Acts 18:18-23 - Seeking. Trusting. Following.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[READING - Acts 18:18-23]
Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea he had his hair cut, for he was keeping a vow.
They came to Ephesus, and he left them there. Now he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
When they asked him to stay for a longer time, he did not consent,
but taking leave of them and saying, “I will return to you again if God wills,” he set sail from Ephesus.
When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and went down to Antioch.
And having spent some time there, he left and passed successively through the Galatian region and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
[PRAYER]
[ILLUS] With Thanksgiving approaching, perhaps you’re already making plans to entertain some guests from out-of-town. Imagine that one of your relatives arrives for Thanksgiving lunch and begins to tell you about their journey.
“Buddy, let me tell you about my trip. I left the house and pulled out on to highway such-and-such and drove a couple hours. Then I got gas in so-and-so, ran into an old friend in almost-here when I stopped to stretch my legs, and then drove on in, so here I am.”
At the end of the story, you’d be thinking, “What was the point? I thought something more exciting was going to happen. Why did he tell me that?”
Maybe when we read Acts 18:18-23, we think the same sort of things.
What’s the point of all this?
I thought something more exciting was going to happen?
Why is Luke telling me all this?
[CONTEXT] The Apostle Paul spent a while in Corinth despite the difficulties in the church and in the culture that surrounded it, but it was time for Paul to move on once again.
With his new fellow-workers, husband and wife Priscilla and Aquila, Paul sailed for Jerusalem likely aiming to arrive in time for Passover.
He left from the small seaport of Cenchrea on the eastern side of Corinth and then came to Ephesus, the third largest city in the Roman empire.
After reasoning with the Jews in the synagogue, the Ephesians wanted Paul to stay longer, but he continued his journey toward Jerusalem.
He did, however, leave them Priscilla and Aquila who would explain the way of God more accurately to those without understanding; and Paul himself will return to Ephesus on his third missionary journey.
After landing at Caesarea, Paul went up to greet “the church” (meaning the Jerusalem church) and then went down to his sending church in Antioch before beginning his third missionary journey.
[INTER] Now what is the point of this passage? Why does Luke record this for us?
Is Luke just telling us how Paul traveled from Corinth at the end of his second missionary journey to Ephesus during his third missionary journey?
Is he highlighting Paul’s continued commitment to his Jewish roots with the mention of his temporary Nazirite vow and his visiting the church in Jerusalem likely around the time of Passover?
Or is Luke continuing to show us Paul as the bridge-builder between the Jewish church in Jerusalem and the Gentile church in Antioch?
I think the answer is yes!
[CIT] This passage may not seem all that exciting, but Luke gives us Paul, a faithful Jewish Christian Apostle, seeking God’s favor, trusting God’s people, and following God’s will as he ends his second missionary journey and begins his third.
[PROP] I love passage like this, passages that seem rather uneventful, because often the Christian life seems uneventful.
Sure there are exciting days as a Christian, but there are also lots of days when we are just moving through life as faithfully as we can.
As followers of Jesus, we should be seeking God’s favor, trusting God’s people, and following God’s will all our days.
[TS] Those are the CHARACTERISTICS of Paul’s life in this passage that we will focus on this morning.
Those are the CHARACTERISTICS we should ask the Lord to give us this morning.
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
CHARACTERISTIC #1: Seeking God Favor (v. 18)
CHARACTERISTIC #1: Seeking God Favor (v. 18)
Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea he had his hair cut, for he was keeping a vow.
[EXP] What does it mean that Paul had his hair cut because he was keeping a vow?
This likely refers to a temporary Nazirite vow that Paul had taken.
The Nazirite vow is described in Numbers 6. It was a vow of intensified holiness in which one lived as totally dedicated to the Lord.
One who made such a vow wouldn't drink wine, strong drink, taste vinegar or even grapes.
He wouldn't make himself unclean by going near a dead body, even if it meant he couldn't bury one of his family members.
And he wouldn't cut his hair.
‘All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall pass over his head. He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord; he shall let the locks of hair on his head grow long.
When the vow was completed, the one who made it would bring various offerings to the temple.
A year-old male lamb without defect for a burnt offering.
A year-old ewe-lamb without defect for a sin offering.
A ram without defect for a peace offering.
A basket of unleavened cakes and unleavened wafers with their grain and drink offerings.
Then the one who made the vow would cut his hair.
‘The Nazirite shall then shave his dedicated head of hair at the doorway of the tent of meeting, and take the dedicated hair of his head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings.
In Paul’s day, if someone made a vow like this while away from Jerusalem, they would cut their hair at the end of the vow and offer it in the temple within 30 days.
Paul was on the way to Jerusalem to do just that.
But why did Paul take such a vow?
One took a vow like this to seek God’s favor or to give God thanks.
Perhaps Paul had taken the vow during his trials in Corinth and was now thanking God for seeing him through.
Perhaps Paul had taken the vow when he began to plan his journey to Jerusalem and was seeking God’s blessing on his trip.
In either case, Paul had sought God’s favor, and so should we.
[ILLUS] When I was in my early high school years, I decided that I wanted to lift weights. (This was before I learned that weights are heavy.)
I was in the weight-room with a friend named Michael who was an experienced weight-lifter. He put some weight on the bar and told me to lay down for the bench press.
I don’t know how much he put on there but after a couple reps my muscles began to shake, and I was having trouble getting the weight off my chest.
Rather than helping me, Michael just screamed at me, “Come on! You got this!”
But I didn’t “got this.”
And Michael had to save me from the barbell.
[APP] Life is full of moments that are too heavy for us. Sure, there are plenty of people who will tell us, “You got this,” but we know we don’t got this. We need God’s favor for the heavy moments we’ve been in and the heavy moments we’re headed into.
Do you seek God’s favor?
We might be tempted to think, “Well, of course Paul sought God’s favor, he was an Apostle, a preacher; he was on the mission field!”
But Paul sought God’s favor because Paul had been saved by God’s grace, and Paul knew that God would pour out His favor. Paul wrote in Romans 8:32…
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
The God of saving grace will grace us with abundant favor.
Have you been saved by God’s grace through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ?
Then seek His favor!
Paul sought the favor of God through a Nazirite vow, but how should we seek God’s favor today?
Well, surely we should ask God for His favor in prayer, but remember that the idea of the Nazirite vow was consecration, devotion, and separation.
In other words, the idea of the Nazirite vow was the idea of holiness.
Therefore, we seek God’s favor by pursuing holiness.
Are you pursuing holiness?
Holiness is the proper response to His grace.
It’s how we seek His favor.
[TS] Let’s look at a second CHARACTERISTIC…
CHARACTERISTIC #2: Trusting God’s People (v. 19)
CHARACTERISTIC #2: Trusting God’s People (v. 19)
They came to Ephesus, and he left them there. Now he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
[EXP] Paul met Priscilla and Aquila in Corinth, and they traveled with him to Ephesus, but when Paul moved on, they stayed behind.
Paul did some Gospel work in Ephesus during this short visit.
He went into the synagogue and reasoned from the Scriptures that Jesus of Nazareth who had been crucified and resurrected was the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed Savior that God's people had been hoping for.
And when the Ephesians heard Paul's message, they wanted him to stay longer, but Paul had a vow to keep in Jerusalem.
He did, however, leave Priscilla and Aquila behind to continue the Gospel work in his absence.
Later it will be Priscilla and Aquila who explain the way of God more thoroughly to Apollos when he arrives in Ephesus (Acts 18:26).
They surely did that for numerous people while they remained in Ephesus.
Priscilla and Aquila weren’t the only ones that Paul trusted to continue the work in some place while he was absent.
In Titus 1:5, Paul wrote to Titus…
For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you,
In 1 Timothy 1:3, Paul wrote to Timothy…
As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines,
Because Paul couldn’t be everywhere at once, he had to trust God’s people to continue on with the Gospel work when he had to be somewhere else.
[ILLUS] I was reading a fictional spy-thriller recently. The spy met with the President of the United States in this novel, and after receiving his mission, the President told the spy, “Trust no one.”
The spy replied, “Not even you, Mr. President?”
“No one,” the President said.
The spy then spent the rest of the book trusting multiple so that he could accomplish his mission!
You can’t accomplish much without trusting people.
[ILLUS] Now, I’m not saying that you have to trust everyone, and sometimes you learn that you’ve trusted the wrong one. I’ve had that happen to me.
When I was a youth minister, I once went to help with a Christian soccer camp in Dallas, Texas. I was there for about a week, which meant that I would miss a Sunday.
I needed someone to cover the junior high Sunday School class, so I ask one of our volunteers if he’d like to do it. He said he would and seemed excited, but when I returned from Texas, the report I got wasn’t encouraging.
Apparently, this young man had not prepared to teach the junior high Sunday School class, so he spent the hour just repeatedly saying, “I’m sorry. I just didn’t have time to prepare for this this week.”
You can’t trust everyone, and sometimes you trust the wrong ones, but you still have to trust someone if you’re going to accomplish much for Christ.
[APP] Paul trusted Priscilla and Aquila, Titus, Timothy, and many others too.
Who are your trusting?
[TS]…
CHARACTERISTIC #3: Following God’s Will (vv. 20-21)
CHARACTERISTIC #3: Following God’s Will (vv. 20-21)
When they asked him to stay for a longer time, he did not consent, but taking leave of them and saying, “I will return to you again if God wills,” he set sail from Ephesus.
[EXP] Paul’s life was governed by God’s will. That’s why when the Ephesians asked him to stay, he told them that he would return to them if it was God’s will.
He wrote to the Romans…
Romans 1:10 (NASB95)
…perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.
Romans 15:32 (NASB95)
…I may come to you in joy by the will of God…
He wrote to the Corinthians…
1 Corinthians 4:19 (NASB95)
But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills…
1 Corinthians 16:7 (NASB95)
For I do not wish to see you now just in passing; for I hope to remain with you for some time, if the Lord permits.
Paul was governed by the will of God.
Paul was not governed by his own will.
In Acts we’ve seen Paul ignore his own impulses and obey God’s will on multiple occasions.
When he was stoned and left for dead outside of one city, he probably didn’t want to go back into that city, but he did because it was God’s will.
When he could’ve escaped prison, he chose to remain in his incarceration because it was God’s will.
When he wanted to preach in this place of that place, he went on to Macedonia because that was God’s will.
Perhaps Paul’s love for the Corinthians or the eagerness of the Ephesians made him want to remain in those places, but Paul was governed by God’s will, not his own wants.
And I’m sure that Paul would’ve liked to keep Priscilla and Aquila and Titus and Timothy and many others close to him, but Paul was governed by God’s will, not what he would’ve liked.
Whose will drives your life, your own or God’s?
[ILLUS] I once saw pictures of an old driver’s ed car, a car that students learned to drive in around 1955. It was a Volkswagen Beetle Dual Control Driver Education car. It had two steering wheels and two sets of pedals, so that the instructor could take over if the student driver got a little reckless.
Maybe most of us think of our will and God’s will like that.
We think of ourselves in the driver’s seat and most of the time we steer the car and work the pedals unless something really dangerous comes up and then God’s takes over.
In actuality, there should only be one steering wheel and one set of pedals in the car, and we shouldn’t be in the driver’s seat.
God should be steering our lives and we should be happy to follow His will.
[APP] Whose will are you most concerned with, God’s will, your own will, or someone else’s?
A chief characteristic of our lives should be that we are most concerned with following God’s will.
[TS]…
Conclusion
Conclusion
Do these characteristics mark your life like they marked Paul’s life?
Are you seeking God’s favor in holiness?
Are you trusting God’s people to continue the work?
Are you following God’s will instead of your own?
If we have been saved by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, then these characteristics will increasingly mark our lives.
Repent of your sin and trust in Jesus who lived for you, died for you, rose for you, and is coming again for you.
And if you’ve trusted in Him, seek His favor, trust His people, and follow His will.
[PRAYER]