Paul moves on to the city of Corinth, where God "shepherds" Paul by leading him into a season of rest before returning him to full-time ministry with wonderful results.
Transcription (automatically-generated):
In our previous study, we heard the Apostle Paul address the Areopagus, the body of politicians and philosophers who ruled the city of Athens. They met on the Acropolis, that famous hill in Athens upon which sits to this very day the Parthenon. His message was seemingly going well. His audience was intrigued. And then we reached verses 30 to 32 of Acts 17, where Paul told the Areopagus, God now commands all people everywhere to repent because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed.
He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him. But others said, "We'd like to hear from you again about this." So, Paul left their presence. The Epicurean philosophers in particular would have scoffed at Paul as they were materialists, believing that nothing exists beyond our material, natural world.
So, the idea of miracles, or something like a resurrection would have seemed ridiculous to them. Their naturalistic worldview pre-dismissed any such notions. The text makes it obvious that the dividing line, the defining moment in Paul's speech was when he preached the resurrection. That's when people either leaned in or checked out. The resurrection is the bedrock of Christianity.
It is the foundation; it is the evidence that Jesus' is who he claimed to be God in the flesh. And Christianity is unique among the religions of the world because it invites the skeptic to examine the evidence for the resurrection. Muhammad claims a private revelation nobody else was around to see. Joseph Smith claims a private revelation and magical golden tablets that disappeared somehow, and nobody else was around to see. Nobody was there to witness the divine revelation given to the Tao, or to the Buddha, or to Confucius, or to anybody else who claims any measure of divine inspiration.
But Christianity is unique because it says, we will hang our entire religion upon a miracle that was witnessed by hundreds of people being true. And you can test it to this very day. No other religion dares make such a claim. The Bible itself freely confesses that Christianity rests entirely upon the reality of the resurrection. When Paul later wrote to the Corinthians, he said, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say, oh, there is no resurrection of the dead?
You see, some people were saying, you don't have to believe in an afterlife to be a Christian. You don't have to believe in the eternality of the human spirit. It can just be a useful tool for helping you live your best life now. But Paul isn't having any of it. And he says, if there is no resurrection from the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
And if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain and so is your faith. Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we've testified wrongly about God, that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up if, in fact, the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. Now get this. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless.
You are still in your sins. Those then who have fallen asleep, those who have already died in Christ, have also perished. They're not in heaven. They're not with the Lord. They're just dead.
And if we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied. More than anyone. Paul has no plan B. He leaves himself no out. He says, either we're out of our minds and we should be pitied as fools, or Jesus rose from the dead.
Paul says, "If Christianity is just a philosophy to cope with life and the reality of this earth, if it really is just the opium of the people, as Karl Marx said, then we are to be pitied because our beliefs are pathetic." He goes on, and he says, but as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ. All will be made alive.
It all hinges upon the Resurrection. And, praise God, our hope is not misplaced. We serve a Risen savior. Write this down. Christianity rests entirely upon the reality of the resurrection.
The reality of the resurrection. If you're not a follower of Jesus, I invite you, I urge you to examine the evidence for the resurrection. And if you're looking for a place to start, you can check out the sermon I put a link to on your outline. And if you want more evidence after that, just shoot me an email. I'll hook you up with a great book on the subject.
But know this you have not explored Christianity in any meaningful way until you have examined the evidence for the resurrection, and you owe it to yourself to do that. You'll also recall from our previous study that Paul had to flee persecution in Berea, and when the brothers from Berea dropped him off in Athens, he told them to tell Silas and Timothy to join him ASAP. And they did. Paul received word that the Jews in Thessalonica were persecuting the church there and making life extremely difficult for those new believers. You may recall that Thessalonica was the city where Paul was staying in the home of Jason.
And the Jewish religious leaders hated the grip that Christianity was getting on the city. And so, they dragged Jason and some of the other brothers from his house before the town council accused them of hosting men who were turning the world upside down. And the agreement was struck, basically we'll keep the mob at bay, but you got to get Paul out of this city. And so now Paul receives news that those same Jewish religious leaders have directed their vitriol and violence toward the newly formed church in Thessalonica. And Paul tells us in First Thessalonians Three that he was so concerned about the faith of the believers there that he sent Timothy from Athens to Thessalonica to check up on them.
And for reasons that will be revealed later in the text, we know that Paul also sent out Silas from Athens to check on other believers in Macedonia who were likely also experiencing persecution, likely in Philippi, where the church met in Ladia's House. Paul then most likely spent the winter of 51 Ad or thereabouts alone in Athens before continuing his journey when the weather changed in the spring. Acts 18, verse one. Let's read together. It says after this, he, that's Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
Let's go ahead and put our map up there on the screen. Corinth was about 50 miles west of Athens and was located at the end of the Gulf of Corinth that extends all the way to the west coast of Greece, which is the Aegean Sea I'm sorry, the Ionian Sea. And so today there's a canal in Corinth that cuts through that little bit of land there and connects to the eastern coast, which is the Aegean Sea. And that canal is about 4 miles, six and a half kilometers long, roughly. And just to make it even more confusing, the Aegean Sea and the Ionian Sea are both part of the Mediterranean Sea.
I didn't even know this till this week, but apparently, there are sub-seas, and they are sub-seas of the Mediterranean Sea. But when you look at the map there, you can see why Corinth was the political and commercial center of Greece. If you wanted to move goods west from Athens, you didn't have to sail all the way around the southern part of Greece. You could just move them west down the well-maintained Roman road that connected Athens and Corinth and then sail west from Corinth. If you were coming from anywhere west of Greece, you would almost certainly go through Corinth, make the short journey on land to Athens, and then catch another boat in the Aegean.
All trade between Rome and the east moved through Corinth and as a result, the city was filled with a constant flow of travelers passing through. These travelers would bring with them their pagan worldviews and philosophies and a huge demand for prostitutes. In fact, more than anything, that is what Corinth was known for and had been known for for centuries. It was a city of prostitution. The only way I can explain it is to say, imagine if Las Vegas was in one of the world's busiest port cities.
That's what Corinth was like. The sexual sin of Corinth was so famous that calling someone a Corinthian was empire-wide known slang for someone who was an enthusiastic fornicator a modern-day equivalent would actually be the term "Californication," which came about due to Los Angeles's reputation for sexual sin. And Corinth leaned into wholeheartedly embraced her reputation. She was the center of Aphrodite worship Venus in the Roman pantheon of gods, the goddess of beauty, desire, love, and sex. Her temple was located 1,500ft above the city on a hill, and every evening over a thousand temple prostitutes would emerge from it, walk down to the city and ply their trade, for lack of a better term.
And that was how one would worship Aphrodite. You would have sex with one of her temple prostitutes in Athens, the dominant sin was intellectual pride. In Corinth. It was lust. We keep reading in verse two about Corinth where he that's Paul found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rose.
If you've been with us for a few months, then you know that in many of the places Paul went, he was opposed by the Jewish religious leaders who did things like hire thugs to stir up mobs and try to kill him. They hated that some of the Jews were turning to Christ because of Paul's preaching. They hated how the message of the Gospel was undermining their positions of prestige and power over the people. Jews would journey from Jerusalem - sorry to Jerusalem - from all over the Roman Empire to participate in the annual feasts. And ever since Pentecost in Acts chapter two, there's been a church in Jerusalem.
The first church was in Jerusalem. And so what was happening in all this time that we've been reading about Paul and the church in Antioch? In all this time, ever since Acts chapter two, there has been a steady stream of Jews coming to Jerusalem for the annual feasts and engaging in conversations and encounters with the church that was in Jerusalem. And as that is happening, some are turning to Christ, placing their faith in Jesus as Messiah and then taking the Gospel back with them from whence they came. And we know from history that at this point there was already a church in Rose.
The Gospel had reached Rome through Jews who made the journey from Rome to Jerusalem, heard the Gospel, got saved, and took it back to Rome. But the reaction of the Jewish religious leaders in Rome was the same that Paul experienced almost everywhere he preached. They hated Christianity, they were disturbed by it, they were determined to oppose it. They were stirring up riots, public arguments, constantly stirring up the civic authorities, trying to get them to persecute and prosecute the Christians in the city, claiming they were against the emperor. However, Emperor Claudius wasn't putting up with that kind of drama and disruption in his city, Rome.
So around 40 Ad, he simply issued an edict and said all the Jews got to leave Rome. Get out. And they could just do that. And so, if you were a Christian who happened to be ethnically Jewish, you just got caught up in this, because Claudius is like, "I don't care whether you're a Jew-Jew or a Christian Jew. I just want all the Jews out. Get out."
And that was his thing. And so, they had to leave. And the couple we're introduced to in verse two, Aquila and Priscilla, had been living in Rome, they had become Christians, and then they had been forced to leave by the decree of Claudius because Aquila was ethnically Jewish, they had settled in Corinth and had been living there for a few years. When they meet Paul, it says, Paul came to them, Priscilla and Aquila, and since they were of the same occupation, tentmakers by trade, he stayed with them and worked. So, the scene is that Paul is likely looking for some Jews that he can stay with in the city of Corinth.
He's asking around and he comes across. He's led by the Lord to this couple who are followers of Jesus. They open their home to Paul. They invite him to stay with them indefinitely and work in their shop, giving Paul access to their tools and giving him the means to earn an income while he's with them. Remember, Paul is alone at this time in Athens.
He has no assistance with him. And the money provided to him by the churches in Macedonia had apparently run out. It was customary for all Jewish boys, even those on track, to become rabbis, to learn their father's trade. So, we can assume that Paul's father had been a tent maker and that's how Paul had learned how to work with leather. It says in verse four, he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks.
So, Paul's working full time in the week with Aquila and Priscilla, and then every Sabbath he's going to the synagogue to get into conversations with the Jews and the Gentile God fears there after the service. In the world of church planting, a world I'm very familiar with, some hold up Paul's situation in Corinth as a model, and they'll say this is what all church planners should do. They should just work a full-time job and then do ministry on the side. Such a thing is not forbidden. But to such notions, I would offer just a few observations...
Remember, Paul didn't have a wife, he didn't have children, he didn't have a marriage to maintain or children to disciple.
So, it always rubs me a little bit the wrong way when somebody says, have you just considered working a full-time job and then doing your full-time church job as well? I mean, if you would just be an absentee husband and father, I think you could make it work for a few years before you inevitably have a nervous breakdown. I mean, that sounds like an amazing model. I don't know why I've never thought of it before.
'Third observation would be there was no church in Corinth while Paul was working a full-time job. Scripture is clear in its call for Christians to give faithfully to their church and support their pastors. But Paul at this point is not involved with any church yet in Corinth. And then the last observation, Paul was not running a full-time ministry while he was working. He was doing the equivalent of working a full-time job in the week and then going to church on Sunday and talking with people for a couple of hours after the service.
He wasn't preparing sermons, our administrating ministry. So, to compare that to a full-time pastoring job, who's preparing sermons and doing all kinds of administration, is not a reasonable comparison. As I read of Paul's temporary work situation in Corinth, I see something very different. I see the hand of God extending grace to Paul. Now, let me explain.
Paul's morale coming into Corinth would have been almost certainly extremely low. His ministry in Athens had not been productive to the level it had been almost everywhere else he administered. When he arrived in Athens, he must have been thinking, if God has been moving powerfully in these smaller cities and towns, I mean, imagine what's going to happen in Athens. Thousands are going to turn to the Lord. And when he was summoned to speak before the Areopagus, he must have been thinking, what a miraculous opportunity.
The plan is right on schedule. The most important people in the city are going to turn to Christ. And then he speaks and the crowd is with him. But when he gets to the resurrection, they turn against him and begin to ridicule him. A few believe, and Paul certainly invests in them during the rest of his time in the city.
But there's no great gospel work that takes root in Athens during Paul's visit. No church is founded in Athens because of Paul's ministry there. That would happen, Peter, but it would have nothing to do with Paul. Pretty much everywhere else Paul goes, he plants a church wherever he ministers. But not in Athens, that great large, influential city.
And one of the secrets of pastoring and full-time ministry is that the discouragement can be profound. You empty yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually in the hopes of building people up in the faith and bringing people to Christ. And when you go through seasons where there seems to be no return from that there seems to be nothing loving back from that emptying. It can be profoundly discouraging. I can only liken it to parenting in the sense of loving your children, wanting the best for them, pouring your life into them, and then the pain when they say, "I'm going to make a different decision."
I'm going to go in this direction against all of your counsel. That grief and that discouragement and that concern and that sadness is a type of what it is like to care for people spiritually as a pastor in discouraging seasons, the highs are as high as parenting. The lows are as low as parenting all the time. And Sunday is always coming. And as Paul deals with this discouragement, he's mostly alone.
He travels to Corinth alone where he finds himself not among the intellectual elite affecting the philosophy of the city but among manual laborers, humble craftsmen. Additionally, Paul's health is probably not great. His body had endured a lot in these past few years. I suspect Paul was in a very, very low place. But we know Paul.
Is Paul going to stop? Is he going to take some time to rest and recover? Of course, he's not. This is Paul we're talking about. He's relentless.
He needs to rest and recover. He needs to be ministered, too, for a little bit. But Paul was never going to recognize that about himself. Not as long as there were people who needed to hear the gospel. Remember what David wrote in Psalm 23 where he describes the Lord as a shepherd and says, he lets me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life. That's the CSB. But it doesn't get it quite right. The King James version does.
King James Version says, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my Saul. He maketh me lie down. The original Hebrew word is clear.
It means he causes me to lie down. It doesn't mean he asks me if I would like to lie down. It means he makes me lie down. He makes the call that I need to rest and be refreshed. And then he makes it happen.
Paul wasn't going to stop. Paul wasn't going to rest. He needed to, though. He needed to. And so, the good shepherd made it so.
The God of all comfort who comforts the downcast brought comfort to Paul. He took away Paul's finances so that he had to work a full-time job. And this gave rest to Paul's mind and to his soul. He provided Paul with fellowship, placing him in a shop with a couple who loved the Lord dearly. And wouldn't you know it?
We will find out later that Aquila and Priscilla were incredible people. They will go on to travel with Paul and become pillars of the church in Ephesus. They will risk their lives for Paul and will be among his closest friends to his death. 'You think it was a coincidence that Paul ended up in their home in their shop? Not a chance.
There's the kindness of God. And so, day after day for a season, Paul would enjoy their fellowship. They would work together, and as they worked, they would talk about the Lord, talk about the Scriptures, laugh together, pray together. And Paul's spirit was ministered to by fellowship with this precious brother and sister he was ministered to because we need brothers and sisters in the faith. Do not ever underestimate the ministry.
That happens when men and women who genuinely love Jesus simply spend time together. There's something that happens that is more than the words in the conversation. There's something that goes on, on a spiritual level, that lifts the spirits of those who love the Lord to be around others who feel the same way. Paul had no idea that he was investing countless hours as he's resting and recovering into a couple that will help him one day plant a church in the great city of Ephesus. It was just the Lord's providence.
Paul was being ministered to, but without even knowing it, he was also raising future leaders the loved had already selected to be part of future ministry church. Our Heavenly Father knows what we need; he knows what we need. Jesus said, your Father knows the things you need before you even ask Him. Paul was not stepping back from ministry because he was self-centered. He wasn't saying, "I really need some me-time, maybe some spa days, just some time to focus on myself."
Paul was solely focused on being faithful to the Lord and serving Jesus. And because that was Paul's focus, the Lord stepped in and provided what was needed, even when what was needed was rest. Jesus told his disciples don't worry, saying what will we eat or what will we drink, or what will we wear for the Gentiles? The non-believers eagerly seek all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be provided for you.
Your Heavenly Father knows what you need. He knows better than you do. Don't hear all this and take away, oh, I need to rest. Hear this and think, I need to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness because if I do that, the Lord will make sure that all my needs are taken care of, including rest when I need it. If you're focused on seeking and living for the Lord, he will step in and overrule your plans when he needs to for your good.
You can trust Him to take care of you. Would you write this down? Our Heavenly Father knows what we need, and if we are seeking to be faithful to him, we'll ensure we receive it. Our Heavenly Father knows what we need, and if we are seeking to be faithful to Him, we'll ensure we receive it. The situation Paul finds himself in is a reminder to us that when things seem to be going awry, when plans seem to be falling apart, when something comes out of left field, it's always wise to slow down, seek the Lord and ask, what do you want me to do in this situation, Lord?
To slow down and ask is there something you're doing in and through this that I need to see? Lord and when Paul had rested and been refreshed, wouldn't you know it? Silas and Timothy arrive with funds from the churches in Macedonia that allow Paul to get back to ministering full-time. It seems the Lord also knew that it wasn't good for Paul to minister alone. So, He tied Paul's funding to Paul's ministry assistance.
And when Paul's assistance arrived, so did Paul's funding. The Lord knows solo ministry is not healthy. That's why Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs. Verse five. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, so Timothy brought news from the church at Thessalonica the church at Jason's house, the church being persecuted by the Jews in their city.
And that news caused Paul to write the letter called First Thessalonians in our Bibles. Let's just read 1 Thessalonians three together real quick to get the flavor of what's going on at this time in the early church. You can turn there in your Bibles if you'd like. This is a good sword drill. It's a smaller epistle.
No shame in turning to the index. And so, I want you to notice Paul's heart and Paul's affection for his brethren. In Thessalonica First Thessalonians three, Paul gets news that they're going through it. They're being persecuted. Their faith is being tested.
Listen to his heart here. He says, when we could no longer stand it, we thought it was better to be left alone in Athens. And we sent Timothy, our brother, and God's, coworker in the Gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you concerning your faith so that no one will be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are, as Christians, appointed to this. In fact, when we were with you, we told you in advance that we were going to experience affliction.
And as you know, it happened. For this reason, I could no longer stand it. I also sent him to find out about your faith, fearing that the Tempter had tempted you and that our labor might be for nothing. He's worried they were getting discouraged by this persecution. But now Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news about your faith and loves.
He reported that you always have good memories of us and that you long to see us, as we also long to see you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and affliction. We are encouraged about you through your faith. For now we live. If you stand firm in the Lord, how can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we experience before our God because of you, as we pray very earnestly night and day to see you face to face and to complete what is lacking in your faith.
Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone, just as we do for you. May he make your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the loving of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Amen.
And there the Lord ministers to Paul again, having Silas and Timothy bring news they're doing great in Thessalonica. They're standing firm in the faith. You would be so proud, Paul. And this just brings even more life to Paul that he desperately needed. And then in his first letter to the Thessalonians, paul goes on and addresses other concerns that they had.
They were concerned that those who had died since Paul had left them would not be in heaven because they had missed the rapture. They were confused about their end times, theology, their eschatology, and Paul helped set them straight. In the rest of that letter, they would write Paul back, and he would respond by writing 2 Thessalonians, also while ministering in Corinth. And in 2 Thessalonians, Paul writes even more about the end times to clear up some of their confusion.
If you've never done a study of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, maybe start that this week. We've gone through it. It's on the website. You can go to the message archive. It'll be time well spent.
So, it says, when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself to preaching the word. Silas and Timothy bring with them financial love offerings for Paul from the church at Philippi, where the church met in Ladia's house. And those gifts enable Paul to stop making tents and devote himself exclusively to evangelism, teaching and disciple-making. And Paul talks about the generosity of the Philippian Church in Philippians, chapter four. Then it says and Paul testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah.
When they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his clothes and told them, your blood is on your own heads. I am innocent. Overall, the Jews in Corinth rejected the message of Jesus as Messiah, going as far as to blaspheme him as the Jews in Jerusalem did to Jesus's face during his earthly ministry. Shaking out one's clothes was a cultural gesture, meaning the same thing as shaking the dust off one's feet. It meant that you wanted nothing to do with the place that you were leaving or the people who were there.
It showed that Paul abhorred their rejection of Jesus and their blasphemy of Christ. And it. Meant that. And because it was a Jewish gesture, they would have found it infuriating that Paul was doing it to them. They were like, this is what Jews do to Gentiles.
Jews don't do this to other Jews. So, they would have been really ticked off. When Paul says, your blood is on your own heads, I am innocent, he's referencing the ministry of the prophet Ezekiel, to whom God said, and it's on your outlines. Son of Man, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, give them a warning from me.
If I say to the wicked person, you will surely die, but you do not warn him. You don't speak out to warn Him about his wicked way in order to save his life, that wicked person will die for his iniquity, yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. But if you warn a wicked person and he does not turn from his wickedness or his wicked way, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have rescued yourself. Now, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and acts unjustly, and I put a stumbling block in front of him, he will die. If you did not warn him, he will die because of his sin, and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered.
Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. But if you warn the righteous person that he should not sin, and he does not sin, he will indeed live, because he listened to your warning, and you will have rescued yourself. Paul's point was that he had done as the Lord had called Ezekiel to do. Paul had been faithful to warn them of the danger of not turning to Christ. And if they were rejecting his message, Paul's hands were clean.
Their blood was on their own heads. They were responsible for their own destruction. And then Paul says, from now on, I will go to the Gentiles. And from that point on, Paul stops trying to reach the Jews of Corinth, and he shifts his focus exclusively to the Gentiles. Verse seven.
So, he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshipper of God's house. This is so funny to me, was next door to the synagogue. And the picture is so funny in my mind because I just imagined Paul saying, "Your blood is on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on, I go to the Gentiles!" And then he storms out the synagogue. But he only walks like 10ft down the road to the house that's right next door. And Eustace was a gentile. He was a Roman Christian who had been attending the synagogue as a God-fearer exploring the Hebrew faith. It seems that he responded to Paul's preaching and happened to live right next door to the synagogue.
It's reasonable to assume that his house was large enough to house the first church in Corinth, and that's why Paul moves there instead of just staying with Aquila and Priscilla. And this would have I mean, you can imagine it would have only further infuriated the Jews of the synagogue, placing Paul Eustace and his family in serious danger. This was courageous on Eustace's part to open his home to Paul and the church, considering the violence Paul's ministry had stirred up in other cities. And they're right next door to the synagogue and then making the Jewish leaders in Corinth, even angrier, read verse eight. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord along with his whole household.
They must have lost their minds when this happened. They're like, can you believe that? Paul? And Crispus is like actually, yeah, I can. And but meaning to tell you, I follow.
Yeshua. Now, like, what? They would have absolutely lost it. And the way it's written implies that Crispus became a Christian. After Paul took up residence in Eustace's house, he had likely heard Paul preach in the synagogue.
He had gone away as the Bereans did, studied the Scriptures, wrestled with them, and concluded that Paul was correct. Jesus was indeed the Messiah. And this is the pattern we see in the early church. Most Jews reject the Gospel, but the few who sincerely desire truth and sincerely seek the Lord find him, and they become Christians. Such was the case with Christian, who would have lost his job, his social standing, his community, his friends, everything upon turning to Christ.
And when Paul later writes his first letter to the church in Corinth, he will mention that he baptized Crispus himself. Then it says this underline the word many in your Bibles, many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed, and were baptized. In the original Greek, the continuous tense is used multiple times in this sentence, which tells us this was the ongoing pattern of response throughout the whole time Paul ministered in Corinth. Lots of people were coming to Christ among the Gentiles. We're going to look back at one thing today before we wrap up Paul's Areopagus address.
The speech he gave in Athens that we studied last time in Acts 17 is scrutinized and studied across the world to this day in many seminaries and church planning organizations. It is held up as the gold standard of cultural communications, using the language and icons of culture to build a bridge to share the Gospel. It's considered a masterpiece of rhetoric, but there's also a counterargument to that view. I shared earlier how Athens was the only major city Paul ministered in where no church was planted because of his ministry. Most in the Areopagus who heard Paul's brilliant speech responded with derision.
The ministry response Paul received in Athens was not what he experienced almost everywhere else. He ministered and chosen who view his speech differently will argue that Paul leaned too heavily on worldly and cultural wisdom and his academic and oratory gifts. In other words, they'll argue that Paul relied on his own brilliance more than the simple power of the Gospel. So, which is it? Is Paul's Areopagus address a model of evangelism?
Or is it a rare misstep in his ministry? We know that Paul got out of Athens and moved on ASAP, but he spent a year and a half in Corinth. In Acts 1734, we were given the results of Paul's ministry in Athens. I'll read it one more time. It says some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
In Acts 18, verse eight, we were given the results of Paul's ministry in Athens. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed, and were baptized on an ongoing basis. I'm going to let you draw your own conclusions, but I think it's undeniable that something changed in Paul between the time of his Areopagus address and the time he was joined by Silas and Timothy and Corinth and began ministering to the Gentiles there in earnest. Now, why do I say that? Because in his first Epistle to the Christian, Paul writes extensively about the mindset and approach to ministry that he adopted among the Gentiles in Corinth.
So, turn with me, if you would, to First Corinthians, chapter one, verse 17. 1 Corinthians, chapter one, verse 17. I'd love you to be able to follow along in your Bibles, and I just want us to read a good chunk of this text through together, keeping in mind this is the key context. Paul had just come from Athens. Remember what happened in Athens?
Remember what the ministry was like in Athens. That's the key. And then see if you can pick up how his experience at the Areopagus and in Athens seems to have affected the approach that Paul took when he began ministering to the Gentiles in Corinth. Going to pick it up. In One Corinthians 117, Paul writes, for Christ did not send me to Baptize, but to preach the Gospel, not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ will not be emptied of its effect.
We read this next part a couple of weeks ago. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law, the scholar?
Where is the debater of this age? Hasn't God made the world's wisdom foolish? For since in God's wisdom the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached. For the Jews ask for signs, and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, the Greeks. Yet to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Brothers and sisters, consider your calling. Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world, what is viewed as nothing, to bring to nothing what is viewed as something.
So that no. 1 may boast in his presence. It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us, our righteousness, sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Let's keep reading into chapter two. When I came to you, brothers and sisters, when I came to you in Corinth announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech, our wisdom.
I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom, but on God's power. We do, however, speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. On the contrary, we speak God's hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory.
None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived, God has prepared these things for those who love him. Now, God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Now, we have not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. We also speak these things not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God's Spirit because it is foolishness to him. He's not able to understand it, since it is evaluated, since it is discerned spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can evaluate, they can discern everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone.
For who has known the Lord's mind, that he may instruct Him, but we have the mind of Christ. Listen, one way or another, I am convinced that Paul learned something in Athens, and he came away absolutely certain of how he needed to preach the Gospel going forward. And it was not as he had in Athens. John, chapter twelve records Jesus telling his disciples, as for me, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. And then John explains he said this to indicate what kind of death he was about to die.
How does Jesus draw people to himself? Through the cross. So, it only makes sense that the way Jesus draws people to Himself today is through the preaching of the cross, his life, death, and resurrection. I'm going to ask the worship team to comes up. If you're not a believer, look to the cross, examine the evidence for the resurrection, and if you are sincerely seeking truth, you will find it there.
If you are a believer, I want to remind you of the comfort we have in Christ. He sent His Spirit to us in part to be our comforter. And we have a Heavenly Father who knows what we need. Concern yourself with seeking his kingdom and his righteousness, and he'll take care of our needs. I want to read all of Psalm 23 to you.
It's not long, and as I do, just receive it, just agree with it in faith in your spirit. Would you buy your head and close your eyes? In Psalm 23, David writes the Lord is my shepherd, I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters.
He renews my life. He leads me along the right paths for his name's sake. Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as loving as I live.
Jesus, thank you that you are the good shepherd. Father, thank You that You are a loving heavenly Father who cares about his children, who knows what we need even more than we do. And Holy Spirit, thank You that You are in us, counseling us, comforting us all the time. Help us to yield to Your counsel.
Help us to be good at receiving your counsel.
And forgive us for all the times that we look for comfort in other things, when you're in us, available to us with the peace of the Lord that passes understanding.
And Jesus, we thank You that because of the Cross, we are not being chased down; we are not being pursued by our sins or by our failures. But we are being pursued by goodness and mercy all the days of our life.
And that our end is in the house of the Lord forever.
So, Lord, what can we say to a God like that?
You're too good for words.
You're too kind for words. And we love you for who you are and for being who you are yesterday, today, and forever. Not changing with our unpredictable and inconsistent levels of faithfulness but being the same. Being the rock, the firm foundation upon which our lives can safely rest. Thank you for being our constant Jesus', we love you, Lord.
We're so grateful for you. We pray that we would receive anything and everything you want to do in us because we know you're only ever good. But also because we want you to be glorified to the highest possible degree in our lives during our time here on earth. And so, we pray that You would bring glory to your name through every day of our lives, Jesus, bring glory to your name so that the one who boasts boasts in you and what you have done for us. Jesus, we love you so much.
Lord, in Your name we pray amen. Amen.