Our reading this morning is taken from Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18. I'm just going to read 11 verses. You'll be telling me, well, I'm sure changing you this morning. It's not 17 or 20 verses. It's only 11. Chapter 18 of Acts, verses 1 to 11. This is what God says. After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, Your blood be on your own heads. I am clear of my responsibility. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord, and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized. One night, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision. Do not be afraid. Keep on speaking. Do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one is going to attack you or harm you, because I have many people in this city." So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the Word of God. Amen. And we know God will add his own blessing to this reading. When you consider the seemingly dismal results of the great religious city of Athens, and compare it to the great harvest in Thessalonica and Berea, you'd be tempted to conclude that Paul's ministry in Athens was an abject failure. We know something of how Paul felt when he got to Corinth. It would seem he was disappointed and discouraged. Because when he wrote his first letter to the Corinthians, sometime later he said in chapter two, I did not come to you with eloquence or superior wisdom. And then two verses later he said, I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. A second line suggests a man who has been put through the wringer. And when Paul arrived in Corinth, it was enough to drain the last of his energy. Corinth wasn't a very nice place. It was a cosmopolitan city. It contained a very different type of people. Different people from different races and places. People from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures came to Corinth from all parts of the Roman Empire. They came to trade. They came to study. They came with their own prejudices and they came with their own religion. They came with their own traditions. Some had great wealth and some were extremely pure. It was a commercial city. Cities become cities because of their location and where the trade was. And Corinth was specifically situated. Had so many types of people because Corinth was a seaport. It was situated at the narrow isthmus between the upper and lower parts of Greece. I'll show you in a minute. Trade was conducted from the Roman Empire from the west and the Roman Empire on the east. And you'll see where the arrows point together. That's the little Isthmus, the little part of the country where Corinth lived. Trade was concluded both from north to south and from south to north. So everything came into Corinth. Ships arrived in Corinth and their cargo was taken up and down Greece. It was unloaded and carried across the land to the Aegean Sea on the other side of the Isthmus. Corinth was a very busy commercial city, a wealthy city. But it was also a corrupt city. In the ancient world, Corinth was associated with immorality and perversion. Corinth was the center of the cult of the Greek love goddess Aphrodite, or the Roman goddess of love, Venus. At one time, there were 1,000 temple prostitutes there, just for the purpose of serving the goddess. The prostitutes were both female and male, who did business with the sailors who plied their trade all across Greece. If you were called a Corinthian, it was taken as a deeply hurtful slur on your character. And as Paul walked the 50 miles from Athens to Corinth, Paul must have felt a bit dejected, to say the least. Paul was alone. Silas and Timothy had stayed in Berea to establish the church there, and hadn't arrived at Athens when Paul had to leave. He had Silas and Timothy on the other cities before Athens. He had established a young church there, but at least there were Christians there for him to fellowship with. But now in Corinth, he had nobody. He was feeling the loss. I've often used the analogy of a burning coal. Once it's taken off the fire and set to the side, it soon becomes cold. But when it's set back with the other burning coals, it starts to glow again. Same with Christians when they neglect to meet with each other. Sunday services, Bible study, prayer meetings, other midweek groups. The internet is fine once in a while when you just really can't get to church, but it's a church in the company of other believers that we keep alive and bright. If you're cold, even cooling down this morning, get back into that fire, get back into regular fellowship, or long before long, you'll just be a piece of cold coal lying on the side. Paul hadn't been getting the fellowship he was used to until he met Aquila and Priscilla. But then that suggests another problem. It tells us that Paul had to work. When he arrived at Corinth, he met up with this couple They were husband and wife who, along with thousands of other Jews, were forced to leave Rome because of anti-Semitic stirrings. The Emperor Claudius ethnically cleansed the city. Aquila and Priscilla settled in Corinth, where they set up a tent-making business. Paul had been a tent-maker, so he began to work for them. It seems he needed the work to get the money to support himself. And this was the first time he had to do it since God called him. There are many missionaries who go to mission field today and their first premise is to work alongside the nationals. They do it that way because many nations simply don't allow missionaries into their country. So to evangelize the nationals, missionaries enter the country with skills of some sort, teachers, engineers, doctors, et cetera, skills that will be of benefit to the country. And as they work, the nationals notice the difference as the missionary seeks to live a Christian life. When questions are asked, the missionary witnesses to them about the Lord Jesus Christ. However, I'm convinced from scripture and from personal experience that there's a desperate need to supply the needs of full-time Christian workers. A missionary come home from the field and had to report to her sending church. She arrived at the meeting with an ill-fitting dress, a dowdy cardigan and scruffy shoes, and a hat. After her address, someone asked why she had turned up at the meeting so poorly dressed. And her answer was, because that's what you sent me. What a terrible indictment on the church. I want to address another question that also arises here. Why do pastors and ministers need to be paid? Why can't they have a normal day job and serve the church part-time? When I first became the pastor in Bridge North, I was of the opinion that pastors were paid to work for the church. Sometimes I had guilty feelings about using church funds That was until a gracious, older, retired Anglican vicar put me right. He told me, you're not paid to work for the church. You're paid not to work for the world. You're not paid to work for the church. You're paid not to work for the world. And if you go back to Acts chapter 6, the Greek Jews complained that they were not getting their fair share of the daily distribution of food. When the apostles were asked about it, their reply was, it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on tables. Now, that's not snobbery. That's not aloofness. They were saying it's necessary they spend their time studying the Word of God so they could teach it to others. Their needs were met out of the giving of the believers at Jerusalem. If they had to work for a living, the ministry would not have been to the standard God expected. If ministers and pastors were to work in a secular job, there simply wouldn't be the same teaching and other ministry done in the church. Some pastors do work, but that's because the local church is small and just can't support a full-time pastor. So he has to support himself. It's actually called tent making, just like Paul had to do in Corinth. Paul was alone. Paul needed to work for a living. Paul was depressed. You can't blame him. Paul left Athens a not very happy man. He had been beaten in Philippi, rejected in Thessalonica. He had to sneak out of Berea, and his message to the unknown God in Athens was met with indifference. He arrived at Corinth with no money and didn't have much success when he preached in the synagogue. Under those conditions, it's easy to let things get on top of you. Maybe that's another reason he went to work for Aquila and Priscilla. Maybe he didn't want to preach every day. Maybe he had had enough of the abuse he got in the other towns he had been to. When you get beaten physically and mentally and emotionally, time and time again, there comes a time when you just find it hard to get back up. But God doesn't allow us to be tested with more than we can bear. Paul has certainly been beaten down, but now was the time to be lifted back up again and get back on in with the other burning coals. So God brought Silas and Timothy to Corinth. What an encouragement. These two best friends were back with him again. They brought him encouraging news about the churches he had planted, and they were continuing to grow. When Silas and Timothy arrived, Paul stopped working for Aquila and Priscilla, and he devoted himself exclusively to preaching. And the reason for that was because God supplied all his needs, and he supplied it from other Christians in other churches. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 9, Paul writes, I was not a burden to anyone for the brothers who came from Macedonia. That's Silas and Timothy. They supplied all my need. They brought a gift of money to Paul so he didn't have to work in the world. When he wrote to the Philippians in chapter 4, verse 14 and 15, it tells us that, Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only. For when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. And that allowed him to go back to his beloved full-time ministry and stay there without having to go back to tent making. Now he could truly serve the Lord without worrying where the next penny was coming from. That's why we give support, and we give generously from this church to missionaries, the missionaries we do support. I'm proud to be a part of this church in the missionary giving. When we see what is given out each year at the end on the annual accounts, we do give generously to this church. We could give more. Of course we could. Each of us could give more. Every one of us could give more. Just have to get a bit further down into our pockets sometimes. But we do give generously. Then God spoke to Paul in a vision. God himself came to Paul in the night and spoke to him. Do not be afraid. Paul's depression had come as a result of fear and discouragement, even though he had experienced spiritual success. That was his problem. Don't forget, all his past successes had led to persecution. Every time he preached, and God saved some, the Jews caused trouble for him, and he was beaten, jailed, and stoned almost to death. In Corinth, Paul had been preaching in the synagogue without any results yet again. And now he followed the biblical principle Jesus himself gave the disciples in Matthew. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. After Paul had been to the synagogue a few Sabbaths, he did what Jesus did. He told the Jews, your blood will be on your own heads. I am clear of my responsibility. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. But he expected trouble. As far as Paul was concerned, the near future was predictable from past experience. He thought he would get another beating sometime. He was like a boxer who knows what's coming when he hears the bell. But Paul was worrying about something that hadn't yet happened. But everyone else is like that. We all worry about the future to some degree. Abraham Lincoln and his entourage was on their way to Washington for his inauguration as president. As they traveled, they had to cross many swollen streams and small rivers. His fellow travelers said to each other, if these streams give us so much trouble now, what will it be like when we get to the Fox River? They met a Methodist preacher who was also traveling the country in his circuit, and he also had to cross the Fox River. And Lincoln asked the preacher what it was like. The preacher said, well, now, I've crossed the Fox River a good few times, and I understand it well. but I have one fixed rule with regard to the Fox River. I never cross it until I reach it. Now that's a good rule, easy to remember, but not so easy to keep. Thomas Carlyle was a famous Scottish Bible commentator in the 19th century. If you go to his house in London, you'll see an almost soundproof chamber that Carlyle had built to stop the noise from the street so that he could study in silence. One of his neighbors, however, kept a rooster several times a night, and in the early morning, the rooster gave way to a vigorous early-morning alarm call. When Carlisle complained to the owner, the man pointed out that the rooster only crowed three times a night. That really wouldn't be a terrible annoyance to anybody. Carlisle replied, But if only you knew what I suffer, waiting for that rooster to crow. Many of us are exceptionally good at waiting for the rooster to crow. We borrow trouble. We get harassed and our nerves strain as we wait for some unpleasant disaster to come, come upon us. You just know that bill will come at the wrong end of the month. Somehow you know the party you planned is going to be a major flop. You know somebody will take the wrong meaning out of what you said. You know you're starting to feel your rage, and you're starting to feel the pains and the aches, and you're not sure how you'll cope. Paul was no different, just waiting for some trial to come his way. But when God appeared to Paul in the vision, it was a great assurance that ministry was to Paul's heart. 1 John chapter 4 teaches us that there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear. Time and time again, the Scriptures tell us not to fear, to stop worrying about tomorrow, to stop borrowing trouble, because God loves us, and that should be enough. We are told to cast all your cares on him, for he cares on you. The word care means when fears and doubts assail you, you hurl them at God. You say, here, God, you deal with it. Don't say it irreverently, of course, but that's the impression. Give it to God. Jesus said, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. God loves you. He'll take care of the problems, so don't worry about them until you need to. When God gave Paul the vision, he also gave him the encouragement that he needed to carry out the vision. Keep on speaking. Do not be silent. Paul's fear had made him afraid to speak, a bit like getting into the bicycle after you've fallen off or driving a car after an accident. If you don't, it'll paralyze you and you'll be afraid of it for a long time. God knew that if Paul didn't restart preaching, he would soon be imprisoned in a world of his own making, a world of worry, if he could never do it again. So God encouraged him to do it again. Have you ever made a mistake that you're afraid to try again? Maybe it was your own, give your testimony at a meeting. Maybe it was to speak to your neighbor when you knew God was telling you to, but you didn't. Maybe it was to join a team who were going to serve the Lord, but you didn't because you were afraid to. Maybe God told you to sort out a grievance with someone, but you haven't. And the longer you've let it go, the harder it is to put it right. And you're still thinking about it last thing at night and first thing in the morning. Paul later wrote in 1 Corinthians, what's on the screen, what I missed. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a clear demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith may not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. He came with weakness and fear and much trembling. Do you remember when Peter was released from prison? The church was praying together for him. They couldn't do anything else. They were at their weakest. But that's where God wants us, to show his wisdom and his power to the world. Weakness is the secret strength of God's most effective servants. When you're on your knees praying, you're doing the most powerful thing in the world. If you're feeling weak and insecure, a bit fearful of what God has called you to do, praise the Lord. Now is the time to speak and not be silent. Maybe God's telling you this morning, go back and start again. Get it done, whatever it was. Don't be afraid. And the reason you don't need to be afraid is, for I am with you. The word for ties these two verses together. The reason you can stop being afraid and keep on speaking is because I am with you. What an encouragement to fearful Christians. No matter what Satan brings against you, God is with you. No matter what temptation you fear, God is with you. No matter what the world throws at you, God is with you. No matter what failures you've made, God is with you. Round about and underneath are the everlasting arms. When I think of that saying, I realize that God's arms are not stretched out. God's arms are curved, holding, carrying. God has them underneath as well as around about. They're strong arms, yet gentle. They're tireless arms, arms that will never, never, never let you go. I am with you also means He's here, at your side, not over there, not even at arm's length. And when it comes to being afraid, when you're feeling afraid and alone, when you need someone to cry to and lean on, He's here. Just lean on him. Verse 10 also says, and no one is going to attack or harm you. No one, but no one was going to harm Paul. Elisha followed Elijah as God's prophet. Sometime after his ministry began, the king of Aram went to war with Israel. And God told Elisha to warn the king of Israel about the Arameans' plans. Again and again, the Arameans were defeated. When the king of Aram found out that Elisha was a Dothan, he sent troops to surround the city. The next morning, Elisha's servants saw the troops and was very afraid. And Elisha told them, don't fear. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Then God opened the servant's eyes, and he saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all round the city. And those horses and chariots belonged to legions of angels God had protecting Elisha and his servant and the city. God has myriads of the same army watching and working on your behalf. No matter what foe comes to hurt you, God is watching. Going up Sears Tower is the must-do in Chicago. It used to be the second tallest building in the world. It was so high, you actually looked down on top of other skyscrapers. 120 floors up, about a quarter of a mile high, there's a viewing platform. You can walk round all four sides of the tower and look down, away into the distance, at the whole of Chicago. A quarter of a mile below, on the ground, the cars looked like ants scurrying around an anthill, and the people were barely seen. And yet God sees every one of them clearly. He even recognizes them and knows everything about them. and every other ant-like person in the world. As soon as he sees danger, he clicks his finger and a battalion of angels fly to your side. No one, but no one is going to attack or harm you unless God knows about it and allows it for your good. God's promise to Paul was good for Corinth. It wasn't true in the previous months at the other cities. And we know it wasn't applicable to cities he still had to visit. God's promise was only true for Corinth. God's protection doesn't mean we will never be free from difficulties, but it does mean God will never allow us to face more than we can bear. Verse 10, he said, I have many people in this city. What a great encouragement. In fact, Paul stayed there for a year and a half, preaching full-time, without having to be a tentmaker. And it would bear fruit. Paul knew his ministry wasn't over. In fact, Paul stayed there for a year and a half, and if Paul possibly thought his days of preaching were over, he felt weak and unable to continue. He felt depressed and possibly was ready to give in. What more can I do? But God encouraged him. I have many people in this city still to be reached. Consider the prophet Elijah. He contended with 700 prophets of Baal, and was afraid of Jezebel. He was physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually tired, and Jezebel was trying to kill him. So he ran away to a cave in a mountain. When God asked him what he was doing there, he said he was the only one left who was faithful to God. God told him of deaths that were gonna come in great numbers, and then he said, yet I reserve 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal. God said to Paul, don't be afraid. I have more for you to do. What an encouragement to do the work. Elijah wasn't on his own. There were another 7,000 people just like him. Paul wasn't told how many there were in Corinth, just that they were there. Right there, in Valomina, God has dozens, if not hundreds of people. People who have lost the desire for fleshly pleasure, lost interest in life. There are those who are hurting so much, they need a healing touch from God. People who are suffering with such deep guilt, they are crying out for forgiveness. There are people whose souls are so empty, they're longing for someone to fill it with love, but a love that won't go away like all the others. There are people out there who've come to the end of their tether. But the good news is that when they get to the end of their tether, they'll find God waiting. But how will they know? along with the encouragement that God has many people in the city, there comes the responsibility. Romans chapter 10, verse 13 to 15 says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? The responsibility for Paul was he had to preach, compelled to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that responsibility wasn't just for Paul, it's for all of us. So go home this morning, pluck up the courage to ask God, here am I, God, what do you want me to do? Are you afraid to step out in faith? We all are. But God says, don't be afraid, I am with you. Have you ever been tempted to give up? Keep on speaking. Not only with words, but also by your actions, day after day, wherever God has placed you. Do you think you're on your own? Maybe you're alone, lonely. Don't be, because the Lord is at hand and will always be with you. And when you cast your care on him, you'll find him right here by your side, carried by you.