Sermon Tone Analysis

Reading: Acts 18:1-11         Text: Acts 18:9-10

    After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; [2] And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.

[3] And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers.

[4] And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

[5] And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.

[6] And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.

[7] And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

[8] And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.

*[9] Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: [10] For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.*

[11] And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

For the time that is ours to share, I want to speak, as the Lord shall guide, with this thought in mind:

*TOO SOON TO QUIT*

 

   This passage or paragraph records the last events in Paul’s second missionary journey.

His journey is coming to a close.

And the text begins by saying, after departing from Athens, he now comes to Corinth.

Corinth was proverbial for its debauchery; which is to say, when the men who lived during that time, wanted to describe utter corruption, they said, “they live as they do in Corinth.”

One writer seeking to capture the depravity of this ancient city of Corinth said that the Corinthians loved money.

They drank deep from the wells and fountains of pleasure.

They wallowed in the mire of vice.

They rocked in the chair of voluptuous of luxury.

And they lived for things seen and temporal.

So it was this kind of city into which Paul arrived to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But we notice a different kind of Paul in Corinth than had arrived in Athens.

In Athens you will remember that Paul’s spirit was provoked.

Because he arrived in a city filled with idols and idolatry.

But upon arriving in Corinth, he discovered a city not filled with idolatry but a city filled with immorality.

The great tragedy was their religion was leading the way.

The temple of Aphrodite was where thousand of prostitutes practiced their trade.

And so when Paul arrived in Corinth, we noticed here in the text that he was depressed.

You can find that in verses 9 and 10.

He was discouraged.

In other words, Paul had the blues.

He’s a different Paul in Corinth than he was in Athens.

{He had the blues}.

One thing that I like about the bible, parenthetically speaking, is that it is ruggedly honest about its heroes.

And it always presents both sides; when they’re right and wrong, and when they’re up or down.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of glad to run up on verse 9, because when I find that I am discouraged, it helps me to identify with folk like Paul, and realize that all hope is not lost.

And so Paul had the blues.

As a matter of fact you can read it in Paul’s own words over in 1 Cor.

2:3.

In his own words, Paul says, /“…I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.”/

And so the question comes to me, what happened to cause Paul to have the blues.

{If you help me I won’t have to work to hard.}

What happened from Athens to Corinth that caused this great man of God to become dejected, discouraged, dispirited and down in the dust.

Well when you search Acts chapter 17, and first ten verses of this 18th chapter, you can up with three or four things that could have caused Paul to be down in the dust.

First of all I believe Paul had the blues and was down in the dust because Paul had a *SENSE OF FAILURE*.

You remember he had preached in Athens in the synagogues, he had preached in the market place, he had been invited upon the Areopagus, to stand on the stone of imprudence and argue his case among the philosophers and the Athenians.

But you will also remember that they laughed at him.

They said the resurrection was religious.

They mocked at him and accused him of being crazy; they called him such names as an idle babbler.

So Paul left Mars’ hill, I believe with a sense of failure.

I preached the word and they laughed at me.

I believe Paul said on his way from Athens to Corinth, “The stones I felt Lystra, were nowhere as painful as the mocking and the laughter I received at Athens.”

If you ever try to win somebody to Christ, and they turn Him down, if you’re serious about Jesus, and if you know that if that soul dies, it will go to hell, you can identify with how Paul must have felt.

As he left Mars’ hill, I believe he had a sense of failure.

But not only that, there was something else that contributed to his being discouraged; I believe that *SIMPLE FATIGUE*… the man was tired.

If you’ll remember, he went to Athens; he preached on Saturday in the synagogue, he was in the market place on Sunday, he was making tents from Monday to Friday with no day off.

And then he had journeyed some 200-300 miles from Berea to Athens, and another 100 or so miles from Athens to Corinth, and when he got in Corinth, he left his companions behind and with Aquila and Priscilla he had to again start making tents.

I believe the man was just tired.

Now hear me well, somebody has said that our bodies and our souls, live so very close to each other that they tend to catch one another’s disease.

In other words when the body is worn out, when the body is weary, then you will discover that you’re not able to mentally and emotionally make the best decisions and be your better self.

Have you ever noticed that when you’re tired, it’s so easy for folk to get on your nerves?

Have you ever noticed that when you’re tired it so easy for you to get on other folks nerves?

Have you ever discovered that it is better to keep your mouth shut when you’re physically tired?

Because, you don’t usually do your best thinking; and you’ll say something that you really didn’t mean to say?

So you’ve got to be careful about the fact that the soul and body live so close to one another.

The man was tired.

But not only that; I believe that he was *FRUSTRATED*.

And I believe his frustration was twofold.

Number one, I think he was frustrated because the Jews continued to hound his heels.

Everywhere he went on his first missionary journey he ran into opposition from the Jews.

And everywhere on this second journey he ran into opposition from the Jews.

Now I can tell you from personal experience that when your enemies relentlessly hound you heels, they can sometimes wear you down.

You can stay prayed up and handle most situations, but every now and then, if they stay relentlessly on your heels, they’ll catch you one day when you didn’t pray that morning.

And most of the time, you are able to control yourself, but every now and then your frustration will overflow.

The man was tired and frustrated; everywhere I go these Judaizers hound my heels.

But then I think his frustration was heightened by *the* *challenge of overwhelming odds*.

Paul was one man, and he didn’t have (according to this text), but two or three people to help him.

And there Paul is in a city of more than 700,000 people.

And I would imagine that that seemed like invincible odds; to overcome, 700,000 to 3. All I’ve got is Aquila and Priscilla.

Let me tell you, it can get frustrating when the odds seem overwhelming.

When the odds are 200 to 1, that can cause you to have the blues.

And so Paul here had the blues.

But I think you can identify with Paul, because depression, dejection and discouragement, comes to all of us.

There’s somebody looking at me right now, your problems, are so difficult that you’re wondering, right now, how long you can bear the load.

Somebody, looking at me right now, you’ve already asked the question: am I able to keep on fighting this fight.

So, there Paul was in Corinth; and this text says in essence, he almost quit.

He almost quit, because he had the blues.

I want you to know that even God’s people can get the blues.

And I want you to know that even God’s leaders; and the truth is especially God’s leaders will get the blues, because it’s lonely at the top.

You’ve got to stand there by yourself; it’s lonely at the top, therefore it’s easier to get the blues.

Paul had the blues.

Elijah got the blues one day.

You remember the Lord’s great prophet Elijah.

After winning the contest upon Mt.

Carmel, he ran from that experience until he stopped under a Juniper tree.

{Somebody here reads the bible, don’t they?} Stopped under a Juniper tree, started praying a prayer that he really didn’t mean.

He said Lord; kill me, because he had the blues.

You know the blues will make you pray stuff you really don’t mean.

He said Lord: kill me, but he really didn’t mean that.

I know he didn’t mean it because Jezebel was looking for him to kill him then.