May God be pleased to bless us
this evening as we continue our meditation in the Acts of the
Apostles. And this evening we'll speak
from the chapter 18 and we'll take the first six verses. Now this commences with, After
these things Paul departed from Athens, And as most of you will
remember, that Paul had been in Athens and he preached faithfully
in the synagogues, in the marketplace and also on Mars Hill. And he
hadn't had really very much success. But nonetheless, he'd been faithful
in that which he had done. And now he leaves Athens and
he comes into Corinth. See, Paul was a wonderful missionary,
really, and how he preached the gospel at every opportunity.
And so we have this in these verses before us this evening,
the continuance of that work which he did. And we're told
he came and he found a certain Jew named Aquila. Aquila, born
in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because
that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and
come unto them. Well, the Lord directed Paul,
he came and found the Aquila and his wife who obviously looked
after him and we know that they were indeed godly people as we
come to the in Romans and the last chapter in Romans it just
mentions these two people in the 16th chapter and we read,
greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus. Well it's a blessing isn't it
to be enumerated as a helper in Christ Jesus. Not somebody
that is against, not somebody who is sitting on the sidelines,
but somebody who is in actual fact a helper And so here, very
clearly, these two people were helpers. And they'd come here,
they'd left Rome, they'd been turned out of Rome. Rome was
a place where there were Jews and there were Greeks, of course,
in there, as well as the Romans. And clearly there was opposition
to the Christian religion, and therefore many had been turned
out, had been commanded to depart. And so these two had come to
arrive in Corinth. Now Corinth was a very prosperous
town. It was also a very wicked town.
And of course, in both of those situations, normally it's very
difficult, naturally speaking, to bring the gospel. Those who
are taken up with all the riches of this world have no time, and
those who are involved in wicked practices, they don't want to
hear anything of the truth of God. So, as Paul came here, it
was clear that he was not going to have an easy time. Well, things
haven't changed. You know, the day and age in
which we live, Christians do not have an easy time. Those
who truly preach the gospel, wherever it may be, do not really
have an easy time if they're faithful to proclaim the great
glorious truth of the gospel. And so here was Paul, and we're
told, and because he was of the same craft, he abode with them
and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers." So the
apostle didn't think he had a right to a living, that he was a servant
of God and therefore money would just come pouring in. He realised
that when the opportunity afforded itself and he was able to, he
shouldn't burden the church and he should work. And here he was
then, working in this way. Now we know that of course Paul
was really an academic, wasn't he? He was brought up at the
feet of Gamaliel. And he was a Pharisee of the
Pharisees. He knew all the ceremonial law
and all the truths of the Old Testament. But clearly also,
he had been taught to be a tent maker. It wasn't something which
he just suddenly decided to do. That was his natural profession. And he was involved in it. And
therefore, here he is, we find him in this place at this time,
taking up that profession which he was able to work in and was
working with these people because they had the same craft. But
that didn't stop him preaching the gospel. That still enabled
him to press on. And so we read, and he reasoned
in the synagogues. We've noticed previously that
really Paul He made a beeline for the synagogues, wherever
they were, because there were the Jewish people. And there
were the people that knew the law. And they were the people
who, for the most part, their eyes were blinded. And they were
deaf to the truth of God. They turned their back upon the
glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we see that he went in
every time, as we read these new places, he goes to the synagogue. He reasoned. He reasoned with
them. Now, we know, of course, that
it's only the power of God that convert, but we have the example
here that he was moved by the Spirit to go and to reason with
them. And this is the way that God
has ordained. We should not think we can sit
at home in our armchairs and, well, everybody will be converted
that the Lord has determined. In one sense that is true, but
the Lord has used means. He uses means. He uses people
to bring this about. And so here was the Apostle Paul
in the synagogue and reasoning with the people. And he reasoned
in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the
Greeks. Yes, every Sabbath, every opportunity,
Paul was found in the synagogue reasoning with these people and
persuading them of the truth of God. Persuading them. It's good isn't it if the Spirit
of God through his servants persuades us of those things which are
right and those things which are God-honouring. So here he
was then preaching the gospel and now we're told And when Silas
and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Silas and Timotheus
had been left behind previously. Paul had left them when he came
to Athens. And now they hadn't come directly
to Corinth, but they were now in Corinth. They'd come to join
the Apostle Paul. And clearly the effect of this
was encouraging to him. He'd now got further helpers,
those who had been with him, had heard him preach, had heard
him reasoning, and here they were. And when Silas and Timotheus
were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit. He had an urgency to proclaim
the truth of God. It wasn't just a formal thing. He was pressed in his spirit. And it's good today when those
who preach the gospel are pressed in their spirit. So there's really
a message to proclaim. It's not just a mere form of
words, but here he was pressed in the spirit. And what was his
preaching? He testified to the Jews that
Jesus was Christ. Well, you know, just those three
words How fundamental it is. Jesus is Christ. The Messiah. The Jewish people had been looking
for the Messiah. The Messiah had come. The Messiah
had lived on the earth. The Messiah had passed out of
the earth. And the Jews did not believe
it. Neither did the Greeks. And here
was Paul testifying this great truth to them that Jesus was
Christ. Well surely that's the gospel
today. The Lord Jesus Christ is that one who is the saviour
of sinners. The one who came into the world
to save his people from their sins. The Lord Jesus who came
and gave his life as that complete and satisfactory sacrifice sin,
that one sacrifice for sin, how glorious it is to think that
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, he came to die that we might
live. Well, here we have then the Apostle
pressed out of spirit and testifying to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. Well, may we have heard the Gospel
preached that Jesus is Christ. He is our Saviour. And we may
know in our own hearts that He has died for us. It's most essential
that all of us have that knowledge that Christ has laid down His
life on our behalf. He stood in our place. He has
paid the punishment instead. Come ye not then say, Glory to
God, for such a Saviour. Well, here then we have this
wonderful occasion. And when they opposed themselves
and blasphemed, they didn't receive the Gospel. So it is today. People hear the Gospel and they
don't receive the Gospel. They turn away from it. What
do they say? They say this in their hearts,
I will not have this man to reign over me. I'm going to live my
life. Many people say, I'm going to
live my life to the full. How foolish, how ignorant to
realise that they are going headlong to a lost eternity. Well, they opposed themselves
and blasphemed. Being blessed to hear the truth,
to hear the gospel, their lips of God's servant and turned away
from it. Well, what was the response?
Paul shook his raiment and said unto them, your blood be upon
your heads. I am clean, from henceforth I
will go unto the Gentiles. What a solemn statement, what
a solemn consideration. They had rejected the great truth
of God. they had opposed the things that
the Apostle spoke to them. And therefore he spoke in these
very solemn words, your blood be upon your own heads. They
brought it upon themselves. And he says though, I'm clean. He had faithfully preached the
word of God. And God's servants are called
to do that today, to faithfully proclaim the truth of God, whether
the people believe, whether they were here, or whether they were
not. They stand before Almighty God, and they have a blessed
gospel to preach, and a great obligation to preach the gospel,
that the Lord may apply the word. That's the great thing, you see,
that the Lord may apply the word. We cannot. God can. We are to
preach. God applies. And may we pray
much that there may be a wonderful application of the word of God,
the glorious gospel to many a sinner, that they may be born again in
the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in their flesh. Amen.