Acts 18 Paul on Trial..

Paul is on his second journey and is finishing up before starting his third journey. He is supported by friends Priscilla and Aquila who are fellow tent makers. Paul worked during the week and ministered on the weekends. He faced opposition from the Jews but found success in preaching to the Gentiles. Silas and Timothy arrived and provided support, allowing Paul to focus on preaching full-time. Paul faced abusive opposition from the Jews and decided to shift his ministry to the Gentiles. He moved from public ministry in synagogues to private home ministry. Many Corinthians believed in Jesus and were baptized. Paul received a vision from the Lord, encouraging him to keep speaking and assuring him of his protection. Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half. We're going to continue our study at chapter 18 of Acts. Paul is on his second journey, and he's finishing that up, and we're going to jump into his third journey and his last journey tonight. But it's kind of cool, like this Acts gives a summary of all three journeys, but then we have Corinthians and Timothy and all these different letters that he wrote back to the churches. We're going to see the inside details of some of these things later on in Scripture. But before we get started, let's go ahead and go to God in prayer tonight. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you so much that we can come here and just continue worshiping of you. Help us to just clear out our minds and our hearts and just speak to us in a powerful way tonight, the way that we need to hear. Let it be your words and not mine. Forgive us for our sins. In Jesus' name, amen. So it's kind of cool. God helped him through many struggles and trials and persecutions along the way. He brought some friends to Paul along the way, like Priscilla and Aquila. You might have recognized those names in Scripture. But they were fellow tent makers. And this is really the first time we see Paul's career. For example, I went to college to be a full-time pastor, and that was my undergrad degree. But then I went to college to get into the business world because I thought that would be a valuable thing out there as a backup plan. Well, it ended up being the other way around. I'm full-time in the workforce and part-time here. But that's kind of how the tent maker situation is. Sometimes Paul had to go out and work because the church couldn't support him, and that was fine. But we're gonna see a little bit of relief coming for him here. And he was probably extra busy during the week because of his job. So what did he do? He ministered mainly on the weekends, on the Sabbath specifically. And he says in Acts 18, verse four, he says, and he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. I think it's amazing that he got some pulpit time. Like if some random guy walked in off the street here, do you think me and Scott are gonna let that guy get up here and start talking? I don't think so. And especially if they're like, yeah, my buddy rose from the dead. We're like, no, you have to die to live. No, thanks. Drink my blood and eat my bread as flesh. No, thanks. So it's amazing that they actually allowed him to speak. So the culture was obviously different back then. It was an open forum more so. But the Jews ended up pushing back. They allowed him to speak. Unlike our culture today, they just don't want you to speak at all. But at least they allowed him to speak. But the Jews pushed back harder actually than the Gentiles did. As we saw in Athens, the Gentiles were actually kind of primed to believe they're open to some of these ideas. They like to think. They like new ideas to come in. And that's what universities were meant to be. It's meant to be, okay, give me all your ideas and then I'll decide. Well, no, now it's like you will obey my ideas and you do not get to decide. It's like what to think and not how to think. So it's a lot different today. Then verse five, we go on. It says, when Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. Now, why did he exclusively preach to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah? So he preached specifically to one group and specifically about the fact that Jesus is their Messiah that they've been waiting on for thousands of years. So he had a very clear message, very specific point and message. One, it could be because he didn't have much time because he was making tents. So he wanted to make the most of his time and really pinpoint his message. Maybe he thought that was the most important message for the Jews. But devoted just means, this comes from the word synecho, and it means to be constrained. So he constrained himself to a certain topic and from wandering off, you know, we go down rabbit, Scott never goes down rabbit trails or tells jokes really. He's always laser focused on the fact that Jesus is the Messiah. We sometimes would go up on rabbit trails and things like that, but he was laser focused. There are several factors about significant things about Silas and Timothy's arrival here. You know, it's encouraging as your friends are coming up and you're like, oh, some relief, you know, because Silas and Timothy could help them teach the Jews. They could, more importantly, maybe even bring financial aid for Macedonia. In 2 Corinthians 11.9, I don't have that up there. In Philippians 4.15, talk about this, the fact that they were kind of the money guys. They would bring money to Paul. And so now it would be no longer necessary for him to make tents and try to juggle so many different hats. That would open him up to full-time preaching. And when you have a talent, I would say, God gave him the talent to preach, but an awesome talent to convert people like Paul is, you want him out there all the time, as much time as possible, preaching the gospel. Unlike a lot of pastors today, they don't preach much truth, so you'd probably just rather have them go get a job. I don't know, not us, though. We preach only the truth, we try. This is good news to them because they brought good news about the steadfastness of the Thessalonian church, where they had come from. And so earlier, he had visited Thessalonica and that probably refreshed Paul to know that, hey, this church he started is actually sticking with it. How many times do you teach somebody something and they don't really stick with it? They're not really committed. And their companionship would have been an encouragement to them. So we continue on here in verse six. It says, the Jews, but when the Jews, they, opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, your blood be on your own heads, I'm innocent of it. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. And Paul did this several times, all the apostles did this several times, I'm sure, where they would reach a point where they're not gonna listen. And in fact, they don't not listen, they are abusive. And they try to push you to believe what they believe. And they will not allow you to get away with trying to convince them to believe or even believing what you believe yourself. They want you to acknowledge their own error. So that's kind of where they were. And Paul did his part, can't force people, because they were hateful because they were clouded by obvious emotion. When emotion gets involved, they were abusive. That clouds your brain when you're being violent towards an individual or thinking of profanities or things to call your enemies. You're not thinking clearly at that time. And that's what we deal with in our culture today. People that don't take a step back and deal with, hey, maybe this is truth. No, they just are emotional about it. And that's what we're dealing with. So he goes from public ministry in the synagogues to the Jews to private home ministry. In verse seven, it says, then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Tidius Justus, a worshiper of God. Now there's many in these cities that had never heard of Christ, that they say they worship God. So they had an idea of what God was. Maybe they knew the Old Testament version of who God was, and they didn't know the Messiah had come. And so that's probably the majority. They knew this Jewish idea that the Messiah is coming someday. But that's the whole point of Paul. He's going around saying, hey, he came, he arrived. It's not like they had a Facebook or Twitter to instantly notify them when Jesus died on the cross. If that would happen today, somebody died on a cross in, say, Jerusalem, and the earth happened to shake, and the sun happened to go dark at the same time, and three days later, the guy happened to be missing from the tomb. I think on Twitter, that would be all over the place, right? There would be information that these guys hadn't heard yet. So that's the point of them going out. There's three confirmations. It's always good to know when you're doing the right thing in ministry or anything in life, you like a little bit of confirmation from God. Like, am I doing the right thing? Because we're human, we don't always know. The first sign that he's doing the right thing is when people are coming to Christ, when people are believing, when people are not only just coming to Christ, but also changing their life. So in verse eight, it says, Crispus, pretty cool name, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord, and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized. This seems to happen too, but maybe not as quickly. When somebody converts to Christianity or is convinced to believe in Christianity, many times they go back home, they're fired up, they're gonna talk about this change in their life. So that primes the other family members to start questioning, like, whoa, he looks different. And maybe that was really strictly the thing that won them over. Man, he's different, he's kinder, he's not cussing, he's not telling bad jokes like Scott did before he became a Christian. And he's not wearing lampshades on his head anymore, and he's not, maybe even some more serious things, like he's not hitting my mom anymore. You know, you go to that point, you're like, man, that lifestyle is such a convincer. That's why it's important for us to live it. Number two, the three confirmations that he's doing the right thing. Well, when you get a vision from God directly, that might be a little encouraging. So he says, one night, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision. Do not be afraid, keep on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city. So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God. So was Paul kind of afraid? Yes, he was afraid. Was he probably thinking about moving on, getting out of this crazy city? Remember how bad Corinth was? It was like Las Vegas on steroids. It was really a bad mega city. It was a place that I would want to go to, but here, God had to come in to encourage him, to keep him on track. In ministry, God knows how to encourage you. He knows how to send encouragers to you, just in the time that you may be ready to give up and go on to the next city, or get out of town. But he says, I have many people. Sounds like something Trump would say, I have many people. Many fine people, I don't know. But he had not heard. He had not heard about Christ. The many people had not heard about Christ, if you think about it. But Jesus reassures him that these people are primed to receive me. They already know who I am, maybe not the fact that I've already arrived, but they're primed to receive him, and you're gonna have many people come to me. Third, the third encouraging thing is, here's a story about a legal battle. He goes before this judge. He goes before this judge. So let's look at this story. This judge was named Galio, and in verse 12 it says, but while Galio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat. And that word judgment is bema seat. You might have heard of that before. It's the same word that God uses for our judgment. He'll be sitting on that judgment seat, the white throne judgment. The bema. And that was a very symbolic thing. Kind of like we have the courthouses today and they wear the robes, that's a symbolic thing of justice. Ironically, when they wear that robe, not much justice occurs it seems like right now. There's a lot of injustice, and only God can bring justice. But fortunately, God was involved here because we see some justice for Paul, actually with the judge siding on Paul's side. So you probably saw that judgment seat. And then we have a picture of that. I don't know if we have a picture of that. It's just a bunch of pile of rocks. And then in the background, you can see the Acrocorinth where they worship that goddess up there on the hill. So it's kind of odd. You have this justice trying to occur. Meanwhile, the evil is behind it. And that makes me think of the justice system today and how the evil is kind of influencing it and how the justice system is trying to influence it. And then you have the prince of the world, Satan, kind of running the show in a lot of ways, honestly. But fortunately, God overcame this situation for Paul. So in verse 18, it goes on saying, this man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law. So the Jews bring him before the judge. And they're like, this man is going contrary according to the Jewish law. Is a secular guy going to care about Jewish law? But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galileo said to the Jews, if it were a matter of right or wrong or vicious crime, oh Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you. He was frustrated by them. He's saying if it was a secular matter, you know, they stole something, they were hitting you or caused harm, then yeah, that's my area. But I don't have anything to do with your spiritual world. But if there are questions about words and names of your own law, look after it yourselves. I am unwilling to be judge of these matters. That's a lot of restraint with this judge because judges want to be involved in everything, right? And lawyers and they want to be the ones in power, but he's surrendering his power to the Jews. This was good and bad because now the Jews are like, well, shoot, we're not going to get any actual justice here in the secular world, so let's get a little justice on our own. And we're going to see here in a second what that does. But this shows you the importance of keeping the state and state out of the church's business. It has to stay out of the church's business. We control everything that we do in our own church, our own law. And now there's Sharia law where they literally okay murdering people and dismembering people and then that gets into the secular law too. So we don't want Sharia law here, but there's nowhere in God's law that would violate our secular law. So we want the secular law to stay out of the religious world. And there was a concern about this with Danbury Baptist Church, way back with Thomas Jefferson's days. They were concerned because it wasn't quite clear in the constitution that, hey, that the state should stay out of the church's business. So they wrote to Thomas Jefferson right around Christmas time. And you can see the literal letter there. That was the letter and they still have that. Not sure who's in possession of that. I'm sure a museum somewhere. But he did a lot of scribbling on that. But that's Thomas Jefferson's famous letter on separation of church and state that is twisted. Now this was meant to keep the judges off the backs of religious people. But unfortunately they did it the other way around. They said that religion shouldn't have anything to do with the state. And that was nothing at all what they were saying. So this is a really interesting letter that Danbury Baptist wrote to Thomas Jefferson. So we're gonna read just a little bit of this. And this is from Danbury Baptist to Thomas Jefferson. And they put their concerns like this. Our sentiments are uniformly on the side of religious liberty. That religion is at all times and places a matter between God and individuals that no man ought to suffer in name, person or effects on account of his religious opinions. That's a great start. That the legitimate power of civil government and extends no further to punish the man who works ill to his neighbor. So just like this Gallio situation, only the secular decisions should be made by them. But sir, our constitution of government is not specific. Our ancient charter together with the laws made coincidence there with were adapted as a basis of our government at the time of our revolution. And such has been our laws and usages and such still are so that religion is considered as the first object of legislation. And therefore what religious privileges we enjoy as a minor part of the state we enjoy as favors granted and not as an alienable rights as in the Declaration of Independence. So the Declaration of Independence wasn't the constitution, right? It was, so they wanted to get that into the constitution so that they would be able to enjoy the freedom of religion and not only just what the government grants them to be free to do. So, and these favors we receive at the expense of such degrading acknowledgements as are inconsistent with the rights of freemen. It is not to be wondered at therefore, if those who seek after power and gain under the pretense of government and religion should reproach their fellow men. They saw this ahead of time. They saw people seeking power and gain to oppress religious people so that they could have more power and gain. Because we religious people, well, I hate to use the word religion. We Christians have biblical principles and we restrain their power. They can only do so much because of us. So they should reproach their chief magistrate as an enemy of religion, law, and good order because he will not, dares not, assume the prerogative of Jehovah and makes laws to govern the kingdom of Christ. And then we have reason to believe that America's God has raised you up to fill the chair of the state. Talking to Thomas Jefferson, God himself put him there out of that goodwill which he bears to the millions which you preside over. And may the Lord preserve you safe from every evil and bring you to last to his heavenly kingdom through Jesus Christ, our glorious mediator. So what's a brief response from Thomas Jefferson to all that? He says this. That's just a couple paragraphs here. Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith of worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions. Well, that's changed. I contemplate with the sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature would make no laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state. So now you know the full context of it. You know that it was to keep the state out of the church's business and not the other way around. Because all throughout our Capitol, I mean, you see God, you see Moses is on the back wall of the House of Representatives. And God we trust is right above the president when he does the State of the Union. You think they use the Capitol building as a place of worship. For almost 100 years, they used it as a place of worship, literally. And Congress came up and printed their own Bible. They were not anti-religion. It's just the churches were afraid that somebody that was anti-religion would get into power and crush the church. Going back to Gallio, because that was really a good contrast with Gallio. He does this. After the Jews start pushing back on him and they're like, we need to do something to him, Gallio's smart. He says this, and he drove them away from the judgment seat. And they also pulled a Sassanese, the leader of the synagogue, and they began beating him in front of the judgment seat. But Gallio was not concerned about any of these things. So Gallio was a good guy and kind of a bad guy too, for allowing the Jews to beat up this newly converted leader of the synagogue. So Sassanese was beaten. But Gallio's ruling really set a good precedent for the early Christians. It ruled in their favor. Catholic precedents are set today. It gave legal legitimacy to Christianity, this new idea. And this Roman law provided the protection they needed. So this may be the reason that Paul was able to stay and continue his ministry. So in verse 18, Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Centuria, he had his hair cut at Great Clips. No. Faun won't let me go to Great Clips. I don't know why, because, I mean, in the name is Great Clips. But she says they always mess it up, so. But for he was keeping a vow, he says. So what vow was this? Well, we kind of know probably that it was the Nazarite vow. Now, Paul, this guy who is, you know, he wasn't all about religious procedures from the Old Testament. He was saying that Christ came to free us from the law. Why is he now practicing some of these things from the law before? He may have simply done it because he said, do whatever it takes to win people over, right? You do whatever it takes. I think that's probably why he did it. He may have done this vow to connect with the Jews, or it may have been like a fasting thing, like it's totally a biblical thing to fast, because it helps us focus. When we fill that hunger, we remember that, oh, I need to be focused on God and hungering after him. But he may have done that vow to connect to the Jews or to spiritually refocus himself. But the Nazarite vow requirements had to do with the hair, first of all. And the second thing they couldn't do is be around any dead bodies. They wouldn't go to any funerals. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. They couldn't be around any dead bodies. And that represents the fact that sin and evil are the ultimate, or death represents sin and evil as the ultimate consequence of sin. So you wanted to stay away from sin as much as possible during this time. And there's nothing that ultimately, I mean, it's the pinnacle of sin is death, unfortunately. But verse 19 goes on. It says, they came to Ephesus and he left them there. Now he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer time, he did not consent, but taking leave of them and saying, I will return to you again if God wills. He set sail from Ephesus. This always reminds me of Shelley and Fawn. Lord willing, they can't just say, hey, I'm going to the mall tomorrow. Lord willing, it's like, oh, here it comes. You don't have to say it. I know what you're gonna say anyway. I know your heart. You don't have to literally say it. But it's a good thought. So if God wills, that should be our attitude and everything in life. So if God wills it, yes. Proverbs 27 one, it says, do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. And you've had some of those days, you're like, I did not know that that day may bring that. And it was out of nowhere and you didn't expect it. But it could be something really critical. People have lost loved ones. People have lost their own children, their own spouses. I mean, it's just, life can get really, really devastating. So we always pray if God wills. Now, for one thing, every time I ask God for a Tesla, he says, yes, my son. But every time Fawn asks for a new van, she says, no, my child. He says, no, my child. We've had the van for eight years and I've had my Tesla for a record-breaking one year now, guys. So, but yeah, I'm pretty sure if I would ask God for that, he would have been either silent about it or said no. But yeah, verse 22 goes on. When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and went down to Antioch. And this officially brings us to his last and final third missionary journey. We can see that he's gonna cover a lot of ground in that journey from Antioch back to Lystra, pretty much back around the curve, back down to Jerusalem. It's gonna be a long journey for him. Can't imagine how tiring that would be to go that far. But in verse 23, it goes on. And after spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. So was he doing their weightlifting and bench presses and stuff? No, it was a spiritual strengthening. And how do you do that? You challenge them. You talk to each other. Iron sharpens iron, right? You work things out and discuss the truth. But this happened during AD 52 to 53 approximately. So here we are pushing, what, 30 years after, 20 years after Jesus's death. A couple decades have passed. The church is growing. Verse 24 goes on. Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. Now, I never would have imagined a Jew's name as Apollos from Alexandria, but there was a lot of more Greek type of Jews that were from these areas. This guy happened to be named after a Greek god. That's why our name, thank God, sometimes our name doesn't matter. There's some real winners of names out there, but he was named after a Greek god, and he'll be thankful one day to get that new name when he gets to heaven. Our names here don't really matter. My name means a dog, Dane. Scott's, as I always say, means toilet paper, which is the best toilet paper, actually, by the way. But, you know, we'll get all new names, and God loves our names because it describes in detail who we are as spirits that happen to have a body. Revelation 2.17 goes on. It says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna. What is that? That's kind of a cool mystery. I want to overcome to figure out what kind of, maybe it's this enhanced type of bread, a super bread, I don't know, but he says, I'll give him a white stone, too. And on that white stone, a name written on it, on the stone, which no one knows but he who receives it. Now, why is that? Why does God only want you and him, you and him to know that name? Because that's how much he wants to know, wants to have a one-on-one relationship with you. Isn't that amazing that billions and billions of people that have ever existed, he wants that one-on-one relationship with you. And he has that now if you allow him to have it. But continuing with Apollo's theory, in verse 25 he says, he had been instructed in the way of the Lord and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately. I pray that I always do that. Though he knew only the baptism of John. So he spoke accurately but only knew one topic. So he kind of needed to expand himself a little bit. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. So he's this new believer, really excited, really passionate, getting up there preaching and maybe he's overextending a little bit. So Priscilla and Aquila come in and kind of say, hey man, back off a little bit. Maybe we need to pull you in. He says, when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. So that's what we do. If there's somebody that's kind of getting off, we explain more adequately the truth. So he was familiar with John the Baptist teaching, probably knew some of the Old Testament, didn't really know the story of Jesus. So they came in and that's where you get the iron sharpens iron, it uplifts and it strengthens. Proverbs 27, 17 says, iron by iron is sharpened and a man sharpens the face of his friend. Now, this version is the Young's Literal Translation and you don't often hear it put as any young man sharpens the face of his friend. So when you see the face of somebody, you think, well, they are not liars. They tell the truth. Your face is kind of who you are to the world, right? And so when we sharpen each other, we sharpen our face to the world. We are better reputation and more people are more welcoming to us type of thing. I think that's kind of where they're going with that. But it's funny, this is really kind of actually must be a humor thing that they put in the commentary, but they contrasted it with this verse. Proverbs 27, 15, a constant dripping on a day of steady rain and a contentious women are alike. So men are here over the iron sharpening iron and sharpening the face and making them look better and here you have a woman come in and it's all contentious. So I was like, this was literally my commentary to contrast the previous iron sharpens iron verse. So I had to run with it, right? And so we're gonna run with it here with a couple memes. The first one says, and the toilet is clogged and the garage is filthy and you don't even think about sneaking out of here to go golfing now. And he has a recording, this is really smart. It says, yes, dear, yes, dear, yes, dear. And it's just on repeat, yes, dear. And he has a can of soda, I will say, there on the bottom of the floor, so pretty smart. This next one's a little bit more graphic. He says, he called his friends, he says, I finally cracked Larry after 35 years of being constantly corrected. And then around the corner, the wife's like, 36. He's on the edge, he's about, yeah, he's on the edge there. So now Apollos is ready to go, he's ready to expand his ministry. And then there's two more verses, so I'll just finish these up. In Acts 18.27, it says, when Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who, by grace, had believed. For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. Anybody can be trained, but the passion to communicate the truth cannot be trained. It has to be something that you do. Anybody can be guided and put on a track, but the attitude and the motivation have to come from you and have to start with you. So that's kind of where that's going. Next week, we're gonna go to chapter 19 and talk a little bit about the kingdom and what are some things that we're gonna look forward to in that kingdom. So let's go ahead and close in prayer tonight. Dear God, thank you for your word and how it applies to our life. And it is the only reliable truth in the whole entire world that we can go to. And we thank you for that. Pray that you just help us to live for you and just let us live a fulfilled life in you as we go throughout the rest of this week. In Jesus' name, amen.