06-28-26 Study of Acts Chapter 18:1-18 The Gospel in Vanity Fair Part 3

➡ This Sunday Bible study focuses on the book of Acts, specifically Paul’s transition into full-time ministry in a corrupt church in Asia Minor. The study emphasizes the importance of learning from Paul’s life, particularly his struggles and how he overcame them with God’s help. It also highlights the need for patience and faith in God’s timing, as well as the importance of companionship and community in overcoming challenges. Lastly, it criticizes the corporate church’s practice of hiring pastors through interviews, arguing that God’s calling should be the only factor in such decisions.
➡ Paul, a preacher, was supported by his friends from Macedonia who brought him money and good news. This allowed him to focus on his ministry and spread the word of God. He was encouraged by his friends, his apostleship, and the people who converted to his teachings. Despite facing opposition, Paul continued his work, leading many people to believe in his teachings and be baptized.
➡ The text discusses the challenges faced by Paul in spreading the gospel, including persecution and threats. Despite these difficulties, Paul is encouraged to continue preaching, with the assurance that God is with him. The text emphasizes the importance of faith, courage, and obedience in times of adversity, and the personal relationship each individual can have with God. It also highlights the power of God, and encourages believers to apply the same promises given to Paul in their own lives.
➡ This text emphasizes the power and protection of God, using examples from the Book of Judges to illustrate how God has always been with his people, giving them strength and victory. It encourages us to believe in our own power and invincibility when God is with us, reminding us that we have nothing to fear. The text also highlights the importance of perseverance and faith, even when we feel alone, as God’s promise of protection and power is always with us.
➡ Paul’s teachings in Luke 21 emphasize that despite life’s hardships, nothing can harm us outside of God’s plan. He encourages us to believe in the power within us, the promise of preservation, and the fruitfulness of our lives. Paul also discusses the concept of predestination, suggesting that God has chosen certain people to hear the gospel and respond to it. Despite the complexity of these ideas, Paul urges us to trust in them, reminding us that our understanding is limited and that ultimate knowledge comes from God.
➡ The text discusses the concept of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, emphasizing that being chosen by God (election) doesn’t mean one can live without moral restraint. It highlights that Christians are expected to live in obedience, showing kindness, humility, and forgiveness. The text also underscores the importance of bearing spiritual fruit as a sign of genuine faith, stating that a true Christian will inevitably bear fruit in their life. It concludes by asserting that Christians are created for good works, which are seen as the ‘fruit’ of their faith.
➡ The text discusses the concept of bearing fruit as a Christian, which includes acts of love, joy, peace, praise, and giving. It emphasizes that all Christians can expect to bear fruit, even during difficult times, and should trust in God’s timing. The text also talks about the Apostle Paul’s experiences, highlighting how he was encouraged by his fellowship with God, his companionship, apostleship, and even hardships. Lastly, it narrates an incident where Paul was accused by Jews of persuading people to worship God contrary to the law, but was not convicted due to the understanding of Gallio, a Roman deputy.
➡ The text discusses how Paul, a follower of Christianity, was about to defend his faith before Gallio, a judge. However, Gallio dismissed the case, stating it was a matter of religious interpretation, not a legal issue. This decision allowed Paul to continue his ministry and spread Christianity. The text also emphasizes the importance of trusting in God’s plan, even when facing opposition or challenges.
➡ Let’s look inside ourselves to find areas where we need to improve and grow in kindness and understanding. We ask for this in my son’s name.

Okay, welcome. This is our Sunday morning Bible study. We’re into the book of Acts, studying the history of the church. We’re doing a, this is the end of a mini three part series inside the chapter 18. And this is basically Paul’s transition into, into full time ministry. It is into one of the churches in the Asia Minor area that is, is total corrupt and total pagan worship, much like what we have today in our society. So there’s a lot of relating points as we conclude this mini series that you should have not only in understanding our culture in our society today, but more importantly we’re gonna, you need to be utilizing Paul’s life and what happens in his life during this time because that represents you.

And so we’re going to finish up this by sort of capping all this and we’re, we’re going to look at all of the 18 verses in the first 18 verses of chapter 18. And let me just as a reminder, this is the story arrival of Paul with the gospel into the city of Corinth. Now we might subtitle this whole message at least from the perspective we’re looking at is to encourage the discouraged. Okay. So it, when you, when you evaluate yourself in your self assessment one of the attributes that you need to identify with is the fact that you’re to ministry, minister to the brethren and you are to, you’re to teach to the unbelievers.

And that’s basically the focus here is encouraging the, the discouraged which is brethren and also bring forth a new life for those that are not saved. So we’re going to, we’re going to see Apostle Paul at his lowest E and he has lows as well as highs just like you. And at this point he is very discouraged. And we’ve talked about this it many times in the last two weeks prior to Father’s Day. We have, we have seen, we have seen this very clearly in what we have studied and we’re not going to belabor that point anymore.

But we’ve got to get into the circumstances at Corinth which God really sets about to encourage his discouraged apostle. And that is your life. Okay. When you get discouraged, many of us look to our fellows network instead of going directly to the Holy Spirit and allow that Holy Spirit to actually take charge and move you in the right direction. So we read Psalms earlier in one of our studies that the child of God is going to have trouble, but God is going to see him through it. God is going to encourage him. And that’s exactly what we have here in Fact, out of this experience at Corinth, Paul wrote back to the Corinthians and said, God is the God of all comforts, which should be very important to you, noting the fact that that is, that is where your comfort is.

That’s the only place you can get peace, guys. There’s no other word, no other place that you can get peace. So God sets about to comfort the comfort the apostle Paul through a series of circumstances that we find in the founding of the church of Corinth. Psalms 27:14 says, Wait on the Lord, and that’s a good advice for us all right? Many of us want what we want now and sometimes can allow God to put us through the. The deep water, the preparation times of times of troubling impatience to wait and see what he’s going to do.

We’re, we’re an instantaneous society. And you, you guys exemplify that in a lot of what you look at in today’s world of change. You want to know why it hasn’t happened? When is it going to happen? And, you know, when am I going to see it type stuff. Well, it’s not our timetable. So the psalmist says, we need to wait on the Lord, and in doing so, we need to be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart. And so in response to that, Isaiah said, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

Remember, the Scripture says, be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit. Well, if you do not have the downtime with your relationship with Jesus Christ, which means that you’re waiting upon him, you’re listening to him, you’re being still, and know that he’s a God, your tank is not going to get refilled because you put yourself into the position of filtering that process. And it goes on and says, they shall mount up with wings of eagles. They shall walk and not be weary. They shall run and not faint. So our issue is that we need to learn to wait on what God is doing in our lives.

We’ll find ourselves encouraged in those times, and we will find ourselves with peace of comfort that God has given us in understanding that we’re to wait on him. Now, we saw that as Paul arrived at Corinth on his second discipleship journey, verse 1 says, having departed from Athens, he came to Corinth, that he was discouraged. In 1 Corinthians 2, 3, he wrote, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And so he arrived with some real problems in his heart and, and, and on his mind. Then when he faced the city of Corinth.

Look at you facing your challenge. This is Paul’s challenge. Look at you as you’re facing your challenge. That only increased his problem. And the very threat of the city itself, with its sinfulness, must have caused his trembling to increase. Okay, think about this. You’re not to love the things of this world. You’re not to associate with this world. But when you begin to look at this world and you contemplate what it’s doing, you relate that to you. And all of a sudden you. You become ill. Some of you get worse than others. Some of you get an anxiety attacks, some of you get frustrated.

And all of that is a condition of how responsive you are to which master controls you. And so he arrived with real problems. And then God moves hastily to comfort him and to encourage him. If you’re doing God’s work and if you’re moving in the direction of his will, he will. He will pave the path for you to achieve success. But that path is not going to be without trouble. And he does that for various reasons. One is for you to lean on him, which is what Scripture says to do, so that he can encourage you to know that he is in control.

And so we showed you that there are four ways that God encouraged him. We’ve been through the first two simply to remind you that first of all, God encouraged him with companionship. Then God encouraged him with some very new friends whom he was to meet. We find in verse two, he found a certain Jew by the name of Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, and his wife Priscilla. They came because Claudius commanded all Jews to depart from Rome. And he came into them because of that. They were of the same craft. They were all tip makers.

And in, in. In that relationship, he was able to not only stay with them, but he worked with them. For they were of the occupation of tent makers, or as we learned two weeks ago, that’s another term for leather workers. And so the apostle is introduced to these two people who become lifelong fast friends and co laborers in the Gospel. So God encouraged him immediately in his loneliness and in his time of discouragement and in this tremendous task that was at his feet, the lack of evangelizing the sinful city. He’s encouraged himself with two friends and co workers.

Then on top of all of that, he allowed him the ministry on the Sabbath, working the rest of the week. In other words, what Paul was doing was he was working six days a week and ministering on the Sabbath full time. And we find in this process that what God was doing was moving him into full time ministry. See, that’s the calling process. God calls you, he moves you to where he wants to be. He provides for you. Why is that important? Because these corporate churches hire pastors that are not called. They go seek them out in a job, for a job.

Yeah, they pray to God, making sure, whatever. But God, if, if you were to go into these corporate churches and you were to sit down face to face with a pastor and say, tell me you’re calling to this church, he’s going to tell you an interview cycle. That’s what he’s going to tell you. That’s not how this process works. If you feel like you’re being designated to a particular purpose, remember that the calling process is your called. You respond and there is a third party verification to move you. Not an interview cycle, not a job hiring process, not a vote from the members of the church.

That’s all man made. So verse four says that he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and he persuaded the Jews and the Greeks, but soon then God even encouraged him further with his friends, his two old friends, remember? And his new friends. His old friends were better because they came from Macedonia and they found Paul and they came bearing good news, bearing money so that he didn’t have to make tents anymore. That’s the process guys. That’s how it works. You go into an area, you work, you minister. When the ministry yields the amount of fruit, the people in that ministry support you.

And that’s how it works. That’s the reason why it’s critical, and I continue to say this, to be obedient to God’s word in giving. Because you can’t get, you can’t receive unless you give. So in this process of moving into full time ministry, he could fulfill his apostleship and he could spend all his time preaching. So Paul was encouraged by his friends. Certainly all of us can relate to that. Very often in times of discouragement, God sends along someone we love very deeply to minister us in comfort and encouragement. And I have found several individuals in this group that know what’s going on in me sometimes before I do and I get calls and I get text message and, and I listen and I read them and I’m saying, huh, how do you even know this? Okay, but that’s how our guide works.

Secondly, he was encouraged by his apostles, apostleship as well as his companionship. We found in verse 5 through 8 that when he was freed up by the offering of the Macedonian Christians brought to him by Silas. Then he began to preach continuously. And as he began to really give himself to preaching, things really began to pop. If he was encouraged by his friends, he was doubly encouraged by the converts. People started getting saved and his heart became thrilled. And we find then in verse 5 that he says Paul was then pressed with the Spirit. Pressed with the Spirit means he was authorized by.

By this Spirit to do these things. And what it should have said is this. Paul was then totally given over to the Word or to the ministry of the Word. He was freed up from doing anything else because of the offering of the saints. He then testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. He began immediately his apostle work among the Jews. That’s what he always did. He always went to the synagogues first dealt with the Jews and the, and the converted Gentiles to. To Judaism. And then he went into the streets to the Gentiles.

But they organized opposition. If you recall in verse six, they opposed themselves, blasphemed and shook his raiment. That is, he released himself from responsibility by that gesture. He said, your blood is on your heads. Remember there is a time to let go. He says, I’m clean. I have given you everything that I need to give you. I have set all the seeds I need to set. It’s not my work to harvest those seeds. And it’s your job to determine your choices. And in doing so, responsibility is your blood is on your head. Whatever ch. Choice you make, it’s on you.

I’ve delivered the Gospel, I’ve done my part. Now it’s up to you. You’re one. You’re the one that’s responsible. You can’t hold anybody third party wise responsible for, for your actions. And he basically said, I’ve had enough. And I’m told to. To stop with you and go to the Gentiles. And so then he begins his ministry among the Gentiles. And he departed from there, entered a certain man’s house named Titus Justice. And we found that probably is Gaius mentioned in 1st Corinthians 1:14, whom Paul baptized and mentioned also in Romans 16:23. So his name may be Gaius Titus Justice.

But anyway, he met this guy. He went into his house. And this man was one who worshiped God. He was a Gentile who attached to the synagogue, matter of fact his house, if you recall, was next door to the synagogue. Paul didn’t go very far. So he had his first convert apparently if this be Gaius now the second one was in verse eight and Crispus, which was the Chief ruler of the synagogue believed on the Lord in all his house. Now that must have been a fantastic story. I. I wonder often myself if I’ve gone over this.

Why doesn’t it say more about how the world Kripus, the chief synagogue got saved? It doesn’t. It must have been bad enough for the Jews to have to endure the salvation of the man who lived next door without having to see their own leader saved on top of that, his whole house. So here was the guy. He was the guy over this synagogue, over all these Jews. He got saved, and so is his house. And the Jews in the church had to bear that. So many of the Christ Corinthians hearing were believe, believing, and were baptized.

All these are all imperfect tense Greek verbs. Words mean stuff, which means they were continuously occurring with continuous action. It was an ongoing process, day in, day out. It was. It was a growth of linear proportions. It was done day by day. People were hearing. That’s how you get saved, right? Hearing is. That’s you got to hear the word to get saved. You just can’t walk out in the green grass and say, hey, you know, something out here makes. Makes significance to me. And I just now believe in God. That doesn’t. That’s not how it happens.

New Age, you have to hear the word in order to be saved. So people were believing day by day, and they were being baptized day by day. And so God began to fulfill his apostleship and people became believers. Many Corinthians believed. Now we hear about a person who was saved out of this and saved out of that. And, you know, we hear the testimony of some guys, say, I used to be this and I used to be that, and God transformed me. Think about yourselves. And, you know, we get excited about that. I get excited about your testimony.

And we read something in the Bible like many Corinthians believed, and we say, oh, you know, that doesn’t have anything. That doesn’t say anything exciting. Well, let me give you something exciting to put alongside of that. See, Paul wrote back to the Corinthians. Think of your ministry. Think of your mentorship. Think of your. Your ministering to the brethren. Think of what you should be doing in encouraging the discouraged. Paul wrote back to the Corinthians, and then we see this in First Corinthians 6, 9. And he says, know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived.

Neither fornicators, which is sex, sin, nor idolaters are adulterers. People who fool around outside of their marriage, nor affirmatives, which are people who are doing things in the opposite sex, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetousness, nor drunkards, nor revivals, nor extortioner shall inherit the kingdom of God. You say, man, what a list of lousy, corrupt people. Okay, guys, put yourself on that list, because that’s you. That’s your nature. Unless you have total control over your nature, you’re doing it. Then the next verse says, and such were some of you. Every one of those little names that are included in verses verse 8 of chapter 18, the word meaning there is a volume of testimony that the Spirit of God didn’t tell tell us.

But someday when we get to heaven, we can hear all about it. God was doing miracle after miracle after miracle in the salvation of souls. So what happened? Well, first, he must have been encouraged by his friends that he met, and secondly, by his converts. You can. You can just imagine the thrill of your heart when he started seeing God. Just pull these people out of the Corinthian society one at a time. Think about you. Think about how encouraged you are to see somebody that’s been on your heart actually begin to talk to you about their spiritual experience.

What a fantastic thing. And thirdly, this is the point of which we stopped two weeks ago. He was encouraged not only by the companionship and apostleship, but by fellowship. He was encouraged by his friends, his converts, and by his God. Fellowship. Not fellowship of people in this world, but fellowship in your relationship with Jesus Christ, your process of sanctification, your ongoing building of your relationship with Jesus Christ. David said this in 1st Samuel 30. David was distressed. David was discouraged. And it says he comforted himself in his God. Now, if my friends are encouraging and converts are encouraging, God is more encouraging in his own personal presence in my life.

And that’s really what happens in verses 9 through 11 of chapter 18. Now you can imagine then when Titus justice got saved, as the Bible says, and there have been a guy saved before him. There may have been others say, we’ve not told that, but we know. We don’t know for sure, but it’s possible that others were saved, maybe even Stephanus and his house. And when Titus justice or Gaius Titus justice was saved, you can only imagine the irritation of the Jews. When you set yourself apart from this world, this world is going to get irritated.

They’re going to come after you. They’re going to do things to move you in their direction. Do not associate with this world. You’re to stay focused on that which is above and not things below. Because you see he was attached to the synagogue and as it indicated he worshiped God in verse seven. Then on top of that when Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue was saved, that must have been really in infuriating to them as well. So then in addition many were believing and becoming saved. And by this time they were tremendously anti agnostic toward the apostle.

They were going after that who was making changes in their network, whom they had already had been antagonistic toward before anything had happened back in verse six. Now to give you a little idea about this, Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Thessalonians at the same time. And it was right at this time that he wrote the letter to the to Thessalonica. And he wrote in 1st Thessalonians 2, 15 and 16, the Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets. There were people who were exonerated the Jews from killing of the Lord Jesus Christ, but Paul did not.

That does not mean that they are totally guilty, but they did do it. They killed the Lord Jesus. They were in on it conspiracy wise and their own prophets and have persecuted us and they please not God and are contrary to all men. He says the same ones who killed Jesus Christ and their own prophets are persecuting us. That’s what he was saying in verse 16. They are forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved. They were trying to squelch free speech. Where does that come from? Today you can’t stand on the corner and pray for unborn babies at a planned parenthood.

You can’t speak out about your faith or what you get put in jail, you get persecuted. You don’t think that what has gone on at this ancient time is not apparent today. And you need to take and look at Paul, at what Paul went through with the assistance of the Holy Spirit so that you may achieve success. So apparently after this happened and some Gentiles started getting saved, the Jews got up tight and the persecution started and they were trying to stop Paul from preaching and it was really intense. Over in second Thessalonians he wrote them another letter and he told them essentially a similar thing.

2nd Thessalonians 3:1 he says, finally brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course. He’s talking about his speech. May we be free to speak about the word. In other words, there was the bottling up threat that there was going to be a stoppage of their ministry. In verse 2. That they might be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, your government. Now he was really being threatened at that time. The gospel was about to come to a grinding halt. Oh, think about what they think about your, this world. Think about what’s going on.

Unreasonable and wicked men who were threatening and persecuting. So it was a tough go for Paul at that point. Even after his friends and his converts, he needed super encouragement. So God himself comes. That’s what happens in you if you wait on the Lord. And I just love verse nine. Look at it. The then spoke the Lord to Paul. Oh, that’s good. If you listen, he speaks to you. It’s like the personal touch. If you’re paying attention. God is personally involved in your life and you got, you guys have got to come to the realization that is an exciting thing.

You got the almighty God coming into you and personally touching you because remember all three of the, the, the deity of God, the Godhead lives inside of you when you’re saved. So many times when we serve Jesus Christ, we get the idea that we’re merely, merely a piece of an organization. Why? Because that is how you’re programmed in the corporate church. They don’t teach you you need to be sanctified. It’s not the relationship with the corporate church that grows you in the relationship to Jesus Christ. It’s your sanctification. We think we’re just a drop in a bucket.

We’re just one little piece of what God’s doing and he’s really not interested in us at all. He’s sort of a great big controller of a great big machine and he just pushes all of the buttons and you may be a little bearing somewhere and God never touches that. God is personal. He’s actively involved in the life of every servant. And then the Lord spoke to Paul. He did so in the night in the vision. And we told you last time that Paul had three vis these visions from God. Special times when he came to special crisis and didn’t know which way to go.

Self assessment. You’ve come now to a crossroads. You don’t know whether to go right, left, up or down. You are at a place that you can’t figure it out. Well, turn it over to God. Be still. Wait, listen. But be encouraged. Be a good courage, okay? Be faithful, be obedient. And here he was at a time of discouragement. A tremendous pressure. Think of, think you’re at your crossroad event. Tremendous pressure. Tremendous persecution. Now it’s amazing to think about what God tells us. God help us to have the same kind of boldness that Paul had, that’s what we need to have.

And as you go to the book of Acts, you don’t very often see Paul running out of that, but here you do. Paul right here was at a point of stopping his preaching. It was that difficult. How many of you get to the point that you just want to give up? And that’s when he was saying to the Thessalonians, pray for us, that the Gospel might have free course. He was at the point of quitting. You say, maybe. Well, how do you know that? Well, because the Lord came to him and said, be not afraid, verse nine, but speak and hold not your peace.

Which implies that Paul was really thinking about stopping his preaching. You say, well, for him to do that, it must have been really intense. Well, I’m telling you, it was. Just think about every, every place he had gone. He’s now in his second discipleship journey and the same process hasn’t stopped since his first trip. He goes, he preaches, he gets persecuted, gets run out of town. No roots, self assessment. The Lord says, don’t stop, keep preaching, don’t lose your peace. Now I’d love to see Paul’s reaction to that. Paul’s reaction could have been, well, I mean, don’t just leave me there.

Why should I keep doing it? For what reason? Oh, self assessment. These are all things you think about. Why do I keep doing this? Why should I keep doing this? For what reason should I keep doing it? There’s, there’s, I mean, what guarantees do I have then I’m going to be successful? And the lord gives him three, and they’re in verse 10. There are three reasons. And I want you to get these. I want you to apply them to your self assessment process. And these three same three promises that he gives Paul are the same promises you can apply in your life.

Number one, keep preaching, Paul, for I am with thee. What a powerful statement that is in the Greek. It’s an emphatic I, myself and with thee. The emphasis on is on God’s very presence. His very presence is the promise of power. Now you know, I don’t know how to get that message across because you know why? I don’t know how to even get it across to myself. Sometimes I’m like you, I get to the area and I have to battle with myself in order to go back and understand what all that means. But I don’t think any of us really understand what that means.

I think it is placed on a shelf like mythology. We’re told, but because we don’t understand and we can’t apply it to our life, we just disregard it. See, I don’t think any of us can fathom the power of God. Maybe if you can understand the fact that once there was nothing and in the next instance there was everything, you maybe can understand that power. That a God who could speak everything into existence must have some kind of power. Now we’re doing a study on on creation itself again and we’re getting into the bowels of creation in a very very detailed way because we have self study that actually brings it all together from the discussion points that are posted on substack and we’re talking about things like reality.

What is the biblical understanding of the biblical universe? Do you think you live in a physical world that is outside of creation itself? Why? Because you don’t understand creation. Now I often think God generating things through space at the an unbelievable speeds that he does. And think of the kind of fuel that it must take to drive things at that rate. Power. God has unbelievable power. And the Bible says, oh, here’s where the engines start. Remember Ephesians 3:20, because we are filled with all of the fullness of God, we can do what we can’t even dream about.

It actually simply says you can do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask of what or think of what according to the power that works where inside of you. I say that and I want to urge you in your self assessment to believe it. And yet I’m not even sure myself that I truly understand its total meaning. Why? Because I do not think God has completely revealed Himself to me. I’m learning things every day. I think I’m playing around in a sandbox as a child. And if you’ve ever playing around tilly winks with the power of God, you haven’t even begun to see what God can do.

But that’s essentially what God is saying to Paul. Paul, I guide myself. Nobody else am with you. I am in you. What’s implied by that? I myself is all that he is. What do you have to fear if I myself am with you? Nothing. See, I don’t know how you can relate all of this to your life, but sometimes when I think about God, I think that no matter who approaches me, I’m invincible. Because he stands beside me and he carries with him not the authority of a city or the authority of a people, but the authority that is his own.

The authority of the universe. His strength, his power is all amassed on my behalf. All of the power that God gives me, he gives you, dude. It’s not like I have to break it off in equal pieces. So he says, paul, don’t stop preaching. I myself am with you. The people who are out there trying to threaten you might as well take a broom and try to sweep away the beach. I’m quite sure that at that point God had taken Paul and moved his mind to the understanding that a certain, it was at a certain kind of invincibility.

How could you not? I was reading this week in the Book of Judges. Now this is a great book because as we move past the creation itself and into the nation of Israel, after the nation of Israel is the creation of the state of Israel. So there’s, as you can see, creation has many elements to it which we’re going to get all the way through, is going to be a long process. But I’m reading in Judges just to read how God works. And you read through that thing and you read about that, oh, Atheniel, the first judge in chapter three, verse 10, and how God uses him in a great victory over the a certain king.

Then you go further and read about Ehud. Now Ehud is the one that God gave a dagger to, to kill Eglon, the king of the Moabites. And guys, you think God is just a loving God. I want you to think he’s a God of judgment, accountability, he can take you out. And he gets this, eh, gets this dagger and he sticks it in it into eggline. And he’s such a fat man that his fat closes around the guy’s hand. If you recall the stats, the story, those who you might, you know it. Anyway, it’s a long story, but it’s very interesting and you need to read it sometime.

It’s in the third chapter of Judges. And then you find, you go a little further and Shamgar takes an ox gourd and kills those hundreds of people with just an ox gourd. Now an ox gord, you know what an ox, it’s just a long stick with a pointed thing on the end that he, he just prods along the goats to get the oxes to get them to move. And you wonder what do these people get the strength and the ability and the power to do it? Oh, think self assessment, guys. And then you read about Deborah and Barack and the defeat of Cicero and the unbelievable account of his hand nailed to the ground and the terrible defeat, which actually happened, you know, they just put a spike through his head and ping, you know, and nailed him right Down.

Oh, then you continue on. Then you read about Gideon, how Gideon narrowed down his army down to just a few men and they wiped out the enemy. And then you come to one man by the name of Samson. He kills 30, turns around and kills a thousand, turns around and kills 3000 at the end of his life. And you say, what in the world? How could those men do that? How could they ever have that amount of power? You know what the key point to the whole Book of Judges is? There’s a statement in the Book of Judges, chapter 2, verse 18 that says what it says, and the Lord was with the Judges.

That’s the key. He’s with you. That’s the whole key to the book. It’s the story about how God is with man and what he accomplishes through man as deter as done in the Old Testament. But all of it applies to today. The Lord is with them. The Lord is with you, and you have the same power. That’s exactly what he’s saying to Paul. You have the promise of power. Okay, that is not something you ask for. That’s a declaration. He has promised you power through your salvation, through your obedience. That something you have. I think now he’s saying that to us.

See, we need to think about that before we panic and run from our opportunities. Recognize who is with us. See, Jesus says, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Oh, a lot of people says, even into the end of the earth. Well, okay, but remember, he comes to get his church at the end of the age and he turns this world over to Satan and then he comes back and battles Satan and then we have a thousand year millennial reign. And then he turns Satan back over before the new heaven and new earth come to be.

I mean, you gotta get a sense of your power. And the second thing he has to say is not only power, but purse, persuasion, perseverance. No man shall set on thee to hurt thee. Do not fear. The positive is I’m with you. The negative is nobody’s going to hurt you. See, we need to understand this tremendous principle of God’s power in verses 17 and 18, even going back, maybe even to support 16. You know, Paul came to the end of his life. God says to him there in Corinth, don’t you worry, nobody’s going to hurt you.

Well, you got to imagine the confidence that that statement gave him. Look at verse 17 of 2nd Timothy 4. He says, my first defense, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. Mean. Now, at His. He means his first Roman imprisonment. At his second Roman imprisonment, Demas forsook him. Remember if you’ve read Romans, But. One Sephorus. And Luke stayed with him. But at his first Roman imprisonment, everybody left. He was alone. Everybody bailed on Paul and he was completely alone. He says, all men forsook me. But he says, I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.

He says, that’s okay, God, I get it. I don’t hold that against them. I forgive them. Well, Paul, you may say you were alone there. You needed some help, you needed some support. How could you be so forgiving? Well, Paul says this in verse 17. He says, it was nice to have them notwithstanding the Lord what stood with me. I like that. Why? Because the Lord strengthened Paul that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and preserve me unto unto his heavenly kingdom.

Now that’s confidence. That’s confidence for you. Because as Paul, so are you. So the Lord comes to him in Corinth and says, I will protect you. No one will hurt you. At the end of his life, he says, you know what? No one’s hurt me. God keeps his promise. I don’t know what that lion was. Maybe that’s the lion that the Bible talks about. Satan, who goes about as a roaring lion, toothless, but he roars a lot. Maybe that’s the lion he was delivered out of. Maybe it’s the lion of persecution. Maybe it’s a lion of death.

But he says, lord stood with me. That is your statement, by the way, and it should be a tremendous statement of application to your life. You know, when you understand the power of God and the per preservation of God amassed in your behalf, you have nothing to fear. Absolutely nothing to fear. Oh, fear not. 365 times in the Bible. One for each day, by the way. Fear not. There is no Christian in the world who has any right to fear because the power of God is amassed in your behalf and his preservation is your promise. And Paul says, not one thing going to happen to me.

He’ll deliver me. From every evil work he’ll preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. Luke tells us that Paul had a tremendous sense of security. In Luke 21, he talks about characteristics of persecution in the last days. And he says, but don’t worry, because not a hair on your head will perish. Now, can’t always take that literally. Some of the hairs of all of our heads may be perishing in the process of life. I know mine turns gray and sometimes it gets thinner. But what he’s saying is some of you are perishing disastrously. But what he is essentially saying is that in terms of enemies and attacks against you, not the smallest infringement on your life can take place outside the plan of God.

Remember, this body is not God’s, this body is Lucifer’s. Your spirit is God. So what a promise. Don’t stop. Power is there inside of you. And my perseveration is also there. Now the third thing, the third reason not to stop is in verse 10, Christ tells Paul, I have many people in the city. I’ve chosen many people. Remember Ephesians, you’re predestined, you’re already chosen. And the third reason to keep preaching is really potent. He says, because I promise you results. I want you to say that the that if I were asked, all of you give you a three question quiz.

And I said, do you believe that you have the power of God within you? You’ll probably say yes, because you know that theologically and you probably have experienced some of it. And if I said do you believe in preservation, perseveration and you probably have experienced some of that as well. Do you believe that God can keep you and that he’s faithful to keep that which is committed on him? You’d probably say yes. But if I said do you believe that God absolutely is producing fruit in your life? What I think some most of you will do is say what you know.

I don’t know. See, sometimes I think we underestimate God and I think we don’t think that God is really producing fruit. We’re in a rut. We don’t see. Why do we not see is because we don’t listen. Why do we don’t listen? Because we’re not obedient. Why are we not obedient is because we have a very small relationship or no relationship with God himself. I think some of us run a little sort of on the promise end of things. I’ve had Christians actually tell me nothing’s happening in my life. There may be some truth in the admission, but I want you to know something.

I believe that God promises to every Christian alive fruit in their life, operative word, alive, not dead. That’s not physical dead, that’s spiritual debt. I believe that absolutely. Notice what he says. I have many people in this city. In other words, there are some elect have chosen before the foundation of the world who are waiting to Hear the gospel so they can believe, right? The the calling of salvation. You’re called to respond. Somebody’s going to come read you the word and you’re going to get saved. That’s the process. It’s not going out and sitting on the dirt in the grass and say, oh, I feel the energy.

I’m elevated. I’m now saved. Well, that is foolish. Salvation comes about an eternity passed by election, in time, by the response of faith. But God says, I have chosen them. Their names are in the book of life. They need to hear the gospel so they can respond to it. Now, now you’ll notice it didn’t say Paul then went around and found all the ones with the E stamped on them. And just give them the gospel. No, he just preached the gospel to everybody and let God worry who was elect. Your job is not to change anybody.

Your job is to plant a seed and you can’t plant that seed unless you have changed because you’re going to plant the seed of you. His responsibility wasn’t to pick and choose. His responsibility was to deliver the gospel to everybody and God would take care of that. Now that’s the divine side of salvation. The Bible teaches that God chooses people to salvation. Some people get uptight about the doctrine of election and they panic because they think that makes everything unfair panic. If you want better that you should stop your panic and find out how you can deal with it spiritually because it’s there, it’s not going to go away and you can’t change it.

Well, to be honest with you and sort of transparent, I panicked a lot about that. I didn’t understand that election at all. I just sort of of a theological quandary about it. Well, what I finally did was I gave in and says I can’t change it. It’s a statement of from God and it must be there and I’m just going to believe it. And you know what happened when I did that? The most peaceful thing in the world occurred. So I tell you, just believe it. I don’t understand it all. Not sure I’ll ever understand it until I get to heaven and it’s actually made known to us.

But I just believe it. In second Timothy 1:9, just to give you an illustration, you have to deal with scriptures, for example, God who had saved us and called us with that holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. You were called, you were saved because he wanted to do it and graciously did it. See, you don’t have anything to do with it. Think about that. I said you own nothing. You control nothing. You need to spiritually allow the Holy Spirit to take charge of your life. Because why that is where you’re not going to miss anything.

You might say, oh, when was all that done which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world even began? You know, when salvation was given to you. That doesn’t mean you were saved, but it was given to you. Read. The redemption process was given to you before the world even began. Remember I God had to do this. He had to do this entire creation and ending in the heaven before he did one physical piece of matter in order to secure his success. Everything about this life, everything about this universe has already been pre done. Oh, you get free will.

But with God’s for knowledge of the end from the beginning, knowing the end from the beginning, he knows the decisions you’re going to make. There are other verses as well. Second Timothy 2:10. Therefore, Paul says in this verse, I have to go through a lot of stuff. I get kicked around a lot, guys. I endure all things for the elect’s sake. I’m the ones getting persecuted for bringing the elect the gospel. What a statement. A statement of for the elect’s state sake. And you might ask what is, what do you mean by that? That they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

In other words, that they may be able to respond to the truth that God has granted them before the foundation of the world began. Oh my gosh. Self assessment. Do you know where your truth comes from? It doesn’t come from the world and it doesn’t come from mainstream media and it doesn’t come from scientists. It comes from God himself. Nothing can be invented in this world. There’s nothing new underneath the heavens. Nothing can be invented. It’s godly inspired and ordained at the right time to be implemented in the right way. So Paul’s preaching for the elect’s sake.

That’s what it says. You mean God just sits up there and says, I chose you and I chose you because I went to the Bible. It says God chose choses. I’m sorry, chooses before the foundation of the world and writes a name in the book? You might continue to say, but that’s not fair? Well, no, you can’t say that. You can’t say it’s not fair. Why? Because if you say it, you’re judging God. That’s a sin. Ask yourself this question in your status review of yourself. Are you the standard of what’s fair or is he Is your self indulgence and your self awareness and whatever you think of yourself fair? Say this is where the rubber meet meets the road, because it’s your ignorance that limits your understanding.

Or maybe you can say this, or is he ignorant and doesn’t understand what you know? Oh, watch this. Allow yourself to be ignorant because it’s bliss. You finally give up. See, in fact, in Romans Paul’s argument is this. A guy comes home and says, it’s not fair, it’s not fair. I don’t understand that. God, how can you do that? Oh, think. Self assessment and an impact to not only to your life, but to those around you. And then if you’re choosing people to be saved before the world begin, how can you make me responsible? Well, in verse 20, Paul says this.

Nay, but old men, who art thou that replies against God? You know what his answer is to the guy who argues? Shut up. Who are you to question me? Go back to Job. Shall the thing form say to him that formed it, why do you make me thus? Why? The potter has the power of the clay, The pot doesn’t jump off and say, I don’t like the way you’ve made me. Make me different. You can’t argue with God. In verse 15 it says, God says, I’ll have mercy on whom I’ll have mercy on compassion on whom I’ll have compassion for.

You cannot avoid scripturally the doctrine of sovereign election. God has providence over you. Why? Because he’s your creator. It’s all over the Bible. He’s called us with a holy calling to salvation before the world began. Not just to Christian likeness. Oh, that’s key. Likeness. You act like a Christian, not just to maturity, but to salvation. Well, you might say, does that mean if you’re not chosen, you’re going to go to hell? You mean to say that if I’m not elect, I can’t come to Jesus? No, that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible teaches human responsibility.

Go back to verse 6. Why did Paul say to the Jews, your blood is upon what your own heads. You are responsible for your own decisions. The Bible teaches both of these things. You let them exist. As we said before, in a paradox, you maybe don’t understand it, but you got to believe it. And people always say, well yeah, if you believe in that doctrine, then you can just say and do whatever you want. Have you ever heard of that one? Oh, I’m a Christian, I’ve been saved. Now I can do whatever. I can live my life however I want to.

And I’m. Because I’m saved. Well, I get that all the time in talking with Christians. See, the Bible doesn’t allow that. 2nd Thessalonians 2:13. We are bound to give thanks always to God for your brother and beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Oh, election is not just to Christ’s likeness. It’s not just to maturity. It’s to your own salvation. Your ticket home, You may say, but then you can live any way you want. No, go to Colossians. It’s a very important passage. It’s a good answer to give people who are always saying that people who believe in election and security of the believer have license to do what you want to do.

Colossians 3:12. Put on therefore as the elective guide, tender mercy, kindness, humbleness, meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If you have a quarrel, as Christ forgave you above all things, put on love the bond of perfectness. Let the peace of God rule your hearts. Verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Verse 17. Whatever you do in the Word, indeed do all of it in the name of the Lord. Verse 18. Wives, submit to your husbands. 19. Husbands, love your wives. Children obey your parents. Fathers provoke not your children. Servants obey your masters.

Verse 22. Whatever you do heartily as under the Lord, give it unto your servant. Ask yourself this question. Do you see that as a license to live your life however you want? See, if you’re. If you are part of the elect, and if you have gone through salvation and when you would go through Sal, that’s a requirement of obedience of you. It’s what’s expected of you. There is no license at all. So Paul is encouraged with this promise of result. I believe in sovereign election. As I said it two weeks ago, I believe the burdens of God part because God also says, whosoever will, will let him come.

And I think that’s basic. Anybody who desires to come can come. Now, let’s move on. I’m going to digress just a moment and go back to verse 8 of verse 10 of chapter 18 and notice what it says. I have many people in the city now, I believe that we can claim this promise in our lives that God is going to grant us fruit. I have to believe this because that’s what Scripture says. I believe that if you’re a faithful Christian witness, somebody’s going to get saved as a result of your witness. Now, it may be that you water, maybe that you plant, but it’s going to happen.

Let me show you why. John 15:16. Pull your mind into captivity to it. Jesus said in John 15:16, yet ye have been not, ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Now watch this. And ordained you that you should go and bring forth what fruit? It is ordained of a Christian that he brings forth fruit. That’s just basic understanding of a Christian life. I don’t think that any Christian needs to fear that in his life there is no fruit. Well, there is no fruitfulness. But look at this again. I have ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.

If you are a faithful Christian, obedient Christian, you will yield fruit. Why do you need to yield fruit? Because that plugs the balance in your bank account. In heaven you are the currency. The value recurrence is what you set upon yourself. Bear fruit or not. That which you have in heaven is what you have on earth. Think about what scriptures are telling you about your physical life. Now I want to go back a little further. I want to go to chapter 15 to the first two verses. It says, I am the true vine. My Father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. Now if there is somebody who is not bearing fruit, he’s removed. Enough’s enough. Turn you over to your own reprobate mind because you’re, you’re battling against God himself. Now people have been confused about this passage and they say, well, if that it’s a Christian. No, I don’t believe that’s a Christian Christian. I believe that’s a non Christian who attaches externally to Christ. How do you say that? Well, go to John 13. Jesus had been talking with his disciples. The event has just occurred in the elimination of Judas.

Judas has just left and Judas is in the mind of Jesus. He sits there and the contrast is there. Judas is out betraying him and Jesus is talking to the remaining 11. Jesus is seeing in his mind two kinds of branches. Judas is one branch and then he sees the true branch. Now he says in the first two verses that there are two kinds of branches. There is a true branch and there is a Judas branch. The juice branch is characterized by what? No fruit. Foreign. Let’s go on. Verse 6. If a man abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and then gathered and cast into the fire.

And they’re burnt. Now I believe that this is a picture of judgment and a picture of hell. It’s not to be a Picture of a Christian because no Christian could be cast into hell. So it’s picture of the Judas branch. But notice the contrast. Go back Further in verse 4. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more can we accept ye abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branch. He that abides in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.

If you abide and are obedient in Christ in your spiritual life, the Spirit, the spiritual side of you, the Holy Spirit will take charge of your life and bring you much fruit. What’s fruit? It’s every blessing underneath the heavens that was given to you in Ephesians 1:3. Now we all have two branches. We have the tree of knowledge and the tree of life that live inside of us. The tree of knowledge of good and evil is your body. The tree, the the tree of life is the Holy Spirit and the in the Godhead that lives inside of your heart.

So you have two branches, one has no fruit and one has fruit. The one with no fruit is burned. Your body ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The one with fruit is purged to bear more fruit. Now the point is simply this. The no fruit is the Jew’s branch externally attached to Christianity. On the surface attached to Christianity, outwardly attached to Christianity, but not real and consequently doesn’t abide. What is the characteristics of a true Christian? He continues, continues, continues. He abides. If you continue my word, you are my disciple for real. This one does not abide that the one that abides bears fruit.

So we have to believe the promise of every Christian is that we’re going to bear fruit. I do not think based upon script. What scripture tells us that you can be a Christian and not bear fruit. You cannot be a Christian and bear and not bear fruit. In other words, say it this way. I don’t think there can be a Christian without any fruit. I don’t think that the branch that doesn’t bear fruit can be a Christian at all. Because I don’t think you can have a Christian that doesn’t bear fruit. Might ask me what makes you so convinced of that.

Several things. Go to Ephesians 2:10. We are his work workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has both ordained that we should walk in them. We are saved in his good works. For example, James says your faith without works is if you don’t have fruit, you’re not even saved. Self assessment. There are many other scriptures that support that. See, I believe the promise of chapter 1516 is for every Christian. If you want further detail on it, then you can just go to the self study that we have tied to this teaching and read the book of John, John 15:16.

He’s saying, if you’re truly saved, you will bear fruit and your fruit will remain. I really believe that God has promised Christians fruit. Well, you might ask what does that fruit consist of? Well, it consists of many things. It consists of Graces, Galatians 5. The fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, and all the way down, that’s fruit. How about this? Hebrews 13:15. The fruit through lips, praise. How about the fruit of giving? Philippians 4:17. He talks about the fruit of the Philippians bore when they gave him an offering. First Corinthians 14:14. Fruit identification.

The fruit of good works, Colossians 1:10 and then the fruit or other converts. Colossian. First Corinthians 16:15. Paul talks about the first fruits of acacia, the first people saved. So fruit is in many things. But all Christians can claim the promise that God is with me. No man shall hurt you. And God is going to cause us to bear fruit. Don’t be discouraged. There may be times when you appear to have barrenness in your life. Come to that crossroads. Just wait on the Lord, because fruit is coming. So many times in our Christian life. We go through winter as we gain the strength and the direction for the purpose, full times of fruit bearing that await us.

God talks about seasons, and seasons are applied to all of life. You have many seasons in your life. Yes, even seasons of planting fruit. You have seasons of harvesting fruit, you have seasons of preparing for fruit and many, many more. Don’t underestimate God. Don’t limit God and don’t figure that it is that it isn’t happening now. It isn’t going to happen. Let God do it in his own time. See, you have the promise of power. You have the promise of preservation. You have the promise of fruit. Paul was so encouraged by this. His heart was just blessed.

Go back to chapter 18 and look what he did. Chapter 18, verse 11. After God had given him this threefold reason to keep preaching, he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. He just had his strength renewed. He says, here I go, God. And he went a year and a half from the autumn of 50 to the spring of 52. In that first century the apostle continued to minister in that city. People begin, continue to be saved and built in the faith and you notice what he did in his time there.

Teaching the word of God. That’s his calling. That’s your calling. So he was encouraged by his fellowship with God. God strengthened him. Now lastly, we’ve looked at companionship, we’ve looked at apostleship, we’ve looked at fellowship. Now we’re going to look briefly at hardship. How can you, Jen, say that you can be encouraged by hardship? Well, hardship you got to put in context by understanding your enemy. He was encouraged by his friends, he was encouraged by his converts, by his God and his enemies. The art of war. How can you be encouraged by your enemies? Well, you did that in a lot of ways.

I’m just going to give you three, for time’s sake. You’re encouraged by who your enemies are. You know, that will tell you a lot about a man, who his enemies are. If you’ve got very bad, sinful, evil enemies, that’s good, you’re doing something right, you’re over the target. Secondly, you can be encouraged not only by who your enemies are, but by how ineffective they are with you. That’s the test. Have you ever noticed how your enemies work so hard and don’t seem to get anywhere? Now the third thing let me give you. You can be encouraged not only by who they are, how ineffective they are, but you can be encouraged by seeing what God does to them.

Not you, God. Watch what happens to Paul, verse 12. This is very interesting. And when Gallio was the deputy of Acha. And Gallio, incidentally was an interesting guy. He was the elder brother of a famous philosopher by the name of Seneca. Seneca was the philosopher of the Roman Empire. He lived in Spain, but his influence was all over the place. And we have much information about Seneca. Gallio was his elder brother. And Gallio, incidentally Seneca was the tutor of Nero and also the uncle of one of the world’s most famous poets, Lukan, the Roman poet. It’s a famous family and Gallio was a really important fellow.

He was the deputy of the pro council of Achaea, which is a district, it was like a governor under the Roman Empire. He’s a very important man. And Seneca said of Gallio that he was famous for kindness. In fact, Seneca said no man as sweet to the one to Gallio is to everybody. So he was very, very kind man by reputation. Now it’s interesting that he’s called the deputy of Kea, the pro council of Achaia, because Luke was historically right on the notes. We have evidence to indicate that at this time. This is exactly who was and exactly the right title that he had.

And those titles changed historically. So this is another vindication of the accuracy of the scripture. Well, Galileo was the deputy of Achaia. The Jews made an attack with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat. Now, the way this proconsul deal operated was Corinth was apparently a center for the pro council’s operation, although he may have moved to other areas. But it happened to be in corant when Paul was there, whether or not permanently or temporary, the Bible doesn’t tell us. And he set up his movable judgment seat in Agora or the marketplace, and people would come and bring their grievances, whatever there was to this thing, and he would sit in judgment, and he had his lictors or his policemen around to bring about the execution of penalties, whatever they might have been.

Now, the Jews realized this. If we just take Paul’s case to the civic magistrates, to the city fathers, all we’re going to get is city judgment. And the only thing it’ll do is hinder his work in this city. We want to get him stopped everywhere. So they said, let’s take Paul’s case to the Roman pro council hierarchy of our, our legal system courts. Now, any verdict by a Roman pro council became like the verdict, like any given judge in our courts. It became precedent. And what the pro council determined in one case could then become precedent for all other cases.

And so if Paul could be adjudged as a criminal and his preaching stopped in Achaea, the other Roman pro councils would take the lead from Gallio and do the same. Oh, see how our court system worked today? No different than them in the past. The history of Christianity wouldn’t taken a drastic turn, would have taken a drastic turn for the next 10 to 12 years had that been the case. So they had a little plot, they had a little conspiracy on the side, and they marched up to his judgment seat in Agora with it, with their case.

And here is their chart, verse 13. This man, or this fellow, whatever you may want to put in there, this one persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the lie. What lie buzzes A lie. Now I’ve heard a lot of argument, generalities, but that takes the cake. By the way, what kind of an accusation is that? This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law. What law? Obviously they were talking about the Roman law because they were trying to get this Roman to convict Paul of a crime. Christianity officially was viewed as a sect of Judaism.

The Roman side is a sect of Judaism. It came under what the Romans called religio lucita that had a category called permitted religions, although they be believed in emperor worship. And you know all about that. We talked about Caesar’s worship and so forth and so on. They had category of permitted religions, corporate churches. Judaism was one of those permitted religions. Christianity was seen as a sect of Judaism. And what these Jews were trying to do was to get Gallio to acknowledge that Paul’s brand of religion was not religio lita, but religio illicit. That which should be excluded because it was not Judaism.

And they wanted to convict him. Well, Gallio was no dumbbell. He was pretty cool guy. And I’m sure he had heard Paul’s preaching. And so he knew about enough of the Jewish religion to know that the Jews had this and that and the other kind of standard. And they believed in a Messiah and they were looking for the Messiah. And all that Paul was announcing was that Jesus is that Messiah. Therefore, Gallio could not see that Paul’s brand of Christianity was in fact just a form of Judaism in his own mind. Maybe they had a little different view on just who this Messiah was.

It certainly was no crying. And that’s exactly how he responds. When you unders. When you look at this history in detail and see the inner workings of what was going on, not just reading it on the surface, but getting into the bowels of the contextual words that are used, it’s exciting to see how God uses Gallio to accomplish his purpose. You see, God does that. He either uses you willingly or unwillingly, wittingly or unwittingly, but he uses you. If you read Isaiah 44 and 45 and you. And you read about Cyrus, the pagan king who God kept calling my servant cyrus in verse 14, when Paul was now about to open his mouth, here comes Paul, you know, all ready to give his defense.

And what was he going to say? I don’t know, but I can sure give you a good guess. If you read chapters 24 and 26 of Acts, you’ll hear his defense before Felix and Agrippa. And if you read those defenses, you’ll get a good idea of what he would have said here. You probably would gone on about the fact that the gospel he preached was a true ancestral faith of Israel, the fulfillment of the promise of God, of Israel, the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob, and you know all about that and tied it all together in a way that the.

The Gallio and the Jewish members of the court could understand. Paul was about to open his mouth. I want you to listen to this. Paul was about to open his mouth and Gallio spoke out and said to the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong. Now the word wrong in the Greek means legal wrong. Gallio was sharp. He was going to deal with the. With the law. He says, if this was an issue of legal wrong, if the man had actually done a crime, if it was a breach of the law or wicked valiancy, in other words, something that was perhaps was outside the frame of the law specifically, but was.

Was obviously not. He says, if this was the case of a crime against the law of or outright wickedness, o reason, would that I should bear with you. In other words, if it was. If it was actually a condition of illegality, a criminal act, I would side with you. He’s saying, if this is the case, then I would act in this case. I mean, if you actually had a case here, I would do something about. Wouldn’t be unreasonable for me to enter an issue of crime or of wicked process. But look at what verse 15 says.

But if it’s a question of words and names, self assessment, in other words, he says, this is semantics. You all talk about your same religion. You all talk about Abraham and Isaac and all of this. You all talk about Messiah. And now you’ve got one guy that thinks this is the Messiah and you don’t. That’s a theological problem. You deal with it. No sense of me getting involved. He says, if it’s a question of words and names, this is just talk. This is an action. There’s no crime here. This is semantics. He’s saying, it’s of your law.

Look ye to it. I’ll be no judge of such matters. If he can judge against Paul, as I said, Christianity’s history would have been drastically changed for 10 to 12 years because it would have become the standard judgment against Christianity. Paul wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere. But he didn’t. He prevented it. Later on, God had him bring different verdicts. And finally Paul lost his life. But that was in God’s plan at a different time, a different place. Now, here in this scripture, Gallio says, nothing doing. You don’t even have an issue. Verse 16, he drove them from the judgment seat.

Now what does this indicate to us? That IND that should indicate that they didn’t quit. When he said, forget it, I’m not going to get involved, they probably really hung around and persisted. Finally he called his lectors and said, get them out of here. And he drove them out of There those lectures had little things that they used, by the way, wax. And you go away, chase them out, clear the court, you said in effect. And you can imagine then Paul hadn’t even opened his mouth. He was just standing there watching all this going on. You can get encouraged by who your enemies are, by who.

You can get encouraged by how ineffective they are. They are totally ineffective. They could not stop him. That’s you. And there’s the third way of being courage. And that’s what God does with your enemies. Watch verse 17. Then all the Greeks, and incidentally in the original manuscript, the best manuscripts say then they all. It leaves out the word Greeks. It says, then they all took so sos the chief ruler of the synagogue and beat him before the judgment seat in Gallo cared for none of these things. Now who are those all that beat them? Well, that’s interesting to think about.

Self assessment, your environment. Some say it was policemen, the lectors of verse 16, that be the head of the synagogue because he kept persisting in the case. Others say no, it was the Jews. They were so mad at him, even though he was the chief ruler of the synagogue, that they were so mad at him that he blew the case that his own Jews beat him up. Other scholars say no because of the rough stuff that was going on and the hassle and the chasing and the driving them out. The Jews already being hated. The people who were anti Semitic.

That is a term that is not real. The crowd who didn’t like the Jews anyway took the opportunity and the Greeks beat up the head of the synagogue. Well, whoever did it, the head of the synagogue got beat up. We really don’t know who beat him up, but somebody really let him have it and they beat him right in front of the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of these things. Gall. Gallio just turned an indifferent eye and he just said, I’m not going to get involved in any of this. Which is a sense makes me think that perhaps it was the Jews who were beating up their own for handling the case so poorly.

Well, I think you need to take a self assessment and sort of let me show you how God can encourage you. Paul sat down and he wrote a letter back to the Corinthians that this is what he said. Ready for this? Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and so senis, our brother unto the church. You see, God not only encouraged his saints by who your enemies are, if you’re standing for righteousness, but by how ineffective they are. But But. But by what he does to them, when he transforms them, Things gets kind of cooled down.

Then verse 18 says. And Paul after this, tarried there a good while. In other words, he stayed there. He was able to continue his ministry. The psalmist was right. If you wait on the Lord, you’ll strengthen you with friends, converts, with himself, with his own presence, and even through your enemies. Here’s the key to you. Trust him and you’ll know his joy that comes when he comforts you. Well, we’ve concluded this series, this mini series on looking at the gospel in what we’ve been termed in Vanity Fair, which is the city of Corinth, which is in any major city today.

New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Austin, Houston, Atlanta, on and on and on. We’re seeing ourselves today in history. With that, any comments, questions, points? No? All right, let’s pray. Father, thank you again for a great morning in your word. Thank you for exposing the historical church in a manner by which we can not only apply it to our own society today, but to our own selves. Thank you for giving us the applications in Scripture so that we can add to what we view of ourselves in our own self assessment. Father, bless our minds, bless our hearts with only your knowledge and wisdom that gives us the point of the truth.

Do not let us get caught up in this world. Father, we ask that you bless those that are going to go under surgery. Bless those that are attending to the surgery that you are their hands. We seek your declared protection over the lives of people in areas of trouble. May you grant that protection as you’ve told us to declare it. Father, be with those that are in recovery still of lost ones, of health issues. May your holy presence give them peace. Be with the world leaders as they continue to move down the timeline of change. May you provide us peace and comfort knowing that you’re in total control.

Father, thank you for your son. Thank you for son’s death, the cross, the resurrection. Without that, we wouldn’t be here discussing you. Father, work with us in ourselves to identify the areas that we need repentance, that we need to grow in grace with the knowledge of you. We ask all these things in my son’s name.
[tr:tra].