Through The Bible - Acts 18 - Part 2

Brett Meador: Paul, who I think is fearless. Remember they stoned him to death outside of Lystra, and he got up and went right back into the city. I would have thought this was totally unnecessary for Paul, but Paul had moments when he was feeling a little bit afraid to speak, afraid to go do what he was always doing. The Lord gives a vision to Paul, and I think this reminds us that Paul had fears you and I have. He just pushed through and continued teaching the word of God among them.
Guest (Male): As Paul arrived in Corinth, God surrounded him with faithful friends, opened doors to preach the gospel, and encouraged him to keep going despite opposition. As Pastor Brett Meador continues verse-by-verse through Acts chapter 18 in Today's Word, we'll see how the Lord strengthens His people, builds His church, and accomplishes His purposes through faithful believers.
Brett Meador: Acts chapter 18. We've been seeing Paul visit different cities, and every city is different. He's been to Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens. Now we're going to pick it up where we left off. Acts 18:1 says, "After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome: and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers." In the first few verses, we meet the dynamic duo, this amazing couple of the Bible. They are always named together, Aquila and Priscilla. They were at this time for sure Christians. Some believe it's possible that Paul led them both to Jesus as they worked together as tentmakers. Paul goes to Corinth and he literally gets a job making tents or working with leather. He finds Aquila and Priscilla ministering together, whom the Lord was using mightily. They were volunteers. They were people that had a job that helped Paul with the ministry. Why was Paul here working in tentmaking? We don't see him do this in any of the other cities he visits. What's different about the Corinthian church? 2 Corinthians chapter 11 says there were a bunch of false teachers that were claiming to be apostles but were not. They were rascals masquerading, and they were asking for money. Paul said, "I don't want to appear like them at all." So Paul said, "I'm not going to be chargeable to you. I'm not going to ask for money from you guys because you guys have misconstrued that as well as the false apostles that aren't real but they're from Satan." All that to say, I think it's cool that Paul had a tentmaking skill to go back on. Sometimes I think pastors that go to seminary and just have a religious degree have no other skills. Who knows? Things could get in the way. I could see a time where persecution happens in America where the church will no longer be able to have a big staff or paid pastors. There could be a day where literally we'll have to fend for ourselves and I'd want all of us to be able to fall back and try to be a part of the solution and not just taking in that way. There is something to that if you're thinking of being in the ministry. I love how Paul can employ that when he wants to so the people of Corinth couldn't accuse him for being there for the money. Back to Acts chapter 18, we pick it up in verse 5. It says, "And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ." This is controversial. You might say, "I don't see any controversy here." The translation from the Greek is a little hard, but in the King James, it says Paul was in first gear until Silas and Timothy were there, and then he started to get into it a little more. Suddenly because they were there, he got empowered to go and really preach because he was only doing it for a while. Others believe that part of this was that Paul was tentmaking, so he could only preach on the Sabbath. Then when Silas and Timothy showed up, they brought money from Macedonia. We see how that actually worked out. Other translations make it a little easier to understand. I think it's the NIV. Verse 5 says, "When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah." That's Acts 18:5 in the New International Version. That's the idea. Paul is unable to go full-time until Silas and Timothy get there, which is cool. All that to say, what is he preaching? He's preaching to the Jews. Notice that he's not preaching to the Gentiles. Mark that. But he was preaching to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah or was the Christ, as it says in the King James. What do you think the Jews did when he starts preaching that Jesus is the Christ? It says in verse 6, "And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles." What did Paul do? It was an interesting cultural thing. He shook his garment. Why did they do that? If you look it up, in ancient times, to shake off your garments was if Paul went into the synagogue and they rejected him and blasphemed. The idea is you figuratively shake off the dust from the synagogue, any dirt that got on you from the synagogue, shake it off and get out of there. It was a way of saying, "I'm done with this." One commentary said it's a dramatic way of expressing his rejection of their rejection. Paul was certainly capable of a dramatic and vivid demonstration of his message. Literally shake it off and just get going. That's what Paul did there. Verse 7 says, "And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue." He goes to stay with a guy whose house is attached to the synagogue. That's funny. Verse 8: "And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized." These are the Gentiles for the most part we're talking about now. These are the Gentiles of Corinth. Crispus was one of the few men in Corinth whom Paul actually personally baptized. We read that in 1 Corinthians 1:14. Paul moves into Justus's house right next to the synagogue with focusing on the Gentiles. While he's focusing on the Gentiles, I think it's funny that he says, "I'm going to move my house right next to the synagogue." Romans chapter 11, let me remind you what Paul talks about there about Gentiles and our attitude toward Jews. He says in Romans 11:11, "I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy." Speaking of the Jews. Could Paul have been moving into the synagogue right next door just to provoke the Jews to jealousy? That's what Paul is saying here. He goes on in verse 12, "Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh," the Jews, "and might save some of them." The reason Paul is focusing on the Gentiles in his mind is so that the Jews will be provoked to jealousy, a sort of indirect way for Jews perhaps to be saved. They wouldn't listen to him preach. But you might say, "Brett, why would a Jew be jealous of a Gentile?" I think there's one word that answers that question. The word is grace. Saved by grace. The Jews, in their mind, they were saved by keeping of the Law of Moses, which nobody ever did. Nobody was ever saved by the keeping of the law. Here are these Gentile believers rejoicing and the Lord's moving and the Holy Spirit's moving. There's obvious power and miracles. Meanwhile, the Jews are watching. They didn't need to be circumcised. The Gentiles didn't need to keep the traditions or the feasts or the festivals, but they're still saved and there's evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the kind of provoking to jealousy. Be that as it may, verse 9 says, "Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." I love this. This is so amazing. What this tells me is Paul, who I think is fearless. Remember they stoned him to death outside of Lystra? He got up and went right back into the city. Do you remember that? Do you think courage is a word that describes Paul? As I read it, yes. But this gives me a snapshot. The Lord gives a vision to Paul, and it's not "go to the Macedonian man" or "go preach the gospel here or there." The vision is just, "Don't be afraid, Paul. Speak. Don't hold your peace. For I am with you. No man shall hurt you." I would have thought this was totally unnecessary for Paul. But what this tells me is Paul had moments of times when he was feeling a little bit afraid to speak, afraid to go do what he was always doing. I think this reminds us that Paul had fears you and I have. He just pushed through and went over that. I wonder if the church was not flourishing as much as he wanted in Corinth and that's why the Lord said to him, "I am with you and guess what? There's a bunch of people. I have many people in this city that are coming to know me." He had to tell Paul, "Chill out, buddy. There's people coming to know me in this city." Remember Elijah the prophet? He said, "I alone am the only prophet of the Lord." The Lord had to come back and say, "No, there's hundreds of prophets. You just think you're the only one." That's what He's doing here with Paul. After getting this word of encouragement, he goes for a year and a half teaching the word of God among them. Don't you love that? Verse 12: "And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia," which is Corinth, "the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat." Some of your margins say, or some of your Bibles say, Bema seat. Which one is it? The judgment seat. Verse 13: "Saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you: But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters. And he drave them from the judgment seat." Paul didn't even have to open his mouth. The Jews say, "This guy Paul's not teaching the correct Judaism and not keeping the law." Gallio's response was, "I could care less. Whatever." That's a modern translation right there. Historically, from this moment on, Romans did view Christianity not as another religion. The Romans largely viewed at this point Christianity as a sect of Judaism. That's an interesting part of the Roman understanding at this time. This guy Gallio is like, "Yeah, whatever. You Jews deal with your stuff. I don't care about that stuff." We did come to something that's important. The Jews brought Paul to this place in Corinth called the Bema seat or the judgment seat. This is where the word Bema comes from. It's a raised place mounted by steps, a tribunal, official seat of a judge. In the Corinthian cities and others, there would be this raised up area, and this is where trials in the city center would happen so that the people could gather around and see what's being done in a justice way. This whole guy Gallio responded to the Jews. They were bringing their complaint and Gallio did that from this Bema seat or there would be a big judgment seat. It's something that was real in those days, but there's a Bema seat judgment of Christ. The Bible talks about that. It's a place to give judgment. When the Bible talks about the Bema seat judgment of Christ, remember there's three main judgments in the Bible. The one that's the scariest is the Great White Throne judgment. If you're not a believer in Christ, you're going to be judged before God once and for all, and those who fail that judgment, which will be all the people that go to the Great White Throne, they will go to hell, Gehenna, the place of outer darkness or weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. You don't want to be there. If you're a Christian, you won't be at the Great White Throne judgment. You will be at the Bema seat judgment or the judgment seat of Christ, as they call it. What happens there? Well, you have to look at 1 Corinthians 3:11 through 15: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it." What day? The day of the Bema seat judgment of Christ. "Because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Is it a good work or is it a bad work? You're not going to be judged whether you're saved or not. The Bema seat is reserved for those who are saved and going to go to heaven. But we are going to be judged for the works that we do, good works or bad works. Then it goes on in verse 14: "If any man's work abide or last, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." The person's saved, but the works that he did are burned. Do you ever wonder what that's going to look like for you? You get up to heaven and okay, here's your works. Let's try it in the fire. Sunday school teaching? It's gone. "Why, Lord? I was teaching Sunday school." "Yeah, but you signed up because there were pretty girls teaching in there and you just wanted to hang out with the pretty girls. It wasn't for the children. The Lord saw your intent." "Let's check your tithing." It's gone. "Lord, I gave money into the plate." "Yeah, but you were wanting people to see as you were putting the money in and hoping people think you're awesome because you were doing it." The Lord sees through our motives, our sinful attitudes and all that. This is the Bema seat that's going to try our reward. Some of you are like, "I don't care about that as long as I get into heaven. That's all I care about. Who wants rewards? I don't care, as long as I'm in heaven." I get that, but I think we're going to be shocked at whatever rewards there are. It's going to affect who we are and what we do in eternity. The Bible implies that in so many ways. We'll get into that in further discussions when we get into 1 Corinthians, talking in depth about the Bema seat. Everybody's going to be happy in heaven, but you'll want to know that you did stuff that actually has measurement in eternity. That's going to be a payoff of some kind. No one's going to be bummed in heaven, but I think we'll be given different responsibilities and different assignments based on how we lived our lives here on this earth. That's why works are important. They're not what saves you, but our works will be judged at the Bema seat of Christ. The story introduces the Bema seat to us in a fun way, but we'll get back to that. Verse 17 says, "Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things." Gallio's like, "Whatever. You can beat whoever you want." What did the Jews do? The Jews got dissed by Gallio. What do they do? They grab the ruler of the synagogue, a guy named Sosthenes, and say, "Well, let's beat him. If we can't condemn Paul, then we're going to beat Sosthenes." Why Sosthenes? We don't know. Maybe it's because Sosthenes didn't present a good enough case to Gallio to get his attention and they're like, "He failed us, so beat him." So they beat the guy to a pulp. That's what happened. Verse 18: "And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchreae: for he had a vow." Now, there's all kinds of debate. What kind of vow that he wasn't cutting his hair? Church tradition says he was bald. Did he have the cul-de-sac thing going on where it was really long on the sides and shiny up on top? I don't know, but he grew his hair out long. We know it was a vow. Some people say it was a Nazirite vow. Some scholars say this was not a Nazirite vow that Paul made. The reason why is because the Nazirite vow was to be made in Judea. It was a geographical thing that you would do as well. So they say this couldn't have been a Nazirite vow. Then what kind of vow was it? Some say because of the work the Lord was doing in Corinth, he made a vow to the Lord in thanksgiving that the Lord was working and using him and that he was just not going to cut his hair as long as he was there serving in that way. Some people make a big deal out of that. I don't think it's a big deal, but he let his hair grow long. Before he's going to go back to Jerusalem, he gets his hair cut. Verse 19: "And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired him to tarry a longer time with them, he consented not; but bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus." He's going to come back to Ephesus. We'll get that later. "And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up," that is to Jerusalem, "and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch." We've just now concluded Paul's second missionary journey. Verse 23 says, "And after he had spent some time there," in Antioch, "he departed, and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples." This is now beginning Paul's third missionary journey. There's three journeys. We start there from Antioch of Syria. That's where we left off. Then he goes back to Ephesus, but also these other places. They're all places that he would go on this third missionary journey. See how he went without going in the boat? This time he went across land to Ephesus on the third missionary journey. Verse 24: "And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John." What's going on here? We've got this new guy in the story, Apollos. He knows the word, the Old Testament. That's what it means there, the Hebrew Bible. But he only still teaches about the baptism of John the Baptist. Somewhere this powerful preacher, this guy must have had character and good looks. It reminds me of Billy Graham. He was such a man of stature and eloquence. Kings and queens wanted to talk to Billy Graham because he was just a good orator and he knew how to speak the truth. I sense that this was Apollos, just a powerful, effective guy, but he doesn't know the full gospel yet. That's not bad on him. Nobody's just got to Apollos yet. Verse 26: "And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla," remember they've been following with Paul, "Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly." Here's this powerful preacher preaching the Old Testament and the law and all the stuff that's past now. Priscilla and Aquila say, "Apollos, we've got something to tell you, man." Jesus is the Messiah. He came and fulfilled all the law and the prophets. Now you're saved by grace through faith. They had to get Apollos up to speed, which is really cool. You've got to love Aquila and Priscilla for this because they square him away and he's going to become a powerful, used man of God. In fact, verse 27 says, "And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia," that's Corinth, "the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: whom, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace: For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ." While Paul was not the minister to the Jews, guess who was? Apollos. He was an expert on the scriptures. Paul was, too. But God just had a different thing for Paul. Paul, you're going to be the minister to the Gentiles. But Paul said, "Lord, I'm qualified." Paul was wanting to speak to the Jews, but the Lord had a different plan for him. Apollos also knows the scriptures, the Old Testament, and now the Lord's going to use him to save Jews that are there in Corinth. Pretty radical, pretty cool story.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador concluding a verse-by-verse study of Acts chapter 18 from Today's Word, looking forward to how God would use Apollos powerfully to strengthen believers and boldly proclaim Jesus Christ. I hope you'll stick around as Pastor Brett will add a closing prayer to our message in just a moment. But first, let me tell you a little bit more about Brett Meador. He's the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just south of Portland, Oregon. Brett's been the pastor of Athey Creek for 30 years. If you've missed any portion of our study, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. You can also watch full video messages by him by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that if you'd like to share your story of how God has changed your life through these daily studies, you can email us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Well, with time for a brief prayer, here again is Pastor Brett Meador.
Brett Meador: Lord, we thank You so much for Your word. It really is amazing to think of these stories that would eventually reach our own ears, the gospel of Jesus Christ, that would make its journey not only thousands of miles around the globe, but thousands of years in time. Yet, the true gospel message is still that which saves. Help us to be like Apollos, like Paul, like Aquila, Priscilla, Silas, Timothy, Barnabas. Help us to be effective at communicating the truth and preaching the gospel and making disciples. Lord, help us with that. I pray that our lights would shine. So much we need more of You and more people to receive and accept You. Give us a heart for the unsaved. Lord, bless this time. May it bring good fruit in our lives, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time here on Today's Word. That's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will explore how the word of God radically transformed both individual lives and the entire community in the city of Ephesus. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.