Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00020A
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00:23 Welcome to Books of the Book. My name is Mark Howard and I'm
00:26 a pastor in the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day 00:28 Adventists as well as my brother Jim here who is my co-host. He's 00:31 also a pastor. He's on one side of the state of Michigan and I'm 00:34 on the other and occasionally we see each other when we go to 00:39 places like this and study the book of Acts. We are here. We've 00:42 been going through the book of Acts chapter by chapter pretty 00:46 much and in our last time together, Jim, we were studying 00:49 about Paul in Athens and how when Paul was in Athens his 00:53 heart was burdened with the fact that the city was overtaken with 00:58 idolatry and that those individuals hadn't had the 01:02 opportunity to hear the gospel message. We see Paul laboring 01:06 there in Athens and he worked very diligently to try to 01:10 present the gospel in terms to meet the minds of the 01:14 philosophers of Athens. But we find at the end of his time with 01:19 them that his results were not what they had typically been. 01:24 We find a shift in his ministry as he comes into chapter 18. 01:28 The Bible says... In fact before we go into reading the Bible 01:32 our custom has been to ask the Lord to bless our time. So I'd 01:35 invite our viewers to bow their heads and we're going to ask 01:39 God to bless our study of his word. Father in heaven, as we 01:42 turn our attention to your word now we just pray that the Spirit 01:45 of Truth would lead us into truth, not just intellectual 01:48 truth, Lord, but truth in our hearts and in our lives and we 01:52 ask and pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 01:53 In Acts chapter 18 verse 1, the Bible says, After these things 01:58 Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth and he found 02:02 a certain Jew named Aquila. Now before we comment on that, I was 02:06 just going to say we ended our last program with I believe it 02:10 was I Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 2 where Paul says, and 02:14 it's coming right into this ministry in Corinth from Athens. 02:17 I determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him 02:20 crucified. In other words, the apostle realized that the most 02:24 power he ever had when he preached was not trying to be 02:27 eloquent, but preaching the simplicity of the gospel of 02:30 Christ. So he comes into Corinth with that mindset. The Bible 02:35 says, He found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus 02:40 who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla 02:44 because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome 02:47 and he came to them. So because he was of the same trade 02:52 he stayed with them and worked for by occupation they were tent 02:57 makers and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and 03:00 persuaded both Jews and Greeks. A couple of things grab my 03:03 attention here. First of all Aquila and Priscilla, these 03:07 tent makers. Paul joins with them. In all the work that Paul 03:11 was doing Paul supported himself by manual labor and helped to 03:15 support those of his ministry like Luke and Timothy and others 03:18 that he took with him. Manual labor was not something that was 03:23 beneath the Apostle Paul. It's interesting that if you go back 03:27 into the Old Testament scriptures you understand and 03:30 and you look at the culture of Judaism itself it was required 03:33 that every Jewish boy learn a trade that he could use 03:39 throughout his life no matter what else he happened to do. 03:43 Paul had learned the trade of tent making and he puts it into 03:47 practice with this couple. Furthermore, it says in verse 4 03:51 that he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and 03:53 persuaded both Jews and Greeks. It's interesting, Jim, to me 03:57 that everywhere the Apostle Paul goes he starts working. We don't 04:00 see that Paul went to Corinth and he'd had a hard time in 04:03 Athens and so he took a couple weeks off, he went fishing, he 04:07 went sightseeing, he went and tried to get a tan on the beach 04:11 He's right back at work and every place he goes we find this 04:15 phrase, He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and 04:20 persuaded both Jews and Greeks. He had a fixed purpose of 04:24 preaching the gospel of Christ and seeing souls converted. 04:28 That's right. Well let's pick up in verse 5 where it says, When 04:33 Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by 04:37 the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. 04:42 Here's a little bit of that emphasis on Christ and him 04:46 crucified. We see that in Corinth as we are about to see 04:50 the results were very good because of this. It makes me 04:54 think about that attempt he made in Athens to appeal to the 04:58 intellectual philosophy of those in Athens and how sometimes in 05:03 our day we find that we want to meet the minds of people in 05:08 their particular generation or their particular status of 05:13 situation and certainly we need to be sensitive to those things, 05:17 but when it comes right down to it, sometimes we put our 05:21 emphasis on trying to be relevant to people above the 05:25 fact that the Bible itself is relevant and the gospel is 05:29 always relevant, transcendent across all cultures and generations and we should 05:33 recognize what Paul recognized that you know what 05:37 happened there in Athens, while it was a good attempt, really 05:39 didn't bear a lot of fruit. And what he did here in the 05:43 simplicity of the gospel just speaking to the heart of the men 05:48 and women in Corinth and really appealing to the gospel of 05:53 repentance and forgiveness in Christ, simply by giving that 05:57 gospel we see a very different result here in Corinth. Now if 06:01 we keep reading, it says in verse 6, But when they opposed 06:04 him and blasphemed, he shook his garments. Now first of all our 06:08 viewers need to understand when he shook his garments that was a 06:13 symbolic representation of shaking, similar to when they 06:19 shook the dust off their feet against them. It was to say, We 06:22 made you the offer, the invitation and you have 06:25 rejected it and therefore our hands are clean of the matter. 06:30 That's pretty much described as he continues and it says in the 06:35 next part of the verse, he says to them, Your blood be upon your 06:39 own heads, I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles. 06:43 Now when we read this particular passage, it says, From now on 06:47 I will go to the Gentiles, we need to recognize that he's only 06:51 talking about here in Corinth. He's been preaching to Jews and 06:54 Gentiles and he will continue to teach Jews. In fact, later 07:00 when he gets to Ephesus in chapter 18 and verse 19, it says 07:04 that he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the 07:07 Jews. So he's just talking about these particular Jews that have 07:11 rejected him. He's not going to continue ministering to them in 07:15 Corinth. In verse 7 it says, And he departed from there and 07:18 entered the house of a certain man named Justus, one who 07:21 worshipped God whose house was next door to the synagogue. Then 07:25 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord 07:29 with all his household and many of the Corinthians hearing 07:33 believed and were baptized. Now a couple of things we're noting 07:37 here. Number one, we have another example of not only 07:39 Crispus but all his household and you see the power of the 07:44 influence that someone can have on their family when they make a 07:50 right decision. We need to remember that we don't live in 07:54 a vacuum and when we make decisions for Christ we have a 07:57 sphere of influence. When we make a decision against Christ 08:03 we have a sphere of influence. I think about our youngest 08:07 brother, Ron. When I was growing up, I grew up in a very worldly 08:13 environment and without the Lord and he kind of patterned 08:18 his life in the same way. I remember thinking about after 08:23 my conversion how awful it was that he had had me as a model. 08:29 Fortunately I later had the privilege of baptizing him and 08:33 he's with the Lord and serving the Lord fervently. But we just 08:37 need to think about that. All through the book of Acts we see 08:40 the power of influence, not just of the apostles, but of everyone 08:43 in their own sphere. That's right and I would like to 08:46 appeal to our viewers, whether in your own experience or maybe 08:51 you are a person of influence in your family. For father's 08:56 especially I would appeal to you to be faithful to the Lord 09:00 because you carry a lot of influence. Perhaps you have 09:03 friends of yours that are leaders, and again, I would 09:06 speak to fathers. Fathers have an incredible influence in the 09:11 home and even statistically when a mother in a home becomes a 09:15 Christian there's a 17% chance that the rest of the household 09:19 will become Christian. When the father becomes a Christian, it's 09:23 over 90% chance. Sometimes we know people who are leaders in 09:27 their homes and we don't say things. We don't try to appeal 09:33 to them. Paul, he appealed to these people that he saw who 09:37 could be leaders in their homes and we see the results. 09:41 The whole household is converted 09:42 That's right and sometimes we shy away from believing 09:45 something because of opposition in our household, but we find 09:48 that when we're faithful and when we follow the Lord 09:51 regardless of what pressures we might have, it's the best thing 09:55 we can do for our household. And we see this wonderful 09:57 experience once again of the whole household being saved. 10:00 Now in verse 9 it says, Now and the Lord spoke to Paul in the 10:03 night by a vision. Do not be afraid but speak and do not 10:06 keep silent for I am with you and no one will attack you to 10:10 hurt you for I have many people in this city. Then in verse 11, 10:13 it says and he continued there, there in Corinth, a year and six 10:17 months teaching the word of God among them. This is 10:20 powerful. It's interesting. We read the book of Acts and 10:26 everything is happening in rapid succession but the book of Acts 10:29 covered a period of over 30 years and there was a lot of 10:34 work that we don't see that was going on in the book of Acts 10:37 by the different members in the churches, by the apostles 10:39 themselves. We see some of the highlights, some of the 10:42 supernatural things, certainly drew Luke's attention. But here 10:46 we see this pattern that the Apostle Paul builds of not just 10:50 going into an area, baptizing some people and running off to 10:55 the next area. He was there for a full year and six months. The 10:59 great commission was not go and baptize... 11:02 And he was teaching the word among them and he was with them 11:06 day in and day out and teaching and I'm sure modeling. 11:10 That's right. You know the great commission doesn't just say we 11:12 are to go and baptize, but we're to go and make disciples 11:15 baptizing them and then teaching them to observe all things that 11:19 the Lord has commanded us. So sometimes we think our work is 11:23 completed when we've studied with someone, we've baptized 11:26 them and then we move on to the next. Often times we'll have 11:31 evangelistic efforts and we'll stir up a lot of interest and 11:35 then after that's over that list of people who showed 11:38 interest in the Bible... That's usually about a month's 11:41 worth of time. That's right. It takes about a 11:43 month to get through that series. Then that list of people 11:46 that came sits on a desk somewhere or maybe we follow up 11:49 with a couple but we just stir up the area but we don't bind 11:53 it up and we don't lead to what we're really to be leading to 11:57 which is to making disciples. Disciples are self-denying. 12:02 Disciples are faithful to be fishers of men and if we're 12:07 going to really be developing the work of God, we're going to 12:11 have to start going beyond just baptizing people and start 12:16 training people to be workers. Paul stayed with this group 12:20 until they were whole-hearted in their own ministry in their 12:25 own area, ministering to others and that was the effectiveness 12:29 of the early church was their focus on that discipleship. 12:32 Absolutely. We'll see that a little bit more in the chapter 12:37 as we go on. In verse 12, it tells us that, of course he's 12:43 here for this period of time, it says, When Gallio was proconsul 12:46 of Achaia the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and 12:50 brought him to the judgment seat. So once again the Jews are 12:54 stirred up and they bring Paul to the judgment seat, Saying 12:57 this fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law 13:01 and when Paul was about to open his month Gallio said to the 13:04 Jews, If it were a matter of wrong doing or wicked crimes O 13:08 Jews there would be reason why I should bear with you. But if 13:11 it is a question of words and names and of your own law, look 13:14 to yourselves for I do not want to be a judge of such matters 13:17 and he drove them from the judgment seat. The Bible says in 13:20 verse 17, Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the ruler of 13:23 the synagogue and beat him before the judgment seat but 13:27 Gallio took no notice of these things. Now once again the Jews 13:30 who don't believe are trying to stir up trouble for the apostle 13:34 and it's interesting that in this place the Lord has a 13:36 different way of rescuing Paul from the situation and those 13:42 who are opposing him now God is able to impress Gallio and he 13:46 says I'm not even going to hear this matter. You guys see to it. 13:51 And for whatever reason those who are nearby begin to beat the 13:55 ruler of the synagogue and Gallio looks the other way. 13:59 Probably they knew that their charges against Paul were not 14:03 fair and he felt they deserved it but one way or another the 14:07 Lord delivers the apostle from this situation and he goes on to 14:11 minister. And we'll look at that but we're going to take a break 14:15 here and then we're going to come back to see what happens 14:17 next as Paul returns to Antioch. So stay with us. |
Revised 2014-12-17