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Welcome to the Cary Baptist Church
radio broadcast. Cary Baptist is in Athens, Alabama. I'm Pastor Donahue, and this
radio broadcast is entitled, Thy Word is Settled in Heaven.
Today we're preaching out of Acts chapter 18, and we're going
to see the Apostle Paul at Corinth, And he faces some discouragement,
but God gives him encouragement to continue the task that he's
given him. So we're going to see some discouragement,
then some encouragement. Paul is going to Corinth, Greece,
and he's going to be preaching there, and he's going to meet
some folks there. Let's begin reading in Acts chapter 18, verse
1. After these things, Paul departed
from Athens. and came to Corinth and found
a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy
with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all
Jews to depart from Rome. And he came unto them, and because
he was of the same craft, Paul abode with them, and wrought,
for by occupation they were tent makers. And Paul reasoned in
the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the
Greeks. And when Silas and Timothy were
come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified
to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves
and blasphemed, he shook his clothing and said to them, Your
blood be upon your own heads, I am clean. From henceforth I
will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed thence, and entered
to a certain man's house, named Justice, one that worshipped
God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus,
the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all
of his house. And many of the Corinthians,
hearing, believed, and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in
the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not
thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man
shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this
city. And he continued there a year
and six months, teaching the word of God among them. And when
Galileo was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with
one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, saying,
This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now about to
open his mouth, Galileo said unto the Jews, If it were a matter
of wrong or wicked lewdness, O you Jews, reason would that
I should bear with you. And if it be a question of words,
and names, and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge
of such matters. And he draved them from the judgment
seat. And Paul, after he tarried there
yet a good while, took his leave of the brethren, Brethren, we're
going to stop reading there in verse 16. We read perhaps the
first half of Acts chapter 18. We're talking about Paul the
missionary in Corinth. He is a bit discouraged. What
might be some of the causes of Paul being a bit discouraged
when he arrives in Corinth? Well, first of all, he finds
himself laboring alone. He was waiting, but did not have
Silas and Timothy. They were going to come, but
they were going to come later. So he was laboring alone and perhaps
was lonely without them. He also felt his lack of funds
not being properly supported financially. He had to go to
work as a tent maker. And so he kept himself busy during
the week as a tent maker, and he was able to preach on the
Sabbath days in the synagogues. And next, he was discouraged
because he had the antagonism of the Jewish people that lived
among the heathen in that city. These were the people that said
they were the people of the Lord God Almighty, yet they were the
people that opposed Paul's preaching to the Gentiles in Corinth. It
would be these people that would deny Jesus is the Christ, the
Messiah, and they gave Paul much trouble as he spoke the gospel. these Jews opposed him. These
were all discouraging things. Another reason he might have
been discouraged is Corinth, the capital of the province of
Achaia. It was a, compared to other cities,
rich, prosperous city, but it was full of moral corruption.
This moral corruption of this city was so deep and universal
It was a proverbial saying throughout the Roman world that the city
of Corinth had no morals, and their morals shocked even the
pagan sense of decency. That was Corinth, a seaport city. This was much to discourage Paul,
because sin hardens the heart against the grace of God. So
Paul, much discouraged, is going to find himself encouraged, because
the Lord Jesus is going to provide what he needs to do the work
he's called to do. The work he's called to do is
to bear witness to the truth, and he's been commissioned and
set apart for that purpose. Paul's been given miracle working
power. He obviously has the gift of preaching. But Jesus had commissioned
his servant, and he provides for Paul by giving him new friendships. This is critical. There were
some folks there, the Lord's servants already, Aquila and
Priscilla, a great husband and wife team. And they quickly befriended
Paul, took him into their life. They were also tent makers, so
the three of them worked together. and they would come to hold a
large place in his life from henceforward. He'd meet some
friends that he would keep the rest of his life, and God gave
him Aquila and Priscilla so he wouldn't be there alone, so they
would have some great companionship. And this husband and wife team,
Aquila and Priscilla, were as fine as Christians as you could
find anywhere. And so Paul got into a daily
routine of tent making. He was busy, he had a physical
activity, and that does us good as well. He would preach on the
Sabbath days in the synagogue. He's fulfilling his calling.
And then along comes Silas and Timothy, finally, and now he's
really encouraged. He went from being alone to having
Aquila, Priscilla, Timothy, and Silas. All these are helping
him. Now he's preaching boldly. He's
where he needs to be because God has provided these things
for him. But brethren, the supreme cause
of encouragement is found in verse 9 and 10, and that is when
the Lord Jesus appeared to him at night and spoke to him. He
had a vision of Christ. Christ spoke to him. He was assured
that God would protect him, that the Lord would give him fruit
for his label, the Lord would sustain him, give him grace so
he could accomplish the work he had to do. He was sent to
make disciples of all nations. He was sent to preach the gospel,
and that he did. with the power, protection of
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is ever
concerned about his ministers, and this man Paul was in a lonely
place when he first arrived in Corinth. But God gave him the
best of friends, brought in two exceptionally good preachers
to help him. Timothy and Silas were exceptionally
good collaborators with Paul. And he felt encouraged, especially
when Jesus spoke to it. I've got much people in this
city, he says. So you go about your business
of preaching. And Paul did that. And so Paul
achieved the task of founding at Corinth what would become
a strong Christian church. You can read about that church,
obviously, in the two epistles that Paul wrote. Both of them
are long epistles, the epistles to the Corinthians, 1st and 2nd
Corinthians. It became a big church. It was
not without its flaws. But nevertheless, the Lord used
Paul to start a fine church in Corinth. People were called out
among these people, Jews and Gentiles, and there was a church
for the praise and honor of Jesus Christ. That word church, as
we mentioned, in the Greek is ekklesia, it means the called
out assembly. started by Paul and Silas and
Timothy in their preaching, assisted by Aquila and Priscilla. That
was the nucleus of the church, and God grew that church. And
from there, Korah, Paul would write his two letters to the
Thessalonian church. His very first epistles he would
write from there. This is an important junction
in Paul's life. He's not only the great missionary,
he's also writing portions of our New Testament. So the place
of initial discouragement for Paul gave way to a place of victory,
usefulness, and blessing. His first letters, as we mentioned,
were written in about A.D. 50. And so we have the Lord Jesus
Christ lifting his servant up so that the job that he's called
to do can be done. God does that for us as well.
As we mentioned earlier in Matthew 6.33, seek ye first the kingdom
of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be
added unto you." We see Paul an example of that. Seeking the
Lord's will and his righteousness and these other good things being
added to him. In this case it was friendships,
it was two co-laborers, Because of the founding of the church,
he finally had some financial support, not that he had to have
it. And matter of fact, Paul said
to the Corinthians that he chose to take no salary lest anyone
blame him for being there for the wrong reasons. Now, we have
the episode that we read there in Acts chapter 18. The Jews
were opposed to Paul, especially when he was having success. And
so they united in verse 12 and 16 to drag Paul before the Roman
governor in the place, Galileo. the governor of that portion
of Achaia, headquartered in Corinth, hoping that they, through the
legal system, could have this apostle, Paul, expelled from
the city. But Galileo refused to enter
into their charge, and he drove these Jews from the judgment
seat. Brethren, when you stop here,
notice that this is extremely important. This is no small matter. Notice Galileo's wisdom. He was
a Roman governor. He wasn't for or against Paul.
He wasn't for or against the Jews. But he insisted in his
city, in his area where he was the ruler, he insisted that no
man should be tried as a criminal because of his religious beliefs.
Galileo just put his foot down and said, you will not bring
this man to my court if the only charge you have is what he preaches
or what he believes. That is not something that's
going to be punished by the court system. And so he drove these
Jews away from the court system. You cannot bring a man forward
for a religious crime. In other words, Galileo is teaching
us religious tolerance. In certain parts of the Roman
world, there was religious tolerance. Didn't care if Paul was a Christian. Didn't care if the Jews were
Jews. You cannot charge a man with a crime based on what he
believes or what he says about religion. And here's a great
example. Paul was protected by the legal
system that was there in Corinth. Now, we've said some things about
Corinth. It had a low moral standard. It was full of sin. But at least
there was a wise governor there who knew to distinguish between
a true crime and some religious bigotry. And that's Galileo. And here's an example. And God
used that governor to protect Paul. Remember, Jesus had appeared
to Paul and said, I'm going to protect you. And sometimes the
Lord uses secondary means to do his will. And I believe this
man, Galileo, was a secondary mean that the Lord used. He used
the wisdom of this man to prevent the stoning or a beating of Paul
in Corinth. And because of that, he could
stay there for a good long time, and he did stay for a long time.
A church was built, no doubt strengthened by the additional
ministry of Silas and Timothy and Aquila and Priscilla. Paul
would thenceforth travel with Aquila and Priscilla. They became
ready friends, and they stuck together as a mission team for
a while. Yes, that was God's doing. The
path of duty leads to the road of opportunity. Brethren, it
looks like we're about out of time, and we're going to go ahead
and close it up here. Remind you, you've been listening to
the Cary Baptist Church radio broadcast. Cary is in Athens,
Alabama. I'm Pastor Ben Donohue. Let me
thank you for listening. We hope you join us again the
next time, and until then, we'll say goodbye. a bulwark never failing. Our helper He amid the flood
of mortals prevailing, For still our ancient foe Doth seek to
work us woe His craft and power are great And armed with cruel
hate On earth is not his equal ♪ In our own strength confide ♪
♪ Our striving would be losing ♪ ♪ We're not the right man on
our side ♪ ♪ The man of God's own choosing ♪ ♪ Just ask who
that may be ♪ Christ Jesus, it is He, Lord Sabbath is His name,
from age to age the same, and He must win the battle. ♪ And though this world with
devils filled ♪ ♪ Through threatened to undo us ♪ ♪ We will not fear
for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us ♪ The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him.
Acts Chapter 18 Part I - Aquila and Priscilla Join The Missionary Team
Series Book Of Acts
| Sermon ID | 992502325700 |
| Duration | 14:53 |
| Date | |
| Category | Radio Broadcast |
| Bible Text | Acts 18:1-16 |
| Language | English |
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