Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts 18:1-4

Colleagues in Christ

 

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.

And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.[1]

Common tasks make for strong bonds.

It is not unusual that our associates, with whom we share labour in the workplace, also share most closely in our social life.

Our dearest friends are often those with whom we work.

Common interests make for common bonds, and since we often work closely at similar tasks or toward a similar goal, we develop friendships with our work mates.

The message today reviews those friendships, but seeks to challenge us to see ourselves as the Body of Christ.

Within that Body, it is natural that we will enjoy the company of some of our fellow worshippers more than we do others.

This is not so much a rejection of some, as it is a fostering of common interests even beyond our common Faith.

Join me in an exploration of this fascinating topic as we observe the Apostle moving into a new region during one of his missionary journeys.

Background Studies (How we Arrived at this Point) — Let me provide the setting for the account before us.

Without doubt, you will recall that this incident occurred during Paul’s second missionary journey.

Having received the Macedonian call, the missionary band had crossed the Hellespont, and in a very brief ministry established a church in the city of Philippi.

Jailed in Philippi, Paul and Silas next travelled to the port city of Thessalonica upon their release from prison.

Again, under severe persecution from the Jews and placed under a peace bond by the city authorities, they fled to spare the nascent church trouble.

Arriving in Berea, the missionaries preached the Word and again were compelled to face angry religious accusers.

Paul at last arrived in Athens.

Alone, in the centre of Greek paganism, the Apostle presented the Faith and debated the Faith with the great thinkers assembled at the Areopagus.

We cannot know what feelings the Apostle may have had, but many think that he was discouraged by the lack of positive response in Athens.

I am not certain that I agree that results were less than positive, for though it is true that some mocked and others put off making a decision of any kind [see *Acts 17:32*], some believed [*Acts 17:34*].

My dear people, any time some believe, we have not failed.

When the Word of God is declared with the result that He blesses with the salvation of souls, we have not failed.

I doubt not that Paul was discouraged, however.

Imprisonment, beatings, angry mobs, threats against both himself and the other missionaries, and the pressure of concern for new believers—who wouldn’t be susceptible to discouragement?

The great Apostle was but a man; and alone, the greatest of men are vulnerable to depression.

If you have never wanted to quit, it is likely that you never tried.

However, commitment to his call would not permit him to quit.

Travelling to the next city, Corinth, the Apostle again sought to find the means to reach out and touch lives for the cause of Christ the Lord.

Consider his situation, however.

He is discouraged.

He is alone.

His funds are exhausted.

The discouragement the Apostle experienced becomes evident upon reflection.

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior 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 [*1 Corinthians 2:1, 2*].

Something of this same spirit is evident from the fifth verse of this chapter: When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ [*Acts 18:5*].

Here, in Corinth, there would be no great philosophical debates, but a simple declaration that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah.

Loneliness served to burden the Apostle, I should think.

Silas and Timothy had remained behind in Berea to strengthen the new saints in that city.

A man can withstand almost any pressure, if only one someone stands with him.

Alone, any of us are liable to break and run.

Moreover, the stress of need pressed upon the Apostle; his funds were exhausted.

He did not have a mission board to underwrite his work.

He was broke.

The paragraph which serves as our text today is explanatory, serving to introduce us to Aquila and Priscilla.

“Aquila (meaning ‘eagle’) is called a Jew; the status of his wife Pricilla (the diminutive form of /Prisca/, ‘old or venerable woman’) is not indicated.”[2]

This husband-wife duo is mentioned six times in Scripture.

They are introduced here in *Acts **18:2*.

They were in Corinth because the Emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome (a.d.

49-50).[3]

This edict resulted from disturbances arising among Jews in the city of Rome who reacted with choler to the growth of the Christian Faith.

Aquila and Priscilla were Christians, expelled from Rome—and this long before Paul had carried the Gospel there.

We know the date of this particular edict because Seutonius refers to it in his work, *Life of Claudius*.[4]

This would indicate that Paul arrived in Corinth before the middle of a.d.

49.

It would also indicate that Christianity was already spreading throughout the Empire soon after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, following trade routes.

Paul met fellow tradesmen, and he found fellow Christians.

Paul shared a trade with this couple—he was a tentmaker.

In Corinth, Paul stayed with them, perhaps in quarters they had rented in Corinth.

The text seems to indicate that they not only worked together, but that they ministered together.

It is of interest to note that in his letter to the Roman Christians, Paul indicates that this couple risked their lives for him at some point [*Romans 16:3, 4*].

Perhaps it was during this time they shared in Corinth that they hazarded their lives for the Apostle

The business they developed together was apparently sufficiently beneficial to cause Aquila and Priscilla to move to Ephesus with Paul when he journeyed to that city [*Acts 18:18, 19*].

As they worked, making tents, they no doubt discussed doctrine, and it would appear from their later work that they were both excellent students and that they became excellent teachers as well [*Acts 18:24-28*; *1 Corinthians 16:19*].[5]

After Paul left for Antioch, this couple appears to have worked alone to lay the groundwork for the Ephesian congregation [*Acts 18:19-21*].

During this time of foundational work in Ephesus, they performed perhaps their greatest work which was to explain to [Apollos] the way of God more accurately [*Acts 18:26*].

From Scripture, we know that Apollos went on to become a powerful spokesman for the cause of Christ, honouring God through working to multiply the impact of the Apostle’s message.

Aquila and Priscilla returned to Corinth, where Paul forwards specific greetings to them [*1 Corinthians 16:19*].

It is interesting that they again have a church in their home.

The last time we see this godly couple is again in Ephesus [*2 Timothy 4:19*], where they no doubt provided great encouragement for the young pastor of that church, Timothy.

Four out of the six times they are named, Priscilla is named first.

“This prominence has been explained as due to her superior ability and zeal, or that she had a higher social standing than Aquila as a member of an old Roman family,” according to D. E. Hiebert.

I rather suspect that it is because she obtained prominence in Christian circles for her witness, however, rather than ascribing this deviation from convention to social status.

Aquila is a native of Pontus, a Roman province in northern Asia Minor just north of Mysia.

“Since the race of Priscilla is not mentioned,’ Hiebert adds, ‘she probably was non-Jewish, but may have become a proselyte before marrying Aquila.”[6]

Paul often spoke of working to support himself.

In his first letter to the Corinthian Christians, the great Apostle spoke of the labours he and his fellow missionaries performed: we labour, working with our own hands [*1 Corinthians 4:12*].

Similarly, as he wrote the Thessalonian church for the first time, he spoke of his work.

You remember, brothers, our labour and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God [*1 Thessalonians 2:9*].

Listen to Paul as he addresses the Ephesian elders in *Acts 20:34, 35*.

You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Only here in our text are we told that the Apostle supported himself as a tentmaker.

Exactly what this trade entailed is frequently discussed.

Many of the early church fathers referred to him as a “leather worker.”

Tents were often made of leather, so this is indeed plausible.

Some interpreters, however, have suggested that Paul may not have worked in leather at all, but rather worked in *cilicium*, a cloth of woven goat’s hair that was often used as material for tents.

Since *cilicium* originated in and was named for Paul’s native province of Cilicia, he may well have learned the trade there.[7]

“At the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, across the great porch of Norton Hall, the administrative building in the seminary, you will find inscribed these words: *Orthotomounta Ton Logon Tes Alethesis* [ὀρθοτομοῦντα τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας] which means, ‘Rightly dividing the word of truth.’

Literally, it is a tentmaker’s speech.

*Orthotomounta* means ‘rightly cutting,’ ‘straight cutting’ the word of truth, and Paul had to make his tent panels correctly in order to make good tents.”[8]

Among those familiar with evangelical missionary work, we often hear the term “tentmaker.”

The term refers to one who goes afield to be a missionary, but who instead of being supported by people from back home, supports himself or herself by working in the economy of the local country.

The missionary then does his or her missionary work “on the side.”[9]

As an aside of no small consequence, I wonder if such tentmaker ministries are not the wave of the future for the Faith.

In many countries, Christians are being excluded except for those who have a profession which is desirable or underrepresented within that particular nation.

I must take a moment to speak of this labour of tentmaking ministries.

I have served as a tentmaker.