Acts 18:1-17
The Gospel goes to Corinth
“When I came to you,” wrote the apostle Paul to the Church in Corinth, “I did not come with eloquence or human 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. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”
True faith not a result of the speaker’s eloquence, brilliance, confidence; but a result of the power of the Spirit of God working through weak broken vessels.
Pride of Corinth; Immorality of Corinth.
The gospel calls demands humility – which offends human pride and self-denial – which offends human sinfulness.
But though Paul came in fear and trembling and weakness, how did he persevere i preaching Christ crucified in the midst of that?
Paul’s Calling
Paul’s Confidence
Paul’s calling was to speak – v9 – in a vision, Jesus says to him, “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.”
His calling was essentially, & primarily, a call to speak; it was a call to not be silent, but to speak the message of the gospel.
Too often today, the church is silent. And it is a guilty silence. But Paul’s calling, the churches calling, is to not be silent but to speak.
And he didn’t need a special vision to be informed of this calling; he already had been informed of this call by Jesus and he had already been faithfully carrying it out;
but Jesus says to him “keep on speaking.”
he needed encouragement to continue in it; and especially – to continue in it in Corinth. Because this was the point where, in the normal pattern of Paul’s missionary journeys – this was the point where he gets flogged, forced out, or flees.
And this is a special encouragement and special divine guidance to Paul – to tell him not to flee, and to assure him that he won’t be forced out or flogged; so that he would continue to preach Christ in Corinth.
Typical pattern to this point: Paul comes to a new city (v1); begins preaching about Jesus in the Synagogue (v4); and some believe but many of the Jewish people in the synagogue become hostile to his message and to him and drive him out (vv 6 & 7); and then he moves to a focus on ministering outside of the synagogue to Gentiles (v6).
but there’s a few differences to this typical pattern:
First is that Paul met some people who were already believers there: Aquila & Priscilla –
we don’t know how or where or when they became believers, but we do know that they become significant ministry partners to Paul – in Romans 16 he calls them his coworkers in Christ who risked their lives for him.”
we’ll see them again when the gospel goes to Ephesus in the next chapter of Acts;
Second: after the persecution began to get hot against Paul, he’s driven out of the synagogue, but not driven out of town; he doesn’t move to the next town or city, but he moves (v7) right next door, to the house of Titius Justus, who seemingly became a Christian as a result of Paul’s ministry, if he was willing to offer hospitality and more than that be a source of support to enable him to continue in ministry in Corinth.
But you can imagine the frustration of those opponents when Paul leaves the synagogue only to open up the new center of his competing ministry… right next door.
And you can imagine their even greater frustration when (v8) – the “former” synagogue leader, moved right next door after having become a believer in Jesus.
And right next door he is able to have a long, fruitful ministry in Corinth – he spends at least 1.5 yrs in Corinth (v11), but possibly more as v18 tells us that after the 1.5 years, he spends more time after that still in Corinth, before then leaving on his own terms.
So all during that time, he is able to carry out this calling to preach.
and he is faithful to carry out this calling – no matter how people responded to his message.
If he preached faithfully, he could have peace of conscience – because he couldn’t make people listen; he couldn’t make people respond; all he could do was to be faithful to warn them of their need of salvation, and hold out to them the hope of salvation in Christ.
this is what is behind Paul’s words in v6 – when he announces his movement from preaching to Jews in the synagogue to preaching to Gentiles – due to Jewish hostility – he shakes out his clothes in protest – a symbolic act of dissassociation with them, and then says, “You’re blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it!”
This sounds a bit odd, until we realize that it is specific language alluding to the OT – in which Paul here is taking up the role of Ezekiel who was appointed by God as a Watchman over the people –
Ezekiel 33:1-9
1The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, 4 then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. 5 Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’
7 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 9 But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.”
First God describes a situation that they would have all been familiar with – a walled city – common in that day – with a watchman set atop the wall to watch, and warn – to watch for the danger of a hostile invading army – and then seeing this enemy coming, would sound the alarm for people to take refuge within the city walls rather than remain outside completely vulnerable to the enemy.
Next God describes two scenarios: one in which the watchman does his job – he sees the danger coming, and warns the people – but for some reason, people don’t listen – maybe they think he’s crazy for thinking danger is real or present; maybe they think they are invincible to danger; maybe they foolishly think they’re already behind the wall in safety when they aren’t – but whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter – because they heard the alarm, and they could have listened; and he sounded the alarm -loudly, persistently, passionately – and that’s all he could do; and so the result in this scenario is that – as soon as he is faithful to do his job of sounding the alarm – whether they listen or not – their blood is on their own heads:
And, Paul puts himself in this scenario – for having carried out his calling to preach faithfully – certainly desiring that they would respond in faith and repentance but recognizing the limitation in his inability to force them to listen – he declares that he is innocent of their blood – their blood is on their own heads.
the alternative is the scenario is that in which the watchman doesn’t do his job: he sees the danger coming, and doesn’t warn the people of it: and in that scenario, the watchman is held accountable for their blood.
And, this is establishing prophetic obligation which was put upon Paul and Ezekiel as part of their unique roles as prophet or apostle; and we don’t fit into that exactly the same way that Paul or Ezekiel did;
but it does express obligation to anyone who knows the salvation of God, and knows people who don’t know of the salvation of God –
but it’s more than mere obligation; it’s certainly far from unconcerned, detached obligation – it’s not encouraging an attitude that we just shout a warning to clear our own heads but don’t care about whether it’s heard or heeded.
this isn’t encouraging unconcerned obligation, but compassion: Because if you are in the position a watchman is in – a position of safety and you see people who are in a position of danger – even if they are in that danger of their own accord and fault – and they are ignorant of the danger but you are aware of it; and they don’t know the way of salvation but you do;
then to remain silent, to fail to give warning; to look the other way or be absorbed in other concerns – is so uncompassionate – so callous – hateful even – that even though they die for their own sin, God holds the uncompassionate uncaring watchman accountable.
And recognizing the gravity of the situation, ought to make laughable such concerns as: “what if they don’t listen to me!” or “what if they laugh at me!”
Those are real fears, and I don’t mean to minimize the difficulty of them; but you see that when put into proper perspective – the perspective of eternity – those things just don’t matter.
Because what Ezekiel and Paul are dealing with is not merely an enemy army which brings physical danger – but the wrath of God against sin – an eternal death, and the refuge he provides to sinners through Jesus.
People don’t like to think about the idea of a wrathful God – people want to think God is just a God of love and never a God of hate – but that isn’t the God of the bible; the God portrayed in the Bible – all throughout OT & NT is a God who is love; and who loves what is good and right; but at the same time a God who is holy and hates evil; and if he didn’t hate evil he wouldn’t himself be good; he couldn’t love what is good and right; we would have no ability to say that he is against the evil we see all too often in our world. You have no confidence that he punishes perpetrators of evil rather than accepting and rewarding him – and he becomes an unworshipable God; and if there is no divine retribution, our actions have no moral values – you can’t call anything right or wrong or good or evil and this world becomes an unlivable world.
The wrath of God against sin is real; the wrath of God against sin is terrible; because the real God is a holy God who hates evil and cannot tolerate it; and that is problematic because evil is in every one of us; standing before a holy God the human race isn’t divided between good and bad, or decent and “hitler”; but evil isn’t something outside of us that draws boundaries around us but something that cuts through every human heart.
And every man and every woman will stand before God in judgment to give account; and on that day when pure light shines forth to expose all – the excuses won’t hold up.
And then it will be too late to find refuge; but until that day – there is no person that doesn’t need the refuge of Christ to find forgiveness; and there is no one who is too far from it such that they can’t find forgiveness.
Because the beauty of the gospel is that though God is just; though God is a God of wrath – he so loves the unlovely and desires to rescue the lost that he send his own Son to be the one who stood in our place to satisfy God’s wrath against sin so that we could find refuge in him.
we rightly deserved God’s wrath – and though we had no way of escaping it on our own – we might try to but try as we might, nothing can shield us from the earth of God –
no penance which you perform can shield you from God’s wrath –
no amount of religious good deeds
because even your penance would fall short and require his forgiveness and only merit his
even your best deeds would be lacking and fall far short of his perfect standard;
And paying for just 1 sin against an infinite eternal holy God would require an eternal payment – no less a lifetime of innumerable sins –
And so you can stand before God on your own – try to face up to his wrath; or you can stand before God in Christ – with his abundant forgiveness; with his payment which fully satisfied the wrath of God against all your sins such that you can know with confidence that you have nothing left to pay, because God has no wrath left for you.
Paul’s Calling
Paul’s Confidence
divine protection; divine election
He has confidence to keep on preaching in Corinth, because of God’s promise of divine protection
As I mentioned earlier, this is the point in the normal pattern of Paul’s missionary journeys where he gets flogged, forced out, or flees.
And this is a special assurance of divine protection for Paul – and this divine protection isn’t promised in every situation. Paul has faced great danger for preaching Christ – this in fact is out of the ordinary – the norm is for Paul to be persecuted; he has been persecuted; others have been persecuted – some have paid with their lives – for preaching Christ.
And so this is not a general promise that any of us can claim at any time; this was a specific promise to a specific person in a specific situation.
And the reason this specific promise came to this specific person in this specific situation – is that God has a definite plan – and nothing can come into conflict with that plan.
Nothing can happen to God’s messengers except what God himself allows; which doesn’t always promise us safety, but always promises that God is with us and using us to fulfill his good plan and good purposes.
Because even if that specific promise of not being harmed doesn’t apply to us, the other parts of this do.
“Do Not Be Afraid”; “I am with You” – these are the key command, and key promise of OT.
You might recognize them from Psalm 23.
And the command is only possible to keep, if we believe the truth of the promise.
Because the truth is, that sometimes God uses the death or suffering of his messengers in order to make his message ring out in truth and power; but sometimes he protects his messengers so that they can keep preaching about Jesus.
And that’s the case here: he protects him – he ministers in peach for 1.5 years, and then there is this episode with the mob bringing Paul before the proconsul, Gallio, who refuses to hear the case.
It’s hard to know how to take this – because in this situation, the result is good for the Christians – but those who sought the help of the authority – their leader is beaten right in front of him – and he still shows no concern; and so the roman political authorities are sort of a double-edged sword – because those who trust in them one minute are forsaken by them the next, and though the Christians are helped in this situation, it wouldn’t be long before they were on the other end of that.
And so, this is at least a warning to not put too much trust in the worldly political authorities;
God protects Paul from physical harm and danger to preserve him so that he can persevere in his preaching – because:
God says, “I have many people in this city.”
A few people have already come to faith as a result of God’s ministry, but God wants Paul to stay there because he has many people in this city.
Not: “I hope to find some people in this city”; Not: “Maybe some people will use their free will to choose me.” Not: “let’s stick around and see if anyone listens.”
But: I have many people in this city.
Not just “there are many people in this city” but “I have” – this is the language of personal possession. And in scripture, the language of divine personal possession this is the language of divine election. God possesses a people for himself because he has chosen a people for himself.
Jesus uses very similar language, when he is making his claim of being the Good Shepherd in John 10, and he says “I have other Sheep (Gentiles) that are not of this sheep pen (Judaism). I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
He has other sheep, that are his, but not gathered in to him the good shepherd. And he doesn’t hope that he’ll gather them; he says he MUST gather them.
He as the good shepherd will not lose a single sheep that is his – he will find them all, he will gather them all, they will hear his voice and they will recognize his voice and they will follow his leading
But they way that he will do it, is through the faithful witness of his people.
In other words – there are people in Corinth that God has chosen – who belong to him as part of the elect people of God in eternity – but haven’t yet come to him in history yet.
God has chosen them, but not yet brought them from death to life. He has chosen them, but they haven’t yet heard the gospel and believed in it.
But the language of certainty is what’s key here: God is motivating Paul to persevere in preaching by promising him that his preaching will not be in vain, but that it will be effective in bringing people to faith, because God has chosen people whom he will bring to faith.
And, if people’s coming to faith is ultimately up to some type of free will which God has no control over – then God can’t make that promise. But if people’s coming to faith is a choice they make that is only enabled by God’s prior choosing of them; which doesn’t just create a possibility that they’ll believe but a certainty that they’ll believe; then God can make this promise.
And though the divine promise of protection as I said, can’t be claimed by us; this divine promise of election can: it is the assurance that God has chosen his people; and so that means we can preach Christ with hope and confidence that it won’t be in vain.
Because if you believe what the bible says about human nature – no person will ever respond in faith to the gospel, unless God first enables them – gives them new life and a new heart and ears to hear such that they can respond.
And when he does – they will.
And because of that we can talk about Jesus and tell about Jesus in the confidence that there are people out there who will respond in faith because God has chosen them;
and that our efforts won’t be in vain;
JI Packer, Evangelism & The Sovereignty of God: “So far from making evangelism pointless, the sovereignty of God in grace is the one thing that prevents evangelism from being pointless. For it creates the possibility – indeed, the certainty – that evangelism will be fruitful. Apart from it, there is not even a possibility of evangelism being fruitful. Were it not for the sovereign grace of God, evangelism would be the most futile and useless enterprise that the world has ever seen, and there would be no more complete waste of time under the sun than to preach the Christian gospel. Why is this? because of the spiritual inability of humanity in sin.”
“If you talk to a corpse, there is no response.”
God has to give it life first. Only then can it respond; and then it will certainly respond.
And Paul could continue to preach to deaf ears and dead souls and blind eyes and hard hearts, because he believed this promise, that God had many people in his city – of whom he would open their ears, and give sight to the blind and recreate their hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.
And we have that same confidence.
And we know that through our words the Good shepherd calls out; and though our words are imperfect; faulty failing lacking confused uncertain fearful inadequate in every way;
and that’s ok because we’re not drawing people after ourselves but after him;
and his voice – the voice of the good Shepherd – rings out loud and clear through our dull words; and his sheep hear that voice; and that voice is louder than our clumsy words; and that voice of the good shepherd reaches into their hearts and souls and they will come to him.
so that we can say – just as Paul would later write to the Corinthians – that even if we have a role in planting or watering – we are nothing – but only God because is the one who makes things grow.
And so we plant and water not with confidence in our abilities – but confident in God.
Packer: “Paul’s confidence was that where Christ sends the gospel there Christ has his people – fast bound at present in the chains of sin, but due for the release at the appointed moment through a mighty renewing of their hearts as the light of the gospel shines into their darkness and the Savior draws them to himself.”
3 applications (from Packer, “Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God):
Bold – because no heart is too hard for the grace of God
Patient – because God saves in his own time.
Prayerful – because prayer is a confessing of our own weakness, and a dependence upon the power of God – because only God makes the growth.