Sermon Tone Analysis

I have said many times that being a Christian is simple but not easy.

Simple truth, believe or trust Jesus Christ is the Son of God who is God who died on the cross to pay the penalty of sin for you and me.

A penalty we can not pay on our own, there is nothing we can do to earn salvation or a right standing before God but Jesus, the perfect human being, became our substitute and took our place on the cross.

He died so we don’t have to, and in His resurrection we can now have new life as well.

Simple.

The problem occurs when it comes to living the Christian life.

Its not easy.

Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection and ascension means He has claimed victory over sin but it doesn’t mean sin is gone out of the world yet.

So we still deal with sin from within and we deal with sinning people who sin against us.

The Christian life is simple but not easy.

Because the Christian life is not easy we find more times then we would like that we go through difficult circumstances.

We go through financial hard times, we go through illness family illnesses, we find people are against us as though there is always some kind of opposition out there trying to keep us from sharing the gospel or even worse trying to get us to turn on God and rebel by sinning against Him.

What usually winds up happening when our circumstances some difficult is we jump in and try to handle it on our own.

Now if I were to ask you this morning how are you doing, you would probably tell me things are ok or things are fine.

Now if we were to be honest with one another, we would say, you know what things are ok, but it feels like everything is weighing down on me.

I feel like my finacial situation is hard, like I am swimming upstream and get pulled back by the current, my wife is sick or my husband is sick and working hard to provide or my child is always sick.

I just feeling like giving up.

Don’t we feel that way at times when our circumstances get tough.

Well this morning we are going to take a look at a man who we have seen is a spiritual giant, and we are going to see that even spiritual giants need some deep encouragement and support to keep on going.

That is why this sermon is titled, Encouragement Strengthens Resolve.

And for those here this morning who are going through some kind of situation that is testing them, I want to tell you right off the bat, Jesus has got it.

Be encouraged even in your situation because Jesus has got it.

Being Encouraged in any Circumstance through God’s Support, Word and Protection

We find this in Acts 18:1-17, Acts 18:1-17: Luke writes this;

Paul was in Athens waiting on Silas and Timothy and while he was waiting on Silas and Timothy remember the idolatry of the city and the people provoked Paul’s spirit and he was moved to proclaim the gospel truth to Jews in the Synagogue and also to the Greeks in the market place.

His debating with them and their philosophy brought Paul to stand before their counsel in the Areopagus and revealed to them who God is.

At the end of Paul’s discourse some rejected this truth, some were still curious and others believed.

Paul was not driven out of the city but left willingly and now we find Paul is in a new city, Corinth.

Corinth was a port city, it had a large population with the lowest estimate at 200,000.

The city was filled with diverse sets of people, from retired soldiers, to slaves, to tradesmen, businessmen there are people here not only from all walks of life but also all of the known world.

It was not only a hub for business but also a hub of cultural differences for all kinds of worship.

This is the city were Paul now enters and it is not a city that is easy to minister in.

Paul seems to enter the city alone, but Paul is not alone for long.

Verse 2, “And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.

He came to them.”

Here we find that by God’s providence and power Paul can find encouragement through God’s Support.

Encouraged through God’s Support

Even though Paul enters this tough city alone, he is not alone for long.

He comes across this Jewish couple.

How Paul came across this couple is not spelled out, whether or not they were believers before Paul came across them we do not know.

What we do know is this.

Aquila is a native of Pontus which is a region in nothern turkey and he and his wife were living in Italy.

We know from Paul’s letter to the Roman church the gospel message had spread as far as Rome without Paul having to go there.

So there were Christians in Rome.

There was also a high population of Jews and there are recordings of the Jews rioting against the Christians.

It seemed to Claudius to be religious infighting and we will see that when the Jews bring Paul before the Roman counsel here in Corinth, so to stop this from continuing in Rome Claudius forces the Jews out.

So we find here a couple that was forced out and they might well be Christians when Paul meets up with them.

Regardless this couples seems to be a support system to Paul.

Verse 3, adds to this support system, “and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working, for by trade they were tentmakers.”

God Provides Paul with support from people who are like minded.

Even though the text doesn’t tell us, it is safe to say they are Christians.

Paul comes to them and they welcome him into their home and he also goes to the synagogue and preaches the gospel.

If this couple were not believers they wouldn’t have associated with Paul in this way.

God also provides Paul with support in giving him a trade.

Paul was not just a man who knew the Scriptures and was being trained to be a pharisee as he grew up but he also had to know a trade and the trade he learned was tent making.

God had made sure Paul had a means of support in case he needed it.

Here he needed it.

There is nothing wrong with a pastor knowing a trade.

I am very grateful to know how to lay block and being around construction for a many years.

It helped me to be know how to do things.

A trade in and of itself is helpful to have.

This was a means of support for Paul.

This trade also helped support Paul monetarily.

Paul didn’t just work just to work, he worked so he could survive.

Is this the ideal way to provide no.

Paul had to do so because he needed to be supported and at this point he had no funds to support him so he worked.

Is it easy to work and be a minister of the gospel.

No, but it is necessary at times.

Did this stop Paul from giving the gospel.

No, verse 4, And he was reasoning every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.”

It was necessary to work and it was necessary to preach the gospel.

Paul did both.

Did this hinder him?

Yes, it did.

It wasn’t until Silas and Timothy came in verse 5 that Paul was freed up from this task and able to devote his time to the gospel.

Paul worked in Corinth and he makes it very clear it was for their sake and for the sake of the gospel.

Look at what he tells the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 9:11-18

Notice Paul didn’t want the Corinthians to see him as someone who peddled a false claim.

He worked so the gospel would be exalted.

Paul later in his second letter to the Corinthians when he is defending his apostleship against false teachers who are trying discredit Paul.

Paul says this to the Corinthians;

God is the one who supports Paul financially and he does the same for us.

God supplies all our needs and we can be encouraged by this fact.

Paul is now free to devote all his time to the gospel and as he does we see opposition arise.

Verse 6.

God also encourages Paul through conversions

Encouragement through God’s Conversions