Thessalonica, some who did not believe formed a mob against Paul and they went looking for him. And who knows what they would have done to him if they had found him.
Many who did not believe the good news were hostile to Paul and his companions. And yet others believed the good news and little churches were planted across the Roman Empire. And in due course, the Roman world was turned upside down by the preaching of the gospel as more and more people were converted and their lives were changed for the better and they began to have a good and godly influence on the people around them.
Christianity began in a hostile environment, where many people did not believe and they treated Christians with hostility. But Christianity eventually conquered the Roman Empire and changed it. And Christianity conquered the Roman Empire, not by force, but through the preaching of the good news about Jesus Christ who died and was raised for us and for our salvation. And since our God does not change, but is the same, yesterday, today, and for ever, then what he did in the past, he’s able to do today. He’s able to use the foolishness of preaching to convince and convert sinners to faith in Christ and to renew them in his image so that their lives are transformed.
Paul believed this. And so, when he left Athens and arrived in Corinth, he did what he always did: he preached to the people the good news about Jesus Christ.
Verses 1 to 4
And so, we read in verse 1 of chapter 18 that he left Athens and went to Corinth. Corinth was an important city in those days. It was the capital of the Roman province of Achaia and it was a major commercial centre with its two seaports. It was, of course, a pagan city and there were many temples and shrines devoted to false gods. And it has a reputation in the ancient world for being an immoral place. And, of course, these pagan, godless, immoral people needed to hear the gospel. And so, Paul went to Corinth.
We read in verse 2 that in Corinth he met a Jew named Aquila who had recently moved to Corinth from Rome with his wife, Priscilla. It seems they had to leave Rome because Claudius, who was the Roman Emperor at that time, has ordered all the Jews to leave the city. Since we don’t read anything here about their conversion, then it seems likely that Aquila and his wife were already believers when Paul met them. And Paul stayed with them and worked with them for a time.
This is the first time we’ve heard that Paul was a trained tentmaker. And throughout the week, he worked with Aquila and Priscilla in their shop. But look at verse 4: every Sabbath Paul reasoned in the Jewish synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. Luke doesn’t say what he tried to persuade them to believe, but we know from what we’ve already read in the book of Acts that he would have been trying to persuade them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, throughout the working week, he worked as a tentmaker. And on the Sabbath Day, he went to the synagogue to convince the people there to believe the good news that Jesus is the Christ, God’s Spirit-Anointed and Conquering King who came into the world to save us from our sin and misery and to give us eternal life in the presence of God.
Verses 5 to 8
Once Silas and Timothy arrived in Corinth — and you might remember that they had stayed behind in Berea — Paul was able to devote himself exclusively to preaching about Christ. Presumably they had enough money with them to support Paul so that he no longer had to work as a tentmaker. And so, Paul spent his days preaching about the Saviour.
And, just as it happened in other places, so in this place some of the Jews who did not believe became hostile. They opposed Paul and became abusive. That probably means that they slandered and reviled him because of what he was teaching. And so, Paul shook out his clothes in protest. This is a kind of symbolic action which prophets performed in Bible times. They would shake the dust from their clothes to show that they wanted nothing more to do with these people who had rejected them and their message. And since these Jews had rejected Paul and his message, then he was prepared to leave them and to go elsewhere. He says that their blood is on their own head. He means he’s not responsible for the judgment they will face for their sins, because he’s done what he’s supposed to do, which is to preach the gospel to them. And if they’re condemned by God, it’s their own fault, because they refused to believe in the Saviour.
And Paul left the synagogue and he went next door to the house of this man, Titius Justus. And that’s where he continued his preaching ministry. And while many of the people did not believe, some did, including Crispus, who was the synagogue ruler at that time. And his family also believed. And many others heard the good news and they believed and were baptised.
As I said at the beginning, Christianity began in a hostile environment, where many people did not believe and they treated Christians with hostility. And Paul encountered hostility in Corinth. But he kept preaching the gospel; and eventually people were convinced and converted to faith in Christ and a little church was planted.
Verses 9 to 11
But the work is still hard and difficult. No one wants to be slandered and abused. And I’m sure Paul did not like being reviled. And no doubt the opposition he faced from the unbelieving Jews continued even though he was no longer preaching in the synagogue. And given what he had suffered in other cities because of the gospel, it would have been natural for him to be afraid. They’re only reviling him now, but who knows if they might attack him physically in the future? We can therefore imagine him being afraid for his life. And so, one night, the Lord Jesus spoke to him in a vision. And we have to marvel at the kindness of the Lord Jesus, who does not treat us as if we were blocks of wood who feel nothing. No, the Lord understood what Paul was feeling and he came to him in a vision to encourage him. ‘Don’t be afraid’, he said. And ‘keeping on speaking’. So, keeping on preaching the good news. And ‘don’t be silent’. Don’t let the opposition keep you from preaching. And the Lord Jesus said to him: ‘I am with you.’ And the Lord re-assured him that no-one is going to attack him or harm him. How does the Lord Jesus know that no one will attack or harm him? He knows it because he will not allow them to attack Paul. The Lord Jesus rules and reigns in heaven over all things and he was able to prevent the unbelieving Jews in Corinth from attacking Paul. He was able to put a kind of invisible wall around Paul so that no one was able to harm him.
And then the Lord Jesus said that he has many people in that city. He means there are many people there who have already been chosen by God to receive eternal life through faith in his name. And when they hear the good news from Paul, the Lord Jesus will enable them to believe in his name.
And after receiving this comforting message from the Lord, Paul stayed in the city for a year and a half and he continued to teach them the word of God about Jesus Christ.
Verses 12 to 17
And I think we’re to take what happens next as an example of the way the Lord Jesus protected Paul from his enemies. Luke tells us in verse 12 that the Jews made a united attack on Paul when Gallio was proconsul of the province. So, he had been appointed by the Emperor to rule over Achaia on his behalf. And the Jews brought Paul to court to try to persuade Gallio that Paul was a trouble-maker who should be stopped. And just as Paul was preparing to defend himself, Gallio spoke up and told the Jews that he wasn’t interested in hearing this case. If they were charging Paul with some kind of misdemeanour or serious crime, then he might listen to them. But since their complaint has to do with their own religion, then he’s not prepared to get involved. Settle it yourself.
And with that, he had them ejected from the court. And since they’d been humiliated in this way, they all turned on the new synagogue ruler, whose name was Sosthenes. Perhaps it was his idea to bring their complaint to Gallio. They turned on him and beat him. And Gallio did nothing to intervene.
And I think we’re to take it that the Lord Jesus was at work by his Spirit in the heart and mind of Gallio in order to keep him from harming Paul. As the Proverb says, the king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord so that he turns it wherever he wills. In other words, the Lord Jesus is able to direct the mind of rulers so that they do his will without knowing it.
Verses 18 to 22
And in the rest of today’s passage we read how Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. But eventually it was time for him to move on and he set sail for Syria. Luke tells us that Aquila and Priscilla went with him. Luke also tells us that Paul cut off his hair because of a vow he had made to the Lord. We don’t know why he made a vow, but vows are made to God to express thankfulness for mercy received or to express the desire for what we want. So, perhaps Paul shaved his head to thank God for protecting him in Corinth. Or he may have shaved his head to ask God to protect him on his onward journey.
And they travelled to Ephesus, where he did what he always did, which is to go into the synagogue to reason with the Jews about Christ. They asked him to stay with him longer, but he wanted to move on. However, he said that he will return to them if it’s God’s will for him. And leaving Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus, Paul set sail for Caesarea. Luke tells us in verse 22 that Paul went up and greeted the church. The commentators think he means that Paul went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea and greeted the church there. And then he went from there to Antioch, where his missionary journey had begun.
Application
Before we finish today, I want to think about what Paul did in Corinth and what the Lord said to him; and I want to link it to the invitation service which is coming up at the end of this month. This will be our third invitation service. And as before, you’re encouraged to invite any of your relations or friends or neighbours who don’t normally go to church and who aren’t Christians to come along to the service. So, have a look around your circle of friends or the members of your family and see if there’s someone you could invite. And the leaders of the youth organisations are encouraged to invite the parents of the children along. So, think about who you could invite. And then, of course, pray to the Lord for his help, because the idea of inviting someone to church might scare you a little. And ask the Lord to work in their hearts so that they’ll agree to come.
And you might remember that the service will be a normal service. We don’t do anything very different at these invitation services, because we want anyone who comes to get a clear idea of what we do on Sundays. So, the service isn’t very different from our normal services, except that I perhaps add a little more commentary to explain what we’re doing and why we do it. And then, the only other slight difference is that the sermon will be overtly evangelistic. Now I always try to preach the gospel every Sunday; and at every service I try to proclaim the good news about Jesus Christ and how we’re to trust in him for forgiveness and peace with God. But when it comes to an invitation service, I try to focus on that message and on that alone. In other words, I try to do what Paul did when he went to the Jewish synagogue and when he went to the house of Titius Justus. Just as he tried to persuade the people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, so I’ll be trying to persuade people at our invitation service to believe in him for forgiveness and peace with God.
Now, some of you might be thinking that it’s a waste of time. You’re thinking that none of your friends or family will want to come. Or you might be thinking that if they come the service is going to be so strange and unfamiliar to them that it will put them off or they won’t be able to cope with it or they won’t understand it or they won’t like it or something like that. A little voice rises up inside us and it tells us that these invitation services will not work.
And do you know what that voice is? It’s the voice of unbelief. It’s the voice of unbelief, because we don’t believe that the Lord is able to do what he said he will do, which is to build his church on earth through the reading and preaching of God’s word. We don’t believe that he’s able to convince and convert sinners through the foolishness of preaching.
And our unbelief likes to justify itself. And so, our unbelieving minds will come up with all kinds of reasons why it won’t possibly work and why it’s a waste of time to invite anyone to church.
And so, let’s try to overcome our unbelief by reminding ourselves of what we read here. We read that Paul left Athens, where he had preached the gospel to sceptics who thought he was a babbler who was talking nonsense. Why did Paul preach the gospel to people who thought he was a babbler? Because he believed that God is able to use the reading and preaching of his word to save sinners. And then, when he went to Corinth, he went to the synagogue, where he knew people would be gathering. And he reasoned with them and tried to persuade them to believe in the Saviour. And when Silas and Timothy arrived and he no longer had to work as a tentmaker, he devoted himself exclusively to preaching. So, he now had all this free time. He had plenty of time on his hands. And, if he was so inclined, he could have started up all kinds of ministries and done all kinds of good thing. But instead of starting up all kinds of ministries, he devoted himself exclusively to this one form of ministry which was preaching about Christ.
And he only moved on from the synagogue when the Jews became abusive. Perhaps they were heckling him so that he wasn’t able to make himself heard. But instead of giving up and trying something else, he carried on doing what he had been doing before, except in a different location. And so, even though he had moved from the synagogue to the home of Titius Justus, he continued to preach about Christ.
And when the Lord Jesus appeared to him in the vision, what did the Lord Jesus tell him to do? Did the Lord Jesus tell him to do something else? No, the Lord Jesus told him to keep on doing what he had been doing. And having received this vision, Paul did precisely that: he stayed for another year and a half and taught the people the word of God about Christ.
And then, when he went to Ephesus, he did the same thing: he went to the synagogue, where he knew people were gathering, and he reasoned with them. In other words, he preached to them about the Saviour.
Wherever he went, Paul preached the good news about Christ, because he believed that the Lord Jesus will do what he said he will do, which is to build his church on earth through the reading and preaching of his word.
Now, the message Paul preached was new and strange to the Jews. That’s why many of them did not believe it. And the message he preached was new and strange to the Athenians. That’s why some of them said he was a babbler. The message he preached was new and stranger to the Gentiles in Corinth who were used to worshipping the Roman gods. But Paul preached the message to all of these people, because the message is true; and because they needed to hear it and believe it in order to be saved; and because the Lord Jesus has promised to use the reading and preaching of his word to save sinners.
And Paul preached to the people because the Lord Jesus re-assured him that he had many people in the city. So, in that pagan place, in that immoral place, there were many men and women and boys and girls who had been chosen by God before the creation of the world to receive eternal life in his presence through faith in Christ. And since that’s the case — since the Lord Jesus had many people in that city who had been chosen by God for salvation — then the Lord Jesus sent Paul to them to preach to them and to keep preaching to them week by week and month by month so that they could hear the gospel and believe it and be saved.
The voice of unbelief rises up in our minds and it says to us that it’s pointless. It says to us: No-one I invite will come. And even if they come, it won’t make sense to them. It’s pointless. That’s the voice of unbelief. But the voice of faith says: I don’t know whether my friend or my relation or my neighbour has been chosen by God for eternal life in his presence. I don’t know if they have been chosen. But if my friend or my relation or my neighbour has been chosen by God, then nothing will stop the Lord Jesus from saving them. And the voice of faith says: The invitation service at the end of the month might be the time when the Lord chooses to save my friends and relations and neighbours. And if it is the time, then the Lord will help me to invite them; and he’ll work in their hearts so that they will agree to come; and when they come, he’ll open their hearts to receive the message and to believe in the Saviour and to call out to him for salvation.
So, we’re to silence the voice of unbelief that rises up within us; and we’re to trust in the Lord to do what he has promised and to build his church here on earth through the reading and preaching of his word.
Sermons and Stuff 