Dennis Tuuri

This is that time of year that a good portion of the Christian church throughout the world celebrates Advent season, the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. But that’s not the whole story of Advent. Advent also is, as we prayed today, for the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ in our times. And today in our sermon scripture from the book of Acts in chapter 18, we read of the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ at Corinth.

And we’ll see what happens, what means God uses, Jesus uses to bring his advent, what the result of that advent of the Lord Jesus Christ is and the establishment of the people that he had there. Our Lord will tell us in this passage if you listen carefully that he has much people in this city. That term people is used in the Septuagint—the Greek term is to speak of the covenant people of Israel in the Old Testament.

And so Jesus comes to his people at Corinth to come as Emmanuel and deliver them from the darkness of night and bring them into the light of the gospel. And he also comes to bring judgment and fill up the faces of those who oppose his people with shame. And then at the night seek the Lord.

So, let’s stand and we’ll read the sermon text from Acts 18:1 and following through verse 17. The advent of the Lord Jesus Christ at Corinth is here spoken of.

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 came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought. For by their occupation they were tentmakers. And he 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 raiment and said unto them, “Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean. From henceforth I will go into the Gentiles.” And he departed thence and entered into a certain man’s house named Justus, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all 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 6 months, teaching the word of God among them.

And when Gallio 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, Gallio said unto the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, oh ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But 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 drove them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of these things. We thank God for his word, and we pray now that he would illuminate it to understanding, that he would reform our lives and the lives of our culture as well by using that word and the spirit driving that word home to our hearts.

Let us pray in song now.

Then about wonderful passage. All these passages are wonderful passages of course in the scriptures. God’s Holy inspired word reveals who he is. He calls us to change our lives on the basis of who he is and what we have been brought into through relationship with him through Jesus our savior. I want to talk about this in terms of the advent as I said, of Jesus Christ through his apostle Paul and his people to Corinth.

We’ll talk about Paul’s advent coming to Corinth. We’ll talk after that a little bit about the city he came to, what Corinth was and the significance of it. After that we’ll talk about Paul’s methods very briefly and then we’ll look at the advent of Christ through Paul and the opposition it produces at Corinth. We’ll talk about the advent of Christ and deliverance and then finally we’ll talk about the advent of Christ and judgment.

So first we’ll have kind of the introductory section: Paul’s advent at Corinth, the city, Paul’s coming there, his methods. And after that the advent and opposition, deliverance and judgment. Then we’ll try to make some application in a very direct way.

So first of all, Paul’s advent at Corinth. We read in the text, and it’s significant, by the way. Whenever you look at a text of scripture, you want to look at the way the thing is laid out. And we’re told something significant in verse number one. “After these things”—that of course is referring to Paul’s sojourn at Athens. Paul departed from Athens. The word depart there is not the normal word for depart. Depart here is usually in response to persecution, trouble of some kind, hurrying on for particular reason. It’s a strengthened sort of a form. And it puts the whole context of the advent at Corinth in kind of a heightened mode, kind of an adversarial thing—things going on in the context of his coming there to begin with and leaving Athens. But in any event he comes from Athens and so that’s the manner in which he comes—he comes rather quickly and kind of being pressed upon so to speak.

Secondly, we find then in this coming to Corinth that he found a certain Jew named Aquila born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. So here we have Aquila and Priscilla. And for those of you who like to know names, Aquila means eagle. Priscilla is referring to ancient or elderly—not that she was old, but rather that the name has connotations of ancient, long heritage. And Paul meets up with Aquila and Priscilla.

These are going to be very dear friends of his over the course of his ministry. And they will follow him as he leaves Corinth. And indeed he’ll write back that they actually risk their own lives for the sake of his personal safety and for the sake of the advancement of the kingdom. So we meet some very important people at Corinth immediately in verse two at Paul’s advent there—we come up to his friends.

Now by the way it’s important here that we see that he meets these people and then he lives with them. He came unto them because he was of the same craft. Verse three, he abode with them. He stayed in their house in other words and wrought. For by their occupation they were tentmakers. Now later on if you listen to the text, after the confrontation at the synagogue, it says that Paul went into the house that was hard fast stuck right next to the synagogue.

It doesn’t mean he moved in there. That’s where he went to worship from then on. He stays during his sojourn at Corinth a year and a half. The longest stay by the way of the whole missionary journeys we’ve talked about so far. He stays at the home—I understand it to be this way at least—at the home of Priscilla and Aquila. Now that’s significant too because you know we’re to seek out Christian companions, Christian acquaintances and it’s a good thing for encouragement to us in lots of ways to have Christian companions round about us. So Paul gives us a model of when he goes into a city finding people that are already in relationship with God through Jesus Christ and staying with them.

Now they’re there. The text tells us and again this is a significant detail. They’re there because Claudius who at that time was emperor of Rome had driven all the Jews out of Rome. Now he didn’t do that early in his reign but after a certain point there was so much commotion being caused and the reason for that commotion is not certain but in any event he told all the Jews rather they had to leave Rome and we’re told specifically in the text then that Priscilla and Aquila are at Corinth because of the controversy at Rome with a ruler in relationship to the Jews. That’s significant too because at the end of the text we’re going to have controversy of the Jews and as a result the man who speaks for Rome—Gallio—driving the Jews out of the judgment hall.

Okay. So this whole text is kind of bookended: Priscilla and Aquila and then the driving out of the Jews from the judgment seat. And Priscilla and Aquila are put to us in the context of controversy of the Jews at Rome and God driving the Jews out of Rome through Claudius. And so that’s important for us to remember as we get to the central meaning of this text.

Now we’re told also that he came and he stayed with them and he wrought with them for they were all tentmakers. This means that they made tents. They made tents apparently out of goat hair or goat leather. And that’s significant as well. Paul is of course building a larger tent than simply the small tents that they would make to sell and work with their hands. He’s building the great tabernacle of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ’s advent to Corinth is primarily to build the tent, the tabernacle, the dwelling place of his people.

And that’s what Paul is doing. Nonetheless, to accomplish that work, Paul takes on menial hand work, hand labor as well. He’s a model to us that man of submission and humility. We know that he will later write to the Corinthians that he had complete right to seek a living from preaching the gospel. The clear scriptures make that clear from beginning to end. The laborer is worthy of his hire and he that helps you in spiritual things should receive then a financial remuneration from you.

And so Paul had that right but he put aside that right when he comes to Corinth and his whole stay there he doesn’t make use of that right. Why? Well, he does it so that he will give no offense to the gospel. He doesn’t claim what he can claim to them, the right to be recompensed for preaching as the church grows there, but rather he works with his hands as an example to us of putting aside personal rights when it is advantageous for the advance of the gospel.

So Paul gives us a good picture here, not just of living with Christian friends, he also gives us a good model of working with his hands and that for lots of reasons, the central of which is that he’d give no offense to the gospel. Now, Paul was Jewish, raised Jewish, of course, and the rabbis said that any father who didn’t teach his son a craft or a trade, essentially gave him over to thievery—very important.

Even the most learned people, and Paul was a learned person. He had a wonderful education and upbringing and intellectual thought in the scriptures of course, but also studying the philosophies of those round about so that he could interact with them and bring them to Judaism. So, Paul is intellectual, if you will. But nonetheless, even Paul had been taught a trade. And there again is a good example for us with our children.

They should always be taught a trade so they can get by when they need to when their other pursuits may not be able to provide for their financial well-being. And secondly, that through that trade, they may be able to further give grace through their tongues as they preach the gospel to people and as they witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. That wasn’t the only reason, by the way, that the Jews taught their children to trade.

Certainly, that was one reason that they wouldn’t turn to thievery then. But the second reason was they said that if the person wasn’t busy with their hands frequently, they would fall into sin. And so work was seen also as the avoidance of the idle hands that are the devil’s workshop. And so there are rabbinic quotes to that effect as well. And so Paul in his advent at Corinth gives us a picture of lots of things.

He gives us a brief sample Luke does in verse two of these Priscilla and Aquila be so important in the ministry of Paul. He gives us an urgency to Paul’s visit there. He gives us the persecution, so to speak, the contention that is between the Jews and the Romans to help us understand Gallio’s action at the end of the text. He gives us a picture of how we should interact with and have communion and fellowship with Christian people, particularly when we’re off on our own, so to speak.

That keeps us in good fellowship and encouragement, keeps us away from sin as well. And he also gives us a picture of working with our hands, being like the Lord Jesus, who didn’t come to be served but came to serve others. And so the apostle Paul—Jesus’s advent at Corinth through the apostle Paul is an advent of a picture of submission and humility for the sake of giving no offense to the gospel. Paul’s desire is to minister grace with his tongue to the Corinthians and that should be our desire as well.

And sometimes the way to do that is to take away objections that people may have. He’s doing it for money in this case—take those objections away by not taking money and then get right down to the heart of the matter, which is the preaching of the gospel and the call to men to repent.

So first of all we have Paul’s advent at Corinth giving us all these practical examples and applications to our lives.

Secondly, this particular city that he comes to is significant as well. In a way it’s kind of the flip side to Athens so to speak. It’s like the two horns of the bull so to speak. Corinth is not known for its philosophy. Athens was of course the philosophical and as a result political center of the thinking of the Greeks and also then their influence in terms of the Romans. Corinth isn’t like that. Corinth is a seaport and you’ll see on the maps—we’re not going to refer to them much.

Please keep them as we continue to go through these talks on winding up the second missionary journey and going into the third. But you’ll see that Corinth there is a seaport essentially and he’s on a little isthmus, a little slice of land that goes into the water and there are actually ports on either side. So Corinth was extremely important in terms of trade in this particular period of time because there was a lot of trade and commerce going on.

There was a lot of money flowing through hands. It was a very luxurious city, very wealthy city and with and along with that came all the accompanying vices that accompany trade soldiers being shipped back and forth to those ports, merchants etc. Corinth was known, it was famous for its immorality. Corinth had been rebuilt. There was an old Corinth that was destroyed about 200 years before this. The city was rebuilt by Julius Caesar.

Old Corinth actually had a number of temple prostitutes, a thousand or more who were available to any stranger that came into the city. It was that kind of a place. And as it was rebuilt, it still maintained that immoral character. In fact, the term to be a Corinthian in the Greek then—to Corinthianize something was to make it immoral or lewd in some way. And even in the English, in older English—classical English that we don’t speak much anymore—but to Corinthianize or to be a Corinthian rather was to be a rascal, to be someone who engaged in nefarious kind of evil immoral deeds.

So the term Corinth itself became known for this immorality that the city was famous for. It’s important to understand that it was sort of like—I guess instead of Washington DC which is more like Athens to us, the center of philosophical and political thought—it was more like Hollywood, the other end of the spectrum. It was the place of immorality, drugs, sex, etc., etc., etc., which we’re all used to today.

Now, because of its particular location, of course, it’s extremely strategic for the advance of the kingdom. And Paul spends a year and a half there. Jesus has much people there. It’s going to become a radiating center for Christianity throughout all Achaia. It was the capital of Achaia. Greek Greece was then split into Macedonia and Achaia and Corinth is the capital of Achaia. And so from there, the faith will radiate out.

And when Paul writes to the Corinthians and writes about this section of the world, he talks about all the churches throughout Achaia. A lot of them were started up as a result of the church at Corinth. Now, so Corinth is a very important place and it’s a place that is completely different not philosophical but rather completely immoral in the context of its characterization. And it’s important for us to know that the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ to Corinth through the apostle Paul is to an immoral people.

It’s like going to Hollywood, except Hollywood probably isn’t a good model either because it does form a lot of political or philosophical thought. But you understand what I’m saying. They weren’t concerned about ideas. They were concerned about money and about entertainment. And that’s what they were into.

Now, Paul, and I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this. Each of these things we could really spend a whole sermon on, but I just want us to think through again, and we’re doing this as we go through these missionary journeys, how Paul’s what Paul’s methods are in terms of his preaching the gospel.

And we are told the four specific methods of Paul as we read on in this text. We read about his coming to Corinth. And then we read that in verse four, he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. Okay. So Paul, just as he does in every city we’ve seen him go to so far, starts with the institutional church first. That’s what the synagogue is. At the institutional church, there are two kinds of people.

There are Jews and there are Greek god-fearing Gentiles or Gentiles. And those people are both component elements of the institutional church. And he always starts with the church. And the message of God and reforming a country always should be taken first to the church. That the church is the core really of life. And so Paul goes to the church first. And he does two things. He reasons and he persuades. To reason here—well let me just tell you the other two things that he does.

He goes on to testify to them. That’s in verse five. He testified to the Jews. Jesus was Christ. And then later in the text, we’ll read that he stayed a long time in Corinth teaching the church at Corinth. So the four particular activities that Paul engages in here as he builds the tent, the temple of God at Corinth are reasoning, persuading, testifying, and teaching. Those are the four methods of Paul in the context of evangelization and discipleship at Corinth.

Reasoning, persuading, testifying and teaching. Reasoning has the connotation of the Greek to speak thoroughly about a matter and it can involve dialogue and interchange, a Socratic exchange such as we saw at Athens. It can involve a series of long talks in the context of a synagogue—sermons based on scripture of course—but he reasons with the Jews. Now remember what we said last week. It’s not “come let us reason together. We’ll put my knowledge along with your knowledge and see what we come up with.” That’s not the kind of reasoning that Paul engages in. It’s not the kind of reasoning we should be engaging in. We don’t want to appeal to some common neutral ground and get the people we’re talking to on the basis of their own thought and intellect to come to an acceptance of Jesus Christ. No, we want to say that the only standard by which we can reason is the scriptures.

And so Paul’s reasoning here, we understand, to be always based upon the scriptures. He reasons from the word of God. Nonetheless, it is a reasoning activity. It’s not simply a proclamation and then walking away. It’s dialogue and exchange because people do not understand what we understand the scriptures to be saying. They don’t have that base of knowledge. The context of our culture today, the word sin means a lot of things to a lot of people.

And if all we do is tell people you’re in sin, what does that mean to them? Not much. So, we want to reason. We want to thoroughly speak to the implications of the gospel for the people we’re speaking with. But it’s not a reasoning that’s just ends in some sort of nice interchange. It reasons to the end that we might persuade men. And that’s the second thing. He persuaded certain people. This word is usually used in terms of the folks, the elect community of Jesus Christ who the Holy Spirit causes to respond to that reasoning from the scriptures.

But it’s very important to put it in because it means we don’t reason just to reason. We reason to the end that we might persuade men that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Lord of all things. He is the anointed prophet, priest and king. Third, he testifies to them as well. We read in verse 5, he testifies that Jesus is the Christ. The word testify has a particular emotional charge to it. In fact, it’s frequently translated as charging somebody.

Okay? It has the idea of attesting to a particular fact, but not just again in a neutral sense. Testifying to a particular fact that Jesus is the Christ, he is the savior to the end that men might recognize that they have been encountered with the word of God. And if they walk away from that charge, it is to their hurt. Okay? So we reason to the end that we might persuade and in the context of that we testify and charge people to repent of their sins and to come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And to those that do, we teach them. That’s the fourth method of building the church of Christ. And of course, that is in the context of the church. That is in the presentation of scripture, methodically going through books of the Bible, doctrines of the Bible, etc. And so Paul does those four things. He reasons, persuades, testifies, and teaches.

Now, as was frequently the case, this creates a reaction. The Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for his advent to Emanuel today in America, we want to see this kind of advent. We want to see the advent of Christian community, humility, of service that Paul demonstrates to us, taking the word of God and on the basis of that word, reasoning, persuading, charging and teaching men. That’s the advent of Christ that we pray for in a renewed sense in our country today.

And as we pray for that, we should expect opposition. What the word of God comes, Jesus said he didn’t come to bring peace, but to bring a sword to even divide families because everybody is not elect. All people are not part of the covenant community of Jesus Christ in the ordination of God. Some people are enemies to the gospel. And Paul encounters enemies and the advent always brings about enemies to the gospel.

We read this in verse 5. And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, “Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean. From henceforth I will go into the Gentiles.” We’ve heard that before. And remember, it always means not forever. I’m not. But he says in the context of that particular city, Corinth, he now moves away from the institutional church, the Jews, and instead turns to the Gentiles, that is the pagan Gentiles outside of the institutional church.

Doesn’t mean he has anything to do with the synagogue. We know that he then takes his worship to a house right next to the synagogue and men from the synagogue become converts at that house. But what it does mean his focus now—he’s given the message to the institutional church and now he focuses his message to the unbelieving, the pagan world round about as well. Okay, so there’s a transition. Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles.

But even so, he always starts with the institutional church. There’s opposition. And the opposition is pointed out in the and that it says they opposed themselves rather and blasphemed. And what that word oppose themselves means in the Greek, it’s the same term that’s used to set up oneself in array as an army. And so what’s happening here is the unbelieving Jews in the synagogue set themselves in army positions, so to speak.

intellectually and actively against the preaching of the gospel. Okay? So, there’s an organized united opposition to the preaching of the gospel on the part of the Jews. That’s what’s going on here. The advent of Christ causes Christ’s enemies to congeal in opposition to him. This is in Psalm 83, right? They conspire. They’re in deadly earnest. They want to put an end to the nation of Israel, to the people of God.

And the Jews conspired together. They arrayed themselves as an army and recognize—remember this is in the context of the institutional church and at the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ preaching the full orb gospel in America for the last dozen years some elements of the institutional church have arrayed themselves together in united fashion against the advent of Christ in the church in America today even in the context of reformed conservative reformed churches mind you. Now about the alliance of Reformed Churches, the national group that’s trying to bring together, they adopted two or three weeks ago.

I’m very pleased to report they adopted now the ability for people to come into the Alliance of Reformed Churches believing not just in the three forms of unity, the old Dutch and German reformed background, but or a church can believe in the Westminster standards, the Presbyterian, Irish, Scott background. Either that is a significant thing because what it says is we’re not going to just be one slice of the church.

We are going to open up in the context of our alliance to Presbyterians as opposed to reformed to reform folks across cultural and secondary standards backgrounds. So, it’s a good thing is what I’m saying. But there’s opposition. The opposition is beginning to form itself against the alliance of reformed churches in the major denominations starting, of course, with the Christian Reformed Church. I don’t want to get off into a big sidetrack here, but the point is simply this, that when Christ comes in a special sense with the charging persuading reasoning of the scriptures.

It brings opposition and that opposition congeals then into united opposition as it does here in Paul’s time.

So they he is opposed by the Jews. What is his reaction to that opposition? Does he stay there and try to slug it out forever in the context of that particular institutional church, the synagogue? He does not. He does not. He does not argue with sin as R.J. Rushdoony has taught us so well. You don’t argue with sin. You proclaim it as such. You make the proclamation. You make the call and you move on. And that’s just what Paul did. He doesn’t get entwined in a long series of dialogue with folks who are blatantly opposed to him and blaspheming the work of the spirit as accomplished through the apostle Paul.

The blasphemy is to speak against God. And they in speaking against the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul are in essence blaspheming God himself. Whether they like it or not, that is the truth. They will put that opposition in the context of scriptural arguments. It’s never a denial of scripture in the context of the institutional church. It’s always the twisting of scripture. It’s always saying, “Well, that’s a nice opinion you’ve got, Paul, but you’re wrong.” And actually, this is the right opinion. It’s always twisting the scriptures.

Paul doesn’t get into a long protracted discussion about the right way to worship God. He says, This is the way it is. Reject the Lord Jesus Christ and you’ve rejected God and the blood’s on your own heads and reject me as an apostle of Christ. The blood’s on your own head. The law provided the penalty that any man that curses mother or father shall be put to death. Book of Leviticus. And what we see Paul talking about here is simply the pronouncement of God’s law against men that are cursing the work of the father as brought to them through the advent of the son and the power of the spirit through the preaching of the apostle Paul.

And so Paul talks not out of his own sense of vengeance. I’ve got a child who loves to us to sing Psalm 83. Psalm 83 is a great psalm. But my job for probably the next 5 years or more is to help him to understand that we don’t want to look for our vengeance, personal vengeance or retribution against our enemies or against wrongs against us.

What we pray for and what we proclaim is God’s vengeance. God’s retribution against evildoers. God is a God who punishes people. And Paul is not out of sync here. He’s not somehow gone off in that Old Testament theology stuff and forgot his Christian roots. No, he’s talking about the advent of Christ is blood upon their heads because they’ve rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I heard the representative from Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon on radio this week calling for Governor Roberts to commute the death penalty sentences for 17 or 18 people on death row in Oregon.

There’s no place he says in a civilized society for retribution or revenge. Rodney Page I believe is the man who said this on behalf of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. That’s the institutional church array against the actions of God in history. Okay. God has set up the civil magistrate specifically as an agent of his retribution and revenge. Romans 12 tells us that.

And it’s interesting that the idea of opposing ones opposing something setting oneself in array. Romans 12 warns us of the danger of opposing the legitimate lawful biblical work of the civil magistrate. To oppose the death penalty work of the civil magistrate, the bearer of the sword not in vain is to oppose God. And so when the ecumenical ministries of Oregon says they oppose the use of the civil state sword, God working through that mechanism whether they believe it or not, whether they admit it or not, they’re blaspheming God.

And the blood is on their own heads for such statements. Paul says, “I don’t bear responsibility. I’ve been the watchman on the gate here. I see judgment coming to you Jews because you reject Christ. And I’m telling you this, and if you don’t believe it, my I’m clean. I’m clean from this blood. I’ve done my job.” Now, that means that our job isn’t done with people until we make such proclamations.

If Paul had just walked away and said, “Well, New Testament Christians are nice guys and we don’t argue and we don’t, you know, we don’t not into that vengeance stuff. It’s okay. You believe it. You know, I’m okay. You’re okay. We’ll just agree to part ways here.” If he’d have done that, then the blood would be upon his head. The institutional church that believes the Lord Jesus Christ has a responsibility to take the message of God’s law and its predictive elements, blessings, and cursings to people, individuals, men, nations.

People hate it when you do that. People hate it when you make proclamations, but it’s a needful thing to do. I mentioned the Alliance of Reformed Churches meeting. Pastor Grabing from Independent Reformed Church in Salem was there a couple weeks ago, and he heard a talk by P.J. Young, a very well respected man. and his talk at the ARC was about how the church’s need to exercise more institutional discipline in the context of the church, while there is still hope for people before they become so hardened in their sin that they won’t hear the disciplinary actions of the church.

And Pastor Grabing said, “That’s what we need to do. We need to be quicker in working in terms of institutional discipline.” The declaration by the elders of churches that people are opposed to Christ in their actions and they must repent. They must repent. It’s our job. And if we don’t do it, then the blood’s on our heads. Paul did it. He was the good watchman. And so he said, “Blood’s not on my head.” By the way, in his talk to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20, we know that doesn’t just include institutional warnings.

He taught the people not just institutionally but house to house with tears. And so you know we’re I’m beginning to do that kind of thing here at RCC. A lot of you will be receiving a letter the next week where I’m going to try to plan for pastoral visits in homes to fulfill this part of my responsibility as to encourage exhort build up and to check how things are going in terms of family worship etc. But in any event Paul had done all those things.

And so he was clean of the blood that was upon their heads. And he also says that he shook out his raiment. He does two symbolic actions. One’s pretty obvious, the other isn’t as obvious. Firstly, he shakes his raiment off. Now earlier at Pisidian Antioch, the same scenario went through at the first church in the first missionary journey. It was really affected in a large way. there he shook the dust off his feet.

Some people suggest that it’s off his raiment here because he’s inside instead of outside. I don’t know. But Nehemiah tells us that God will shake his shake those rebellious people out of his garment, so to speak. And so Paul shakes off them as a picture that they’re shaken off from the kingdom of God and that God’s judgment is coming upon them. So he does that first symbolic action. The second thing he does is he stops going there and he starts attending worship services and conducting worship services at a house that is close—that the text says is right next to sharing the same wall—the synagogue.

And you know, some commentators are funny. Some one commentator said, “Well, it’s because he’s still trying to woo them and he wanted to be close to them, you know, and show he’s still close to the synagogue.” I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I don’t think the Jews were real happy about the fact that Paul was right next door. He did it in spite of angering them. And maybe he did it in part to show—again, that’s another symbolic action—to show this is the new synagogue, folks.

This house here, it doesn’t have the institutional status. It doesn’t have the institutional trappings of the synagogue. It’s a house. But this is the tent that God is building at Corinth, folks. And throughout this country today, there are people leaving the institutional churches and beginning small worship groups in their home. That is a good thing. God does a new thing in the nation. He moves outside of his normal institutional means to work in homes.

Now, I don’t think they should stay homes. I’m not I don’t believe this whole idea of a home church in that you only want half a dozen to a dozen people and beyond that you’re too big. Now, nothing in scripture to support that. What we have here is a transfer over to a new institutional church. That institutional church at Corinth will grow and will develop. And it’s important to understand that. But that’s second action.

So Paul gets opposition. Christ’s advent congeals the opposition to him. Christ’s advent though declares the judgment of God against those people that oppose themselves to Jesus Christ. And then it takes symbolic action in the shaking off of his garment and the building of the synagogue. And so that’s what is symbolically Paul’s showing them what’s going on in the context of the change from one institutional church to a new developing institutional church.

Okay. So the advent of Christ brings that opposition. But we’ve talked about Paul’s advent at Corinth. We’ve talked about the city of Corinth. We’ve talked about the opposition and Paul’s response to that opposition. Let’s talk now briefly about deliverance. In the context of all of this controversy and opposition, we read immediately in the context of this that as he goes into the house of Justus that there are many that become Christians.

Crispus the chief ruler of the synagogue becomes a Christian, believes in the Lord with all his house. Many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. This was a very successful missionary effort on the part of Paul. A big church was beginning to form in Corinth. And then immediately in the context of that in verse 9, 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.”

So, we see the advent of Jesus Christ also in terms of deliverance. There is promised deliverance in the context of Christ’s personal advent now to the Apostle Paul. And the first message he has for the apostle Paul is not to fear. Fear not. Be not afraid. This message permeates scripture and it permeates scripture not to problem people who are having a difficult time fulfilling their ministry. This message comes to Paul who we don’t really think about as having much fear.

This is a guy who has faced the stoning to death—symbolic at least, or at least it looked like he was dead—on the first missionary journey. He’s done a lot of stuff here. We don’t think of him as being fearful. We’re told in this text that he is the particular construction of the Greek here really means stop being fearful. It indicates the action has already begun in Paul’s heart. Paul has fear and so and we should know that you know you don’t even need to know the Greek to know that.

Why would Christ tell him to not be fearful unless it was a potential reality in Paul’s life? In fact, it was an actual reality. And from the beginning of the scriptures to the end, God is encouraging his people not to be fearful. I mean Joshua, the whole first chapter, don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed. I am with thee. I’ll be strong for you. Don’t be afraid of these people. I was with Moses. I’ll be with you.

God to Isaiah many times. Don’t be afraid of them. No weapon formed against you will prosper. Jeremiah, Paul goes to Jeremiah time and time again telling him not to be fearful. The people round about. Ezekiel was another recipient of such a promise from God that he not be fearful. So Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joshua, Paul, great men of the faith need to hear the message to not be fearful. And if it’s true of them, folks, it’s really true of us, right?

Whether it’s the difficulties we face in the context of our families, fear about what might happen to our families, fear about what might happen in terms of our vocational calling, fear of preaching the gospel to our neighbor. Remember I said last week we gave a I hope a good explanation of biblical apologetics as opposed to the idea of Josh McDowell and that kind of stuff—what biblical apologetics is all about.

But really it’s not primarily our method that gets in our way. It’s our fear of rejection by our neighbors that gets in our way. And so if it’s true of these great men of the faith, sure it must be true of us as well. Now they had reason to fear physical pain. Most of us don’t in terms of preaching of the gospel. But you know the kind of broken relationships that can ensue from presenting the claims of Jesus Christ and the implications of that full orb gospel in every area of your life.

Those kind of hurts can be just as devastating, even more so, than physical pain that tends to be gone in a few days usually. And so we need to hear this same message from the Lord Jesus Christ as we attempt to bring his message to our lives individually and in our communities in our church and in the country as well. We need to have the assurance from Jesus Christ, the encouragement to not be fearful.

He told Joshua, “Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage.” Isaiah 41, “Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee.” You know, if I had to do over again, I probably would have chosen “How Firm a Foundation” for our closing song. Based upon some of these texts from Isaiah, “Fear not, I am with thee. Be not dismayed.”

We need to hear that message from God’s word today. And I bring it to you hopefully in the power of the Holy Spirit. Book of Jeremiah chapter 1, the Lord said unto me, “Say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I send thee. And whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak.” And that’s what Jesus is telling Paul. Goes on to Jeremiah says, “Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, sayeth the Lord.” Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said unto me, “Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

See, I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw down, to build and to plant. The advent that would come through Jeremiah is destructive and constructive. Destructive of enemies of Christ, enemies of God, and constructive to those who had come to biblical repentance. And he tells Jeremiah, “Don’t be fearful. Speak my word, and I am going to protect you.” The same message he takes to the Apostle Paul.

What a continuity in message from Old to New Testament. He tells Jeremiah as he told Paul, “You’re going to be the one ruling the nations. Your words, Christ’s words through you to Paul.” That is what is the basis for how history moves—is what Christ is assuring Paul. They shall fight against thee, God told Jeremiah in chapter 1, “But they shall not prevail against thee. I am with thee, sayeth the Lord, to deliver thee.” He told Paul, “They’re not going to be successful in their opposition to you.”

The words of Christ here should not be understood as to say nobody’s going to harm or go come try to try to oppose you but they will not be successful in hurting you and stopping the preaching of the gospel. Jesus assures Paul of that message and he assures him of his personal presence with Paul. Paul’s fear had already begun and Christ assures him that he is present with the apostle Paul. He encourages him with the knowledge of his presence and he assures him that indeed it is him—his words that Paul is speaking.

Jesus here—we have I’ve titled the whole series of talks here the acts of Jesus through the apostles and church. So that’s what this whole book of acts is about. It’s not the acts of the church ultimately. It’s not the acts of the apostles. Luke wrote in verse one of acts that he had written of all the things that Jesus began both to do and to teach. When we read the actions of the apostle Paul, we read the actions of Jesus through Paul and Jesus is making that real clear in this text when he tells Paul, “Don’t be afraid.

I am with thee.” See, his presence is with Paul. The advent of Paul at Corinth was the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the same thing is true of us today. What did our savior tell us in the great commission? Go into all the worlds and make disciples. I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. You know, one of the old church liturgies still in use in a large part of Christendom—”The Lord be with you.”

Part of the liturgy says, “And with thy spirit”—the people respond. Now, that seems kind of silly to us. You know, what you know, we know that, you know, God’s with us. Sure, we need to hear that. The liturgies of the church remind us of the great truths of the Christian faith that need to be repeated over and over to us because when it comes down to how we feel, what our experiences during the week, frequently we feel alone.

We feel deserted and abandoned. We feel helpless in the face of armies arrayed against us—maybe the result of our own sin, maybe got nothing to do with our sin. Maybe difficulties and tribulations of just ordinary living in the world today. But we can feel absolutely helpless and alone. And it’s good to repeat on a weekly basis as some churches do. The Lord be with thee and with thy spirit. A reminder that Jesus Christ is with his people because that’s what drives out fear.

That’s what drives out fear. So, Christ appears to the apostle Paul and tells him that he is indeed with him—not to be fearful. Things—the opposition, the armies in array of Paul will not be effectual to stopping the advance of the gospel. And why? Jesus tells them he gives them a command to keep speaking. He gives them assurances. He promises his presence. He promises his protection to what purpose? To what end? What’s the motivation? Jesus says “I have much people in Corinth.”

He uses, as I said earlier in the introduction, he uses the same word that’s used in the Septuagint to refer to Israel in the Old Testament. The people of God is the picture of how history moves from one end to the other—the people of God. And Jesus uses that same term, the people—here, the covenant people of Israel, same term, correlary, to refer to the elect community in Corinth even before they are brought to conversion.

They are Christ’s people. He is sovereign. He elects them. And so, on the basis of that, Christ assures the apostle Paul that he should not be fearful and he assures us as well. Let’s not be fearful. You know, I this idea of reminding ourselves of the presence of Christ. Scripture memorization of course is an important part of assuring ourselves in the face of opposition and problems. We had a scripture a number of years ago—my kids were in a Wineskin—the scripture was about us being in the hand of Jesus Christ and the last portion of the verse was “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

All right, we kind of did it to a rap rhythm. Kind of learn it. “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” See, kind of a You can teach your children that way. See, to use these catchy rhythms and as a result, you teach them a very important truth. “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand,” our savior tells us. We’re firmly in the hand, the loving hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. we are I had a couple once that they would sign all their correspondence “In his grip.”

And when I first read that, I thought, that’s kind of funny, you know, something we’re in a suitcase or something. You know, the English call a suitcase a grip. Or you could think of Christ’s grip as really putting pressure on you, you know. And that’s true, too. The Apostle Paul says here that he was pressed in the spirit—constrained by the love not of man, but of Christ to preach the gospel. He tells us earlier in the text, but the point of course is that in his grip is where we all are.

We’re in his loving hand. And his presence is with us. And if you’re troubled in your spirit, if you’re fearful of what may happen to you this next week, this next month, and if you’re obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ, you should hear the assurances of him through these words of scripture to not be fearful and doing what’s right—that he is with you and be with you to the end of the age.

And he is working through you to affect the building of his church. So, we have the advent and deliverance of his people. And then finally, we have advent and judgment. Moving on very quickly here to the last point—advent and judgment. We go to that portion of the text with the Jews. Explanatory note here, he says that he’s going to be with them. And then in verse 11 in the text, it says he continued there a year and 6 months teaching the word of God among them.

And then it says, “And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, yada da.” This confused me when I first read the text. Maybe it confuses you. Are we still in Corinth in verse 12 or are we someplace else now? No, we’re in Corinth. The reason why it says he stayed there 18 months at