Untitled Sermon (3)
Acts 18
Corinth!
I. INTRODUCTION
Serving the City
II. COMMENTARY
A verse-by-verse explanation of the chapter.
III. CONCLUSION
The Importance of the Local Church
An overview of the principles and applications from the chapter.
IV. LIFE APPLICATION
Alexandria!
Melding the chapter to life.
V. PRAYER
Tying the chapter to life with God.
VI. DEEPER DISCOVERIES
Historical, geographical, and grammatical enrichment of the commentary.
VII. TEACHING OUTLINE
Suggested step-by-step group study of the chapter.
VIII. ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION
Zeroing the chapter in on daily life.
Quote
“The church’s mightiest influence is felt when she is different from the world in which she lives.”
A. W. Tozer
GEOGRAPHICAL PROFILE: ACHAIA
• A Roman province including the Peloponnesus in northern Greece south of Macedonia
• A senatorial province, not an imperial province
• Corinth was the capital
• To speak of Achaia in Macedonia was to speak of all of Greece
CITY PROFILE: CENCHREA
• The eastern harbor of Corinth in the little town of the same name
• Home of Phoebe (Rom. 16:1)
• Site of Paul’s famous haircut
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE: GALLIO
• Full name—Junius Annaeus Gallio
• Proconsul of Achaia about A.D. 50
• Born in Spain but adopted by the Roman orator, Lucius Junius Gallio
• Of him Seneca once said, “No mortal was ever so sweet to one as Gallio was to all”
IN A NUTSHELL
Though Ephesus is mentioned briefly, this chapter focuses on Corinth. It also deals with cooperative ministry, eloquence in evangelism, and the incomplete way in which God’s truth is sometimes proclaimed. Paul’s ministry in Corinth took place about A.D. 51.
Corinth!
I. INTRODUCTION
Serving the City
Imagine yourself boarding a plane at Boston’s Logan Airport. Although departing nearly forty-five minutes late, your plane has now reached its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. You are well on your way to covering the three thousand air miles to San Francisco. The sun has begun to set as you touch down at the city by the bay. An experienced traveler, you realize you have entered a world very different from the one you just left. You are cultural light years out of the New England aura, the historic staid ambiance that settles over Boston, much in the way a morning fog rolls into San Francisco. The cities are vastly different in social style, attitude, and almost every other way.
That also describes Athens and Corinth. With minimal mileage between them, the cultural distance loomed vast. Like Boston, Athens was the older city; and Corinth, relatively new. When Paul entered the Corinthian gates, he could see no major building over one hundred years old. With a population of nearly two hundred thousand, it was the largest city in Greece. From what we learn in Acts and in the two long epistles to the Corinthian church, we can conclude this city provided Paul with his greatest challenge. We should not be surprised that he spent approximately a year and a half there.
Set on a plateau overlooking the isthmus connecting central Greece and the Peloponnesus, Corinth had been built just north of Acrocorinth, a rocky hill rising to 1,886 feet and affording an almost impregnable fortress. The port of Lechaeum faced the Adriatic Sea on the west, and Cenchrea opened to the Aegean Sea on the east. Corinth dated to about 800 B.C., but Lucius Mummius leveled it to the ground in 146 B.C. Julius Caesar rebuilt it in 46 B.C. So the city was both old and new.
The population also deceives us a bit. More than twenty times larger than Athens, Corinth officially counted only its free citizens—Greeks, Italians, Roman army veterans, business and commerce people, and Orientals including a large number of Jews. Corinth was also home to nearly a half million slaves, bringing its overall population to about 700,000.
Along with its commerce, Corinth was famous for its immorality. For nearly five hundred years the Greek verb korinthiazesthai (“to Corinthianize”) referred to sexual immorality, a condition at its height in Paul’s day. The city worshiped the usual pantheon of Greek gods with a special focus on Aphrodite, her temple, and one thousand sacred prostitutes. It also boasted temples to Malicertes, Apollo, and Asclepius, the god of healing.
I have visited Corinth with the aid of a Greek official who showed me a portion of the tombs not open to tourists. There, clay replicas of human body parts showed the kinds of diseases most commonly brought before Asclepius for his healing. Sexual organs abounded in the collection, indicating that various kinds of sexually transmitted diseases probably ran rampant through Corinth. Into this city came the apostle, fresh from his debate on the Areopagus. Here God called him to plant a new Christian community. Little did he know it would become one of the most diverse and difficult groups of the first-century church, coping with all the problems transformed pagans could bring into a congregation.
Today, the church of Jesus Christ once again faces the challenge of decaying cities. Every sin known to humankind not only plagues urban sprawl, but thrives there. Furthermore, that’s where people live. Lots of people. Most people. In the country of Austria, large in land area by European standards, one-third of all the population lives in the city of Vienna. Mexico City alone has a population greater than all of Canada. Of course, we dare not forget tribal missions and rural ministry, but to make an impact of dramatic proportions for God, the church must understand how to serve the city.
II. COMMENTARY
Corinth!
MAIN IDEA: Christians working together can present an effective and long-lasting ministry in cities as long as they focus on the redeeming power of Jesus Christ and his Word.
A. Tentmakers in the City (vv. 1–4)
SUPPORTING IDEA: People with similar interests and occupations can cooperate together to forward the progress of the gospel.
18:1–2. Paul found a fascinating couple in the city. We already know about the decree of Claudius (A.D. 49–50) driving Jews from Rome, so we know that this couple had not been in Corinth very long. Aquila, a Jew, came from Pontus, a province in the northeastern region of Asia Minor along the Black Sea between Bythynia and Armenia (2:9). His wife Priscilla (Prisca) was likely a Roman citizen. Like Paul, they worked as tentmakers. Longenecker speculates that, “Together, perhaps through Aquila’s craftsmanship and Priscilla’s money and contacts, they owned a tentmaking and leather-working firm, with branches of the business at Rome, Corinth, and Ephesus (cf. 18:2, 18–19, 26; Rom. 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 4:19)” (Longenecker, 481).
Priscilla stands out as one of the great ladies of the New Testament, always depicted in team ministry with her husband. Of the six times the Bible mentions them, four times it names Priscilla first. From everything we know about Priscilla and Aquila, they represent mature Christians whose service to the kingdom swept far beyond their contact with Paul. Clearly, they were already believers by the time he met them in Corinth, probably having come to faith in Rome.
Luke tells us, Paul went to see them, but he does not tell us why. Had their reputation reached the apostle in Macedonia? Did he know them professionally through the tentmaking trade? Did he just wander into that portion of the marketplace and meet them, thereby receiving an invitation to their home? Luke indicates only that their profession and their faith brought them together in a bond that would last Paul’s lifetime.
18:3. Paul wrote often about his “secular occupation” and seemed to take a good bit of healthy pride in his self-support (1 Cor. 4:12; 1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Cor. 11:7). Only here, however, does the Bible tell us Paul was a tentmaker, working either in leather or cilicium, cloth woven from goat’s hair. Willingness to work to support oneself while proclaiming the gospel served as a life principle for Paul. Perhaps this came from his rabbinic days when students were required to adopt a trade so they need not depend upon teaching for a livelihood. The wisdom of the ages haunts us today. Many teachers still wonder whether one can make a living at such a task, and many college and seminary students struggle with the potential of “tentmaking” as a means of ministry.
In today’s selfish society, such a practice runs against the grain, but we cannot escape its biblical precedent, not only in Paul who apparently practiced it part-time with the primary focus on preaching, but also in Priscilla and Aquila who never left their full-time work to carry out vocational ministry. A major principle surfaces here: there is no secular duty for a Christian; everything we take on, from changing diapers to governing a state, becomes a form of service to Christ (Col. 3:23–25).
If we put together the New Testament information on the public ministry of Priscilla and Aquila, the following time chart seems to indicate their whereabouts:
A.D. 50–53
Corinth
A.D. 53–57
Ephesus
A.D. 57–62
Rome
This couple will return again before our chapter ends. Before we leave them here, notice the Bible never indicates anything about Paul’s ministry to them, only about their ministry to him. In three different cities over some sixteen years he depended upon them, not they on him. It takes very little imagination to see the three of them in Corinth after a day in the marketplace, sitting by the fire as this wonderful couple kept the apostle spellbound with their stories about Rome.
18:4. Probably conforming to the pattern already laid by Priscilla and Aquila, Paul seems to have gone to the synagogue for ministry only on the Sabbath, presumably working full-time during the week. Indeed, Luke seems to make a distinct contrast between verses 4 and 5, primarily aimed at showing again how we accomplish biblical ministry through a team rather than through an individual. Only after Silas and Timothy arrived did Paul give himself completely to preaching. Meanwhile, he dialoged with Jews and proselytes, trying to persuade them to accept the Christian message.
B. Witness to the City (vv. 5–11)
SUPPORTING IDEA: In the providence of God, the foolishness of preaching leads to faith in the gospel and the development of the church.
18:5–6. How God blessed Paul in Corinth! Not only did he enjoy the fellowship of Priscilla and Aquila, but now his teammates rejoined him and brought with them money from the congregation of Philippi (2 Cor. 11:9; Phil. 4:14–15). News from Thessalonica also encouraged him (1 Thess. 3:7–10). What more could a missionary evangelist want—sound reports of effectiveness at a previous stop, a solid base on which to begin evangelism in the city, and substantial funds to free him up to give full-time to the gospel.
We can go clear back to Pisidian Antioch (13:46–52) to see this pattern of ministry—preaching in the synagogue, rejection, direct contact with Gentiles. In response to the opposition and abuse, Paul adopted a typical Jewish symbol and shook out his clothes (Acts 13:51). He had fulfilled his responsibility as a Jew. Their rejection and the ultimate judgment for rejection would be on their heads (Ezek. 33:4; Matt. 23:35; 27:25; Acts 5:28). As in Pisidian Antioch, Paul did not go to the Gentiles permanently, even though the language at the end of verse 6 seems to suggest that. He turned from Jews to Gentiles in Corinth, but he would repeatedly go back to the Jews and their synagogues in future ministry.
18:7–8. The first Corinthian congregation met in the house of Titius Justus, also called Gaius Titius Justus in 1 Corinthians 1:14 and sometimes linked with the Gaius of Romans 16:23. He was a God-fearer before Paul came to town. Now he became a Christian, as did Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household. Crispus was not the first believer in Corinth, but quite likely became the most prominent.
We marvel at God’s movement in this city. When Paul had to leave the synagogue, God not only provided a home for his ministry but one located directly next to the synagogue. In this prime location many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized. We know two of those converts from this passage and yet another name from Romans 16:23—Erastus, the director of public works.
Though Christians do not need external sources to confirm their confidence in Scripture, it is always interesting to see what archaeologists unearth. Polhill observes, “An inscription has been excavated in a plaza adjacent to the theater at Corinth. It mentions Erastus as the treasurer (aedile) of the city who provided the funds for the plaza” (Polhill, 385).
18:9–11. We have become quite accustomed to visions in Acts. Here is another one. This time the vision came in the midst of spiritual prosperity in the growing church. We should not forget that Paul said he came to Corinth with fear and trembling (1 Cor. 2:3). We may also assume ongoing opposition from the Jews headquartered right next door to the house-church. Unlike the Macedonian vision which moved Paul geographically in a different direction, here the Lord simply assured him of his safety and affirmed the mission already underway. In response, Paul continued in Corinth for a period of eighteen months teaching them the word of God. “The Lord” inevitably refers to Jesus in Acts (23:11), precisely whom Paul had already seen on the Damascus Road.
We should not move too quickly over the phrase I have many people in this city (v. 10). Does this mean people already converted like Elijah’s seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal? Or is the Lord projecting the vast number of believers who would make up the rather large Corinthian congregation before Paul left the city? Marshall suggests, “The saying indicates divine foreknowledge for the success of the gospel in Corinth (cf. 13:48). Fortified by this message, Paul could look forward to its double fulfillment in his safekeeping from persecution (18:12–17) and in successful evangelism (18:11)” (Marshall, 296). Morgan, in typical eloquence, expands the concept of the phrase.
So the Lord speaks of every great city long before the people to whom he refers are manifest to others. Do not put this out of its historic relation. This word was not said when the church had been formed. This was not said of those whom we call saints in Corinth. It was said at the point when this man seemed to be at the end of his work, and was filled with fear, and with trembling of soul, even though there had been a measure of success.… I think from that moment as this man passed through the streets, or talked in the house of Titus Justus, or looked at the curious crowd who came to him, he was forevermore looking, hoping that he might see beneath the exterior that repelled him, because it was so unlike his Lord, those whom his Lord numbered among his own. “I have much people in this city.” What an inspiration for the Christian worker in a great city given over to corruption (Morgan, 429–430).
C. Protection from the City (vv. 12–17)
SUPPORTING IDEA: When Christians face trouble and even danger, God can raise up support from the most unlikely places or the most unlikely people.
18:12–13. We can fairly well estimate that Paul had been in Corinth since the autumn of A.D. 50 and remained there until the spring of 52. Gallio became proconsul of Achaia on July 1, A.D. 51. Apparently, the Corinthian Jews decided it was worth another crack at the renegade rabbi, and they brought him into the court (bema, 2 Cor. 5:10). On what charge? The usual one—acting against Roman law. Since the bema was located in a city square, this would have been a very public discussion. The outcome fixed the attitude of Rome toward Paul’s ministry.
Was the charge directed against the breaking of Roman law or Jewish law? Certainly a Roman official would be more interested in any case regarding Roman law. The completely disinterested Gallio may tip us that the Corinthian Jews, however unwisely, complained that Paul broke their own Jewish laws. Still, a third possibility suggests that the Jews intended Gallio to understand that Paul had broken Roman law. His interpretation threw the case right back to them since he could find no Roman law violated by Paul’s preaching in Corinth.
18:14–17. In typical form, Paul seems quite ready to answer the charge, whether Roman or Jewish law; he could deal with either one. On this occasion he had no opportunity to open his mouth; Gallio didn’t want to hear the defendant, since he considered the charge to center only on questions about words and names and your own law. Bock is helpful here.
The claim is that Paul leads others to worship God in a manner different from the Law. What is probably meant here is that Judaism was recognized as an official religion in the empire, but they are challenging that Christianity is not.… though it seems to be anachronistic to mention the religio licita concept. Bruce speaks more carefully of a collegium licitum. The issue involves a request to force Paul to leave us (the Jews) alone. Note the issue is stated in terms of worshiping God in the singular. This may show that the concern is Jewish practice, though others question the accuracy of their remarks because of this detail, expecting a plural reference to a pagan ruler about what Paul is saying to all men, including Gentiles. But it is Jews making the complaint, so a singular is appropriate. They are seeking a “restraining order” of sorts as far as Jews are concerned (Bock, 122–123).
In any case, Gallio seems not the least bit interested in Jewish theology. He stated flatly, I will not be a judge of such things. When he threw them out of the bema, they took it out on Sosthenes, beating him on the spot. Gallio still considered their behavior an internal problem of a minority group, unworthy of Rome’s intervention.
We have a problem here. In verse 8 Luke calls Crispus the ruler of the synagogue. In verse 16 it is Sosthenes. We dare not forget that as much as a year had passed, and Crispus surely resigned his post when the Christian congregation began its meetings at his home. Presumably Sosthenes became his successor.
That doesn’t answer the question of why he was beaten. Part of the problem stems from the fact that Luke gives us no antecedent for “they” at the beginning of verse 17. Did the Greeks beat Sosthenes, taking advantage of Gallio’s treatment of the Jews to express their ever-present anti-Semitism? Or does Luke intend us to understand that Sosthenes had become a Christian, or at least a Christian sympathizer, and the angry Jews beat him in frustration over Gallio’s judgment? Different scholars take different approaches on this, and we cannot know for sure from the text. We note with interest that a “Sosthenes” mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:1 was Paul’s assistant in writing that letter, though we have no concrete evidence to link the two.
D. Absence from the City (vv. 18–23)
SUPPORTING IDEA: We must always follow God’s leading, even when it takes us out of places which have become somewhat comfortable. In looking at the future we must always say that our plans depend on God’s will.
18:18. Paul stayed in Corinth until the spring of A.D. 52, then headed for Syria along with Priscilla and Aquila. We must watch the geography closely here, for Luke clearly summarizes the end of the second journey and without sequence. Even at the end of this verse, Luke backtracks to tell us about Paul’s vow and haircut (see “Deeper Discoveries”), a matter of no small disagreement among Bible scholars down through the years. Very likely Paul had in mind heading for Jerusalem from the moment of the Cenchrean haircut, but Luke never tips the text in that direction. Surely we must take Syria as Paul’s ending destination, specifically, the church at Antioch. Along the way he made several important stops, not the least of which took him to the Port of Ephesus in western Asia.
18:19–21. Ephesus did not appear as a “Profile” at the beginning of this chapter, for it does not enter the spotlight until Acts 19. On this quick trip Paul went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews, but apparently carried out no protracted ministry on this occasion. Despite scholarly squabble over Luke’s account here, it seems best to take him at his word and find Paul making a hasty trip to the synagogue before his ship continued across the Mediterranean to Caesarea. Paul promised a return to Ephesus. He made good his word on the third journey.
The ministry of Priscilla and Aquila took them to Ephesus for the next five years. Quite possibly, they moved there for business purposes. Still, two questions remain. What happened to Silas and Timothy? We simply do not know. Perhaps they remained at Corinth, or they could have gone to Jerusalem with Paul and continued with him on the third journey. Interestingly, Silas disappears from Luke’s account after Acts 18, leaving us to our own conjecture where he went. The other question has to do with Paul’s rush through Ephesus. Surely the best explanation is that he planned the trip to celebrate a Jewish feast and also faced the closing of sea traffic for the impending winter.
18:22. Upon landing on the Phoenician coast, Paul traveled the sixty-five miles southeast of Jerusalem and then up to Antioch. In scarcely more than a whisper Luke has brought the second journey to a close; just as swiftly, he will begin the third.
18:23. Paul probably remained at Antioch from the late summer of A.D. 52 through the spring of 53. Then he set his sights for Ephesus, fifteen hundred miles to the west. Along the way he visited the churches we have come to know, most likely including Tarsus, Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Pisidian Antioch, and perhaps some Luke has not told us about throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia. This ministry across Asia Minor was not new evangelism, but encouragement and establishment of existing congregations.
E. Testimony to the City (vv. 24–28)
SUPPORTING IDEA: Sometimes eloquence and zeal tend to mask a rather shallow message.
18:24. Another Lucan meanwhile, this time with the actual word inserted. We need to know what happened in Ephesus before Paul arrived, so Luke breaks into the narrative of Paul’s ministry to tell us about a new character—Apollos. A native of Alexandria (see “Life Application”), he was well-educated and well-versed in the Old Testament text. He had become a Christian evangelist and zealously proclaimed everything he knew about the gospel.
How he came to faith and why he came to Ephesus, Luke does not tell us. Since Luke has repeatedly emphasized God’s control over all events related to his people, he probably expects readers to understand Apollos’ visit to Ephesus and his encounter with Priscilla and Aquila as very much a part of the divine plan.
18:25. Apollos understood the way of the Lord, spoke with great zeal, and curiously, taught about Jesus accurately; yet he only knew about the baptism of John (see “Deeper Discoveries”). Presumably, Luke wants us to understand that Apollos’ knowledge of the gospel and the messianic truth about Jesus came through disciples of John the Baptist, thereby limiting his understanding to pre-Pentecost Christian theology.
18:26. Like many preachers, what Apollos said was quite true. What he left out demonstrated his inadequate understanding of Christian truth. We may assume that he had no idea about the coming of the Holy Spirit, the founding of the church, and certainly the now extensive mission to the Gentiles. Who better to pick up on that deficiency than these stable and mature Christians, Priscilla and Aquila. Together they invited him home, and together they taught him the Word of God. We can only imagine the astonishment and joy with which Apollos received this new information.
18:27–28. Priscilla and Aquila would have been full of stories about the work in Corinth, the decision of Gallio, and the lengthy ministry of Paul in that city. Whatever the motivation, Apollos decided to leave Ephesus, where the ministry seemed clearly to be in capable hands. Carrying letters of recommendation (from Priscilla and Aquila?), he headed for Corinth, where he was a great help to those who by grace had believed.
This skilled debater appears again in the early chapters of 1 Corinthians, showing the appreciation of the Corinthian congregation for his ministry. We are not surprised by that, for the constant conflict between Christians and Jews in that city offered a great platform for someone who could eloquently demonstrate messianic Christology from the pages of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Some call Apollos the first Christian apologist, but surely that title must be reserved for Stephen. Others indicate that Apollos may very well have written Hebrews. Though the text of that book may reflect both the content and eloquence evident in this man’s public ministry, we have no overt evidence of that authorship.
MAIN IDEA REVIEW: Christians working together can present an effective and long-lasting ministry in cities as long as they focus on the redeeming power of Jesus Christ and his Word.
III. CONCLUSION
The Importance of the Local Church
Ministry in the cities of this chapter (Corinth and Ephesus) centers in the faithfulness of a local congregation and the way believers related themselves to it. Faithfulness to a local congregation ought to be standard lifestyle for believers because we need it ourselves, the congregation needs us (Rom. 12:5), and the Lord works through local churches to accomplish the task of the universal body and the expansion of God’s kingdom on earth.
Every character in our chapter demonstrates faithfulness to local groups of believers—Paul, Silas, Timothy, Priscilla, Aquila, Titius Justus, Crispus, Apollos, and of course, Luke. When believers gather, the edification and encouragement of our mutual involvement with Christ makes possible evangelism in the community and expansion of the mission around the world.
W. A. Criswell, former pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, tells the story of a woman who had lived her life in rural north Georgia. She had been faithful to a little country church there. Later, she and her husband moved to Atlanta and raised two sons. Both boys gave their hearts to the Lord in that city and wanted to be baptized and join the church, even asking their mother to join with them. She couldn’t tear her membership or her heart away from the rural church where she had been baptized, and the issue was never resolved.
As the boys grew into men, they became leading businessmen in Atlanta. As Criswell tells it, “Down the aisle that mother came, placing her life in that church and asking prayer for her two sons. The pastor said that the mother went to those two boys and pleaded with them, but the boys smiled and said, “ ‘Mother, we understand, but we have found another life’ ” (Criswell, 610–611).
We find it hard to imagine how modern-day Christians could overdo faithfulness to and ministry in a local congregation where people love Jesus Christ and where the Word of God is faithfully taught from pulpit and in classrooms. Overcommitment and burnout characterized earlier decades, and could certainly happen again; but careless lack of interest seems a greater problem in our day.
PRINCIPLES
• Christians do not have to give up their jobs to be effective in God’s service.
• The local church maintained a high priority among devoted believers in the New Testament world.
• Hospitality is a proven and biblical way to serve God in holy stewardship.
• Women are very important in the church, including their roles in teaching Christian doctrine directly.
• God can encourage his people through visions or through the lives and encouragement of other believers.
• God will not allow his church and his work to be controlled by government or politics.
APPLICATIONS
• Practice a biblical work ethic—not capitalism, but stewardship.
• Acknowledge that work is a gift from God, not the result of sin.
• Encourage pastors and church leaders, and correct them (privately) when they are wrong.
• Be faithful to your commitments, and leave the problems to God.
• Prepare yourself well, but don’t be afraid to change.
• Be faithful to your church.
IV. LIFE APPLICATION
Alexandria!
We began with a city, and we end in a different one. This time to Alexandria, the home of Apollos, great cultural center, and grain port on the coast of North Africa where the Nile meets the Mediterranean. During the first century it was the second largest city in the Roman Empire and home to a great university modeled after Athens itself. Alexandria shipped 150,000 tons of grain annually to Rome.
It was also a city of no minor religious and philosophical significance. The birthplace of the Septuagint, it housed Clement, Origin, and Athanasius. Founded by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C., its merchant ships, the largest and finest of the day, sailed all across the Mediterranean. Its university was especially noted for the study of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and poetry. The Alexandrian library became the largest and best known in the world, reportedly housing from 400,000 to 900,000 books and scrolls.
The population consisted of Jews, Greeks, and Egyptians. Unlike other places in the empire, Jews enjoyed equal privileges with the Greeks. Though the philosophical thought of Alexandria seems inconsequential for the first-century church, it certainly impacted subsequent generations. The theological center there adopted the allegorical method, derived initially from Philo and developed in Christian theology by Clement and Origin. Perhaps Apollos carried such thought with him, though we have no signal in the text that his theology had developed that well; his life predated the full development of Christian theology in that great city.
Years ago, George Sweeting, then president of Moody Bible Institute, wrote about ministry to cities (The City, Moody Press, 1972). At the beginning of the second chapter he reminds us,
The city is here to stay. We cannot ignore, deplore, or flee it forever. At the present time 90 percent of the earth’s inhabitants live in five percent of the earth’s area. Within the next century it is claimed that 30 billion people may live in a universal city that covers the globe. Already the United States is a metropolitan society, with at least 60 percent of its population clustered in the cities. But in the urban areas the masses of coming generations will work out their destinies. In the cities the future of America will be decided for better or for worse (Sweeting, 19).
Surely Luke does not minimize the Derbes and Lystras of Paul’s day when he emphasizes urban congregations like Antioch, Corinth, and Ephesus, to say nothing of Jerusalem. This follows the missionary plan from the beginning, a plan continued in contemporary missionary strategy.
V. PRAYER
God, give us a new vision of the cities of our world. May we serve, pray for and support those willing to continue and extend urban ministry in these desperately needy centers of population. Amen.
VI. DEEPER DISCOVERIES
A. Edict of Claudius (v. 2)
Though we have discussed this briefly before, it may be useful to visit it again here. During the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Claudius, sometime between January 25 A.D. 49 and January 24 A.D. 50, Claudius was compelled to deal with riots regularly arising in the Jewish community in Rome. Suetonius tells us in Vita Claudius 25.4 that these riots occurred “at the instigation of Chrestus.” At this distance we have no guarantee that Chrestus was not some local agitator, but most scholars agree Suetonius was really describing conflict between Gentiles and Jews in Rome, or more properly, between Christian and non-Christian Jews, and that Chrestus was really a way of saying Christ. Ramsay tells us:
In the earliest stages of Christian history in Rome, such a mistake was quite natural; and Suetonius reproduces the words which he found in a document of the period. As Dion Cassius mentions, it was found so difficult to keep the Jews out of Rome on account of their numbers, that the Emperor did not actually expel them, but made stricter regulations about their conduct. It would therefore appear that the edict was found unworkable in practice; but Suetonius is a perfect authority that it was tried, and it is quite probable that some Jews obeyed it, and among them Aquila (Ramsay, 254).
B. Report from Thessalonica (v. 5)
Most likely 1 Thessalonians formed Paul’s response to the report Silas and Timothy brought from Thessalonica to Corinth. That bright epistle commends the growth of the church, encourages its steadfastness, defends the apostle’s motives, instructs them about the coming of the Lord (apparently a major doctrinal confusion at Thessalonica), and calls the congregation to patience.
While still at Corinth, Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians which focuses even more thoroughly on the second coming of Christ and how believers should live in the present world in anticipation of that great event. Both books stress that Christ’s coming is near, but they emphasize constant attention to right living rather than some kind of cultic expectation of immediacy. In 2 Thessalonians, eighteen out of forty-seven verses (38 percent) deal with end-time events.
C. Gallio’s Decision (v. 15)
Whatever the Jews intended with their accusations, Gallio clearly considered the complaint outside the boundaries of Roman authority, a theological dispute of intramural proportions in the Jewish community. His responsibility as Rome’s official presence in Corinth was to judge civil and criminal cases, not theological squabbles. The Roman proconsul saw Christianity as a subset of Judaism, not some new kind of religion which required approval of the courts. This is precisely what the apostles taught as evidenced by their constant pattern of going first to Jews in the synagogue and proclaiming that the Messiah had come.
Longenecker stresses the importance of this judgment by a Roman authority.
The importance of Gallio’s decision was profound. Luke highlights it in his account of Paul’s ministry at Corinth and makes it the apex from an apologetic perspective of all that took place on Paul’s second missionary journey. There had been no vindication from Roman authorities of Christianity’s claim to share in the religio licita (legally recognized religion) status of Judaism in Macedonia, and the issue had been left entirely unresolved at Athens. If Gallio had accepted the Jewish charge and found Paul guilty of the alleged offense, provincial governors everywhere would have had a precedent, and Paul’s ministry would have been severely restricted. As it was, Gallio’s refusal to act in the matter was tantamount to the recognition of Christianity as a religio licita; and the decision of so eminent a Roman proconsul would carry weight wherever the issue arose again and give pause to those who might want to oppose the Christian movement (Longenecker, 486).
D. Paul’s Vow (v. 18)
This simple notation by Luke has caused no minor riot among commentators and theologians for hundreds of years. Barnhouse does not mince words:
Here, Paul was definitely out of the will of the Lord. He had no right to take this vow, or to have his head shaved as a symbol of it. This was deliberate sin on his part. Since God puts everything in Scripture, I believe he allows us to see this episode so that we can realize that Paul was fallible in some things (Barnhouse, 168–169).
Barnhouse assumes Paul involved himself in some kind of law-keeping, thereby violating the grace principle laid down by the Jerusalem Council. In fact, this act had absolutely nothing to do with salvation or the preaching of the gospel of faith in Jesus. We do not know why or when Paul took a vow, but it certainly might have been during the dark hours of Jewish persecution in Corinth, perhaps in a deep night of prayer for God’s intervention, which he clearly received (18:9–10).
If this was a Nazirite vow (not all agree it was), it involved abstinence from alcohol and allowing one’s hair to grow until some point in the future, obviously Paul’s arrival at Cenchrea in this case. Then the head would be shaved and the hair offered as a burnt offering at the temple in Jerusalem (Num. 6:1–21; Acts 23:21–26). Paul never claimed to be anything but a Jew saved by grace so this practice of a Jewish custom should hardly be surprising.
Normally, the head would be shaved at Jerusalem, and the hair disposed of immediately. The law did not restrict doing it earlier and carrying the hair to Jerusalem for completion of the ritual. Certainly, the practice seems strange to us, but in the boundaries of Paul’s oriental world, this would be a very normal behavior. Polhill says:
In any event, the significance of the vow is that it shows Paul to have been a loyal, practicing Jew. In his mission to the Gentiles, he did not abandon his own Jewishness. He was still a ‘Jew to the Jews’ and still continued his witness in the synagogues. Interestingly, on Paul’s final visit to Jerusalem, when James wanted him to demonstrate his Jewish loyalty before the more legally zealous Jewish Christians, participation in a similar vow was chosen as the means to accomplish this (21:20–24) (Polhill, 390).
VII. TEACHING OUTLINE
A. INTRODUCTION
1. Lead Story: Serving the City
2. Context: Acts 18 is of singular importance in our book not only because of the decision of Gallio but because of the elongated ministry in Corinth. Since we have two lengthy New Testament epistles to this church, our understanding of those two books is greatly heightened by this chapter in which Luke shows us the foundational beginnings of the Corinthian congregation.
3. Transition: As we walk across Asia with the missionary team, we find ourselves plunged from the intellectual idolatry of Athens to the immoral idolatry of Corinth, and we see that the gospel can bear its witness of truth and righteousness in any environment. As always, God produces the results when his servants stay faithful to his Word.
B. COMMENTARY
1. Tentmakers in the City (vv. 1–4)
a. Friendship with Priscilla and Aquila (vv. 1–2)
b. Employment with Priscilla and Aquila (v. 3)
c. Ministry with Priscilla and Aquila (v. 4)
2. Witness to the City (vv. 5–11)
a. Proclamation in the synagogue (vv. 5–6)
b. Converts in Corinth (vv. 7–8)
c. Vision from the Lord (vv. 9–11)
3. Protection from the City (vv. 12–17)
a. Complaint of the Jews (vv. 12–13)
b. Decision by Gallio (vv. 14–16)
c. Beating of Sosthenes (v. 17)
4. Departure from the City (vv. 18–23)
a. The vow at Cenchrea (v. 18)
b. Visit to Ephesus (vv. 19–20)
c. Trip to Jerusalem (vv. 21–22)
d. Ministry at Antioch (v. 23)
5. Testimony to the City (vv. 24–28)
a. Description of Apollos (vv. 24–25)
b. Instruction of Apollos (v. 26)
c. Departure of Apollos for Corinth (vv. 27–28)
C. CONCLUSION: ALEXANDRIA!
VIII. ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION
1. Do you have special friends with whom you share common hobbies and interests? Can you find a way to use those common hobbies and interests in God’s work?
2. Do you know a young Christian with enthusiasm and zeal who needs more training in the basics of Christian faith? Are you willing to help train that young person?
3. What do you say when people try to prove that the gospel is wrong and Jesus is not the only way to salvation?