Will God Keep Me Safe?

In Acts 18 we will see three parts to the story of God’s work in the city of Corinth. As we look at these three parts and contemplate what they teach us about living for Jesus, I want you to ask yourself this question: As I live for Jesus, will God keep me safe?

A. The Necessity of Sharing: If I share the gospel with others, will God keep me safe?

B. The Joy of Selling: If I am willing to give up everything for God, will He keep me safe?

C. The Attack of Satan: If I live in such a way that Satan has reason to oppose me, will God keep me safe?

Here in America in 2024, the question of safety for Christians is rarely raised because we rarely see any danger from living the Christian life. Will that be true in 2030? Will it be true even in 2025? We don’t know. What we do know is that persecution is a serious reality for our brothers and sisters around the globe, and the situation is getting worse, not better. This photo shows the faces of some modern martyrs moments before their executions in 2015 in Libya. The man in the middle is Mathew Ayairga (eye-AIR-guh) of Chad. Reportedly, he was not a Christian when he was taken captive along with a group of 20 believers from Egypt. However, his perspective changed upon seeing the faith of those who were captured with him. When terrorists demanded that he follow Islam, he refused. When one of them asked, “Do you reject Christ?” Mathew referred to the Christians captured with him and said, “Their God is my God,” and he was executed, along with the others.

In 2021, 1 out of every 8 Christians around the world faced persecution. In 2023, it was 1 out of every 7. According to Open Doors, 365 million Christians faced “high levels of persecution and discrimination” last year. In the same year (2023) 5,621 died for their faith. That’s 15 people each day. If that pace continues today, one of our brothers or sisters will physically die taking a stand for Jesus while we meet here this morning. What does the Bible have to say about God’s hand in keeping that person safe?

The Necessity of Sharing

Acts 18:4–7 “And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 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.” 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.”

Paul did not delay in sharing Jesus. He could have made excuses, as I do occasionally, about why he shouldn’t have started sharing. Silas and Timothy were still traveling. Maybe he should wait to start his ministry. But no, according to verse 4, he was proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues before Silas and Timothy ever arrived. Can you relate to my confession that, at times, I wrestle with excuses not to share the gospel? If so, or if you would like to have greater boldness in your gospel gossiping, notice this:

When the Jews rejected the gospel, Paul considered himself innocent. On what basis was he innocent? He had shared. How dreadful it would have been for him if their blood had been on his head for failure to share! Paul seems influenced in his logic by God’s words in Ezekiel 3:18–19 “If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.” If you long to be a bold witness for Jesus, I invite you to pray with me now: “Father, may we share, may we boldly and joyfully have confidence that we are innocent of others’ blood because we have let them hear the good news that You have made a way for them to be right with You through the sacrifice and resurrection of Your Son. Amen.”

Scripture says that the Jews opposed and reviled Paul in Corinth. The Greek word for “opposed” comes from a military term, referring to lining up in battle, and the word for “reviled” is the same as the word for “blaspheme,” as if they considered it their duty to mistreat Paul in the same way they considered him to be mistreating God. Paul endured such opposition as a small price to pay for the privilege of sharing the gospel. He wrote to the people of Corinth about his own guilt if he had not shared the gospel with them: “For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” In the context of this verse, he clearly does not speak about everyone, but about himself alone. Therefore, we have to look at the reason behind his woe. The reason is that necessity is laid upon him. 2 questions: Do you think this necessity came more from Paul’s understanding of what he should do (as his duty), or did the necessity come from a longing to see Jesus glorified and people saved? Secondly, is this necessity laid upon you?

Ryan Smith is a pastor in Oklahoma. A few years ago he wrote an article called, “Why I Don’t Share the Gospel.” He tells the story of being with a group of Christians who were discussing why they didn’t share the gospel. He was perfectly ready with his answer: He didn’t interact with many non-Christians because he works at a church, and his neighbors are Christians. Then a girl in the group spoke up. Here’s how Ryan tells the story:

“I was ready with my pat answer until another girl shared. She is one of those people who shares the gospel continually. She brings her neighbors to church and goes out of her way to engage people in the margins. I wasn’t looking forward to her answer. It was going to be like hearing skinny people talk about how they should eat less kale – for the calories.

“‘For me, it always becomes a question of motive. I mean, what’s really my motivation for sharing the gospel?' she said.

“She looked down at the table and everyone nodded and said 'Mmm' in agreement in that self-effacing low Christian mumble.

“Except for me. I didn’t 'Mmm.' I was thinking about the question she hadn’t really posed. What is my motivation for sharing the gospel?

“As I thought about the question, my immediate answer was:  I should.

“My base-level motivation for wanting to share the gospel is that I should. I should want to share the gospel. I should be obedient.

“That’s a horrible motivation for doing anything. If my only motivation for sharing the gospel is that I should, then there is something incredibly broken in me. Christianity is not a should religion.

“As I have since been bothered by my answer, one prayer has been continual. I want God to create in me an overflowing joy in him. That should be my motivation for sharing the gospel. God’s glory should give me such a sense of thankful and awe-filled joy that regardless of circumstance or interaction, what naturally spills over is the joy of God my Father and his salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ.

“Instead of letting my guilt drive my desire for evangelism, I am choosing to invest in worship. Instead of rehearsing a gospel pitch during my morning walk, I am choosing to stop every once in awhile and look at the stars as I recall Psalm 8 and 19. I am praying for my neighbors. I am filling my mind with songs that celebrate gospel truth and refresh me with wave after wave of truth about who Jesus Christ is and what he has done for a sinner like me. I am reading books about the nature of God that I may be in awe of his unfathomable greatness. ...I want to be satisfied in God. Only then will my evangelistic efforts have right motivation and direction.

Necessity to share the gospel is laid up for us as we grow in passion for Jesus. Paul knew that passion. He had eternal perspective. He looked around and saw people for whom God sent His only Son, and Paul longed to share the glory of the Son with these people. That’s a big part of what it means to be people of the risen King.

It is like living among starving people when your father owns an endless supply of food that He has welcomed you to share with others. On Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, we gather at the Father’s pantry to fill our arms with groceries that we can hand out during the rest of the week. The hard part for us is that many of the people around us don’t realize they are starving. For that reason, we must recognize and even embrace the fact that our gospel conversations will face opposition.

4. How did Paul respond to rejection in Corinth? Rejection did not stop Paul from sharing. Instead, it shifted his focus to a new audience. He stopped sharing in the synagogue, and he started sharing in a house next door to the synagogue. Does that fact affect your view of sharing the gospel? I think it’s freeing. Look, if you share the gospel and your audience is receptive, that’s success, and it bears eternal fruit. If you share the gospel and your audience rejects it, that’s success, too. You are innocent; you have done your job, and you are free to move on to another audience or to pray and seek another opportunity later, according to your conscience.

The Joy of Selling

Acts 18:8 “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.”

5. Although Paul was opposed and reviled by the Jews in Corinth’s synagogue, and although he moved his teaching headquarters to the house next door, he wasn’t alone. And one of those who received the gospel was the ruler of the synagogue. Crispus gave up his career to follow Jesus. (At first he was the ruler of the synagogue. Later, the ruler is Sosthenes.) Crispus and his family believed, and in spite of what it cost them financially and in social status—in spite of the fact that it turned their lives upside down—the family of Crispus publicly proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah. They were baptized. In fact, Crispus was one of the few people in Corinth whom Paul baptized personally, according to 1 Corinthians 1. To Crispus and his family, Jesus was the treasure buried in the field. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44). Crispus found a treasure so great that, though he had to sell everything he had to gain that treasure, he did so with joy! To him taking Jesus’ yoke upon himself—though it meant giving up his livelihood—was an easy yoke and a light burden. And that’s what Jesus does for those who see Him clearly: He commands that we deny ourselves and take up the cross daily and follow Him. And to the outside world, carrying that cross looks like absolute torture. But to the one carrying it, the cross is the burden that lifts all burdens. Isn’t Jesus precious enough? Isn’t He precious enough for you to give up your pride this morning? Isn’t He precious enough for you to give up whatever you are holding onto that stands between you and Him this morning? If not, if He is not a treasure greater than anything else in your life, worth giving up everything else, then He is not your treasure at all, and you are not his disciple.

In the question of whether or not God will keep us safe, Crispus seems to have reached a conclusion for himself and his family: “Safe” is overrated.

The Attack of Satan

Acts 18:9–17 “And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 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.” And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.” 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. 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.” And he drove them from the tribunal. 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.”

6. Jesus spoke to Paul in a vision to give him courage. Jesus promised His presence and freedom from any attack to harm Paul. This is good for Paul, but it leaves me with a question: Why didn’t Jesus do this everywhere Paul went? He didn’t do it in Philippi, where Paul was beaten with rods and imprisoned. He didn’t do it in Lystra, where people threw rocks at him until they presumed him dead. But He did it here in Corinth. Surely you have asked questions like this. Someone is in a car crash, and he survives. You thank God that he survived, but in the back of your mind, you wonder why God didn’t spare him from the accident to begin with. Have you come to trust God’s wisdom with questions like this? If you were Paul, and you saw this vision, would you respond by saying, “Well, it would have been nice if you had thought of protecting me from harmful attacks in the past!” Paul didn’t think like that. In fact, he is the one God used to pen the precious words of Romans 8:31–32 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

Whatever tragedy you have faced or will face or are facing right now, I want you to know that this thing was or is or will be in your life for a reason. God could have kept Paul from suffering in Philippi and in Lystra, but He put that suffering in Paul’s life for good reason. He used it for good to draw Paul to Him and to draw others to Him, others who witnessed Paul’s suffering and Paul’s response to the suffering. And that brings us to something else that Paul wrote in Romans 8:18: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

7. It is worth noting that Paul’s primary occupation as he stayed among the believers in Corinth was teaching the word of God. It was for this reason that Jesus appeared to Paul. “Go on speaking, and do not be silent,” the Lord told him. So what was he doing for the year-and-a-half that he stayed in Corinth? He taught the word of God among them. And that is the primary responsibility of elders in the church, even today. Mike and I may do many things in this place and in the midst of the people of Pathway. We may attend meetings. We may do administrative paperwork. We may do acts of service. And all of that is fine, as long as we don’t let our other service to the congregation take away from our primary job of teaching the word. If you ever catch us distracted from that work or if you find us doing work that would better be delegated to someone else, feel free to volunteer to be the someone else. (I confess that I am bad at this.)

8. We read that the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him to Rome’s proconsul for judgment. But wait, Jesus had promised that Paul would not be attacked! Don’t you wonder what Paul was thinking during this “united attack”? If you or I had been in Paul’s position, we might raise an objection to God: “But do you remember that vision You gave me? You know, the one where you said that no one would attack me to harm me?” Oh, but there’s the key, isn’t it. Paul was facing a united attack, but the Lord had told him that no one would attack him to harm him, and the word of the Lord stands forever.

9. Was Paul harmed in this attack? No, in fact, at his trial Paul didn’t have to say a single word in his defense. There Paul was before the bēma, the judgment seat. [In our English translation we saw that Paul was brought before the tribunal. In the Greek, the word for tribunal is bēma, which means judgment seat.] Sosthenes (the new ruler of the synagogue) and his cohorts stated their accusations against Paul. Paul was just about to start speaking in his own defense when the man on the judgment seat stopped him and promptly dismissed the case.

Do you remember from the book of Esther that Haman was hanged on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai? In a similar manner, when Gallio dismissed the case against Paul, Paul’s accuser (Sosthenes) was dealt the punishment that he wanted to fall upon Paul. Those who witnessed the trial beat Sosthenes, inflicting on him the harm that Jesus had promised Paul would not receive in Corinth.

Do you have any idea how similar that situation is to our own, brothers & sisters? Let me remind you that God has a bēma. In Romans 14:10, Paul informed us that “we will all stand before the bēma of God.” Aside from that time when we will all appear before the bēma, God is already there. In fact, as we search the scriptures, we are taught that Satan is called the accuser of the brothers, and he “accuses them day and night before our God” (Rev. 12:10). Let me ask you a frightening question: If Satan were to stand before God and raise an accusation against you, would he have to lie? I am not about to let you leave here today with some kind of false sense of security, some namby-pamby, feel-good-about-yourself-because-you-are-good-enough-just-the-way-you-are-theology. You’ve messed up, haven’t you? I have. We have given Satan real material that he can use to accuse us before God, material that is bad enough and serious enough to damn us to hell. And Satan is the accuser of us Christians.

What do you have to say in your defense? Go ahead, like Paul, open your mouth to speak, but then stop. Stop! You don’t have to say a word. Have you drawn near to God through Jesus Christ? If not, do it today. If so, listen to this good word from Hebrews 7:25: “[Jesus] is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” Jesus lives. He always lives. He lives forever, making intercession for you. He stands between you and God in defiance of Satan’s accusations. Chris Bruno is a professor at Bethlehem Baptist College & Seminary. He penned these words:

“If you are a follower of Jesus, he is interceding for you right now.

“When was the last time you paused to consider this? I’m persuaded that we do not give this important truth the attention that it deserves. Think about it: The risen Christ, the one to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given, is pleading with the Father on your behalf. Not only that, but he is pleading on the basis of his own person and work. The very life of the risen Christ is a plea for us. If we are united by faith to him, his ongoing life at the right hand of the Father is a form of intercession for us. Whether and how he brings each of our specific cases to the Father, our union with him means that he always stands in our place before the Father. This truth, when we recall it more, will fill us with tremendous confidence and hope.”

So by all means, leave here feeling good. And let your good feelings produce praise from the depth of your soul to the One who sits at the Father’s right hand. Leave here rejoicing over the truth of Romans 8:34 “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” Keep your mouth shut before your accuser, and let Jesus speak on your behalf.

The title of this sermon is, “Will God Keep Me Safe?” The answer to that question depends on how you define safe. Paul was physically safe in Corinth, but in other places he was physically harmed. Yet Paul would tell you that in a way the physical harm didn’t matter. He dismissed torture as “light and momentary affliction” in light of the glory that is to be revealed to us. That’s because he understood Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 10:28: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Paul took that truth seriously. As for you, I cannot guarantee that God will keep your body safe from harm in this life. Somewhere today a Christian has likely died for following Christ, even as we have been singing and praying and receiving the word. But I do know that if you belong to Christ, He rises as your advocate before the judgment seat of God, cancelling every accusation that Satan spews with the single word that He proclaimed from the cross: Tetelestai, “It is finished!” “Paid in full!” Therefore, there is now no condemnation for you if you are in Christ Jesus. When it comes to the life that really matters, eternal life, God will keep His children safe. Thanks be to God!

If you are not sure whether you are in Christ Jesus, or if for any reason you would like to talk more about this with Pastor Mike or me, we would be honored to have that conversation with you and pray with you after today’s service.

In the meantime, we are going to proclaim, celebrate, and remember the work that Jesus did on our behalf by taking part in the Lord’s Supper. [Direct people to come forward.]

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul encouraged the Christians in Corinth to purify themselves from idolatry. And what did he base his appeal on? It was the Lord’s Supper:“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” So, brothers and sisters, I join with Paul and with the Holy Spirit who inspired his writings to admonish you: Flee from the idols that hold sway in your heart, those things that threaten the purity of your heart, and as a unified body of believers, let us participate in the body of Christ. [Silent reflection] Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

[Eat.]

Paul recognized that the cup of blessing that we bless is a participation in the blood of Christ. Family blood runs deep, deeper than water, they say. It connects you to those who are genetically related to you, and it has the power to unify you during your lifetime with your earthly family. But the blood of Jesus Christ runs much deeper. It connects you to those who are spiritually related to you, and it has the power to unify you forever with your heavenly family. “And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”

[Drink, and pray.]