Acts 18:1-17

Well, perfect. Well, good afternoon. Good afternoon. It's so great to have you this afternoon. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we get the Lord's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. In this year, 2022, we'll go from Acts Tufai Lehman and today we're at Acts chapter 18. We'll go through the first 16 verses, I think it is. 17 verses, first 17 verses. Why don't we go ahead and pray and we'll get into the Lord's Word.
Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you for how you care for us and how you have moved by the power of your spirit to propel your gospel to the ends of the earth. We pray that you would help us now to understand what has been done and what we ought to do. In Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, let's go to the Lord's Word now. Acts chapter 18, the first 17 verses. Acts chapter 18, the first 17 verses.
After these things, Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome, and he came to them.
So because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for by occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said, Your blood be upon your own heads.
I am clean. For now I will go to the Gentiles." And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justice, one who worshipped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. Then Cyprius, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision. Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you, for I have many people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
When Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews, with one accord, rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, saying, This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galileo said to the Jews, If it were a matter of wrongdoing or wicked crimes, O Jews, there would be reason why I would bear with you.
But if it is a question of words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves, for I do not want to be a judge of such matters." And he drove them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took Sothenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Begalio took notice, no notice of these things."
Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words? So what is this about? Well, Paul has been in Athens, and he leaves Athens and he goes to Corinth. And here in Corinth is about 40 miles away from Athens. This is a Roman city. This is a Roman town, similar to what was going on up in Philippi.
And there he goes in his normal pattern. He doesn't have Silas and Timothy with him, right? They're still up north in Macedonia, but he goes, and as he's going into the synagogue first, and then he's going to go to the Greeks, but we find out that he's got some co-laborers. Now he has Aquila and Priscilla.
These were Jewish people, and we know that Aquila was from the north, up by the Black Sea, up in Pontus. but they had made their home in Rome. But during that time, Emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews out of Rome, and so now they find themselves in Corinth, making tents. Interestingly enough, one of the commentators on this points out the Ithmus Games that happened the year before and the year after the Olympics always happened in Corinth, so there were many people who would need to live in temporary housing during that time, and so this would be a vibrant trade. So anyways, they're there because they have been expelled from Rome. Being a Jew at this time came with certain protections, but it didn't mean that you were going to be, let's say, favorited, as we'll find out. with the pro-council here in Corinth. And so he goes, Paul, he's moved by the Spirit. Notice, it is he's moved by the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who's provoking Paul.
Don't be silent. Go talk. And so he goes into the synagogue and he's speaking and, well, lots of people don't believe him. They blaspheme against him. Yeah, yeah, whatever, shut up, you know. And so, okay, he's done his work of the watchman. He's fulfilled Ezekiel chapter 33 he's doing the same thing Nehemiah did in Nehemiah chapter 13 and he's he's okay He's doing what God told what Jesus told his disciples to do shake off the dust off the bottom of your feet, right? They're not worthy of you.
Just keep on going and so he leaves but he doesn't go very far He goes next door and he finds justice and at his house he believes and interestingly here It is not just this justice who believes, but the archi-synagogue also believes. The ruler of the synagogue believes as well. It's amazing that many of the Jewish people in the synagogue wouldn't believe in Jesus being the Christ, but here the ruler of the synagogue does, and many others. And so after hearing and believing, they're baptized.
And then the Lord speaks. This is one of my favorite things. To be honest with you, I had forgotten about this. The Lord speaks to him in verse 9. Do not be afraid, but speak. Do not keep silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you, for I have many people in this city. I had totally forgotten about this part of the story. The Lord himself promises Paul of reprieve. He'd gone to all these other churches. Up in Macedonia, he had gone to Philippi and got chased out. He'd gone to Thessalonica and got chased out. He'd gone to Berea and he gets chased out again and again and again. This is his pattern.
The Lord says, all right, you're going to chill out here for a little bit. Nobody's going to hurt you. Don't be quiet. Speak. I have many people in this city. This is a promise of his safety. So he stays there for a year and a half. Now it's a hard church. You read 1st and 2nd Corinthians and there's a lot of things, hard problems going on in the church. Actually, one of the only two people Paul baptizes when he talks in 1st Corinthians are two of the people here, or one of the people mentioned here. But that time eventually runs out. After he's there a while, the Lord has kept him safe far longer than he had ever been kept safe before. Now... the Jews have their day. They drag him to the pro-council. Achaia was a province of Rome, and they take him to Gallio. There's lots of historic evidence for Gallio. He was a brother of Seneca, or son of Seneca, and so there's lots of writing about him. Well, he's kind of similar to a lot of other Romans.
He's not going to really get involved with the Jewish laws. He's not going to get on Paul's case or try to mitigate in between stuff, but neither is he going to stop a bunch of Jewish people or Greek people from, or Greek people from beating one of the, the ruler of the synagogue, the new ruler of the synagogue.
And so, but they go and they, you know, this fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law. And Gallio, he doesn't got time for it. He thinks that they're talking about not just Roman law, but he thinks they're talking about their own law. Kosher laws, and you know, what you clean or unclean, or you know, is Jesus actually the Messiah? Their charges aren't as clear as what happened when Paul had seen the procouncil before in Antioch of Pisidium. The Jews had persecuted him there and brought him to the pro-council there, and so Paul's no stranger to these type of trials. It seems to be this is what's going on, but here Galio, Paul's right about to open his mouth, and Galio's like, no, get out of here. He chases him from the judgment seat. Get out of here. Go away from my bema. Go away from here. I'm not going to deal with you.
And there's some debate. In verse 17, then the Greeks took Sothenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. But Galio took no notice of these things. And so, who is this Sosthenes? I'm of the opinion that I think this is the new ruler of the synagogue, and so the Greeks are just kind of doing what they're going to do to, you know, here's this guy who's wasted Gallio's time, and so they rough him up.
So this is an interesting story about what's going on with Paul as God has promised him safety in Corinth. What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, in my Bible, I have Paul was compelled by the Spirit, so verse 5. and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. So I have that underlined. I also have underlined verse 7.
Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. It's the Lord who's doing this work. Yeah, it's Paul who's opening his mouth, but it's the Lord who has his people. Jesus knew that there were sheep of his pasture that were in other fields that they didn't know about. And now Paul is being sent to go and preach to them, and they're believing. Jews and Gentiles, rulers of synagogues and Greeks.
This is why Paul would say in Romans chapter 1 that he was not ashamed of the gospel, for it was the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believed, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. There is power in the foolishness of the preaching of the gospel. And it was being seen here and God providentially protected him for this year and a half, this sweet time he got to spend in Corinth, working as a tent maker, laboring with his hands, while also telling anybody and everybody who would hear about Jesus Christ.
So what are you called to do in response to this? Well, maybe the Holy Spirit's prompting you, pushing you, has been prodding you that you need to stop being silent, that you need to speak about Jesus Christ. Maybe there's someone in your life. Maybe it's your child who needs to hear of Jesus Christ. Maybe it's your parents. Maybe it's your co-worker. Maybe it's your neighbor. Who is it in your life?
Has the Holy Spirit been just pricking your conscience? Maybe there's someone you need to be speaking of the hope of Jesus Christ to. I don't know, the Lord does that with me from time to time. It happened this weekend when I was on a plane. It happens to me when I'm just around people sometimes. Do we listen to his prompting? Will you stay silent? Will you be ashamed of the gospel?
I pray that the Lord will give you courage. Let's pray for that now. Lord I pray for whoever's listening today that you might give them courage to be ready to give an answer for the hope that they have in Jesus Christ. Lord I pray that you would work in our hearts as Christians that we would not only believe in Jesus Christ but we would be ready to tell others of him. Lord, we pray that we would not be ashamed of our King, but that we would love you, and that we would proclaim the excellences of your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ, and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
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