When the Lord says "Don't Be Afraid" | Acts 18:1-22

Paul arrives in Corinth discouraged, and the Lord meets him in a vision with four words that change everything: "I am with you." Pastor Zach walks through Acts 18:1-22 to show that the same Jesus who was forsaken on the cross so we would never have to be now says to the afraid, the far-off, and the still-a-mess: do not be afraid, for I have many in this city who are mine.

Scripture: Acts 18:1-22
Series: Living by the Spirit, Following the Way

The Way Church KC is a community of misfits & saints in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City following the Way of Jesus & pushing back darkness — together. Join us Sundays or learn more at thewaykc.church.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to Sermons from the Way Church KC, a community of Lizards and Saints in Kansas City, following the way of Jesus and pushing back darkness together.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Okay, it's time for the reading of God's word. If you'll please stand in honor of God's word, we'll read Acts 18, verses 1 through 22. I might accidentally read 23, but I'll try not to. That's where it cuts off in my Bible. After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them. And because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tent makers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, Your blood be on your own hands. I am innocent. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. And he left there. And he went to the house of a man named Titus Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul, believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you. And no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people. And he stayed a year and six months teaching the Word of God among them. But when Galio was proconsul of Achaea, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law. But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galio said to the Jews, If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. But since it's a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be judge of these things. And he drove them from the tribunal. And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Galileo paid no attention to any of this. After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Chintrae, he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. And they came to Ephesus and he left them there. But he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. But on taking leave of them, he said, I will return to you if God wills. And he set sail from Ephesus. One more. When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then he went down to Antioch. That's the reading of God's word this morning. Thank you. You can be seated.

unknown 4:03

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Amen. Thank you, Teresa. Well, welcome everyone to the Way Church KC. If we haven't gotten the privilege of meeting yet, my name is Zach. I have the privilege of being one of the pastors here at the Way Church. And if this is your first time here, your second time here, we are a new-ish church plant. We launched about two and a half years ago, and we exist to follow the way of Jesus and push back darkness together. And I just want to share with you like it's a lot of fun planting a church with your friends, with your family, with your best friends, with uh strangers who become neighbors, who become friends, who become family. Um, it's just a fun journey, and it's something I wouldn't trade for anything. Church planting is the wildest, craziest faith journey that we could ever go on. So I say we keep going. What do you guys say? Come on. Yeah, Teresa's excited. Um but yeah, so we're gonna jump right in. We have a lot of ground to cover, and then we have some stuff that we're going to uh do tonight. But before we jump in, I just want to acknowledge some friends that came up here this weekend from Garden City, Kansas. Um, Donnie and his friends from First Southern of Garden City, they came up to serve on a mission trip and they took care of our lawn. Me and Donnie were pulling weeds, the crew was painting the basement youth room, and so it doesn't have like bright white walls anymore. It has accessible greige, accessible greyge on the walls now, and it looks a lot better. Um, we did a lot of cleaning, a lot of projects around the church, and then they also did some evangelism training on Friday night with some of our team. Um, so thank you so much for coming. So grateful for you, Donnie. But I miss you a lot. Um, but it's been great meeting all your friends and already knew your wife, Casey. So it's great seeing you again. So, like I said, got a lot of ground to cover, so let's jump right in, Dayton. So we're in Acts chapter 18, but before we get there, I want to ask you a question. Who here has ever been afraid? Everybody? Everybody except oh, even Jevin's. So maybe you know, maybe you can shout it out if you got one, but what is your greatest fear? The unknown. That's a good one. Failing. Yeah? Say it again. Not enough, not measuring up.

unknown 6:24

Loneliness.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Loneliness. Fear of loneliness, yeah? Yeah, rejection. Rejection, absolutely. Yeah, for for me, my greatest fear is heights. I'm scared of heights. We had to put those uh projectors up there um when we first moved in, and they've gone out a couple times, and we had to go up there. All we have is an extension ladder. Jeremy can attest. I was terrified climbing up there. I'm like shaking on this ladder. It was terrifying. And I you I'll just get this out of the way now. You will never be able to convince me to go skydiving. I will never do that. You can try all you want. I will never. I my my friend Cameron tried to get me to go for his birthday one year and I refused. And I still refuse. But the that that sort of fear, um, the fear that I have of heights is not the sort of fear that I want to talk about. It's not the sort of fear that we're gonna look at. Um I want to begin by talking about the sort of fear that's not gonna make the news. It's the kind that we don't talk about. It's it's the kinds that some of you are alluding to, like the fear of the unknown, fear of not measuring up, fear of loneliness. Not the fear of a car accident or the fear of a diagnosis. It's that quieter sort of fear that you guys mentioned. It shows it's the fear that shows up the night before you walk back into something hard. It's uh the fear that comes the night before you go back to that um 12-step meeting after a relapse. It's the fear of walking back into the job with that boss that you don't get along well with, or that marriage that is struggling right now, or the relationship with the parent who hurt you. The night before you have to go to the same block, go back to the same city, the same room where you've already been chewed up once before. And you gotta try again, anyways. And I think some of you may know exactly what I'm talking about. Maybe you've felt that poll at two in the morning that says quit. Just quit. Throw in the towel, give up. It's too hard, it's too lonely. Nobody would blame you if you threw in the towel. You've given it your best shot, and it didn't work. So why keep showing up? And that that voice is real, if I can be honest with you. I felt that voice at different times in my journey. It's often loud. And it can be a patient sort of voice, a sinister sort of voice. It will wait for you on your weakest night in your weakest moment. But what I want us to see this morning is that is not the voice of the Lord. That voice of fear is not the voice of the Lord. That, I believe, is the voice of the enemy. And I think that we see this in Acts chapter 18. What we see, the arguably the greatest missionary who ever lived, the Apostle Paul, the man who wrote much of the New Testament, he felt that exact same fear. And I think that we often at times tend to picture Paul as bulletproof. He's bold, he's fearless, he is advancing the gospel mission through the work of church planting. But Paul tells us himself that when he came to the city that we're going to read about today, the city of Corinth, he came, and as his own words say in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 3, he came in weakness and in fear and much trembling. That verse gives us context into how Paul is walking into the city of Corinth. Mighty Paul was scared, he was tired, he was ready to be done. So the question for us this morning as we look at this is first of all, what got Paul to stay? And then, second, what does Jesus do for a frightened servant in a hard city? Well, let's find out together this morning. If you have your Bible, open it up to Acts chapter 18. If you don't have a Bible right outside of the sanctuary doors, we have some Bibles to give to you for you to keep, for you to take home, for you to mark up, underline, highlight, do all the things with our gift to you. If you've been with us through this series, we've been walking verse by verse through the book of Acts. Um, our series is entitled Living by the Spirit and Following the Way. And so we've watched how the Spirit of God pushed the gospel out of Jerusalem and into the whole world. Our kind of thematic verse that we've been looking at is Acts chapter 1, verse 8. I'll read it over you. I think I have it memorized, but I want to be sure I get it right. Acts chapter 1, verse 8. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. So we've been watching that play out over the book of Acts. The gospel has been expanding through churches planting churches. And Corinth, where they where we go today, it wasn't simply another city on Paul's itinerary. It was one of the most strategic cities in the Roman Empire. We've seen how Paul is continually planting churches in these strategic cities. Corinth sat on a narrow strip of land that was connecting northern and southern Greece. There were merchants traveling east and west through Corinth. There were ships that unloaded cargo on one side of what's called the Isthmus, and the goods were carried across the land and then loaded onto another ship. Money flowed through Corinth, cultures mixed in Corinth. You had soldiers, you had merchants, you had sailors, you had athletes, you had philosophers, you had slaves and businessmen all crowded within the streets of Corinth. And even interestingly, every two years, Corinth hosted what were known as the Isthmian Games. They were second only to the Olympic Games, as we all know. So thousands of visitors flooded the city, much like visitors are flooding Kansas City with the World Cup right now. And so that might may help us explain why tent makers like Paul, like Achillah, Aquila, and Priscilla found plenty of work. God had already equipped Paul with a trade that was perfectly suited for the city where he was sending him. And we also need to uh we need to understand the context of the morality of Corinth, what the city was like morally. Corinth was a morally bankrupt city. It was famous for being morally wrecked. There was a temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, towering over the city, and the worship that happened there was sexual. Corinth was so well known for sexual immorality that the Greeks actually turned the city's name into a verb. To Corinthianize. To Corinthianize. That meant to live a wild, broken lifestyle. So this was not a religious town with good values. This was a hard, dark, idle-soaked, broken city. If you want a modern picture of any city that resembled Corinth, think of the city that everyone says is too far gone. The city that everyone says is too broken. That is Corinth. And that's exactly where God sends his man. Not to a clean place, but to a hard place. And what happens in Corinth is going to show us something about how Jesus Christ builds his church and how Jesus carries his people. Here's our big idea this morning. Our big idea is this. It's kind of a mouthful. We ran out of room in our little blue box, so that's on me. But here's our big idea. In a hard, idle-soaked city, the risen Jesus sustains his frightened servants and builds his church through ordinary people, through ordinary work, and his own promised presence, so that we can keep following the way and pushing back darkness together without fear. So it's a mouthful, but write it down if you'd like. With that, there are three things from this text that I want us to live out. First, point one is that Jesus builds his church through ordinary people and ordinary work. Second, that Jesus meets the weary with his presence and his promise. And third, that Jesus keeps his word when the pressure comes. I'll pray and then let's dig in. Heavenly Father, we love you. We praise you. We thank you for being here in the room among us today. We we thank you that, Lord, you brought us all of us here today on purpose, for a purpose, that none of us are here by accident, whether we came all the way from Garden City for a mission trip or we're visiting this church for the first time just to see what God is doing in this house, Lord. We believe that you brought us here for a purpose. And so, God, I pray that today you would make yourself clear to us, that we would see clearly your son Jesus as we look at the book of Acts. And Lord, that we would leave here today as a people who are sent to live out your mission where we live, work, and play. In the Corinthian sections of Kansas City, Lord. The hard-to-reach places where we go out and be a people who are sent. We love you, we praise you, we thank you for the work of your son Jesus on the cross. I pray that we see that clearly, that we kneel at the foot of the cross today. We love you and we praise you. It's in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray. And all God's people said. Amen, amen. So, point number one this morning is that Jesus builds his church through ordinary people and ordinary work. Acts chapter 18, verses 1 through 4, the Word of God says, After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontius, recently come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome, and he went to see them. And because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them in words, for they were tent makers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. So notice what God does in verses 1 through 4. And also notice what he does not do. So Paul shows up in this huge, hostile, broken city all by himself. He's worn down from being run out of the last few towns. Remember, we've covered that the past few weeks. And God does not send him a lightning bolt. There's no burning bush moment for Paul up until this point. God doesn't part the sky. God sends Paul a couple. God sends Paul Priscilla and Aquila, a husband and wife. And the thing about Priscilla and Aquila is that they've been relocated to Corinth. They're not in Corinth because of a better paying job or an opportunity to advance in their tent-making careers. No. They are there because they were forced out of Rome. The Emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews from the city, and this husband and wife lost their home. Imagine how discouraging that must have been. And yet, God uses their suffering to connect them with Paul. And I think that if we can just be honest, church, that sometimes the greatest ministries begin with the most painful moments and maybe even the most painful departures or relocations. Think about the Old Testament scriptures. Joseph had to go to Egypt. Daniel had to go to Babylon. Naomi had to leave Bethlehem. Priscilla and Aquila had to leave Rome. And sometimes what feels like inconvenient relocation is actually divine deployment. You know, think about maybe what the next few months have in store for you. Maybe you're going to a place that you don't necessarily want to go. What if God is directing you to that place for a purpose so that you can reach people? Maybe God has moved you. Maybe God brought you to this neighborhood of Rosedale from Mexico. I don't know. Not because he has forgotten you or because he wants to get rid of you, but because he has work for you somewhere that you never expected. And so we see Paul, God connecting Paul with Priscilla and Aquila over a job. They had the same trade. They had this trade of tent making. They made tents, they worked with their hands. With leather and canvas. The people you're connecting with in your trade. So Paul moves in with them and they work together, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, day after day, stitching tents to pay the bills and to fund their ministry. And that's how the gospel of Jesus Christ got its foothold in Corinth. Over a workbench. And church, I really want us to hone in right here. I need you to hear this. Because so many of us, I think, we are prone to separating our lives into two. We split our lives into two. There's the spiritual part, Sunday, Sunday service. Maybe you're, you know, really religious and you go to our midweek service as well. Maybe it's your morning quiet time. That's your spiritual part, is how we think. And then there's the real part. The part where you actually spend most of your week when you're at your job, when you're at your local coffee house, when you're at the third space that you frequent, whatever that may be, the job, the shift, the gig, the hustle of life. And we incorrectly, incorrectly being key word, assume that God only really cares about the spiritual part. But I want you to hear today that that's not the case. That is not what the scriptures show us. Paul made tents. The man who wrote the book of Romans and wrote 1st and 2nd Corinthians and wrote the letter to the church at Ephesus, that man made tense. God does not see your work as a distraction to your calling. No, your workbench, your plumbing truck, the school you're teaching at, that is a mission field. That is your mission field. You know, some of you are creatives, maybe you're doing Photography or videography. Maybe you're an artist. Maybe you're an entrepreneur. Just grinding to make rent. Maybe you're in the position that you're working a job that you don't love in order to keep the lights on. Hear me. That is not a detour from the way of Jesus. No, that is the way of Jesus. You know, whether it's your, you know, whatever it is you do, you're on mission. You are on mission. And, you know, today I don't want to get ahead of myself, but we're we're celebrating somebody being sent out on mission today to Iowa to live in their vocation of being a doctor. Where Richard and Maria are going to be able to impact so many lives through the work of modern medicine and just living that out, living the gospel out through that vocation. So the kingdom often does not move through the upfront people. No, it moves through ordinary people doing ordinary work in ordinary places for an extraordinary God. Amen? But sometimes we can be worn down, worn out, running on fumes. And Acts 18 has a word for that as well, which brings us to point number two. Jesus meets the weary with his presence and his promise. Jesus meets the weary with his presence and his promise. Acts 18, verses 5 through 11, read this. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, Your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles. And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justice, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul, believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in the vision, Do not be afraid, but go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you. For I have many in this city who are my people. And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them. So I want us to notice something here in these verses. Jesus doesn't appear because Paul has failed. Paul doesn't receive a vision from the Lord because he has failed. No, Jesus appears because Paul is afraid. Those are not the same thing. Failure and fear are not the same thing. Fear is not the opposite of faith. Sometimes fear is simply the place where faith must go to work. In fact, that very command, do not be afraid. It tells us that Paul already was. And Jesus, the risen Christ, does not shame frightened servants. No, he strengthens them. Maybe some of you walked in here today carrying fears that nobody else knows about. Some of you were bold and shared some of those fears as we began. But maybe you're bottling that up, you're keeping that in. Maybe it's fear about your marriage. Maybe it's fear about your children. Maybe it's fear about your health. Maybe it's fear about your future. Maybe it's fear of just whatever. Insert what it is for you. Church family, you do not need shame in the midst of that fear. What you need is the same Savior who met Paul in Corinth. Now watch what happens as things heat up in verses 5 and 6. You can feel the strain there. Paul is occupied with the word, he's testifying about Christ. Then he is opposed, he's reviled, and he shakes out his garments and says, Your blood be on your own heads. The opposition turns ugly. They're not just disagreeing now. They're reviling him, they're insulting him, they're attacking him, they're mocking him. Paul shakes the dust off and he walks away grieved. And he keeps going, one foot in front of the other, plodding along. He meets Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, and Crispus believes, and many Corinthians believe and are baptized. But Paul is running on fumes. His gas tank, his spiritual gas tank, is on empty. What I think the picture of this text paints for us is that this is a man who is near the end of his ropes. As he is getting to the end of his second missionary journey, he doesn't have much left in the tank. And at first glance, I think that Paul's actions, they almost seem like emotional. They almost seem reactive. As if he's simply frustrated and walking away. But what the author Luke wants us to hear and wants us to see is a pointer to the Old Testament. Back in Nehemiah chapter 5, Nehemiah shook out the folds of his garment as a prophetic sign that God would likewise shake out those who broke covenant with him. So, in a sense, Paul is doing something similar. It's not a temper tantrum, it is a prophetic warning to the people of Corinth. And Paul says, Your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent. And those words come directly from Ezekiel chapter 33. God told Ezekiel that he was to be a watchman, that his responsibility was to sound the warning. If the people refused to listen after they had been warned, they bore responsibility for their own destruction. But if the watchman failed to warn them, God would hold that watchman accountable. So Paul is saying that, hey, I have faithfully warned you. I have preached Christ crucified and risen. I have fulfilled my responsibility. Whether they believe is now on them. It's now between them and God. So, church, that is incredibly freeing for us who share the gospel. We are responsible to faithfulness. We are responsible to preach Christ crucified. We are never responsible for the results. Only God saves sinners. We're to be obedient and to share. Right there, at his lowest, look at what Jesus does. Verses 9 and 10. We're going to slow down here because this is the core of this passage. This is the heart of it. I want to read it over you again one more time. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, do not be afraid, but go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you. For I have many in this city who are my people. Jesus doesn't send Paul like a five-step plan for being getting over fear. There's not a like, hey, do these three things and overcome fear. He tells, he doesn't give a John Shimmer pep talk. My wife Chelsea gives me a hard time because I am a lot like my dad, and I give these pep talks at the most inopportune times. That's not what's happening here. He doesn't say, hey, toughen up. You're an apostle. He says, do not be afraid. And then he gives three gifts. And church, what I want you to see is that this is the same thing Jesus is saying to you today. And they are the same three gifts that he gives to you today. Throughout the Old Testament, these words become God's favorite way of commissioning his servants. Do not fear, for I am with you. To Moses, do not fear, I will be with you. To Joshua, do not fear, I will be with you. To Jeremiah, do not fear, I will be with you. And now, here in the New Testament, Jesus says the very same words to Paul, do not fear, for I am with you. Do you see, family, what Luke is showing us? The risen Jesus is doing exactly what Yahweh did throughout the Old Testament. He is commissioning his servant with his own divine authority. So that means for us that Jesus isn't simply encouraging Paul. He is identifying himself as the covenant Lord who has always sustained his people and who will always sustain his people. So he makes that promise, do not fear, for I am with you. And then he has three gifts that he gives them. Let's look at those. First, his presence, for I am with you. Paul felt utterly alone in that city. I think somebody earlier said one of their fears was loneliness, was being alone. Paul felt that. Paul felt utterly alone. And Jesus says, You are not alone. I am here. And I honestly think that these four words are some of the most beautiful words in this passage. I am with you. Jesus doesn't promise an easy ministry to Paul. He doesn't promise a comfortable life. He doesn't promise to him wealth. He doesn't even promise immediate success. No, what he promises is himself. And that's a truth for us today. Jesus isn't promising you success. He's not promising you comfort. He's not promising you that the thing that you're walking through right now is going to work out how you want it. No, what he's promising you is himself. I believe that throughout the Bible, God's greatest gift has never been about his blessings. God's greatest gift has always been his presence. That's why the Bible begins with God walking with his people in the garden. And ends with God dwelling with his people forever in the new creation. The entire story of redemption, the story we read in this here book, is about God bringing his people back into his presence through Jesus Christ. So first his present. The second gift we see is his protection. The vision, it says, no one will attack you to harm you. Corinth alive. But Jesus says, Not unless I allow it. Jesus, in the same sense, is our protector. And third, this is the one that wrecked me as I was preparing this sermon. I was going over my sermon last night, and it brought tears to my eyes. The third gift that Jesus gives Paul in Corinth is his people. His people. He says, I have many in this city who are my people. Stop and think about with me what Jesus is saying. He is looking out over Corinth, over the idol temples, over the sex trade, over the drunk and the broken and the lost. And he says, mine. That one is mine. That one over there, still in the temple, still using, still running, mine. They just don't know it yet. Do you hear the grace in that? Jesus has people in that city who at that very moment look nothing like believers. They are worshiping idols. They are living in sin. They are not following the way of Jesus. They're not cleaned up. They're not in church on Sundays. Some of them are the very people who are reviling Paul. And Jesus already calls them his. That's why Paul can plant his feet in Corinth and stay for 18 months. Verse 11 says that he stays and teaches the word of God among them. He stays because Jesus already owns the harvest. So, church family, this is why we never lose heart in evangelism. This is why we continue to preach the gospel faithfully. This is why we continue to be a hospital for the sick in this neighborhood in a city set on a hill in the darkness of Kansas City. We don't preach hoping that someone might become Christ's. We preach because Christ already has his sheep. No. He was responsible for calling them through the gospel. And that's still our mission today. Now to bring that home to us. Maybe some of us are in recovery. Some of us come from different walks of life. Some of us love somebody who is still out there in the dark, who is still using, who's still lost, who's still living in sin. And maybe we've started to give up hope. Maybe we've started to believe that that person is too far gone. But what I believe is that what Jesus says over Kansas City is the same thing that he said over Corinth. I have many in this city who are my people. I have many in this city who are my people. You know, let's like hyper-localize it. Like that's a lot of the ministry we do, is a very hyper-localized, micro sort of look. Like let's just talk about our neighborhood. Let's just talk about Rosedale. Jesus says, I have many in Rosedale who are my people. And family, we've been seeing that begin to come to fruition over the two and a half years that we've done ministry here in this neighborhood. We've seen people who were far from God come to saving faith in Christ. Not because of anything we've done, but because of a God who is faithful, who has many in this neighborhood. May that always be our posture, church. The person you've written off, Jesus hasn't. The neighborhood that everyone says is hopeless. Jesus has people there. That's why we don't quit. That's why we don't quit on Kansas City. That's why we don't quit on Rosedale. That's why we don't quit on the United States. That's why we don't quit on anybody. And maybe, maybe you're sitting here this morning and you're still the one who is far off. Still afraid that you don't belong. And the Lord is telling you this truth right now. You are one of his people. And he has been coming to get you this whole time. Well, how do we know that? Well, point number three, you know that because Jesus keeps his word. Jesus keeps his word when the pressure comes. Spent a lot of time on that point. I promise this one's not as long. Verses 12 through 22. A lot of text, but shorter point. But when Galeo was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law. But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galio said to the Jews, If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things. And he drove them from the tribunal, and they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Galileo paid no attention to any of this. After this Paul stayed many days longer, and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Centre he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow, and they came to Ephesus, and he left them there. But he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period he declined. But on taking leave of them he said, I will return to you if God wills. And he set sail from Ephesus. When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. And that concludes Paul's second missionary journey. So Jesus makes a promise, and the question any honest person asks is, Does he keep it? Well, at in verses twelve through seventeen, here's the test, if you will. They drag Paul into a Roman court in front of the most powerful man in the region, the proconsul. The very attacks that Jesus said wouldn't harm him. And before Paul can even open his mouth to defend himself, Gallio throws the whole case out. Case dismissed. Now catch what just happened. Jesus didn't keep Paul out of court. The opposition still came. The attack was real, but Jesus overruled it. He didn't remove the storm. No, he stood in it. And he did it through the most unlikely instrument imaginable. A bored Roman official who didn't care about Jesus at all. Galileo wasn't trying to protect the church, he just didn't want to be bothered. And God used his indifference to shield his servant and keep the gospel advancing forward. That's often how God works. He is so sovereign, he is so in control that he can keep his promise to you through people who don't even know that they're serving him. Paul doesn't need a lawyer. He has a sovereign king. Galillo thinks he's dismissing an insignificant religious dispute. He has no idea that he's becoming an instrument of God. And church, family, that ought to encourage us. God is not limited to working through Christians. He governs kings, he governs judges, he governs employers, he governs governments. He even uses those who don't acknowledge him to accomplish his perfect purposes. Then look at how the chapter ends, verses 18 through 22. Paul finally leaves Corinth. He stops at a place called Cintrae, and he cuts his hair because of a vow he had made, a vow of devotion and thanks to God. And some people stumble over Paul's vow here because they wonder if he's returning to legalism. I just want to make the point that is not at all the case. There's a profound difference between observing a custom as Paul was and trusting a custom. So Paul didn't believe that this vow made him right with God. Christ alone had done that in Paul's life. Rather, what it seems to be is an act of gratitude, a tangible way of saying, Lord, you have carried me through Corinth. Church gratitude always finds expression. People who have experienced God's faithfulness want to worship him. Paul says, I'll come back if God wills, and then he sails home all the way back to Antioch, all the way back to the sending church of so many of these church plants, where the journey had begun, and just like that, the second missionary journey is over. So, Ashton, you can come up and uh begin to close us in worship as we land the plane. I want to bring us back to those verses in the The most important word in this passage, in my opinion, is four words long. I am with you. I am with you. Where have we heard that before? Well, at the very end of Matthew's gospel, the risen Christ says to his disciples, Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. That's who Jesus is. That's one of the names given to him. Emmanuel, which means God with us, the God who came near to you. But here's the thing: the only reason that Jesus can stand by Paul and say that no one will harm you is because there was a day when Jesus was harmed. There was a day when Jesus walked into the ultimate hostile city and he was not protected. He was arrested. He was beaten and nailed to a Roman cross. And in the darkest moment, the one person who had never once been alone, being in eternal relationship with the, as a part of the Trinity, the eternal Son, always with the Father, cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus was seemingly abandoned. Jesus was seemingly left. He took the I have left you that our sin deserved, so that you and I would never ever have to hear it. He was forsaken so that you could be told on your worst and most frightened night, I am with you. I will never leave you. And that other line, I have many in this city who are my people. That's the sound of grace, family. You don't gotta clean yourself up before coming to Christ. Before becoming one of his people. You don't earn your way into that sentence. I think so often we can think we've got to earn our way. No, he came and got you while you were still a mess. That's the only way any of us got in. That's the only way I got in. Y'all know my story. So let me land it right there. Maybe you walked in this morning afraid, afraid to keep going, afraid you're too far gone, that your story has too much darkness in it for God who wants anything to do with you. Afraid this city or this season is hopeless. Well, I want you to hear the voice of the risen Jesus speaking over Corinth and speaking over Rosedale and speaking right now over you. Do not be afraid. I am with you, for I have many in this city who are mine. And friends, maybe today is the day you find out that you are one of them. If you've never trusted Jesus, you don't got to fix yourself up first. You just have to come. Come as the mess you are, and let the one who is forsaken in your place bring you home. And for those of us who are already followed away, stop running. Stay in the hard place that he's called you to. Keep showing up, keep speaking, keep pushing back darkness because we don't do it alone. We do it together, and we do it while Jesus with Jesus standing right beside us. So as we close, and Ashton closes.

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