Acts 18:1-17
Notes
Transcript
In Acts 15-19, when Luke describes the trip that Paul, Silas, and Timothy took, it sounds like a travelogue. They hit Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea in Macedonia. When it got too hot in Berea for Paul to stay, Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea and Paul travelled to Athens and then on to Corinth. When I was on sabbatical last year, Robin & I visited all these places.
Paul sounds disappointed about his visit to Athens. His big opportunity to talk among the philosophers of the Areopagus wasn’t as fruitful as he hoped. Luke reports:
Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
3-4 believers is awesome, but it doesn’t sound like the church plants with believers and elders that Paul established in other towns.
For the next stop, Corinth, Paul changed his approach. At the time, Corinth was a renewed town. It was beginning to rival Athens in wealth and prestige.
A major fire in 146 BC, shrank the centuries-old city to a small town. But Julius Ceasar rebuilt Corinth as a Roman colony in 44 BC. Located on a narrow strip of land between the Aegean and Ionian Seas, when people hauled goods and even ships across land, Corinth sat at the crossroads between Rome and the Eastern Mediterranean. This is the canal that now exists along the path where in Paul’s day, they hauled ships and cargo overland.
Corinth was growing wealthy and influential, but it didn’t have a prestigious Areopagus or academic heritage like Athens. Corinth called for a different approach. Paul describes his strategy in his first letter to the Corinthians:
When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
Rome used crucifixion to quash rebellions. “Christ crucified” is a shocking message for anyone in the Roman Empire. Allowing yourself to be crucified doesn’t sound like a winning strategy for establishing a kingdom. It sounds like foolishness.
Claiming that the crucified Jesus Christ rose again as Lord and king is a tough sell anywhere in the Roman Empire. But Paul’s letter makes it clear that he doesn’t try to overwhelm people with his arguments or bully them into believing. He rejects the arguments and sophistry of the philosophers and trained speakers in Athens and Rome.
In the context of Corinth, proclaiming Christ crucified captures the weight of human sin and the seriousness of human rebellion against the living God, our Creator. If Christ is crucified the way Rome crucifies rebels and traitors against Rome, you can understand the power of Jesus’ death on a cross in the place of rebels and traitors against God.
Jesus took the guilt, shame, and punishment of our rebellion against God. His death and resurrection free us for life in his kingdom. It really is a demonstration of the HS’s power when people hear the message of Jesus’ humiliation and shame, his flogging and death, and then recognize Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord in the glory of his resurrection. It’s the HS’s power that allows people to put their faith in Christ … and him crucified.
Preaching Christ crucified is the gospel in a nutshell: the depth of our sin, the depth of Jesus’ love to save us by his crucifixion and resurrection, and the HS’s power, transforming us to serve God and others. That’s the message Paul brought to Corinth, first in the synagogue and later from the house of Titius Justus.
It’s striking in Acts 18 how Paul’s approach to ministry is humble and blue-collar. Paul starts his ministry in Corinth doing the demanding work of tentmaker: measuring, stretching, and sewing linen, leather, and goat hair, filling orders for fussy merchants or bureaucratic supply officers in the Roman army.
Every Jewish rabbi was expected to have a trade. Paul’s trade in Tarsus was making tents - his home province was famous for their water-proof goat hair fabric. Working with Aquila & Priscilla he earned his keep by tent-making in Corinth. He used his day of rest – the Sabbath – to teach, preach, and explain Jesus’ crucifixion to the Jews and Greeks in the synagogue.
A couple years later, when he wrote his first letter to the church of Corinth, Paul reminded the believers that during the 1.5 years of ministry in Corinth, he didn’t ask the new believers to support him financially. Paul responds to criticism of his generous approach to ministry at Corinth:
… If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.
You hear how important the gospel is to Paul?
He wants their faith to rest on God’s power, so he doesn’t use wise or persuasive words, just testimony about God.
He doesn’t want asking for support to hinder the gospel of Christ, so he didn’t pass the hat when he proclaimed the gospel.
Silas and Timothy bring financial support from Macedonia.
Yet for all the criticism, Paul’s ministry in Corinth bears fruit:
Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.
Sounds positive, doesn’t it?
It’s a pattern we try to follow at Crosspoint. We don’t hide the gospel. We try to put the gospel message at the heart of everything we do.
Last week at Junior Chef Camp, I heard Chef Scott teach about knife safety and how to serve meals. I also hear Chef Scott pray with the participants, read the Bible, and explain the Bible passage to them.
Same thing this coming week. Tillsonburg Kids’ Bible Camp is not just about activities, upbeat songs, and free babysitting. It’s about prayer, gospel-telling, and life in the kingdom of God.
It’s what our Director of Discipleship and other leaders are thinking about as they plan our fall ministries: How do we engage people of every age in gospel-telling, prayer, and growing in faith?
For many people, summer is a break from being busy at church. It’s a season of rest from the usual routine and commitments. That’s good. We all need a break to recharge our batteries.
Just don’t let the summer break stop you from pondering the mystery and majesty of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, who was crucified to rescue you. Don’t take a vacation from faith. Don’t let summer be a time when you stop investing time in prayer, reading the Bible, and worshipping Jesus Christ as Lord with others . The reality is: If you’re not moving ahead on your faith journey, you’re going backwards.
Pause and ask the deep question: Are you resolved to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified?
It’s also why we don’t charge for most of our programs. Like Paul in Corinth, we don’t want anything to hinder the gospel of Christ. We don’t pass the plate in worship services so it’s not awkward for newcomers. Our guests don’t feel obligated to give before they believe and are fully, even financially, committed to the growing kingdom of God.
Instead, members and mature believers support Crosspoint’s ministries. Members who give generously are like the Macedonians sending support for the frontline ministry in Corinth where Paul is telling the gospel to people who haven’t heard it or haven’t believed the gospel before.
That brings us to Paul’s vision. The Lord encouraged Paul during a tough time of ministry.
One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
I’m not claiming that the Lord spoke to me in a vision recently. But my experience in the past few years here at Crosspoint, with the number of inquiries we have about the Bible, Jesus, and what we’re doing in Tillsonburg as a church is encouraging. It seems to me that we should not be afraid. We should keep on speaking and not be silent. The Lord is with us and the Lord has many people in this city!
