Acts 18:12-16 While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him into court. 13 “This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.” 14 Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. 15 But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law – settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.” 16 So he had them ejected from the court.
 
PAUL, Silas and Timothy are still in Corinth in the region of Achaia. Luke’s focus on Paul affirms his standing as one of Jesus’ specially-anointed apostles and early church leaders. His epistles gained greater impact as the early church learned of Paul’s triumph over personal struggles and the Jews’ and Rome’s persecution.
   Paul may have been very surprised when Gallo, the Roman governor, defended him. When the Jews charged that Paul was persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law, they accused Paul of breaking a Roman law. Rome did not permit the teaching and spreading of any new religion. The Jews charged Paul was preaching a new religion.
   But Gallo ruled Paul’s teachings were “about words and names and your own law.” In Gallo’s opinion Paul was teaching about Judaism. Paul, then, was not preaching a new religion. Under Roman law Paul could continue.
   Often in our courts we have judges’ rulings that create a precedent for similar cases in the future. Gallo’s judgment in favor of Paul set a precedent to allow Jesus’ gospel to be openly taught throughout  Achaia.
   Gallo told the Jews they needed to resolve the issues within their own culture. We’ll see this again when Paul stands before Rome’s governors who see no fault in him. How sad to see it is God’s own people who restrict and persecute the Lord’s apostles. How often have misguided leaders of Jesus’ church persecuted Jesus’ true Church?
   Rome’s relationship with Christ and his followers was not a simple acceptance or rejection. Jesus’ ministry included healing Roman Centurions’ servants and relatives. Pilate, too, saw Jesus as the Jews’ problem. If Pilate had possessed moral strength he would not  have condemned Jesus. Acts has reported magistrates sentence Paul, Barnabas and Silas to jail and to be beaten. These same rulers also released the evangelists. Later certain Roman emperors, especially Nero, gravely persecuted Christians because they saw Jesus’ followers as a threat to their authority and supremacy.
   The Christian life mirrors this cycle of acceptance and rejection. We experience people who are interested in and excited to understand more about Jesus. Often we encounter people who don’t care and even reject us outright. All of us live in cultures that both confirm and reject Jesus. Our response is to always remain faithful to the gospel, as Paul, Silas, Timothy and so very many more true evangelists have done for generations.
     

Acts 18:7-8 Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. 8 Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.
 
SOMETIMES you need to move only a short distance to find the place God wants you to be. Paul had told the Jews in the synagogue v 6 I will go to the Gentiles. And he literally did go next door to a Gentile named Titus Justus. And Crispus, the synagogue ruler, had surely heard Paul’s preaching in his synagogue. It took one more time in Titus’s home for Crispus to hear and believe. As his entire family came to faith, others also believed.
   God often will choose one or two people in an area to be the source of influence for a new church. Titus Justus and Crispus were those people in Corinth. Paul then had freedom to teach the gospel. The church at Corinth began. How appropriate it is for a new church in a pagan city to begin with a Jewish man and a Gentile man. It illustrates God’s salvation plan for the world. Entering into his world that did not know him, God first appointed Israel to bless the nations. Then he sent the apostles to the Gentiles. The entire world began to know Jesus.
   Paul’s struggles were very difficult. Yet, the LORD’s reward was constant. The LORD had given Paul a harvest in Corinth just as he had in nearly every city Paul had ministered. We know God’s will is to establish and expand his church.
   Church planting was Paul’s and the other apostles’ purpose. Our Lord Jesus taught he does not send us to empty fields but to the harvest. “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” (John 4:35b)
   Still it takes work to cultivate a harvest. Weeds, poor soil and poor weather can hinder a crop. Doubt, fear and weariness can hinder an evangelist. That’s why God personally spoke to Paul to encourage his work:
 
Acts 18:9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”
 
God warned Paul of still greater attempts to oppose him. The Lord willed Paul to remain firm in Corinth.  Paul could trust were many in the city God would use to protect him.   Our faith journey demands we trust God in all circumstances, doesn’t it? Opposition and challenges are constant. Our Lord speaks strength, “Do not be afraid.” (Luke 12:4) to confirm his promise, “I am with you always.” (Matthew 28:20) As often as Paul experienced God’s personal intervention, he would still need to fearlessly expect Jesus’ Spirit to be with him each step of his perilous, faithful journey. Paul knew where God wanted him for the immediate present. So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God. (Acts 18:11) 

Acts 18:6 But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
 
PAUL knew what would happen in the synagogue. Some would believe. Many would not. Some unbelievers would react violently to the gospel preaching. He would turn his preaching to the Gentiles. Still, he always entered any new synagogue he encountered. He knew his passion and his purpose: Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
   Paul taught. Many Jews rejected the gospel. So Paul shook out his clothes in protest. In this he demonstrated an Israeli tradition to shake the dust from their sandals or feet when they returned from a Gentile country. It symbolized their rejection of Gentile customs and gods. In essence, too, he obeyed Jesus’ command when he sent the first 12 disciples to administer the gospel. He told them to reject unbelievers and opposition: Matthew 10:14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. Jesus knew they would encounter opposition. He told them how to respond to it.
   From Jesus’ instructions to Paul’s experiences, we learn a Bible truth: Many will reject God’s Word. We see this in the constant conflicts on many levels. But we can think that with just a bit more effort, “That person will receive Jesus.” This may not be true. Yes, we must make an effort to help people know Jesus. And we also must know when to shake the dust of their unbelief from our spiritual clothes and move forward. It is useless to continue planting a field when there is no rain.
   Paul must have been very tired of the Jews’ hateful response to Jesus. If a pastor today preached, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility.” his church would criticize and perhaps even remove him from the pulpit. The human heart does not want responsibility for its sin.
   But perhaps this is Paul’s prayerful desire for the Jews. Listen to his heart in Romans 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race. Paul grieved for his people, willing to enter hell for their salvation! He longed for the Jews to wake up and understand their souls are in mortal danger.
   Paul was an inspired, chosen teacher, preacher, evangelist and counselor. He had a very close, personal relationship with Jesus. With absolute confidence, he spoke Jesus’ absolute warning. Frustrated with them, he still loved them enough to speak this one last warning. Perhaps some ears would finally hear the truth and be saved.
   Paul had done his work in the synagogue; it was time to tell the Jews in Corinth, “From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” The Spirit had a new field for the apostle to plant,

Acts 18:5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 
 
WHEN the Jews ascended the Temple Mount to worship, they would sing a song of ascents: Psalms 121:2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. How does God help us? He has sent his Helper. John 14:16 (Jesus said), “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper – Counselor, Advocate – to be with you forever.” The Bible teaches us God’s people cannot do God’s work without God’s help. The apostle Paul certainly knew this to be true. We  have learned Paul needed help when he entered Corinth in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. (1 Corinthians 5:3). The Spirit helped Paul by sending Aquilla and Priscilla for companionship. For a time the three worked together as tentmakers.
   The Helper then helps Paul financially. Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia. Their arrival meant Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. Paul no longer had to work at tentmaking because his co-workers had brough financial help from Macedonia. We know this because Paul wrote of it in 2 Corinthians 11:9 And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so.  
   Third, the Helper encouraged Paul’s gospel teaching. Paul learned his peaching was changing lives in Thessalonica.  1 Thessalonians 3:6 But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love… 7 Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.
   God’s workers need help. When you are faithful to the Bible’s teachings, the Helper will strengthen you in your needs. When the opposition seems overwhelming, the Father wants you to know his help comes from heaven into your life to sustain, encourage and empower you. Paul understood and experienced God’s financial, emotional and spiritual help to effectively fulfill God’s mandate for his life. Paul needed to continually know the Helper’s help because opposition would not stop.
   You need help, too. To confess, “Jesus is my Lord and Savior.” exposes your life to many challenges. You can be separated emotionally or physically from people you love. You may find less opportunities for employment. Perhaps you encounter some form of spiritual opposition. Evil can attack with doubt, weariness or complacency. Jesus has sent his Helper for you. Pray and seek his strength. Be encouraged. Know the God of heaven and earth is always with you when you confess and teach, “Jesus is he Christ.”
 

Acts 18:2-4 In Corinth, Paul met 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 Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
 
WE are reminded Jews were welcome in some Roman provinces and banned in others. Emperor Claudius had commanded Jews to leave Rome about 41-54 AD. Some historians say it is because Jews were often having public gatherings in response to Chrestus, which could mean they were demonstrating for Christ. Aquila and Priscilla, tentmakers, went to Corinth, a very busy, wealthy trading city, to find work. They may not have been Christians yet. At some point, perhaps through their relationship with Paul, God called them and used them mightily to help Paul advance the gospel.
   Paul needed help. We must remember that Paul had been through some very difficult stresses. And it seemed he was functioning with little rest. As we have done before, we’ll go to one of his letters to understand the emotions and challenges Paul faced as he entered Corinth.
 
1 Corinthians 2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God’s power.
 
Paul went to Corinth alone. Being and traveling alone can take much from a man whose passions poured into his preaching. He needed someone to talk to and walk with. We all do.
   Paul may have also been apprehensive about what would happen in Corinth. If you have been jailed, beaten or assaulted, you know the fear you face, entering a new community. While Paul knew he was anointed to the Lord’s work, he also knew that anointing included suffering. As God spoke about Paul’s ministry to Ananias, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (Acts 9:16).
   Paul knew the obstacles before him. Sin was very deep in Corinth. Even in a world hardened to decadence, Corinth was seen as worse than many cities. To enter Corinth was to enter into the depth of Satan’s stronghold. When one is weary of the battle, it is easy to feel weak, be fearful and to tremble. Paul would have been very glad to meet Aquila and Priscilla to have companionship in their tentmaking business. God is very good to give us who and what we need to do his work.
   We may be surprised Paul knew tentmaking and working with leather. It was common then for even the most educated men to know a particular skill, so they could work to support themselves. This is a good lesson for all who think being a pastor eliminates them from working at another job.     
 

Acts 17:29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by man’s design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” 32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. Acts 18:1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
 
GOD created the family to have a husband who is a father and a wife who is a mother. They are to unite in marriage and have children. The children are to live under the authority of their parents. This is God’s will. Godly parenting reveals God’s righteousness because God is a Father over the entire world. We are God’s offspring. What do we to do? With his common use of “therefore”, Paul tells the Athens men and women how they must respond to God, the Father.
   They needed to know God is a living Deity. He is not a gold or silver statue. He cannot be and is not something you have created in your own mind. God created you. Just as it is not possible for your child to create you to be his parent, it is not possible for you to create the Almighty God.
   Paul also teaches the LORD God has been patient with mankind for centuries. He has held back final judgment of their idolatry while he prepared to unveil his Savior to you. Paul is very specific to also warn them. He tells them the God of Creation, the Authority of all mankind, has set a day when he will judge the world with justice. He will require people to have faith in the man he has appointed. They will know who that man is because God has given proof of this man by raising him from the dead.
   Jesus’ resurrection is a powerful proof of God’s existence. The empty tomb fulfills thousands of years of prophecy. It points to an eternal God, who speaks his Word and completes his Word. The resurrection also establishes God’s plan for Jesus to return. We know what God has said. We know what God has done. We know what God says about the future. We know God will complete his future decrees just as he has already fulfilled his past promises. All Scripture hinges on Jesus’ resurrection. The evidence has been repeatedly proven through many sources. There is no excuse to say, “Jesus is dead.”
   Still, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” Paul had done what he needed to do. He proclaimed the Truth.
   As he left the group, some men and women believed and walked with him. Surely God used them to advance his gospel.
   It was time for Paul to go to Corinth, one of the world’s most famous cities. God had prepared another platform for Paul to proclaim and defend Jesus is the Christ. 
 

Acts 17:22-23 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
 
DEAR Christian, I see in every way you are very firm in your reverence to God.
   Does this affirm, honor and encourage you?  Are you pleased someone recognizes you are faithful to God? Yes, I want you to know God is pleased with your diligence to know and use his Word as the guiding power in your life.
   Affirmation was Paul’s method to gain a listening ear among Athens’ intellectuals. When he complemented them as being very religious, they were likely pleased to know he observed them as men devoted to their objects of worship. They were so religious, they even worshiped an unknown god! But in his words of praise, Paul began to condemn their devotion to evil spirits. How is it possible to worship an unknown god? It’s not.  Why are they devoted to gods that originate in man’s mind and even some possible god that may not exist?
   Were they afraid? We can say these idolaters worship fear. The Athenians are uncertain what the evil spirits require of them. What will happen if the gods are displeased?
   Fear grips those who worship evil spirits. Missionaries and evangelists have found this fear everywhere the gospel is first preached. Demonic rule wraps people’s minds in a fear of retribution if they do not appease the gods. We see this in the worship of Baal, Ashtoreth and Molech in Israel. Fear of these demonic spirits caused priests to cut themselves and parents to sacrifice children into fire. Many cultures have sacrificed humans to please the gods they created out of their own sin nature. These gods’ deadly influence came from the devil corrupting mankind’s own ideas of guilt and judgment.
   When people do not know the true God, they always find something to worship – physical pleasure, wealth, carved images, plants, animals, planets, stars, mountains and anything else the corrupt mind conceives. (There is a group of people in the U.S. that worships a particular small mountain as their god.)
   God gave Paul a platform to teach these men about the God they did not know. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Romans 10:14)

Acts 17:19-21 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
 
THE apostle heard the philosophers he had met in the marketplace ask, “May we know?” Even though they thought Paul a babbler (v 18) they invited him to the Areopagus, Athens’ center of religion and education. This was a good place to discuss and debate Paul’s words they heard as strange ideas. Strange means the philosophers were receptive to learn more, willing to consider what Paul said. They had heard some interesting words in Paul’s preaching and wanted “to know what they mean.” Luke tells us these men spent their time listening to the latest ideas. The gospel was definitely the latest idea they had heard!
   In truth, the gospel is not the latest idea – concept, proposal or thing. The gospel is the eternal revelation of God’s goodness. Are you a Christian? Then you can know and be glad that in eternity past God wrote your name in his Book of Life. Jesus tells this truth: Revelation 13:8 “and all who dwell on earth will worship the Beast, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear.” (ESV) This tells us of God’s just condemnation and ordained salvation. Each name of those saved into eternal life has been known and written before God laid the earth’s foundations.
   Paul also taught God’s eternal gospel in Ephesians 1:4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.
   The Spirit very plainly tells us the good news is older than the earth. We sing of God’s Amazing Grace, and we extol his majesty to consider How Great Thou Art. Yet God’s grace and majesty grows eternally brighter in your heart when you stop to think: “Almighty God chose me in eternity past and wrote my name in Jesus’ eternal Book of Life! Before time began he declared my eternal home is with him!
   The gospel is old and it is new. It is God’s eternal news that passionately breaks through sin’s thick, deep restraining dam to flood God’s church with Jesus’ lifeblood. Satan’s worshipers believe they are safe, free of God’s commands. But they are bound into eternal fire because their names are not written in the book of Life.
   We might ask, “Why does God not save everyone?” Perhaps the more relevant question is, “Why does God save anyone?” He certainly doesn’t need us in heaven. He doesn’t even need us in the world.
   But he planned this world. He put you here to glorify his name. And he planned your redemption. Go and tell ‘the old, old story of Jesus and his love” (from hymn I Love to Tell the Story) to those who have ears to hear. 

Acts 17:18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
 
PAUL was preaching the gospel. To preach means he declared the specifics of mankind’s existence and purpose based on God’s redemptive plan and fulfillment in Jesus the Christ. He told the truth about sin and everyone’s need for a Savior. Paul used Scripture to affirm his words. God’s Word came to Athens through God’s chosen apostle to the Gentiles.
   In response, the trained philosophers who commonly debated questions of human existence and purpose labeled God’s messenger a babbler. The philosophers who sought an orderly understanding of human nature were unable to believe that Jesus, a man from Nazareth in Galilee of Judea, could he be named “Son of God.” How could it be the Son of God was horribly crucified as a Roman insurgent? Surely he did not rise from the dead and ascend to heaven! Even more, how could this ascended man send the Holy Spirit of God to the world? Where is this Spirit who changes minds to know this Jesus? Did this babbler really say these things happened because God, the Father, loves us? Did this Father cause all this to happen, so we can be saved? What does it mean to be saved?
   A babbler is one who gossips and talks with trickery. Paul’s preaching in the marketplace seemed full of trickery to these educated, methodical men. Even though Paul would have given historic evidence of the gospel, the truth seemed to be the rantings of a strange philosophy no one could or would understand. Who in the world had ever spoken such things?
   Still today many missionaries and evangelists encounter the same response to the gospel. Some of you may encounter this very often as you enter into tribes, villages or regions where no one knows God’s gospel. Your gospel talk may sound as if you are trying to trick them. The human mind is very reluctant to reject ancient traditions and philosophies that hold us tightly to restrictive, even demeaning rules. Human nature believes God’s gracious love is much too good to be true! Family members, neighbors and the culture in general believe the gospel is babble.
   Still, the Spirit was working in Athens. The philosophers did not chase Paul away, beat him or jail him as others had done. They wanted to hear more.
   Yes, from the very beginning Satan has hidden the truth. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. The barriers to truth stand tall, but God’s grace is higher, wider, longer and deeper. Be ready to speak, so what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. (Romans 1:19)