Acts 18:1-4

Review:

Last week we looked at Paul in Athens, a place that as Paul put it was very “Religious”. But as Paul pointed out to the Athenians being “Religious” isn’t worshipping the one true God. It’s as we discussed a lesson for our society today that views spirituality as a good enough, all roads lead to heaven sort of catch all. But remember Paul’s warning:

““The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

So in other words time is short, and judgement is real. We should be seeking orthodoxy and truth, not novelty. The scriptures tell us clearly what we should know and believe about God:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Background:

So this week Paul and his traveling party have moved onto Corinth. Here’s a little background on that city:

The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 18

18:1 Corinth. Since 27 B.C., this city had been the capital of the Roman province of Achaia. It was fifty miles (80 km) southwest of Athens, near the isthmus that joins Attica and the Peloponnesus. Corinth was large and prosperous in the eighth to sixth centuries B.C., but it declined and was captured in 338 B.C. by Philip II of Macedon. In 196 B.C., it was taken by the Romans. They sacked it in 146 B.C. as punishment for a revolt, but it was restored by Julius Caesar as a Roman colony in 44 B.C. In NT times, Corinth had more than two hundred thousand inhabitants, including Greeks, freedmen from Italy, Roman army veterans, businessmen, government officials, people from the Near East, a large number of Jews, and many slaves. Corinth was thoroughly pagan and immoral. The city was filled with pagan temples and on the south there was a high acropolis with a temple of Aphrodite. From the fifth century B.C., the expression “to Corinthianize” meant to engage in sexual immorality.

Text:

English Standard Version Chapter 18

18 After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 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, 3 and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 18

18:2 Aquila, a native of Pontus … Priscilla. Pontus was on the north coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Priscilla is frequently listed before her husband (vv. 18, 19, 26; Rom. 16:3; 2 Tim. 4:19). She may have had higher social status or have been more prominent in their tent-making business.

The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 18

18:2 Aquila, a native of Pontus … Priscilla. Pontus was on the north coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Priscilla is frequently listed before her husband (vv. 18, 19, 26; Rom. 16:3; 2 Tim. 4:19). She may have had higher social status or have been more prominent in their tent-making business. This Jewish-Christian couple is noteworthy for their hospitality, opening their homes in Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome (to which they eventually returned) to the church’s meetings and leaders (Acts 18:24–26; Rom. 16:3–5; 1 Cor. 16:19).

The New American Commentary: Acts Paul’s Arrival in Corinth (18:1–4)

Luke only mentioned as an incidental detail that the couple had recently come from Rome because the emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews from the city. The detail is very important for Pauline chronology. Luke probably referred to the same incident the Roman historian Suetonius mentioned in his Life of Claudius (25.4). According to Suetonius, Claudius expelled all the Jews because of a tumult instigated by “Chrestus.” The later church historian Orosius dated this event during the ninth year of Claudius, i.e., between Jan. 25, 49 and Jan. 24, 50. If Orosius’s date can be trusted, this sets a certain date for Paul’s arrival in Corinth. Since Aquila and Priscilla preceded him there, it is not likely Paul would have arrived in Corinth before the middle of A.D. 49.

The reference in Suetonius is significant for other reasons as well. Likely, his attributing the tumult among the Jews to “Chrestus” resulted from his confusion over the name “Christus,” the Latin for Christ. This is evidence that Christianity had already reached Rome by A.D. 50. How would it have done so?

The New American Commentary: Acts Paul’s Arrival in Corinth (18:1–4)

Luke said nothing about Paul’s witnessing to the couple, and one would assume Paul readily took up with them because they were not only fellow Jews and fellow tentmakers but, most important of all, fellow Christians.

So let’s take a look at Priscilla and Aquila

Here is the perfect example before us—by Christians like Priscilla and Aquila traveling the routes of trade and commerce and carrying their faith wherever they went. Priscilla and Aquila likely were Christians already when they left Rome. The Jewish Christians would have been seen as ringleaders in the Jewish unrest over “Chrestus” and would have received the brunt of Claudius’s edict.

So following their persecution in Rome, what do Priscilla and Aquila do, what role do they play in the early church?

We know from the passages above that they welcome the fellowship of Paul a fellow Christian and someone actively involved in ministry so it doesn’t appear they are shying away from their identity as Christians, in fact we know this is the case b/c of Paul’s mentions of the couple in other passages.

This Jewish-Christian couple is noteworthy for their hospitality, and commitment to the gospel opening their homes in Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome (to which they eventually returned) to the church’s meetings and leaders, and mentoring a young preacher names Apollos:

24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. ()

English Standard Version Chapter 16

3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. 5 Greet also the church in their house.

Romans 16:3–5 ESV

Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.

English Standard Version Chapter 16

19 The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.

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The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

1 Corinthians 16:19 ESV

The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.

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The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. (; ; ).

So this couple hosts the church in three different cities and “risked their necks” to preserve Paul life. They display this commitment and selflessness a pattern that continues to this day:

Pastor Lamb, is one of China’s well-known house church leaders. He ministers in Guangzhou, a city of more than three million, where he lived in a tiny apartment under house arrest. He endured more than 21 years in prison for his faith all because he refused to register his church with the Chinese government. Fifteen of those years, he did hard physical labor in a coal mine as punishment for trying to make a copy of the New Testament.

When I arrived at Pastor Lamb’s house for the first time, his house church meeting had just dismissed, so I had to wait outside while hundreds of Chinese believers made their way down the narrow staircase and filed past me into the night. The first thing I remember seeing was a long table with about 20 young Chinese people writing feverishly. I asked Pastor Lamb what they were doing. He matter-of-factly explained, “They are making handwritten copies of the Gospel of John to give to their friends at school tomorrow. We only have one Bible at this time, so we must make copies.”

When I arrived at Pastor Lamb’s house for the first time, his house church meeting had just dismissed, so I had to wait outside while hundreds of Chinese believers made their way down the narrow staircase and filed past me into the night. I’ll never know how that many people fit inside that small apartment. I had to push past armed guards to make my way up the stairs. When I reached the third floor, I met my hero for the first time.

Pastor Lamb was short; I towered over him. With a contagious smile, he invited me to come in. The first thing I remember seeing was a long table with about 20 young Chinese people writing feverishly. Nearly 80 perce the pastor’s congregation was comprised of young people who were hungry for the Word of God and eager to share it with their friends.

I asked Pastor Lamb what they were doing. He matter-of-factly explained, “They are making handwritten copies of the Gospel of John to give to their friends at school tomorrow. We only have one Bible at this time, so we must make copies.”

I thought to myself, This would never happen in my country. Most Christian young people in America would never think of giving a Gospel of John to their friends in school, let alone make a handwritten copy.

Pastor Lamb said that he started preaching again when he was released from prison, and his house church started growing. One day, concerned authorities stormed into the meeting and arrested Pastor Lamb again. They confiscated all of the Bibles and hymnals. For three days, he was interrogated, beaten, and tortured. He was told to go back and close the Da Ma Zhan house church. I asked him, “What did you do?”

Pastor Lamb said that he started preaching again when he was released from prison, and his house church started growing. One day, concerned authorities stormed into the meeting and arrested Pastor Lamb again. They confiscated all of the Bibles and hymnals. For three days, he was interrogated, beaten, and tortured. He was told to go back and close the Da Ma Zhan house church. I asked him, “What did you do?”

“I stood in the church the next week,” he said, “and told the congregation that the police said not to come back.”

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“I stood in the church the next week,” he said, “and told the congregation that the police said not to come back.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“The next Sunday,” he said, “our church attendance doubled. Jesus said, ‘Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.’”

At the time, Da Ma Zhan Church was one of the largest house churches in China. Every week, more than 1,500 believers packed into five services.

Application:

“I quoted Scripture that I had committed to memory and composed hymns to worship God,” he said.

The devotion of Priscilla and Aquila and Pastor Lamb show us a hope that is not of this world. Paul says in 1 Corr 15:12-19

“Pray for us dearly,” he continued, “because we don’t know about tomorrow. We don’t know when tribulation will come. Pray that our people might have strength to face persecution. They are threatened by the government with no salary or no job if they attend the meetings, yet they still come. But please do not pray for the persecution to stop.”

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

He saw his trial as a blessing because every time they arrested him and sent him to prison, the church grew.

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

So the question we should consider looking at these examples is one Pastors often ask as a sermon illustration “If you were accused of being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you.”