A People in the City

Well, church, we are in Acts chapter 18.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

So if you have a Bible or an app, open it there.

We're going to be working through this whole chapter together.

Here's the thing.

When we think about reaching our city with the gospel of Jesus, we might be filled with some anxiousness or fear because the reality is we live in a context of people who have a wide variety of different worldviews, faith systems, values that at the end of the day aren't just different than ours.

Like that's one thing.

But when they're actually radically opposed to ours, and even some ways violently, that can fill us with a lot of intimidation and anxiety.

You see, it might be the coworkers that you spend the vast majority of your week with, your waking week, who've made it clear to you that they're not interested in your worldview.

They're not interested in hearing about this Jesus of whom you say you trust and live for.

In fact, they see your beliefs as violent to theirs.

Or maybe it's the families that are starting to make up your kids' school that look radically different than you.

Not only do they dress differently and function differently with inside of culture, but in fact, their worldviews come violently in opposition to yours.

You've probably never said it out loud, but you've convinced yourself that the gospel cannot prevail in this city.

You've convinced yourself to some measure that those people cannot be persuaded by the hope of Jesus' finished work.

And so we've gone silent.

Paul was sent to places like that.

Last week we left Paul in Athens, right?

Now here in chapter 18, Paul finds himself in Corinth.

And the reality about Corinth is that it was a wealthy port city that was so known and notorious for its immorality that culture started to use their name as a verb for people who lived in such licentiousness and debauchery.

And in every regard, Corinth was the Las Vegas of the ancient world.

And Paul walks into that city in weakness and in fear.

He actually says this in his first letter that he writes back to them in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 3.

1 Corinthians 2:3

He says, And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

Think about Paul and everything you imagine about his boldness and courage and faith, and he finds himself in a city that causes him to tremble.

And one night in a vision, Jesus speaks courage into Paul's chest.

He speaks courage into him.

And that single night is what holds this entire chapter of Acts 18 together.

And what Jesus said to Paul in that vision is for every single person who has ever written off a people or a place as unable to be reached with the gospel of Jesus.

So let's start with Paul in a city that caused him to tremble.

Verses 1 through 4 of Acts 18.

So he's just come from Athens, right?

This is where we were last week.

And he's in Corinth here, where he meets Aquila and Priscilla.

They're this Jewish couple who were forced out of Rome when the Roman Emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews around 49 AD.

The Roman historian Setonius, he says that the trouble started what caused this decree to come forward over this man named Crestus.

Most historians believe that that was Christ, that the gospel had already started to take root in Rome, and as we had read in a previous chapter of Acts, started to turn the world upside down.

So Claudius, he declares that all Jews must be expelled from this city.

And so the couple, we can assume, were most likely already Christians, believing and trusting in the gospel, but forced out of Rome because of it.

They're tent makers.

What that means is they mostly worked with leather, creating leather goods, including leather tents for people who were traveling and sojourning.

And Paul stays with them and he works with them as a tradesman.

Then, as was his custom, right, Paul goes where?

He goes straight to the synagogue there in Corinth, and he starts to reason with the Jews and Greeks from the scriptures.

I want to point our attention to something.

Paul always meets people on their turf and their terms.

Why is he reasoning from the scriptures with the Jews in the synagogue?

That's where they believe truth was established.

Even the God-fearing Greeks who are with them had this same conviction.

Why last week did we find him in Athens, there in the town square, reasoning with them through mentioning and talking about their idols of which they worship and the poets of which they regard?

Because Paul's willing to meet them on their turf and their terms, and he's meeting them where they understand truth is found.

Though Paul's context and method change, his message never does.

That's one thing we have to try to grasp hold of in this passage.

Paul's message never changes, no matter who he's standing in front of.

So he goes there trying to persuade in the synagogue both Jews and Greeks, these God-fearers who were Gentiles, who worshipped alongside Israel and who knew the scriptures well.

And then in verses 5 through 8, we see this division start to take place.

So Silas and Timothy, they arrive from Macedonia, they catch up with Paul here in Corinth, where they find Paul, as the scriptures say, occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.

And then, as we have seen patternly over and over within Acts, the Jews oppose and revile him for the message of which he declares.

And what does Paul do?

It shows us here in the text that Paul shakes out his garments at them and he declares something to them.

He says, Your blood be on your heads.

I am innocent.

From now on, I will go to the Gentiles.

So here's what I want us to understand.

What Paul is doing here is a physical gesture with a prophetic statement.

It's a physical gesture with a prophetic statement.

We might actually be reminiscent of this gesture if we remember as we studied through Nehemiah years ago, Nehemiah doing the same thing to the people of Israel, except Nehemiah shook out his garments to all of those who would break or not keep their promises made to Yahweh.

And he would say, May they be shaken out of his household.

And the statement that Paul makes, that their blood be on their own head.

It's the same exact logic that we find of the watchman in Ezekiel chapter 33.

Ezekiel 33 · chapter mention

It talks about the watchman can only have a clean and guiltless conscience if they see the sword coming and warn the people of their imminent judgment.

So Paul is saying, I've done everything to tell you.

I've shown you from the scriptures that Jesus is the Christ of whom we've been waiting for, that the Father has appointed a time of which he will judge all men according to righteousness, but he has provided a deliverer for you through his one and only Son.

And we know this by his resurrection from the dead.

Paul was sounding the warning.

So as they oppose him and revile him, Paul steps back and says, I've done everything that I can.

Now it's on you to either respond in faith or to reject it in judgment.

But I shake my garments of you.

So what does he do?

He turns from the Jews to the Gentiles.

Literally, he goes next door, is what the text says.

And there's these other Gentiles who are also God fearers.

He named Luke names them for us.

We have Titius Justus, who is a God fearer, whose home Paul begins to continue to preach the gospel in.

And through Paul's faithful gospel preaching, to our surprise, Crispus, who is the leader of the synagogue, the ruler of the synagogue, he actually believes in the gospel of Jesus along with his whole household, and they are baptized.

Many of the Corinthians hear and believe also the gospel is advancing in spite of the opposition which Paul is facing.

And then one night in a vision, if we look at verses 9 through 10, the Lord speaks to Paul.

So think about Paul's weariness.

He just fights and faces this opposition over and over again, trying to bring the gospel to a people.

And the Lord comes to him in the night to comfort him and to encourage him.

He says this in Acts 18, 9 and 10.

The words of the Lord, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be spot silent, for I am with you.

And no one will attack you to harm you.

For that word for, don't skip over it.

It's vital to our understanding.

Why?

I have many in this city who are my people.

How could Paul be filled with courage?

It was only through the reality that Jesus already had people who belonged to him in the city of which he sent him into.

You see, there's one command in this vision statement to keep on speaking, to not be silent.

But that command is actually held up by three promises.

I am with you, Paul.

No one will harm you.

And I have many people in this city.

These words should sound familiar to us.

If we study the Old Testament, we actually see as when the Lord was sending a prophet or when he was sending a messenger, often he would reveal himself and speak these same words to him.

Do not be afraid.

I am with you.

Actually, the first promise that he says, do not be afraid, for he is with us, is the one that he actually gives even us as his messengers in the Great Commission after his resurrection.

Matthew 28, 20, he says, I am with you always to the end of the age.

As a comforting promise for us as his people.

But the third promise is the one that should catch our interest most because Paul hasn't reached these people yet.

He's not talking about people who have already believed and who have already come to faith through Paul's work of the gospel.

No.

They haven't trusted in Jesus yet, but yet Jesus already calls them my people.

It's interesting.

But it's not the only time we've heard language like this from Jesus Himself.

In fact, in his earthly ministry, he said something very similar.

In John chapter 10, verse 16, he tells them that I have other sheep that are not of this fold.

John 10:16

I must bring them in also, and they will listen to my voice.

Hear the guarantee of Christ in those words.

I have people, they will hear.

Paul couldn't have picked these Corinthians out of the crowd of who were Jesus' people.

They weren't wearing some special coat or garb that they could be identified, but Jesus surely knew them.

Jesus knew them because they were already his, and the word that Paul preaches is how he calls them into himself.

They were Corinthians.

People full of debauchery and immorality.

People that anyone in their right mind would naturally write off as not being able to be reached with the gospel of Jesus.

Paul would later in his letters, he would list their sins.

He would never deny them or dismiss them.

He'd be clear about what they were entrenched in.

But he would tell them this truth about them in Jesus.

In 1 Corinthians 6 11, he writes to them and says, And such were some of you, but you were washed.

Washed clean by the blood of Jesus.

And so the city that filled Paul with weakness and fear, it was full of people that Jesus already called his own.

That's why Paul could have courage.

That's why Paul could have courage.

In verses 11 through 17, we see that Paul pursues this depth of discipleship in his time in Corinth.

A year and six months teaching the word of God among them, the scriptures say.

And then what happens as Paul is working to deepen their discipleship, he gets dragged before this Roman pro-council named Gallio.

Gallio, he's the brother of a famous philosopher named Seneca.

And actually, his governing time there in Corinth is one of the best historically documented realities that we have in the entire book of Acts.

There is so much extra biblical evidence for Gallio, for his position, for where he was stationed, and his time there.

That gives us confidence about what Luke is recording is actually historically true and accurate, something we can put our trust in.

Now he wasn't there long, a fever took him.

But there in this time with Paul, Gallio actually dismisses the accusations that the Jews are making about him.

He basically says this look, this doesn't seem like anything Rome should be involved in, what you're charging this man of.

This sounds like something you should handle internally as a Jewish people.

So he's executing wisdom here and he's saying, We're not going to get wrapped up in that.

That's your business.

And he makes this declaration from what's called Abemah.

It was this raised platform in seat in the marketplace square, very public, where he would make his decisions and rulings about trials and issues brought before him.

And then we see this mob start to rise up and they beat the newly appointed ruler of the synagogue, Sosthenes.

Now we don't really know who they are.

It's kind of ambiguous in the text.

Was it the Jews who were upset that Sosthenes didn't handle this situation properly and it didn't lead to Paul's beating or imprisonment or banishment from the city?

It just kind of dismissed and set aside, and so they beat him.

Or was it the Greeks who just were tired of these lesser citizens who kept disrupting their society?

And so they beat him.

We don't really know, but somebody got mad and whooped this dude.

And so Sosthenes gets beat.

Paul gets left alone.

The promise is fulfilled.

No one would harm him.

Jesus never said no one would oppose Paul or his message.

He simply said that no one would harm Paul.

And we see the evidence in it here in Sosthenes' tragedy.

So Paul stands before the mob, for the authorities, untouched.

In verses 18 through 23, we see where Jesus is gathering his people and he continues to build them up.

Paul sails for Ephesus.

He takes Priscilla and Aquila with him, stopping at Cancrea to cut his hair for some vow that he made.

Again, we don't have a lot of understanding of what this vow was.

It's not mentioned anywhere else in the scriptures.

He cut his hair to kind of memorialize it.

Maybe he was just thankful for what the Lord had done in Corinth and it was kind of an offering of thanksgiving.

Paul, we saw, we see throughout the scriptures, continues in certain traditions of the Jews because he has the freedom and liberty to do that, because he understands how they point to Christ.

But for some reason, in that time he cuts his hair for this vow of which he's made.

He then sets sail and continues the work in Ephesus, where the Jews ask him to stay longer, and he declines.

He says, I'll return if God wills it.

And there in Ephesus, he leaves Priscilla and Aquila to tend to the work.

And then Luke will actually show us in Acts 19:1 that Paul does come back.

Acts 19:1

Then he travels on through Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples, the scriptures say.

Paul's most likely returning to churches that he planted years before.

So 18 months of teaching in Corinth, a promised return to Ephesus, a long road back to the churches that he had already planted.

Paul stays, speaks, strengthens, all of it anchored in the promise of Jesus that gave him a reason to take courage in the face of opposition.

Something I want us to hold in tension here is Paul's pursuit of growth, of the expansion of the kingdom, of the gospel going forward throughout culture, in his relentless commitment to depth, to continuing to strengthen the churches of which he's planted, to stay there 18 months to make sure that these new Christians were rooted in the scriptures and the truth of God's word to see Jesus more clearly and beautifully.

Paul always operated in the tension of both of those realities.

What I think this text speaks to us as a people today is that we need to take courage ourselves, for Jesus has many people in this city.

Jesus has many people in this city.

Look how Jesus gives courage to a trembling man.

He doesn't tell Paul, dig deeper and try harder.

He doesn't say, hey, Paul, if you just go back to the whiteboard and map out a better strategy, things will go different for you.

Hey, Paul, if you change the message a little bit, they're kind of antagonistic in this one part, this whole uh we're gonna judge you and I had to die for your sin.

If you just kind of remove those things like sin and repentance or hell, then maybe they'll actually be more palatable to the message of which you preach.

Hey, Paul, if you just, if you, if you, as if the outcome and the responsibility was on Paul himself.

No.

Jesus gives him a reason to have courage.

And the reason is Jesus himself and the people he already has in this city.

As I said earlier, that little word for, it is the thing that gives weight and holds up the entire verse there in 10.

Paul isn't asking to feel brave, to fake something.

He's told what is true of Corinth, of this city of immorality and pride.

That many of the people causing him to fear and tremble already belong to Jesus.

See, that changes everything about what Paul's doing in that city.

That gives Paul reason to wake up and keep going.

He's going out to meet people that Jesus has already obtained, and every word that Paul preaches is Jesus calling his.

Own sheep to himself through Paul's voice.

It also explains the shape of the entire chapter.

Paul keeps advancing the gospel.

He keeps seeing the kingdom of God spread.

He goes wide with the message, preaching to a hostile synagogue and a city famous for its pride because Jesus has people here in Corinth.

And Paul goes deep.

Staying a year and a half in Corinth, walking back through churches that he'd planted, because those same people are in Jesus' fold and they need strengthening and shepherding.

Growth and depth, both flowing from one promise.

And look who stands behind that promise.

The same Jesus who says, I am with you is the one that says, I have many.

The same Jesus who says, I am with you is the Jesus who says I have many.

And so here's what we see: His presence and his people are the two things Paul most needs.

And both come directly from Him.

You see, church, true courage.

It doesn't come from us mustering something up inside of us.

It doesn't come from us speaking positive affirmations in a mirror where we're trembling before us.

No, true courage comes from what Jesus has already done.

True courage comes from what Jesus has already done.

Because we walk in victory, we work and labor in mission from the things that Jesus has finished and fulfilled.

We don't try to earn them by our own strength.

That's what Paul had in Corinth.

That's what we're meant to have in this city.

But many of us we don't live like that's true.

We live like the mission actually rests upon our shoulders.

We say the gospel's for everyone.

And then sadly, we decide who's not going to respond to it.

Can we see the irony?

So what gets in our way?

I think fundamentally you and I have failed to believe there are people who belong to Jesus here.

We failed to believe that there are people who belong to Jesus here in Mason, in Westchester, Lebanon, those other places you live.

Think about how you size a place or a people up before you've ever opened your mouth to share the gospel of Jesus.

You've made a judgment.

You've already determined the ineffectiveness of such a message.

But it's the foolishness of the gospel that prevails.

It's what Jesus chooses to use to demonstrate the glory of his grace.

We hear their skepticism.

We notice how busy they are and how we can't bother them with the conversation.

We receive the polite smile that shuts down the conversation without being rude, and we simply come to this verdict with inside of our soul about who will and who won't respond in faith to what Jesus has to offer.

But Jesus said this in John 6.37.

Jesus declares, all that the Father gives me will come to me.

That's a bold confidence that we should stand behind.

Some of the very people that we've written off have been given to Christ by the Father long before we ever tried to determine their fate on our own.

We would never say that we doubt that statement, but we live in doubt of it every single day.

We act as though the city is empty of Jesus' people.

And that unbelief causes us to do something with it.

When the responsibility is ours, when the outcome is determined by our effort, we're tempted to do some things.

One is we're tempted to edit the message to win people who already belong to Jesus.

Remember what I said about Paul and his message.

He never changed the message.

Isn't it fascinating that we have created this philosophical idea that somehow to reach people, we have to change the message.

What is that fundamentally communicating?

We don't believe Jesus is able to fulfill and accomplish all of which he has determined and finished in his work to do.

It shows that we believe the responsibility at the end of the day is on us.

We assume the city won't listen to the gospel as it is.

So we edit it down until we believe that they will.

We try to make the gospel more palatable, more digestible, with the hopes that some might actually be won over to it.

If we just stop talking about sin, if we just stop talking about repentance, if we just stop talking about hell, if we just stop talking about these things, maybe someone will actually trust in Jesus.

After all, it is much harder to believe in a crucified Savior than it is some spiritual life coach.

What are we saying?

The outcome's on us.

Paul never did that.

When Corinth reviled him, he changed his context, he kept the message.

He changed his methodology, he kept his message.

So the house next door heard the exact message that the synagogue heard on their turf and their terms.

The same message was proclaimed in Athens in the city square.

It is that God has appointed a time for judgment where he will judge the world according to righteousness, and he has appointed a savior through Christ his son, and we can have confidence and assurance that he is his through his resurrection from the dead.

That's the message.

Look at what he writes to the same church of which he's reading, reaching now in 2 Corinthians 2, 16 through 17.

This gospel to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.

Who is sufficient for these things?

For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

Here's the reality, church.

You and I don't get to know in advance what our neighbor smells in our preaching of the gospel of Jesus.

It's not up to us to make the fragrance of the gospel more appealing to a lost and dying world.

God has already determined.

For some, it will stink like the hulls of a mortuary.

And for others, it'll be like a garden in bloom.

It's not on us.

That's on the Spirit working in us and in the people who belong to Jesus.

Meeting people where they are, that's wisdom.

Entering into their context, maybe even changing your methodology according to where they understand truth resides.

That's wisdom.

That's good missional living.

Changing what Jesus said to please them, you're just a peddler.

Jesus doesn't need our edits.

These people belong to him before they ever believe in him because he has ransomed them by the blood that he spilled on Calvary.

What is required of us is not to manage the message or the outcome of it, but to faithfully proclaim his gospel so that his sheep would hear his voice.

Others of us, we call it depth.

We call it depth.

We've changed our language, but really it's just fear of this city.

Let me try to unpack this for us.

There's another way to doubt that Jesus has people here, but the challenge is it sounds really virtuous in the way that we communicate it.

Hear me say this really clearly, Sacred Mission.

Depth is good.

Depth is necessary.

In fact, the pursuit of depth is essential to the purpose and place of the church.

Paul stayed a year and a half teaching the Word of God in Corinth, and he went back through the churches strengthening all the disciples.

I would submit this to you.

A church without depth is at best only half of what God envisions for us.

But some of us pursue only depth.

We're absent of mission.

And somehow we call that faithfulness.

We study God's Word in a mission group where no new faces have joined in over a year or more.

Years.

We say we're building a relationship with this unbelieving person, but it has been years and we've still not gotten to Jesus.

We say we're not responsible for the outcome, that's true, but you are responsible for taking the gospel of Jesus to a lost and dying world.

Paul knew that and it caused him to tremble.

He came to Corinth in weakness and fear, and Jesus didn't tell him, Paul, just stay in the room where it's safe.

Paul, just unroll the scriptures and dive deep into the revelation of which I've so generously given to you.

Paul, keep safe from a world that is hostile against you.

Paul, pursue depth.

Something else is coming.

No, he said, Paul, get out there.

He told him to confidently keep speaking Jesus because Jesus was the one who was with him.

And here's the thing, church.

Fear, fear, it can pass for maturity when we're holding a big enough Bible.

And we just stay inside our safe and comfortable places because we're terrified of the world that awaits us.

Where's our courage?

Not fake bravery.

A belief that we have no reason to be afraid because the Lord Jesus is with us and he has many people in this city who's waiting to hear his voice through our preaching.

You see, Jesus ransomed his people.

Jesus ransomed his people with his blood before they believed.

That's the work of the cross.

That's the gospel that's holding up verse 10.

The efficacious nature of his sacrifice and finished work.

Jesus accomplished all he set out to do.

And that should give us courage.

When Jesus says, I have many in this city who are my people, he speaks as the one who paid for them.

The Father has given them to him, and he has ransomed every single one with his spilled blood.

Paul would say it this way to the elders at Ephesus, who he's leaving here at the end of 18, who will return to and visit.

He says this in verse 20 or chapter 20, verse 28.

The church of God, speaking to them, the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Christ has paid the price to be able to call the people in this city his own.

Jesus didn't wait for them to believe.

Romans chapter 5, Paul will say that it was while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

So the people that you and I are tempted to edit the gospel for, to change the message, they've already been purchased by Christ Himself.

And the cross that we're tempted to cut out and set aside, it's the price that was paid for them.

Shame on us.

And Christ, the one who paid it all, didn't do it from some safe distance.

He came near to a people who would oppose and revile him.

He ransomed a people for his own possession who left themselves with murder him.

At the violent hands of the mob, Jesus was seized.

He was struck, spit upon, and killed.

And the fruit of that suffering is that no attack on his people could ever have the final word on us.

That's the voice telling Paul, do not be afraid.

That's the voice that so many of his prophets and messengers have heard and have given their life for.

We would love this city knowing Jesus has people here.

I pray that we put roots down and stay and engage the way that Paul stayed and keep speaking the gospel as it is, trusting Jesus to call home the sheep who are already his.

That we would go deep with one another, strengthening the disciples that he's given to us.

Let that depth send us as it ought to, out toward the neighbors that we used to write off and condemn in judgment before we ever actually engage with them.

That we would love the skeptical co-worker, the family next door who looks nothing like us.

Because we don't get to know in advance whether the blood that bought his people was spent for them, that we would love, that we would go, and that we would do it without fear.

Because the Lord who told Paul, I am with you, has given us his spirit, the helper who is with us forever.

And so the same Jesus who gathered the Corinthians, he's gathering people in Mason, he's gathering people in Westchester, all across northern Cincinnati.

There are people in the city who are his.

They're waiting to hear his voice to be called home.

So, church, take courage.

Take courage.

Let's pray.