Introduction to The Church At Corinth

Transcript

GR 1290
04-17-05
Introduction to the Church at Corinth
Acts 15:36-18:17
Gil Rugh

The Corinthian church is often thought of in the negative, but it is the most important church for us in the New Testament. Just think about it. The amount of material given to the church at Corinth. You might say, well look at the book of Romans. But the book of Romans, and I’m not in any way minimizing it, but it is not really about the details of the functioning of the local church at Rome. Its tremendous importance to us is in the fact that Paul unfolds there the theology of the gospel in great detail. When we want to talk about the details of the functioning of a local church, its blessings, its problems and so on, the church at Corinth is by far the dominant church in the New Testament. The first letter to the Corinthians is comprised of 16 chapters as we have it in our Bibles. The second letter to the Corinthians entails 13 chapters, and then almost all of chapter 18 of the book of Acts is given over to the church at Corinth—30 chapters in our New Testament focusing on the life and ministry of the church at Corinth. And that’s why it becomes such a familiar church to us. When we want to talk about problems and blessings, we go to the letters to the church at Corinth for the fullest consideration. Where do you go in the epistles to the churches to find out about the communion service and the Lord’s table? I Corinthians. What letters talk about the relationship of men and women in great detail in ministry? The letters to the Corinthians. What about the gifts of the Spirit? We go to the letters to the Corinthians. What about the fullest discussion of giving anywhere in the New Testament? The Corinthian letters, particularly in II Corinthians. What about problems over personalities in the church? And on it goes.

So the church at Corinth--we often think of it as the negative. Oh yes, that’s the carnal church. But it is the church that God has selected out in His wisdom that would be the focal point for the fullest revelation He would give to the church that we might learn and function as He would have us function.

The church at Corinth is formed on the second missionary journey of the Apostle Paul. Let me just refresh your mind of Paul’s travels and then we’ll locate things. All of Paul’s missionary trips, which are really church planting trips, are travels he takes to share the gospel in new places. He’s headquartered in Antioch and this is where all of his travels on these three trips will take place, and you’ll note on this trip he starts and goes down and comes across the island of Cyprus, then he comes up and goes up in the region of Galatia and we have the establishing of the Galatian churches. And they will later receive the letters to the Galatians, those churches established on this missionary trip. Then he comes down and returns back.

On his second missionary trip he starts again from the same place, and you’ll note he goes across land as he starts out on this one. We’re going up and over and that gives him a chance to revisit areas he visited on his first missionary trip. Then he’ll travel over, come up to Troas here and cross over into Macedonia. You’ll note Greece is divided into two regions here, two provinces—northern is Macedonia, the southern is Achaia. So Achaia encompasses this region; Macedonia encompasses this region. Now this is significant, this is the first time the gospel is carried into Europe, and it is on the second missionary journey that the Apostle Paul establishes the church at Corinth. Now here is Athens. He’ll come from Athens and there is a little land bridge here, an isthmus, that you travel over. It’s about 3½ miles wide. So this is not an island down here; there is a little land bridge. In fact, that land bridge, about 3½ miles wide, and they had made some tracks. And on smaller ships, they would drag them across this land bridge so the ships did not have to journey around down at the bottom here where the weather could be very treacherous and so on. This location for Corinth with the water here and the water here will account for its great prosperity. Then when Paul leaves here, the seaport, you’ll see Corinth here and Cenchrea here which really becomes the major seaport for Corinth. He will travel over to Ephesus and then back to Ceasarea and back up to Antioch, his starting point. So it’s on the second missionary trip that the church at Corinth will be established.

Let’s go to the third missionary trip, we’re not going to get into the details, but I want you to see what Paul does. He again leaves from Antioch, travels over now on his second missionary trip. God did not allow him to minister in this region of Asia. We’ll refer to that in a moment. Here he goes to Ephesus, then he will journey up and he will end up over here in Greece again. What I want you to note is he’ll spend three years in Ephesus, and it’s while he’s at Ephesus that he will write the letter to the Corinthians on the third missionary trip. So he established the church here on his second missionary trip and then on his third missionary trip when he comes to Ephesus, he’ll write his letter there. And after three years at Ephesus then he will follow up that letter with a visit to the church at Corinth.

Acts 18 records the foundation; it’s on the third missionary trip. Let me just overview something of this trip that Paul is on that will result in the establishing of the Corinthian church. It starts in Acts 15:36. And you should note, the Apostle Paul’s missionary travels, as we call them, were times of blessing. Churches were established. We’re going to study the letter to the Corinthians, the first letter to the Corinthians. This was a church that was a result of Paul’s personal ministry there, but these were hard trips. Remember on his first missionary trip, the going was so difficult and it was so discouraging that John Mark turned back and decided he couldn’t go on. Paul needed those with him that could endure, that would endure, that weren’t looking for a way out when things were going in a difficult way. This second missionary trip starts with a conflict, a major serious conflict. Two of the most prominent leaders in this early church have a split.

Verse 36, Paul and Barnabas traveled together on the first missionary trip. After some days Paul said to Barnabas, let’s return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the Word of the Lord and see how they are. Let’s go back and visit the churches and the believers. Barnabas wanted to take John called Mark along with them also. Mark was the one who turned back on the first missionary trip and didn’t continue on. Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia. I mean Paul was absolutely settled on this matter. Mark was a deserter. This is a serious, serious matter. It was like a military man who has deserted his post, he’s not to be trusted again with such a responsibility, at least not in the near future. So Paul’s language here is strong, Mark had deserted them; he had not gone with them to the work.

There occurred such a sharp disagreement, again, strong wording here. I mean there is no ground for resolving this. This disagreement is strong; it’s a sharp disagreement. They separate from one another. The men so bravely used of God on the first missionary trip cannot come to an agreement here. And their disagreement is so sharp that they decide that they can no longer minister together. Barnabas takes Mark and sails off to Cyprus, the way they went on the first trip. Paul chooses Silas as his new traveling companion and they go over land as we have seen. So this missionary trip begins in conflict. Barnabas and Mark will be used of the Lord; they really drop from the picture but later references to them indicate they still are faithful to the Lord and are used of the Lord. But they do not play a prominent part in the account of Acts because the book of Acts now is going to follow the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul. But we know Mark, or sometimes as we call him John Mark. That wasn’t his true name, he was John also called Mark, but we sometimes call him John Mark with the two names together, because it helps to distinguish him. He’s used of God to write the gospel of Mark. So we don’t write him off here. Also later, Paul will refer to Barnabas in very warm tones. In fact in his letter to the Corinthians, even though Barnabas wasn’t traveling with him in the establishing of that church, Barnabas became known to the people in that church. And Paul does refer to him, as well as on other occasions. So this is not a final parting of the way, but Paul knew the hardships of his trip and he knew he had to have men with him who would die with him if necessary. And Mark had failed to demonstrate that kind of tenacity in his character that Paul felt he could trust.

So in chapter 16 Paul came to Derbe and Lystra, and there he picks up Timothy. So now we have a third member of the party, he sort of replaces Mark as a young man who can be there to support Paul and Silas in their ministry. Be part of it, but be a man in training, if you will. We have some account of Timothy; then you come down to verse 6. They are traveling through the Galatian region and strangely the Holy Spirit forbids them to preach the gospel in Asia, remember, where cities like Colossae and Ephesus are. Paul will come back on his third trip and preach the gospel there. On this occasion it’s not the Spirit’s plan that Paul would preach the gospel in the region of Asia. They wanted to go into Bithynia, another region. The Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. What does God want to do? Here we are traveling west, we’re in strange territory, we’ve come with a desire to preach the gospel, I know this is a great region; Ephesus needs to hear, Colossae needs to hear, Asia needs to hear. And the Spirit of God says, no, you cannot preach there.

And then in the night there is a vision and God’s will for Paul and Silas and Timothy is revealed. A man from Macedonia was standing, saying, come on over, help us. Remember Macedonia is in the northern part of Greece, so Paul takes that as the word of the Lord. He travels over and he is in Macedonia. So you see what happens, that God directs him to come to Troas, and then from Troas over, here’s Macedonia. Now you’ll note, here’s Philippi; he’s going to preach the gospel there; there’ll be a church established at Philippi. From Philippi he’ll go to Thessalonica; there’ll be a church established there and a letter written to the Thessalonians. He’ll go down and preach at Berea. There’ll be believers, people who respond there, but there’ll be no church established. Then he’s going to come down and he’ll preach at Athens and remember, no church established there. Then he’ll make his way to Corinth and he’ll be 18 months here and a church will be established.

We’ll just note some things that happened here at Philippi, and you see what he is doing; he’s making his way south through Greece. Starts in Macedonia because the vision was, come into Macedonia. It was a man from Macedonia; come over and help us. So he goes to Macedonia and he starts there, and this is where the gospel is carried into Europe, of course, for the first time. Here you are, you’re just traveling in, you come to a new area and you start preaching the gospel. And he starts with the Jews as he usually does, goes to meeting places on the Sabbath day and preaches the gospel.

In verse 14, Lydia, whose home city is Thyatira, but she’s a businesswoman there; the end of verse 14, the Lord opens her heart and she believes. There is a slave girl delivered from a demon and now problems break out and opposition builds. And Paul and Silas are arrested and they are accused of doing things that are not lawful for Romans to do. This is serious in a Roman city, Philippi, so they beat them. Then they put them in the inner prison in stocks, and then the Lord intervenes and the Philippian jailer and his household are saved, verses 31ff. And then finally they are set free and asked to please leave the city. So you see it’s a mixed ministry. We know how it has worked out and now we read the letter to the Philippians and we say, what a marvelous ministry. But you understand it was carried out under intense pressure and great difficulty. You can see why Paul was concerned about those who travel with him being able to endure the hardship. I mean to be beaten the way they were was so severe that it was not allowed to give that kind of beating to a Roman citizen. You are familiar with the account; that’s what causes the leaders of the city to come and ask Paul and Silas to please leave. They are afraid because they have meted out such a terrible punishment to men who are Roman citizens. They could be themselves in serious trouble if this got out.

We look at it and say, wow, people believe and there is a church established. Yes, but there was a price to be paid, and you understand the overwhelming feeling of the city is, we want to be rid of these men. Praise God for the church at Philippi, and then the church was a great testimony as we learn when we read the letter to the Philippians. But you understand that the feeling of the city is negative toward Paul, toward Silas.

He comes down into Thessalonica. What does Paul do? Well he spends three Sabbath days in the synagogue and he is, verse 3, explaining and giving evidence that Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead. Then he says, Jesus is the one who fulfills these scriptures. Let me show you what the scripture says about the coming Messiah. He must suffer, He must die, He must be raised from the dead, and Jesus of Nazareth fulfills that. But the opposition builds; they form a mob; there is turmoil; there is opposition. Verse 6, they are referred to as the men who have upset the world; they are turning the world upside down. Here you have a few men traveling together from town to town, preaching the gospel, but their reputation has spread; they are turning the world upside down.

And so what happens? Verse 10, the brethren sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. Here he has to slink out of town, has to sneak out at night. Now again praise God, there is a church established at Thessalonica and we have two letters written to them—I Thessalonians and II Thessalonians. You understand the overwhelming reaction to Paul’s ministry again is negative. And the opposition is so strong that they have to get him out of town at night so they don’t have a kind of riot that will result perhaps in the death of Paul and Silas and others.

Paul goes to Berea, and they are a little more noble than the Thessalonians, and they’ll give Paul a hearing. But you know what happens? People travel down and stir up trouble and Paul has to move on; the crowds are stirred up in verse 13. So Paul travels ever farther south now; he comes to Athens, the great city of Athens. Now he has done something, verse 15. Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. Paul has sent Timothy and Silas on their mission and he goes on and preaches at Athens. We’ll say more about their mission in a moment, and we’re familiar with the account. He ends up reasoning about the gospel with the philosophers of Athens and then he ends up at the Areopagus, proclaiming Jesus Christ. And when he gets to the matter of the resurrection of Christ, things come apart. And the majority is not willing to hear it. Some people are saved. Acts 17:34 ends, some men joined him and believed, among whom were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. But evidently, at least, there is no church referred to as started in Athens.

Again, the overwhelming reaction to Paul’s ministry has been negative. Now praise God there are people saved. But you know how it is. We share the gospel when we talk to people and along the way we say there are a few people that got saved, but we look at it and say, the overwhelming reaction is negative. And we act like, oh my goodness, what are we to do? We are to preach the Word. We don’t know what God is going to do. Little could Paul know that 2000 years later there would be a church in a place that he didn’t even know existed and we’d be studying about his life and his ministry and learning from it, being encouraged by it. And the word that he would write to these churches would be resounding around the world for thousands of years. And all he is doing is traipsing from town to town and preaching and finding a few people to believe in some places. And some places they just drive him out and on it goes.

This has been the situation. Then he left Athens and came to Corinth. Now we are told in I Thessalonians 3 that Paul had sent Timothy back to Thessalonica and evidently Silas to Phlippi, because he was concerned about how the churches were doing. Let’s face it. He had to leave those cities in not the best of circumstances. And so he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to encourage them. I Thessalonians 3 refers to that fact. Evidently Silas went on up into Macedonia to Philippi, because Paul will refer to the fact that there was financial help sent to him from Philippi. That will enable him to do the ministry in Corinth. I want you to note that because as you come into Acts 18, Paul comes to Corinth and he’s alone. Here he goes; he sends his close traveling companions on missions. He leaves Athens and there was some salvation, but evidently not enough going on that he felt he should stay there.

Then he travels the 40-50 miles over from Athens going west to Corinth. And here he comes into this great metropolis and he is alone. It’s been a hard trip. He’s been driven out of towns and cities; he’s been beaten; he’s been in prison. His enemies not only oppose him in the cities where he is, but like the Thessalonian enemies they followed him to Berea. And it’s just been a difficult ministry. And you can appreciate as he comes to Corinth that he would write to the Corinthians later in I Corinthians 2:3 and say, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Here comes this little solitary Jewish man, walking into the city of Corinth, a thriving metropolis, a commercial center, a religious center. Don’t even begin to remember the dozen or more gods and goddesses that are worshiped at Corinth. We talk about the paganness of our society and we don’t understand anything about paganism. I mean Corinth was the center of all kinds and manner of religions. It was a polluted city; so bad that if you referred to Corinthianizing someone it meant you corrupted them morally. It had a reputation of a morally corrupt place.

And here comes Paul into the city. We live in a city of 200,000+. It’s interesting because it is estimated that at this time when Paul would have arrived in Corinth there was a city of about 200,000. You get some idea of the city. It’s a city that had reached its zenith about 700 B.C., but as Paul arrives it was a relatively new city for that day. What had happened, in 146 B.C. the cities of Achaia, the southern province of Greece, had formed a league and they were opposed to the Romans and they would not disperse. Corinth was the capital of that league. Since they would not dissolve and submit to the Romans, the Romans sent their armies in and they leveled the city, destroyed and burned the buildings. Historical records say all the males of the city were executed; all the women and children were sold into slavery. The Romans had a way of making an example of cities that would resist them, so others would learn it doesn’t pay to resist the Romans. So for 100 years Corinth was really a ruin. Then in 44 B.C. Julius Caesar decided to rebuild Corinth in honor of himself. So the city is relatively new, even though it is a city with an old history, as Paul comes to it.

But once Julius Caesar determined to rebuild it, the city explodes and flourishes. Its location makes it ideal for commercial activity, and so it quickly comes to prominence. It is made when he establishes it, a Roman colony. What a Roman colony was to be was a little Rome in other places. One of the things they did was help the overpopulation of Rome by settling Romans in other places. And you could have a little Rome over here, so retired Roman soldiers would be settled in a colony like Corinth. They tried to lay the city out on a Roman model rather than a Greek model, to build buildings that would be more like Rome than Greece, and try to make it a little Rome. And that’s what these Roman cities were to be. So it is a place of importance, because it has a unique relationship to Rome that ruled the world. So that all contributes to its cosmopolitan nature. And Rome would settle people here from a variety of places.

It’s a religious center. Like I said there are so many different religions and gods and goddesses worshipped here that you read in a commentary and they’ll just go on with line after line of the list of gods and goddesses you find here. One of the prominent ones was the temple of Aphrodite on the Acropolis. And they say 1000 temple prostitutes would descend into the city of Corinth every night from that one religious center alone. And you see the moral corruption and defilement of the city.

Intellectual city, wealthy city, power center, immoral center…and here comes Paul walking into the city, to do what? Preach Christ. I mean, they are open to all kinds of religions as long as you don’t say your religion is the only one, as long as you don’t say your religion is the one to the exclusion of others. I mean this is the great problem of the Jewish religion; it’s the great problem of the Christian religion. They are monotheistic. So the Romans didn’t have any problem with new religions. The more the better, because the more gods and goddesses you pacify, the fewer problems we’ll have. But if you’re going to have a religion that claims to be exclusive and all other religions are a problem, now we have conflict that will not be acceptable.

So here comes Paul to proclaim the message that salvation is found only in Jesus Christ. God is gracious. Doesn’t have Timothy with him on this occasion, doesn’t have Silas with him. But in verse 2 he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla. Priscilla is the more familiar version of Prisca. Prisca would be more formal; Priscilla would be the more familiar form of her name. They have come recently to Corinth from Rome because Claudius gave an edict. I want all the Jews out of Rome. Isn’t that anti-Semitic? Well in those days those kinds of niceties weren’t an issue. Claudius is the Roman emperor. I don’t want any Jews in my city. All the Jews have to pack and go. Now this is not just an interesting note that explains to us how Aquila and Priscilla end up being in Corinth, although that’s of interest here, but it also helps us because we know from Roman records that Claudius gave this decree in 49 A.D. So we have a definite year here, and we know that decree has been given recently because verse 2 says, they have come recently from Italy because of that decree. So 49 A.D. All right, we’re going to get another timeline here in a moment, and we pretty well can identify the time here that Paul is in Corinth for 18 months, from 49-52. We’ll note that second identification in a moment. Priscilla and Aquila become a key part in Paul’s life and ministry, not as much as Timothy or some others, but he’ll refer to them on occasion and they’ll travel with him for short trips and so on.

The reason Paul gets together with them, and we wonder, I try to think in my mind. Now here you have a city; it’s about the size of Lincoln, but it’s much more of a commercial metropolis; it’s much more of a religious center; it’s much more of an immoral center and Paul walks in. I would like it if the Lord had given a footnote. What did Paul do when he got here? Here I am. I mean how many people are coming and going in this city. How do you begin? What do I do? Well Paul just does the basics. I assume, it says he came to them at the end of verse 2, Aquila and Priscilla, because he was of the same trade. They were leatherworkers and made tents. Paul evidently went into the city looking for people of this trade. That seems to be what brought them together. And then he stays with them and now we find out. You know what Paul did to support himself? He worked with leather and made tents. This would have been a trade taught to him as a young person by his father. We think all Paul did was be a Pharisee and then he was the great apostle. He didn’t need to know how to do anything else. But he had a trade, and when he comes to Corinth he has to eat; he has to live. So he finds out where there are those who have the same trade as he, and by God’s grace He brings him together with Priscilla and Aquila. We don’t know how Priscilla and Aquila became believers. They may have been Old Testament saints who now hear the gospel through the Apostle Paul and naturally respond to it. But there is no instruction, no revelation given here about those matters. But we do know they are believers, and become a key part of Paul’s life and ministry.

So here’s what Paul’s week was like. They were working by trade, they were tentmakers, verse 3. And in verse 4, he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. So here is what Paul did. Sunday through Friday he is working away at his trade; he’s making tents; he’s grinding it out. Sabbath comes, he goes to where the Jews gather, meets in the synagogue and tries to show them from the scriptures that Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The Apostle Paul is working away, grinding it out, preaching the gospel on his day off which would have been the Sabbath for him, going to the temple even some evenings when he had them.

But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the Word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. As I mentioned, we know Timothy had been in Thessalonica; I Thessalonians 3 tells us that. We know from Philippians 4 that the Philippians sent gifts to Paul on more than one occasion. Turn over to II Corinthians 11:9. Paul says in verse 8, I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to serve you. In other words, I came and preached the Word of God to you but I didn’t accept money from you. I was taking the money that other churches gave me and using it to minister to you. And when I was present with you and was in need I was not a burden to anyone, for when the brethren came from Macedonia, they fully supplied my need. So assume that at least one of these provisions from the Macedonians was with Silas when he returned. And we see how the Philippians were used. What an opportunity, now. Paul is freed from the responsibilities of having to be a tentmaker, to devote himself, if you will, fulltime to the ministry. Note here, the Apostle Paul was about the work of the Lord and when he is working his job as a tentmaker, he is still about the work of the Lord. Doesn’t change. Obviously there has to be income to pay the bills. If the income is from my working I’m still involved in the ministry. If the income comes because others have supported me, I’m in the ministry. Paul wasn’t some prima donna out here; he was grinding it out, whatever it took to do what God had called him to do.

You’ll note what he is doing in Acts 18:6. He shares the gospel in the synagogue. Do you know what happens? Verse 6, but they resisted and blasphemed, he shook down his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads, I am clean from now on. I’ll go to the Gentiles. You know here is the Apostle Paul sharing the gospel as God’s appointed representative, and the opposition, the response, is negative. It’s opposition to the point they blaspheme against the message. You know you begin to think as you follow the Apostle Paul’s travels that maybe he wasn’t gifted. Maybe, Paul, you have the gift of antagonism, because everywhere you go you encounter opposition. I mean, we have a beautiful message of salvation in Christ; it’s the free gift of life. Maybe it’s the way you share it, Paul. No matter where you go, people get upset. Why don’t you just be quiet and serve in the back room? No, that’s not the problem; the problem is Paul was clear and bold with the message and it always got a response, either negative or positive. Overwhelming majority was negative and in the grace of God there is some positive.

So he shakes the dust from his garments, symbolism that the Jews would have nothing to do with you so I’m done with you. And so his ministry from this point on in Corinth will focus on the Gentiles. Now some Jews are going to be saved and they are going to come over with Paul.

Jump back to the book of Ezekiel, right about the middle of your Old Testament: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, those large prophetic books after the Psalms. Ezekiel 33, God starts out by instructing Ezekiel on the responsibility of a watchman, a watchman who stood on the walls of the city and watched for the enemy who might come. If he sees the enemy coming his responsibility is to sound a warning. God says if that watchman sounds a warning and the enemy comes and destroys the city anyway, the watchman has fulfilled his responsibility. If the watchman sees the enemy coming and the enemy comes and destroys the city but the watchman didn’t warn them, the city is still destroyed but the watchman is accountable for the failure to do his duty. Then God takes that and applies it to Ezekiel. Verse 7, now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel. Now note, you will hear a message from my mouth and give them warning from Me. The responsibility is the problem—you take the message from God and you have that message and now you are responsible to send a warning. When I say to the wicked, oh wicked man you will surely die and you do not speak to warn the wicked man from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity. I want you to note something, the wicked will not have an excuse, I didn’t hear. They are accountable for their wickedness. So if I tell you the wicked are going to die and you don’t warn the wicked, the wicked man will die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hands. You will be accountable to Me for your failure. But if on your part you warn the wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity. But you have delivered yourself; you have fulfilled your responsibility to me.

Tremendous truth here. I am not responsible for the response to the message. I am responsible and accountable for giving the warning. And sometimes we get confused on our responsibility. So I say Paul, the overwhelming response to Paul’s ministry and message was negative. Whole cities turned against him with few exceptions in the city. Does that mean Paul was a success or a failure? We say, of course he was a success. Look at the New Testament. But we ought to put that into proper context. 99.9% of the people rejected Paul, and that’s just off the top of my head. The vast majority, whole cities, turned against him and the message. Paul’s responsibility was what? God had entrusted him with a warning, with a message. The wages of sin is death; the soul that sins shall die; there is none righteous, no not one. The only hope is in Jesus Christ. Now that’s the message entrusted. If I don’t share it, the wicked will die and go to hell, but I will be accountable to God for the failure to do my duty. If I share the message and they don’t believe, the wicked will die and go to hell, but I will have fulfilled the responsibility God has entrusted to me. And so the Apostle Paul is about the work of the Lord and the Lord is doing with the Word as He would choose.

All right, come back to Acts 18, as we wrap up his ministry here. Verses 7-8 Paul moves his ministry from the synagogue, and I love the way Paul does it. Opposition is intense in the synagogue; the people are opposed to him, so what do you do? You move across town. Not Paul, he moved next door. All right, we won’t be in the synagogue, we’ll move to the house next door. He left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. Evidently a Gentile follower like Cornelius, a Jewish sympathizer, if you will, a worshiper of God, maybe not a full proselyte. But he had responded to the message as Cornelius did in Acts 10. You know here you appreciate a man like this. You know the Jews have strong hostility to Paul and his ministry. But you become a believer in Jesus Christ; your life is changed; you’re willing to open your house for Paul to continue his ministry. You understand Paul is going to leave this city eventually. Titius Justus has to stay. What about all his friends, all his contacts. Doesn’t matter. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household. Many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized. We’re getting response to the gospel. Wonder what is going on in Paul’s mind?

You know we get a glimpse in the next verse. And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, do not be afraid any longer, don’t go on being afraid. Go on speaking and do not be silent. I am with you No man will attack you in order to harm you for I have many people in this city. You know Paul says I was weak. I had weakness and fear and much trembling. We look at it and say, people are getting saved but you know it’s easy to read that. Any time you read a biography or a summary of a historical account you get the highlights. Understand Paul, he realizes, praise God for people getting saved, but it could have looked like a drop in the bucket. I mean I have this vast city, I have the Jews against me; I know what they can do; I know what it’s like to be beaten; I know what’s it like to be in prison; I know what it’s like to have to get out of town in the middle of night to save my life. So it’s not like Paul is basking in the “success” of his ministry here. This is going on; he’s thankful for any who are saved, but he realizes the opposition is going to come and then the Lord intervenes in the night to encourage his heart. He says, stop being afraid, you can relax, Paul. Keep on speaking, do not be silent. Could the Apostle Paul ever consider shutting up? But you know he’ll ask people to pray for him, that I might have boldness in the sharing of the truth, the preaching of the gospel.

God tells him at the end of verse 10, I have many people in this city. In II Timothy 2:10 Paul says, I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they might come to the salvation which is in Christ Jesus. Paul, keep on preaching because I’m going to use the preaching of the gospel through you to draw those that I have chosen to salvation in My Son. That’s what it’s all about, right? So Paul could write to Timothy in his last letter, you know what my life was about? Giving the elect of God an opportunity to hear the gospel that they might believe and be saved. So going on here.

Well you know 18 months of ministry. The two longest places we have recorded that Paul stayed for ministry was Ephesus for three years (that will be on his third missionary journey) and Corinth, 18 months. That isn’t saying he didn’t stay in other cities in his travels longer, but we have no record of any stays in those cities he traveled to longer than Ephesus for three years and Corinth for 18 months. It’s a long time, but after 18 months the opposition hasn’t gone away. So Gallio was proconsul of Achaia. So here’s the governor, if you will, the proconsul of Achaia. Remember that’s the southern part, it includes Athens, Corinth. Macedonia was in the north, it includes Thessalonica and Philippi. Now it’s interesting we have the name here, we just don’t talk about the proconsul. We have his name as Gallio. That’s interesting to us because we have Roman records that tell us that Gallio was proconsul of Achaia from July 51 to June 52 A.D.—one year. Now remember Claudius’ decree in 49 resulted in Aquila and Priscilla coming to Corinth. Now during the time when Gallio is proconsul, and he was only proconsul for a year, we can really narrow Paul’s ministry down in Corinth—from 49 to 52 A.D., 18 months. Sometime in 49 to end of 52 Paul is in Corinth. It helps us to establish lines like this to fit the rest of Paul’s travels and so on in the New Testament.

There is opposition from the Jews particularly, and they come to appeal before the proconsul, Gallio. And they charge Paul with violating Roman law and creating trouble. Gallio immediately realizes as the Jews get started, this is a matter of the Jews not liking Paul. So Gallio says, look, this is a matter of personal conflict with you Jews. This has nothing to do with Roman law; he hasn’t violated any Roman law. The Romans don’t care if he preaches another deity; that’s fine, we don’t care. There will be a place for conflict, obviously, for the Romans, but generally the Romans don’t care how many gods you worship. Just don’t cause trouble. So the Jews are trying to make it a matter of trouble.

Paul is just about to give his defense in verse 14. When Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio speaks, and it’s the end of the matter. He tells the Jews, I’m not interested. So he sends them away; they took hold, verse 17, of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him. Now why is Sosthenes beaten? Well, evidently Sosthenes is another leader; Crispus was a leader of the synagogue. The synagogues had multiple leaders, earlier in Acts 13 we talked about the elders of the synagogue. So evidently Sosthenes also has become a believer. Interesting, when Paul begins the letter to the Corinthians in I Corinthians 1:1 he’ll talk about Sosthenes our brother. Here is a Jew who is beating a Jew. Now the Jews aren’t beating Paul; remember Paul is a Roman citizen, so without Gallio’s authority, nothing can be done to Paul. Sosthenes is a Jew and little could Gallio care whether the Jews beat up the Jews, as long as they don’t unsettle the city.

Paul remained many days and left. So that’s the establishing of the church at Corinth, a great church. You know what an opportunity, here is Gallio, and Paul is about to speak. You talk about a reverse. From all looks, here is the Roman authority in this region; here is the man of power and influence. But you know who the important person is? Paul. What an opportunity missed. You know Gallio is not as familiar a name to us outside the Bible but Roman history does tell us he had a famous brother. Most of you who have read some history are familiar with Seneca, a Roman philosopher. He became the tutor of Nero, and that was not good, because Nero then turned against Seneca and had him executed. And then he executed Seneca’s brother, Gallio. That will be about 12-14 years after this, somewhere around 64 or 65 A.D. So here is a man this close to being able to hear the truth of the gospel and experience the power of salvation, but he is too important to be bothered. Missed opportunity. A dozen years later this man of such great power and influence will be executed by the Roman emperor. And who remembers him for anything significant? And here after 18+ months Paul journeys off now, has to head back home, has to get back to Jerusalem and so on. But the power of the gospel continues and lives are changed. The church at Corinth is established. We’ll start to study this great letter. How could Paul know that this ministry was going to result in a church that would impact the world? All he is doing is sharing the gospel; sharing the gospel with people who don’t want to hear it, generally speaking; sharing the gospel and experiencing the opposition and antagonism and so on that comes from such a faithful ministry. But he’s had a life that impacts the world.

And so you and I, what are we here? We’re established as a church to do great things. Well in one narrow sense that is true, because the greatest thing we can do in the world today is proclaim the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The greatest thing we can do with our lives is to share the truth concerning Jesus Christ. And so as those entrusted with that truth, we are responsible before God to give out that truth. I am not responsible for what people do with it, although Paul begs people, if you will, in his letter to the Romans, be reconciled to God. He’s not indifferent about their response, but he needs to be careful that he doesn’t get discouraged by their response. God is doing the work that He chooses to do and by His grace we are privileged to be instruments of that message.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the faithfulness of men and women, some more prominent, some more well known, some, Lord, unknown who have been lost, their names are lost down through history. But, God, they were faithful to you and by your grace they not only experienced their salvation, but became instruments through whom others heard the message of Christ. Lord, down through these thousands of years that message has come to us, and by your grace we have been privileged to hear the truth concerning Christ, believe it and be saved, be established as a local congregation of believers to testify of your grace. Lord, may we be faithful to take the word given to us and share it with others. Lord, may we not be intimidated, may we have a tenacity like Paul to stay with the task that you might be honored. We look forward to the glory you have promised to us in your presence and count it a privilege, not only to believe in Jesus Christ but also to suffer for Him, if that should be our lot. We praise you in Christ’s name, amen.