Acts 18:18-23

18 After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. 19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. 21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus. 22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. 23 After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

Lets Pray

I want to point out five implications about Paul’s missionary endeavors from the logistical details in this short paragraph.

Beginning with the oddest detail in the paragraph.

Why in the world do we have a verse in the Bible about Paul getting a haircut in Cenchreae.

We are told that after Paul’s 1.5 year stay in Corinth…, Priscilla and Aquila accompany him to the next place,

and at the next stop Paul gets a hair cut because apparently he was fulfilling a vow he had made.

This could have been a practice known as the Nazarite vow,

a voluntary Jewish vow of special devotion to God for a set amount of time symbolized by allowing the hair to grow until the vow or special period of devotion was completed.

The instructions for a Jewish Nazarite vow come from Numbers chapter 6.

Numbers 6:1–5 ESV

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord, 3 he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. 4 All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins. 5 “All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long.

We aren’t told anything about Paul’s vow, what it was, why he did it, or whether it was after the pattern of the Nazarite vow.

Some speculate that when God promised Paul that no one would harm him during his ministry in Corinth…,

Paul took a Nazarite like vow to not cut his hair until his ministry was done in Corinth so that it might be a reminder to him that God had promised his preservation until his time in Corinth was up.

That’s a fine guess, but we just don’t know.

What we do know is that the vow itself exposes a real personal devotional life of the apostle Paul that was ongoing throughout his missional endeavors.

Paul’s relationship with God was personal and it was active.

The whole missionary movement began when Paul was fasting and praying and worshipping with the Antioch church in acts 13.

Paul appointed elders in every church he planted “with prayer and fasting” according to Acts 14:23.

In Acts 16, At midnight, God used Paul and Silas’s praying and singing hymns to God in prison to open the ears of the prisoners.

Truth #1 The Mission is Fueled by Personal Devotion

The great church planting work of Paul’s missionary journeys were accomplished by a man who maintained a real and active personal spiritual life.

Paul’s life was not just a highlight real of climactic sermons addressing the elites of each city.

He walked hundreds of miles, set up camp, tore down camp, bartered in market places, made his own dinner, managed his money…,

and along the way he maintained a personal and spiritual devotion to the Lord that carried him along.

We aren’t told what the vow was about, but if nothing else it signals to us that Paul was actively communing with God over his ministry and his circumstances.

The question is are you?

For the last 8 months we have talked a lot about the great commission God has called us to participate in.

We will talk more about it today throughout this text.

but without relationship with the Lord, participating in is mission seems like an impossibly distant possibility for you.

It all starts with your relationship with God.

If you are not spending time with him daily,

If you aren’t hearing his voice in the Scriptures your meditating on.

If you aren’t having his ear in prayer as you intercede for your needs and the needs of others.

If you aren’t seeking his face in personal devotion…, you will not be living a life which fulfills the great commission.

The invitation of the gospel is not to come do a bunch of stuff for God…

The invitation of the gospel is to come into a relationship with the living God where he walks with you day by day to accomplish his mission.

Remember the promise God gave to Paul earlier in the chapter, that this vow may have been a reminder of.

Acts 18:9–10 ESV

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.”

God is with us.

And because we live in that reality.

We are freed and motivated to go where God leads.

The focus of this paragraph is not primarily Paul’s haircut…., it is Paul’s transition away from Corinth and now back toward his sending church Antioch.

He’s on the move following the Lord again.

So lets do a little recap of Paul’s movement on this second missionary journey And where he is going.

His first missionary journey was designed to be pioneer missionary work.

on the first trip they went to cities where there was no church,

they preached the gospel,

made disciples,

and established churches.

The second missionary journey was intended to begin as a church strengthening trip with the possibility of continuing even further than they traveled on the first trip.

Look back at Acts 15:36 for Paul’s motives for that trip.

Acts 15:36 ESV

36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.”

After checking on the churches and elders they had appointed in the first missionary journey,

Paul continued further into regions where churches needed to be planted.

Now In Acts 18, Paul returns to his sending church in Antioch,

for what seems to be a brief period of time,

and the text says he sets off again to follow the same pattern.

Look at 18:23.

Acts 18:23 ESV

23 After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

So lets throw a new map up showing the route that he is going to take for the third missionary journey, which we will study perhaps in a couple years, Lord willing.

Notice that this time Paul, visits the churches he originally started in Galatia and Phrygia,

then he visits cities he has never been to hoping to establish new works,

then he cruises north to visit all the works he helped start in the second journey.

All this may seem random,

but I think there are some implications we can draw here from Paul’s commitment to doing both disciple strengthening work where has already been and evangelistic work where he has not yet been.

Truth #2 The Mission Includes Both Evangelism and Discipleship

God has invited us into his grand purpose of creating a people For himself.

we read Jesus’ command out loud every week.

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

There are two components to our mission always.

To make a disciple of Jesus requires both going and sharing the message with people who have never believed…,

AND strengthening the faith of disciples who have already believed.

Making disciples is both evangelism, which is introducing others to Jesus

AND discipleship, which is teaching and showing others how to follow Jesus.

We see Paul consistently and passionately caring for both these things.

In verse 19, he is just passing through Ephesus on his way home to Antioch,

but he still makes time to stop and do evangelism.

He pauses in the synagogue to tell the Jews about Jesus As he does in every place.

Acts 18:19 ESV

19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.

In verse 23, he stays in Antioch for a short only to go out again to help strengthen the disciples who had already been made.

Acts 18:23 ESV

23 After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

When I read the great commission at the end of this service to go therefore and make disciples, I am encouraging you to do two things this week:

Tell people about Jesus.

And help teach or strengthen younger believers or newer believers or struggling believers to know how they can follow Jesus day by day.

If you were to ask me how you can contribute to the mission of St. Rose Community Church…

I would say first and foremost always be proactively pursuing relationships in this church

and in your community where you can do these two things as part of your every day life.

This is the essence of our mission: evangelizing and discipling.

introducing people to the savior we love,

and showing them how to to follow him.

There should be a sense in which these two things are natural overflows of our relationship with Jesus.

WE love Jesus,

We are grateful for his mercy and grace,

and we want others to know him, trust him, and love him as we do.

let me pause here…

Who are you evangelizing right now?

Who are you discipling right now?

If you are a note-taker,

take a moment a write their names down.

This is the mission… show those people Jesus in the rhythms of your every day life.

#2 The Mission Includes Both Evangelism and Discipleship

but there is another dimension to this we see playing out in Paul’s missionary journey.

Paul has not just been concerned with the bottom line number of people he could get to follow Jesus.

If that were the case Paul would have stayed in Antioch where the church was growing and thriving.

He would have stayed in one place his whole life and he would have encouraged the whole church to stay together and just keep evangelizing Antioch until the around 250,000 people in Antioch came to know Jesus.

Some in Antioch certainly were called to stay,

but the church in Antioch recognized that the mission was bigger than just seeing as many individuals saved As possible in one location.

they had the long view in mind.

they had the broader mission in mind.

They had a God-sized perspective.

God’s mission is not just about the number of people coming to faith and finding forgiveness….,

the mission is about every nation and every generation Of people hearing the gospel.

Truth #3 The Mission is both Local and Global

In verse 18, Paul left Corinth after a year and a half.

Is it because the work was done in Corinth?

In verse 19 he stayed in Ephesus for a short period.

He returned to Antioch and spent time with his church family..,

and then he was off again…

Why didn’t he just pick a spot and evangelize till a whole city was saved?

Paul understood the mission of God to be a global one…,

and he understood his unique role as an apostle was to always be expanding the kingdom to the ends of the earth.

We need to see God’s mission in this way as well.

It's both local - evangelizing St. Rose,

and global - expanding out beyond St. Rose

God promised the power of the Holy Spirit to his disciples when they were witnesses,

but not just witnesses in Jerusalem.

Acts 1:8 ESV

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

We are Christians here in South Louisiana,

because Christians who went before us pushed the boundaries

and cared about the spread of Christianity beyond their own communities.

Paul articulates his own ambition clearly in Romans chapter 15.

Paul writes the book of Romans to function as a missionary support letter hopefully paving the way for him to travel to Rome and the Roman church support him and send him beyond Rome to share the gospel in Spain.

And Paul explains his rational here in chapter 15.

Romans 15:19–24 ESV

19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, 21 but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.” 22 This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. 23 But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, 24 I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

How can Paul say, there is no room for work in these regions any more?

There was certainly so much work to be done.

Christianity had not overwhelmed the pagan culture of all those cities.

There were still so many non-Christians throughout those regions.

So how can there be no more room for his work?

Its because churches were established in each of those regions who would continue the work beyond Paul.

But he knew there were still places where there was no church doing the work of the ministry.

There were cities, and communities, where there was no gospel preaching…

And thus, his ambition was to expand God’s kingdom beyond the local and to the global need of those who had never heard.

This is the mission Paul was sent to do by the church at Antioch.

And it is why Paul returns to them again.

His travels reveal his global perspective,

but they also reveal his communal perspective.

Truth #4 The Mission is Communal, not Individual

Paul could confidently press forward into new frontiers, because he believed the churches he established would carry on the work that he started.

He didn’t believe that he had a monopoly on God’s work.

The church was the mechanism for accomplishing God’s great commission work in a city.

He knows he does not operate as an individual, but rather the mission is communal.

Throughout Paul’s missionary journeys thus far, he is never primarily working alone.

He was sent out by Antioch with co-laborers, and he picked up more co-laborers along the way.

It has always been a communal affair

now showcased by Priscilla and Aquila the tent-makers who will stay in Ephesus and labor as Paul travels back to visit the Christians in Antioch….

The Christians in Antioch who presumably continued the work of evangelizing and discipling in Paul’s absence of these last several years.

Not everyone from Antioch became missionaries,

Not everyone left Antioch,

but the whole church

sent Paul,

supported Paul,

prayed for Paul…,

it was a communal mission, not an individual one.

and now once again they had the joy and the privilege of hearing all that God was doing beyond their city through the missionary work of the one they sent.

Next week, we will have a portion of our service where we bring forward those who are going on the church planting team to bridgedale.

That evening we will celebrate that team’s covenanting together service as they become a new congregation.

But that will not be the last time we hear from them.

There will be moments where we are reunited.

There will be joyful reunions where we get to celebrate all that God has done through them,

the people they have reached with the gospel,

the disciples they have made,

the missionaries they send.

And their faithfulness will serve to increase and motivate our joy and our faithfulness

to keep fulfilling the great commission both locally and globally.

To be a part of a church is to be on mission together

all of us playing our particular roles according to the giftings, and desires, and opportunities that God has given us.

You may not be able to be a Bible translator in East Timor so that the people in Julio’s country can read the New Testament in their own Makasai language.

But through your faithfulness to give financially

to pray regularly,

and to even go periodically, you are a part of that work.

a work that is not primarily Julio’s, or mine, or yours…

but a work that is primarily God’s work.

If there is anything that these missionary journeys have emphasized repeatedly…,

it has been the sovereign power of God to accomplish his mission as he pleases through us.

Truth #5 The Mission is According to God's Will, Not Ours

Though there was certainly more work to do in each city Paul visited,

He had entrusted the new converts and the new churches into God's care.

The mission did not depend on him.

It could not depend on his constant presence in each city,

and his every move was always "if God wills."

In these short five verses Paul is seen traveling from Corinth, to Cenchreae, to Ephesus, and from Ephesus back to Antioch.

When Paul was leaving Ephesus, they begged him to stay longer,

but for now, Paul departs.

And as he departs he make a statement which springs from his theology.

Acts 18:21 ESV

21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.

That my friends is how we live our lives.

If God wills.

James 4:13–15 ESV

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

We serve a God who is eternal.

He is infinite.

Without beginning or end.

Unlimited in power.

Unlimited in knowledge and wisdom.

And he leads us.

He is large and in charge.

And he doesn’t give us all the details of our lives up front.

Like Jesus with the disciples he simply says, “follow me.”

Like Peter stepping out on to the water to walk to Jesus, we have to keep our eyes on him and just take one step at a time.

Its not that Paul wasn’t strategic.

It wasn’t that he made no ministry plans.

In order to make a third missionary trip including an extended stay in Ephesus, much would have to be done.

Support raised, travel arranged, co-laborers recruited, plans made…,

He would do all those things in pursuit of the mission….. but he would do all those things in a spirit of humility yielding to the ultimate sovereign will of the Lord.

Do you live that way?

Are you content to live the rest of your life trusting the God who wills the details of your life according to his good plan?

The Christian life is really all about walking by faith.

We become a Christian by trusting God’s plan for our salvation…

God’s plan was to send Jesus on a mission to live a perfect life, to die a sinners death, and to rise again on the third day.

He took our place and our punishment on the cross.

And he calls us to trust him for our salvation.

We are saved by faith…,

but we are also sent by faith.

Just as we trusted God for our salvation…, we trust God with the mission of our lives every day.

We do everything we do “if the Lord wills”

Its a humbling and wonderful way to live…,

when you have a good heavenly Father who walks with you, and establishes your steps until the day we see him face to face.

If you are not a Christian this morning, I invite you to trust this God and to join the mission with us.

If you are a Christian, I invite you to join the same mission that God was on 2,000 years ago.

fueled by our personal devotion

both evangelizing and discipling,

both local and global

communal, not individual

fulfilling God’s mission not ours.

lets pray

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