Face Fear Faithfully

[SLIDE 1] Introduction

If you have your Bible, then I invite you to turn to Acts 18:1-17.

Acts 18:1–17 (ESV)

1 After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, 3 and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. 5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 6 And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 7 And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. 8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. 9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. 12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, 13 saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.” 14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. 15 But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” 16 And he drove them from the tribunal. 17 And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.

Illustration

In the 17th century, a Puritan by the name of Thomas Brooks wrote a book titled, “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.”

The main idea of the book is that “Satan has his devices [or tactics] to deceive, entangle, and undo the souls of men [and women],” and how we can find remedies against Satan’s attack.

One of his tactics is discouraging God’s people. How does he do that?

Satan tries to discourage us by getting us to focus on our sin rather than our Saviour, especially when we repeat the same sin again and again.

The enemy also accuses us while whispering in our ears (or perhaps we may tell ourselves in our head) that there is something wrong with us and that there is no evidence of salvation in our life.

As a result, not only is there doubt or fear, but discouragement. We, who once were excited and eager about serving Christ, don’t feel confident in our service to the LORD in ministry and no longer delight in Him as we once did.

Then, Satan’s dart of discouragement becomes successful. We easily succumb to the temptation of sin, give up on mortifying or killing sin by the power of the Spirit, and excuse ourselves by reasoning with ourselves, “There is no point. I have lost the battle. Why bother trying anymore!”

The question I impose on you is this, “Are you feeling discouraged right now? What is one thing that is discouraging you?

It may or may not be sin that is weighing you down.

It may be related to church ministry, family life, school life, work life, but Satan can certainly use disappointing aspects of those life to discourage you.

Now, I’m aware that the title of this message is, “Face Fear Faithfully,” and not face discouragement, but I like alliteration.

But discouragement and fear can be related and they feed into each other, thus creating a cycle of negative emotions that can make it difficult for a person to move forward.

Biblical Theology

Context

The reason why I bring up the topic of discouragement is because of the life of the Apostle Paul.

Many of the commentaries that I have utilized to study for this passage mention Paul’s discouragement.

Now, we don’t find that word in this passage (we do find the idea of “fear” in verse 9), but I think there are three reasons why Paul might have been discouraged.

[SLIDE 2] First, Paul wrote to the Corinthians about his emotional state when he first arrived at the city of Corinth.

1 Corinthians 2:1–3 ESV

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,

And while Paul was in Corinth, he may have wrote a letter to the Thessalonians, saying that he was in distress and affliction (1 Thessalonians 3:7).

[SLIDE 3] Second, this was Paul’s second missionary journey. When we trace his journey at the start of Acts 16 until now, it was a difficult one.

Just before he began his journey, he and Barnabas had a sharp disagreement and separated from each other.

And then he travelled from the East of the Mediterranean Sea all the way to the west of the Aegean Sea. And there were moments where the Holy Spirit prevented him from going to certain places.

When he got to Philippi, he had a relatively successful ministry, but he was beaten badly and thrown into prison, and eventually was forced out of the city.

However, persecution just followed Paul when he’s at Thessalonica and in Berea, and he was forced to escape from danger.

If you can imagine, that would have been so exhausting mentally and physically, right?

It’s more typical for the missionary to remain in one city for a long period of time.

He arrived at Athens all by himself and tried to evangelize to the intellectuals and Greek philosophers, but I think he had a meager success.

Third, from this passage alone, we can discern three reasons why Paul could be discouraged and perhaps fearful.

In verse 1, Paul arrives in the city of Corinth all alone, without Timothy and Silas because they were ministering in the new churches at Macedonia. And one of the driving forces to discouragement in ministry is loneliness.

A recent study by Lifeway Research has revealed that the stress of ministry so often leads to loneliness in a lack of friendship with others.

Paul doesn’t seem to have the financial means to continue as a full-time missionary, so he had to go and become a tentmaker or bi-vocational.

God commands Paul later in verse 9-10, “Do not be afraid.” This seems to suggest that Paul experienced a moment of weakness and fear of persecution which seem to have discouraged him from proclaiming the gospel.

[SLIDE 4] God’s people will face fear and discouragement.

If you think about it, Paul had every reason to give up ministry and abandon his post.

But, whatever discouragement Paul faced, the LORD in His providence encouraged him so that he could have the courage to face fear (or discouragement) faithfully.

With that said, let’s now get into the exposition of God’s word and learn how God would encourage and strengthen Paul and what that means for us.

Exposition

[SLIDE 5] First, God surrounds us with godly Christians.

In verses 1-3, Paul arrives in Corinth alone.

[SLIDE 6] Corinth was about 80 KM west of Athens, and it was considered the capital city in the province of Achaia, and also a major city in the Roman Empire.

[SLIDE 7] Now, if you want to understand the historical and cultural context of the city of Corinth, all you need to do is to compare this city with a city like Las Vegas because it is infamously known as a sin city.

Corinth was notorious for its hedonism, loose living, sexual immorality, and prostitution.

And it was the center of cult worship towards Aphrodite (also known as Venus, the goddess of fertility and sexuality).

At one time, Corinth had 10,000 temple prostitutes, and they did business with the sailors and other business people who were passing through the town.

In fact, the name “Corinthian” was synonymous for the most perverted behaviour.

Hence, when Paul wrote his 1st letter to the Corinthians, he had to address the issue of sexual immorality because some Christians were committing sexual acts in the church.

That’s what Paul was up against when he arrived in Corinth.

And Paul meets a Jewish couple: Aquila and Priscilla.

Aquila was a native of Pontus. Pontus was located in the region of northern Asia Minor near the Black Sea.

They recently came from Rome, Italy to Corinth because emperor Claudius commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. Why?

According to some historians, it is because the Jews were constantly rioting at the instigation of Chrestus.

Why did Paul meet with this Jewish couple?

It’s uncertain how Paul knew about them. Maybe because they’re Jewish? Maybe because they’re Christians?

More likely, God brought him to this couple who were not only Jewish and followers of Christ, but also had a business in tentmaking.

Lo and behold, Paul too was a tentmaker. So, this Jewish couple who were believers “hired” Paul to work for them as it was their trade.

We’ll learn more about this couple later on in this chapter, but they became a part of Paul’s ministry team.

So, God surrounds us with godly Christians as companions and friends. That was God’s way of encouraging Paul that he was not alone in the city of Corinth.

[SLIDE 8] Second, God provides for our needs.

I mentioned that when Paul arrived in Corinth, he exhausted his ministry funds, that’s why he needed to work as a tentmaker.

Now, in missionary circles, some Christians would use the term, “Tentmaker.”

Unlike the Apostle Paul, these Christians are not literally making tents, but it is an idiomatic way of describing a Christian who has to work a paid job to support himself or herself in order to be in the mission field.

Or, sometimes, it can refer to Christians who’s bivocational, meaning they’re working in the Christian ministry and secular work (i.e. tentmaking).

As far as we know, this is the 1st time in Paul’s life as a missionary that it was necessary for him to support himself financially by finding a job. He was financially covered by his home church in Antioch, but now he’s far from home.

Also, for the sake of his credibility, Paul explains in other letters that he doesn’t want to be a burden for the new churches that he planted. He doesn’t want the new believers to misunderstand that his motivation and intention of proclaiming the gospel was for financial gain. So, he preached the gospel free of charge.

As you can imagine, one of the biggest challenges (and even nightmares) for church planters, pastors, and missionaries is not having enough funds to support themselves for gospel ministry.

Nonetheless, we see that God will provide for Paul’s financial needs.

How? Here’s the secret: by working at a paid job. It’s not a rocket science.

I suppose it wouldn’t be too much of a burden for Paul to work because he just needed to support himself financially.

For others, it may not be simple because they may have a family to raise.

Working to provide for yourself is a biblical principle. One cannot simply pray and ask God to provide for you without working.

Certainly, the Apostle Paul could have done that. We’re sure that Paul had faith to trust that God would give him money to work as a missionary, but God provides through the ordinary means (e.g. working).

By working, he can still go to the Jewish synagogue every Sabbath to reason and persuade the Jews and Greeks to believe in Christ.

But this is an important note to make in verse 5. Paul worked as a tentmaker temporarily and he eventually receives financial support from the churches in Macedonia through Timothy and Silas.

[SLIDE 9]

2 Corinthians 11:9 (ESV)

9 And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way.

Philippians 4:15 (ESV)

15 And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.

[SLIDE 10] Therefore, when looking at verse 5, we must keep in mind that Paul became relentless after he received financial supplies.

He was so focused and occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ / Messiah was Jesus.

So, he’s now focused.

Not only does he have the funds, his ministry partners are here with him to give him reports on what’s happening with the new churches planted. [SLIDE 11]

1 Thessalonians 3:6–7 (ESV)

6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— 7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith.

As you can imagine, this report surely energized and encouraged Paul.

He didn’t just need to proclaim Christ on the Sabbath, but every other day throughout the week.

[SLIDE 12] Yet, Paul now meets opposition (again) from the Jews after becoming “full-time again.”

Now, what does this mean? Certainly, Paul’s action was symbolic. It’s similar to the practice of shaking off the dust from one’s feet so that the missionaries don’t bring people’s unbelief to another place.

And then Paul pronounces judgment upon them since these Jews were hard-hearted. If they suffer punishment in hell, they are responsible for rejecting the gospel (Ezekiel 3:18-19).

He’s simply relocating his position. He goes next door to a house of a man named Titius Justus. Nothing more is known about him besides being a worshiper of God, which was an expression of being a Gentile God-fearer.

But what should encourage us is to look to the LORD and wait upon Him patiently. Why?

Here’s the third point:

[SLIDE 13] Third, God will work out the fruits of our labour.

[SLIDE 14] Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7

1 Corinthians 3:6–7 ESV

6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

[SLIDE 15] When it seemed like there was no hope for the Jews in Corinth, God did a miraculous work in the heart of the leader and ruler of the Jewish synagogue, Crispus, and also his entire household.

How many is many? Well…it’s many!

These Corinthians, these sexually immoral sinners, turned away from their sins and believed in the LORD.

So, we echo Paul’s statement when he wrote this to the Christians or church in Corinth.

1 Corinthians 1:9 ESV

9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

When God is at work in saving lost souls through the ministry of Paul, there is usually an uproar in the city that’s stirred up by the Jews.

[SLIDE 16] Fourth, God reassures us of His presence

Now, the Lord shows his presence to Paul in a vision. Here, He gives Paul a command. When God gives us a commandment, we are to listen and obey.

Perhaps, this was an important thing that the Lord said to Paul but what does it mean?

And it alludes back to Jesus’ word in John 10:16 [SLIDE 17]

John 10:16 ESV

16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

Now, it is not normative for God to speak to us through visions, but He does clearly speak to us and we can hear His voice when we read the pages of Scripture. That’s the normative pattern for Christians to hear from God.

[SLIDE 18] So, one of the things that makes Paul’s ministry rather different from all the cities that he visited was that he stayed in this city for 1.5 years.

But, what did he do during that 1.5 years?

But if you were given only 1.5 years to spend with brand new believers, what would you do?

[SLIDE 19] Now, this passage concludes with an incident found in verses 12-17. I won’t go through it verse by verse, but it points to the idea of God’s continual presence and protection in Paul’s life.

Why was he beaten? Well, the Greek language is rather hard to interpret.

Application

Surrounding him with godly Christians.

Growing the fruits of his labour.

Reassuring him of His presence.

[SLIDE 20] Conclusion

Brothers and sisters, if you are feeling discouraged and fearful, (and perhaps want to give up) then I want to encourage you to turn your eyes upon Jesus so that you have the courage to face fear faithfully by the power of the Spirit at work in you.

Satan’s device is to have you look away from Christ. He wants you to focus on your feeling of discouragement. The enemy wants you to take him on by yourself.

However, Thomas Brooks indicates that one of the remedies against Satan’s devices is not to engage Satan by our own strength, but everyday “be drawing new virtue and strength from the Lord Jesus.”

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Blessings all mine with 10, 000 beside

Great is Thy faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

There were times in ministry where I did feel discourage to the point of giving up (that’s before I became a pastor).