Occupied with the Word

Introduction

Last week we heard Zane unpack this idea knowing the language, and speaking the truth. That we have to understand the language that culture is speaking so that we can be good stewards of the Gospel. This week, we’re going to pick up where I left off 2 weeks ago with the Word- we talked about how turning the world upside down requires you to do three things,

Be strategic & intentional

Be true to scripture

and to be intellectually engaged

I left you with this challenge, if you cant prove what you believe is true with scripture, then you have to change your habits to involve more time spent in scripture.

This week we’re going to dive into what it means to be occupied with the Word. That we would be a people that are noticeably passionate about our love for the Bible.

Now, I want to make one thing clear, I LOVE this book. I am passionate about learning more from this Book and teaching others about this book. I don’t expect that you become experts overnight…all that I ask is that you start to understand & apply the reality that you need to know what is inside of this book.

What does it mean to be occupied with the word? It means this, and we’ll use the example of Paul in Acts 18 to prove this: Paul wasn’t just a Christian, He was utterly occupied with God’s word. It wasn’t just one thing he did, it was who he was. His identity was defined by the Christ who is found in these pages.

Content

Open up your Bibles to Acts 18:1-23

Acts 18:1–23 ESV

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. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.” But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” And he drove them from the tribunal. And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this. After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus. When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

As we zoom out from what we are reading we have to notice something that influences the way we understand this section of scripture- this is not taking place in a few days. It is taking place over the course of months, years. So, what I want to do is zoom in on the person named Paul in this scripture & see what we can learn from him. Not just what he says, but how he behaves.

In Acts 18:1 it tells us that Paul went to Corinth. He had departed from Athens and made his way to Corinth. One Biblical scholar describes Paul as a football, saying,

Paul may have felt like a football that had taken the right bounces and refused to be fumbled, and yet every time his team scored he was spiked to the turf mercilessly and then kicked the length of the field. In fact, the better he performed, the more he was spiked and kicked! The last punt from Athens, though apparently voluntary, was particularly grievous to his passionate heart

Preaching the Word: Acts, p. 238

Why was it particularly grievous? Well, in his first letter to the Church of Corinth he writes of this visit, saying,

1 Corinthians 2:1–3 ESV

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,

The last line suggests that Paul had been through the wringer. However, when he arrived in Corinth, some encouraging things happened.

Acts 18:1–4 ESV

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.

There had recently been an anti-semitic stir in Rome, and this dunamic coiple, Aquila and Priscilla, was forced to move their business to Corinth. Aquila means “eagle.” Priscilla is a form of the name Prisca, which is the name of one of the great families of Rome. She was probably related to this family in some way. Whatever the connection, she must have been a gifted woman, for in half the occurences of their names she is mentioned first, which is highly unusual. Somehow, they had both come to Christ and into Paul’s life. They were a great encouragement to Paul who had just gone through some trial of some sort. In fact, in the final chapter of Romans Paul calls them his “fellow workers in Christ Jesus,” saying that “they risked their necks” for him.

Romans 16:3–4 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.

They were close friends!

Out of the backdrop of Paul being through the wringer and finding encouragement through likeminded friends, we see Silas and Timothy arrive back on the scene after Paul had already had an established ministry in Corinth.

Acts 18:5 ESV

When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.

Paul was occupied with the word (which led him to) testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.

Paul was ministering at first, as usual, in the synagogue, where Paul receives such strong opposition that for the second time he declares that his focus from now on will be on the Gentiles- to which the Jews respond with opposition.

Now, what do you notice about the scripture we just read? When Paul’s friends arrived in Corinth, he was occupied with the Word. The word was his occupation.

Paul wasn’t just “a Christian,” He was utterly occupied by the Word. We can’t let our faith just be “part” of who we are, it needs to be entirely who we are.

I think there are two major points in the texts we just read-

God wants us to be occupied with the word. So occupied that it actually dictates how we live and how we think.

God wants our identity to be in Him & what He says about us in His word. NOT in what we do or are passionate about. Paul’s identity was as a Disciple first, rarely do we read about his job as a tentmaker. Because he was not a tentmaker, he was a disciple! So hear me loud and clear, you are a student- but your identity is in your discipleship to Christ!

But there is something else in this passage that we have to hone in on. We know that Paul was occupied with the Word, yes. But what we also know is that he was in need of encouragement.

Before I go any further I want to highlight this point: A passion for the word does not mean bad things won’t happen. In fact, in Paul’s case, it meant bad things happened more often. Its how you respond that matters.

Naturally I ask myself, what had Paul down? We know a few things that had been happening.

We know that he had great friends in Priscilla, Aquila, Silas, and Timothy. We know that he had financial help, a full-time ministry, encouraging results. Yet, in the midst of this, he fell prey to fear and discouragement. We know this because of the vision God gave him

Acts 18:9–10 ESV

And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”

He told him not to be afraid, and to continue on in the ministry God had called him too. But, this still doesn’t answer the question: What was getting Paul down?

Like the Old Testament prophet Elijah, Paul had been excruciating tension for a long time, and he was losing his ability to rebound.

Elijah took a nosedive after the heart-thumping tension of his encounter with the priests of Baal, where he stands on the top of a hill with these priests of a false God and challenges them to a God-off. If you’ve never read the story make a note to read 1 Kings 18:20 and so on.

Paul was similarly reeling from his multiple encounters in recent months. He probably had not had sufficient time to recover from his beating (literally). He was tired.. And he now faced the depressing moral ambience of Corinth.

For five hundred years there was a term, “To Corinthianize,” which meant to be sexually immoral. Corinth was the Vanity Fair of the ancient world. Every night a thousand prostitutes decended to Acrocrinth, which was essentially the primary gathering place in the city, to engage in sex work in worship of their God Aphrodite.

One could do anything in Corinth if they had the money. Homosexuality was rampant. When Paul wrote Romans 1:26-28 he was describing what he saw in Corinth, I want you to listen to this with your modern ears…listen to how familiar it sounds.

Romans 1:26–28 ESV

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

There had been culture shock in Athens, where Paul had previously come from…but in Corinth there was moral shock. Its sweat and perfume and grit smothered Paul’s righteous soul, and he became depressed.

I don’t know about you, but our cultural landscape has me relating to Paul a lot here. There is so much crap happening in our world and our culture. Political disunity and hatred, bigotry, racism, sexual immorality, moral corruption, rebellion of multiple flavors, a rise and tidal wave of mental illness in the lives of high schoolers like you, and so on and so on.

Doing ministry during COVID has me tired, doing ministry in this culture has me tired, and i’m sure being a student during COVID, and doing ministry in this culture has you tired too. But God’s words to Paul are just as important for us,

These words were God’s ministering to Paul and they are God’s ministering to you. These words brought refreshment to Paul, let them bring refreshment to you. These are words for everyone who is beginning to wonder if they should give up the battle. When we feel the unrelenting persistence of evil, when we sense that the forces of darkness are sending troops to defeat us, when we feel that our finest hour is about to give way to our lowest, there is an antidote for our hopelessness. His name is Jesus, and to you he says “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”

God starts by saying, “do not be afraid...” Fear not! Paul had given way to fear and discouragement even though he was experiencing crazy spiritual success. That may seem strange, but we have to recognize this: Success is what he feared. Now, don’t get me wrong, Paul wanted everyone he came in contact with to know the Gospel and the life transforming love that Jesus has to offer to each and every person. But…he also knew what the growth of the Gospel in each city that he visited meant…it meant persecution. It meant persecution in every city Paul had preached the Gospel in. It meant persecution in Antioch, Lystra, Philippi, Thessalonica, Bera, Athens, and now in Corinth.

From Paul’s perspective, the immediate future was perfectly predictable. Soon there would be a riot, and he would be spiked and punted. The pattern at this point was clear. Paul was worrying about troubles he wasn't facing yet.

So many of us are pros at borrowing trouble. We harass ourselves and our own anxieties as we wait for something disastrous and unpleasant to happen. So much of our past year can be summed up with this one though, “whats going to happen next?” We have become pros at expecting the worst. So we go through a thousand tribulations we are never meant to undergo— and probably never will.

The vision and its opening words— the fact that God made the effort to encourage Paul not to fear— meant that God loved and cared for his disciple. This assurance eased Paul’s heart, just as 1 John 4:18 teaches,

1 John 4:18 ESV

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

The simple word in the vision filled Paul’s heart with God’s love, and fear was put to flight. Time and time again the Scriptures tell us to fear not— to stop worrying about tomorrow, to stop borrowing trouble— because we are divinely loved, and God’s love is enough.

Next God told Paul to “go on speaking and do not be silent”

Acts 18:9 ESV

And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent,

Paul’s fear had made him afraid to speak, and the Lord knew that such silence would imprison his fear, while boldness would overcome it. It is to Paul’s eternal credit and our benefit that Paul obeyed and kept on preaching the Gospel.

Beautifully, however, it was this weakened condition that prepared him for the perfection of God’s power within him. He writes in the letter to the Corinthians,

1 Corinthians 2:3–4 ESV

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

Weakness is a secret strength of God’s most effective servants. If you are feeling weak and fearful, praise God! Now is the time to speak and not be silent, relying on him to make his power perfect in your weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 ESV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Because when you are weak, all the glory goes to God…not to you.

The Lord next promised protection and care. He promises,

Acts 18:10 ESV

for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”

that he will be with us, and his with-us-ness means no one can harm us. For Paul, this clearly was not true before this vision, and it clearly was not true some time after. But for this moment, the next few days, Paul was safe because the Lord told Him. Did you know the Lord will provide rest for you? It may not be now…but it is coming.

Conclusion

God assured Paul that, “I have many in this city who are my people.” Those were encouraging words to Paul. His work and his ministry would not be fruitless. Some of the Corinthians were tired of living in the Vanity Fair in real life. The fleshly desires had lost their desire and they were opened to the realities of the Gospel. The lifestyle they had been living had left them a shell of a human being, they were emptied in the soul and guilty of God-only-knows sort of sin. They were ready to receive Christ. And these people were the people God had brought Paul to.

According to verses 11-18, Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half. For him that was like calling someplace “home,” like he was putting down roots! It was not long before there were many believers, perhaps hundreds. The persecution he rightly predicted was coming did indeed come. The jews brought him before the court and charged him with introducing a forbidden religion. But…the opposition backfired, and for a time Paul and his followers enjoys more freedom than they ever had.

The reality is this: Many of us may be discouraged and fear an uncertain future. Some of us are seeing encouraging things happening but are afraid they won’t last or things will take a turn for the worse soon.

There is a famous story of Leonides, a noble hero of the Spartans who defended Greece from the Persians, was in battle against thousands of invaders, when one of his soldiers shouted to him, “General! when the Persians shoot their arrows, there are so many of them that they darken the sky” when Leonides replied, “Then we will fight in the shade!”

Paul continued serving the Lord and fighting the battle regardless of the feelings, no matter the circumstances he saw on the horizon. We must do the same.

Here are the three things I want us to walk away with tonight-

We have to be occupied by the Word of God.

God wants our identity to be in Him & what He says about us in His word.

Weakness is a secret strength of God’s most faithful servants. Its okay to feel weak, especially in our culture today.

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