SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we all need encouragement and motivation to speak boldly about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Don't we?
SPEAKER_01: Very, very few of us don't need motivation and encouragement to speak to others about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Especially when those we speak to don't want to hear it.
SPEAKER_01: Or when they just flat out reject the good news of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Our passage in Acts provides this encouragement for us by pointing us not to what we do, not to the words that we use, not to the times that we speak of Jesus, but instead by pointing to God's powerful plan and work.
SPEAKER_01: Now as you're opening your Bible or your device again to Acts chapter 18, I want you to consider an Old Testament passage with me.
SPEAKER_01: So you keep going to Acts, and I'll just keep talking as you turn, because I want us to process a passage in the Old Testament in light of Acts 18 and vice versa.
SPEAKER_01: Because our passage this morning relies heavily on something that God stated through the prophet Isaiah 700 years before the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: I was going to say that I would project this text on the screen since you're in Acts, but you'll just have to listen carefully now instead.
SPEAKER_01: The Isaiah passage comes from Isaiah 49, and it's one of those famous servant texts.
SPEAKER_01: There are several chapters in the book of Isaiah that refer to God's servant.
SPEAKER_01: It's a special individual, a unique individual that the New Testament clarifies is the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And Isaiah 49 is a call for Gentiles to listen to God's servant.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what it says in Isaiah 49, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: God says, listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar.
SPEAKER_01: And you need some geography to be able to understand what that's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Because in ancient, amen, says the geography professor.
SPEAKER_01: In ancient Israel, they didn't possess the coastlands.
SPEAKER_01: Those were areas that they did not conquer when God told them to conquer it.
SPEAKER_01: So when God says, listen to me, O coastlands, that means not his people, the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: In most cases, that would be the Philistines.
SPEAKER_01: So God is addressing not his people and telling people from afar, listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: There are some descriptive statements about God's servant that follow that, with a declaration that this servant has a specific duty.
SPEAKER_01: His specific duty is to bring back the twelve tribes of Jacob to their God.
SPEAKER_01: It's a specific duty.
SPEAKER_01: Then Isaiah records this.
SPEAKER_01: This is the voice of God speaking.
SPEAKER_01: It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: No, that that that's that's too small, too insignificant.
SPEAKER_01: No, I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation would reach to the end of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So God told the coastlands and the peoples from afar, listen up.
SPEAKER_01: The message of my servant is not just for my people, it's for all of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And my servant will bring salvation not just to my people, but to the ends of the world.
SPEAKER_01: So sometime around 700 BC, God told his people that he would bring them back to himself.
SPEAKER_01: That's the servant's primary responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: But doing that is too light, it's too insignificant, too small of a thing.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning that God, saving his special people, Israel, doesn't display God's glory in as magnificent and marvelous a way as possible.
SPEAKER_01: No, for God to show the weight of his glory in all of its fullness, he would make his servant into a light for the nations so that everyone could partake of God's salvation.
SPEAKER_01: We can go back even further than that.
SPEAKER_01: God promised Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him and his descendants.
SPEAKER_01: When we get to Isaiah, that promise is restated with more specificity.
SPEAKER_01: God would bring back the wanderers of his people and bless the world by providing salvation for all the peoples of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Now, God didn't just say that he would extend his salvation throughout the world.
SPEAKER_01: He said more than that.
SPEAKER_01: He told how it would happen.
SPEAKER_01: See, in Romans chapter 9, 10, and 11, the Apostle Paul takes a break from his in-depth doctrinal exposition to answer a question: why is it, why is it that the majority of Jewish people don't see Jesus as their Messiah?
SPEAKER_01: And in the middle of that, end of chapter 10 of Romans, beginning of chapter 11, the Apostle Paul says, this is no surprise.
SPEAKER_01: God said this is what would happen.
SPEAKER_01: And to prove it, he goes all the way back to the Torah, to the law, to the fifth book of the law in Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle Paul quotes Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Moses recorded the words of God.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, there we go.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's not up there yet.
SPEAKER_01: I can see it.
SPEAKER_01: You guys can't see it.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, we'll wait.
SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy 32, verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: God said, I will make them, Israel, jealous with those who are no people.
SPEAKER_01: I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to that again.
SPEAKER_01: God said, I will make them, my people Israel, jealous with those who are no people, and I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
SPEAKER_01: Who are the no people?
SPEAKER_01: The coastlands in Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: The nations from far away.
SPEAKER_01: The people who don't belong to him.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm going to use all of those people to provoke my people.
SPEAKER_01: That's my way.
SPEAKER_01: And so the apostle Paul in Romans discusses how God hardened the hearts of the Jews to the gospel so that Jesus would not impact them in the same way.
SPEAKER_01: God intended that as the way for the rest of the world to hear and respond to the good news.
SPEAKER_01: Now think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: I just covered a whole bunch of history and geography for you.
SPEAKER_01: Let's condense it.
SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy was written about 1400 BC.
SPEAKER_01: So God said in 1400 BC, shortly after he brought them out of Egypt, a time will come when I will provoke you to anger by people who are not my people.
SPEAKER_01: 700 years later, God said through Isaiah, my servant is going to become a light not just for Israel, but for the nation.
SPEAKER_01: And 700 years after that is Acts chapter 18.
SPEAKER_01: That means that Acts chapter 18, 19, 20, and so on display God's fulfillment of his promise to harden the hearts of the Jews to the gospel so that you and I could hear it.
SPEAKER_01: God kept his promise.
SPEAKER_01: He kept his promise in exactly the way that he intended, so that the rest of the world could hear the good news of God's provision of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: So don't think when you open the book of Acts that it's merely a history book recounting what the early church did.
SPEAKER_01: It is that.
SPEAKER_01: It is the record of God's fulfillment of his word so that you and I could hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So that the rest of the world, the coastlands, and everyone beyond that could hear and believe.
SPEAKER_01: God did what he said he would do, and we are the recipients of his faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: But the gospel is always, the Apostle Paul said, for the Jew first and then for the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: And it comes to the Gentiles, the non-Jews, through the unbelief of the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we find taking place in Acts 18.
SPEAKER_01: This occurs through the establishment of two key churches in major Gentile cities.
SPEAKER_01: Ancient Corinth and Ancient Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: You'll have to look at the back of your study Bible to see a map.
SPEAKER_01: I can't show it on the screen yet.
SPEAKER_01: These two cities are located on different continents, but they're only about 300 miles apart in a straight line.
SPEAKER_01: Corinth is in southern Greece.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesus is across the Aegean Sea in Asia Minor.
SPEAKER_01: Can we get there now?
SPEAKER_01: Guys, can we advance to the next slide?
SPEAKER_01: I can't use my remote.
SPEAKER_01: There we go.
SPEAKER_01: So Achaea on the left hand side is southern Greece.
SPEAKER_01: On the right is Asia Minor and modern day Turkey.
SPEAKER_01: Both of these cities, Corinth and Ephesus, could vie for the sin city of the ancient world.
SPEAKER_01: They need the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: But the Jewish rejection of Jesus rises to the forefront of Luke's story in these two cities.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul's mission becomes more starkly directed, not to the Jews, but to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: And through it all, God shows that he brings about his plan, started in the Old Testament, by confronting the unbelief of the Jews in the present through the proclamation and progression of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what happens: the good news of Jesus does two things.
SPEAKER_01: It confronts unbelief, and it brings salvation to those who believe.
SPEAKER_01: Consider this with me by taking a quick glance at the two large segments in this passage and then stepping back to look at the whole.
SPEAKER_01: The first segment is Acts 18, verses 1 through 17.
SPEAKER_01: And this is where Paul proclaims the gospel in Corinth.
SPEAKER_01: And it's in Corinth that we see the work of Jesus confronting unbelief in such a way that it brings about judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Unbelief, specifically in the Jewish people, brings about judgment.
SPEAKER_01: The first five verses of chapter 18 introduce us to the situation.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's joined here by a Jewish couple with similar backgrounds.
SPEAKER_01: They're leather workers.
SPEAKER_01: We know it as tent makers.
SPEAKER_01: They may have actually been making tents, but we don't know that exactly.
SPEAKER_01: What the language implies is that they worked with leather.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they made tents, maybe they did other things.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of hard to figure out how Paul could be a traveling tent maker and carry all of the elements necessary for making tents, but it doesn't really matter.
SPEAKER_01: He works with his hands, he works with leather to make things, to provide for himself.
SPEAKER_01: The couple that he's introduced to here, Aquila and Priscilla, were expelled from Rome by Emperor Claudius' action and driving all of the Jews out of Rome, about 49 AD or so.
SPEAKER_01: What's fascinating is that we don't know how Aquila and Priscilla came to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But it's clear they are believers.
SPEAKER_01: Paul works with them to support himself, and he spends every Sabbath day in the synagogue trying to convince people that Jesus is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: He's debating, he's reasoning, he's trying to convince them from their Bibles Jesus fits the fulfillment of God's promises.
SPEAKER_01: Then when Silas and Timothy arrive from Berea in Macedonia, Paul is able to devote himself full time to gospel work instead of being bivocational.
SPEAKER_01: But by that time, the gospel message has already stirred the Jews up.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: It says, when they opposed and reviled him, there are two distinct actions taken against Paul.
SPEAKER_01: One is that they opposed him.
SPEAKER_01: This implies a verbal kind of opposition that likely accompanied unkind and harsh behavior.
SPEAKER_01: And they also reviled him.
SPEAKER_01: Reviled is the word for blaspheme.
SPEAKER_01: In that culture, that meant they demeaned him in public.
SPEAKER_01: They shamed him, attempting to ruin his reputation in Corinth.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul shakes his garments out and in a demonstration of saying, I'm done with you guys.
SPEAKER_01: I'm innocent of any wrongdoing.
SPEAKER_01: I've shown you the way, I've declared the gospel to you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, Your blood be on your own heads.
SPEAKER_01: I am innocent.
SPEAKER_01: From now on, I'm going to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: There are a couple of things we need to notice here.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing in verse 6 that we need to notice is that this is a reference to Ezekiel chapter 18.
SPEAKER_01: So we notice again, in all of this section, there's this very rich and tight tie to the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: We think that it's just this progression of Paul's missionary journey.
SPEAKER_01: It's not.
SPEAKER_01: It's a theological exposition of God's program.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God said would happen.
SPEAKER_01: In Ezekiel 18, God said that the one who refuses to believe him has his blood on his own head.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, the one who rejects God, who says, No, thanks, God, I don't want what you have to offer, has chosen his own judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And so his blood, his condemnation, his consequence is on himself.
SPEAKER_01: But more specifically, Paul alludes to Ezekiel 33.
SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel 33, verses 4 and 5.
SPEAKER_01: There, God spoke of a walled city that was being invaded by a foreign army.
SPEAKER_01: And a watchman would sit on the wall waiting and watching, and when he saw the enemy, he would blow the trumpet as a warning to everyone in the city.
SPEAKER_01: And so everyone who didn't take notice of the trumpeter and the sound of the warning would have his blood on his own head.
SPEAKER_01: He could have taken the warning and saved his life, but he didn't.
SPEAKER_01: And so the consequence that he faces is his own fault.
SPEAKER_01: So to refuse God's warning and to reject God's word is to choose judgment over life.
SPEAKER_01: It's to choose consequence over forgiveness, which leaves the cause of judgment squarely on the one who refuses to believe.
SPEAKER_01: Hear me clearly, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't choose to believe in Jesus, everything that comes to you is your own fault.
SPEAKER_01: Not only is it your own fault, you choose it.
SPEAKER_01: This is where we see that Scripture condemns unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: And unbelief brings judgment.
SPEAKER_01: If you refuse the Lord Jesus Christ, you get eternal wrath and divine judgment on your own head by your own choice of refusal.
SPEAKER_01: There's a second detail we need to notice here, and that's the declaration that Paul is shifting his ministry focus away from primarily Jewish people to Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel will still go first to the Jews, but this is Luke's marker that God's promise to Moses and to Isaiah is coming to pass.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews will have hardened hearts, and God will use that time to bring Gentiles, non-Jews, to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This statement is a shift in that direction.
SPEAKER_01: And I love what happens next.
SPEAKER_01: Paul isn't welcome in the Jewish synagogue.
SPEAKER_01: He's not welcome there.
SPEAKER_01: They kick him out.
SPEAKER_01: So what does he do?
SPEAKER_01: He starts preaching next door.
SPEAKER_01: Literally.
SPEAKER_01: Next door.
SPEAKER_01: And not just next door, but next door in the house of the ruler of the synagogue.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the ruler of the synagogue has trusted in Christ and become a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the kindness and the mercy of God at work.
SPEAKER_01: On the whole, the Jews of Corinth reject the good news of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But Crispus, the ruler, the president, you might say, of the synagogue, believed in the Lord along with his whole household.
SPEAKER_01: So even when a kind of hardening of heart exists among the Jewish people about Jesus, there is always a remnant of Jewish people that God brings to saving faith.
SPEAKER_01: And here it just so happens to be the guy in charge of the synagogue that he's just been booted out of.
SPEAKER_01: And apparently, that ruler, Crispus, got the boot as well.
SPEAKER_01: Because in verse 17, a different ruler of the synagogue is present, and he gets beaten by a public mob.
SPEAKER_01: So do you feel this kind of tension that's happening in this account?
SPEAKER_01: Paul's ethnic people don't want him or his message.
SPEAKER_01: Even the synagogue president can't stem that tide, that movement.
SPEAKER_01: But God is gracious to Paul and lets him know you're gonna stay here and I'm gonna protect you, and nobody's gonna harm you because I want the gospel to be proclaimed in this city.
SPEAKER_01: And so verse 11 tells us he stays for another 18 months.
SPEAKER_01: So the Jews in verse 12 take the issue to court.
SPEAKER_01: Fine, if we can't get you out amongst ourselves, then we're gonna get the Roman government involved.
SPEAKER_01: They can't stop Paul in their own circles and their own synagogues.
SPEAKER_01: So they intend to involve the Romans.
SPEAKER_01: You can see then that their unbelief is not merely personal.
SPEAKER_01: That is, it's not an individual choice that's that's not being acted upon.
SPEAKER_01: They are corporately, together, on the whole, rejecting the gospel so strongly that they want it eradicated from Corinth.
SPEAKER_01: This is why Paul says, your blood is on your own heads.
SPEAKER_01: They've chosen judgment from God instead of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And it's truly ironic that the government, the Roman government, on the other hand, exonerates Paul.
SPEAKER_01: They say, he's not done anything illegal.
SPEAKER_01: He's not done anything wrong.
SPEAKER_01: This is the official ruling has been issued now regarding Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, times before, Paul's been brought before city leaders.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first time we really see him brought before a Roman government official.
SPEAKER_01: And this Roman official doesn't see the Christians as a threat to Rome, but as a subset, a sect within Judaism.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's not always going to be that way in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: But here, this is a shift where Paul finally has some good news.
SPEAKER_01: Rome says, Yeah, we don't, we don't, you're not a problem.
SPEAKER_01: Jews, you take care of it yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Now we know that the New Testament books of 1 and 2 Corinthians stem from Paul's 18 months in Corinth.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's 18 months brought people to saving faith, but it didn't fix them.
SPEAKER_01: Because they have massive problems.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what I said earlier that ancient Corinth and ancient Ephesus could vie for the ancient sin cities of the world?
SPEAKER_01: The gospel work was effective and the church was established.
SPEAKER_01: But the church is still growing, not just in numbers, but in maturity and in understanding.
SPEAKER_01: The tragedy within that is that God's chosen people in large part have rejected Paul.
SPEAKER_01: They've rejected God's message and they've rejected their Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Rather than having Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they choose to have him as their judge.
SPEAKER_01: So from this point on to the end of the book of Acts, Jewish unbelief dominates the story.
SPEAKER_01: But God knew that.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, that's what God intended to use as the way for the gospel to go from Abraham's people to the coastlands and to the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_01: We shouldn't be surprised by it.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we should rejoice in it because Christ the King has used this.
SPEAKER_01: Unbelief, beloved, does not hinder Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Unbelief does not hinder the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, unbelief may be Christ's means of actually spreading the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of this section, we see that by the time of the end of this period of time in chapter 18 and the first part of chapter 19, all of Asia, that means all of Asia Minor, all of modern-day Turkey had heard the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: All because of the Jewish people rejecting Paul and him moving and saying, okay, I'm taking the gospel to the Gentiles now.
SPEAKER_01: So, yes, speaking of Jesus, reasoning with people about the gospel and scripture may not result in people right immediately in front of you coming to faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It may result in rejection of Jesus, and it may result in rejection of you.
SPEAKER_01: But God will use that rejection to fulfill his purpose in building his church, and he will use it to bring about the good work of conforming you to the image of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where we turn next.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 18, verse 18 through the end of chapter 19.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's ministry in Ephesus now shows that unbelief can't stop Christ's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: It's impossible.
SPEAKER_01: The end of chapter 18, verses 18 through verse 28, is a transition section.
SPEAKER_01: It shows us that Paul isn't a lone wolf who functions apart from a local church.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, he wants to go back to where he started, to Caesarea and to Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to return to report on the work of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And returning then to Syria from Greece, he stops in several places to reason in the synagogues and visit believers along the way.
SPEAKER_01: And he takes Aquila and Priscilla with him, at least as far as Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: And there, Aquila and Priscilla remained while Paul went on to Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: And there, after Paul's gone, another man joins in named Apollos in verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: Aquila and Priscilla help Apollos grow in his knowledge and understanding, and so he becomes an effective ministry partner.
SPEAKER_01: So the gospel is increasing in that it's growing in the people among whom the church can depend and rely.
SPEAKER_01: But notice in verse 28 the prevailing mood.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is expanding.
SPEAKER_01: People are coming to Christ, leaders are expanding.
SPEAKER_01: But in verse 28, the Jews are still refusing to believe.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that Apollos, now back in Corinth, is refuting the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: He has to refute them.
SPEAKER_01: That is, they're going to proclaim one thing and he's going to say, No, that's absolutely not right.
SPEAKER_01: You are not understanding it.
SPEAKER_01: And so he proclaims the gospel to them.
SPEAKER_01: But even while Corinth is a place of strong Jewish opposition, the Gentiles are more and more open to the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The Jewish unbelief can't stop the progression of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That is evident in Ephesus in Acts chapter 19.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's in Ephesus where God creates an assembly, a church of Gentile Christians amidst all of this Jewish unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're told that Paul spent a little bit of time in Ephesus on his way back to Syrian Antioch in chapter 18, verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: He spent a little bit of time there, and they asked him to stay for a longer period, but he said, No, I've got to get going.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm going on to Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: I will return to you in verse 21 if God wills.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps then from the work of Apollos in verse 24 and Aquila and Priscilla, when Paul returns at the chap, verse 1 of chapter 19, when he comes back to Ephesus, he finds 12 Gentile men who have come to faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's not his work, at least that we know of.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing specific is known about these 12 men who shared the gospel with them.
SPEAKER_01: How did they trust in Christ?
SPEAKER_01: We don't know anything about it other than Paul stopped there briefly.
SPEAKER_01: Priscilla and Aquila were there.
SPEAKER_01: Apollos was there.
SPEAKER_01: Paul goes on.
SPEAKER_01: Now when he comes back, oh, there's 12 Christians here.
SPEAKER_01: It's sadly ironic.
SPEAKER_01: But also so gracious and good of God to choose twelve Gentile men to begin his church in Ephesus when all around them the twelve tribes of Israel are rejecting Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Even speaking evil of the way.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's Luke's kind of pet phrase for Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: The way, the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We see this continued Jewish rejection.
SPEAKER_01: And then later in chapter 20, Paul refers to the persecution of the Jews to Gentile Christians.
SPEAKER_01: He says, listen, you you all remember when I was here how much the Jews persecuted me.
SPEAKER_01: So it certainly appears as though these first believers in Ephesus were Gentiles, not Jews.
SPEAKER_01: Everywhere else that we've seen, we see Jews coming to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That starts to change a little bit in Philippi with Lydia.
SPEAKER_01: Lydia was a God-fearer, so there was a connection with the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: We begin to see transitions all along the way to now there are no Jews apparently believing in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's all non-Jews who are forming the church in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: And this group of believers serves as a transitional group.
SPEAKER_01: They're on the edge of this burgeoning Christian church.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by edge, I mean they believed in Jesus as the promised Messiah, who was proclaimed by John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: In that way, they are genuine believers who have not yet been incorporated into the church as a whole.
SPEAKER_01: And so they need to leave John's way behind and follow Christ alone.
SPEAKER_01: That's what happens when Paul comes back and talks about the Holy Spirit, and they're baptized into Jesus, not John.
SPEAKER_01: Some ask why John rebaptized them, why there's kind of a mini Pentecost all over again here.
SPEAKER_01: Because they're baptized, the Holy Spirit comes, they speak in tongues and they prophesy.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that all happening again?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the reason, I think, is that this is Paul's way of incorporating this kind of fringe new group of no Jews, just Gentiles, into the whole.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, yes, God is confirming you belong, just like he did with the Samaritans, just like he did with the Ethiopian.
SPEAKER_01: Each new successive group that's kind of on the edge of this expansion of Christianity has the same experience to confirm this is God's work.
SPEAKER_01: And this happens in Ephesus, where the Jews refuse to believe.
SPEAKER_01: But even there, in verse 19, we see that Paul is driven out of the Jewish synagogue.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 19, verse 9, pardon me.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul's discussion of the Jews later confirms that.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is not welcome among the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is not welcome among the Jews, but it is now welcome among Gentile believers.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at verse 10, where we stopped reading, you'll see that Paul stayed there for two more years.
SPEAKER_01: He remained there teaching and preaching, not in the synagogues, but in another place in Ephesus for two whole years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't matter if you were Jew or Greek, you heard the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is that trumpeter on the wall saying, You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He is Lord and Savior, and if you don't hear that warning call and believe in him, then you are choosing your own judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Your blood will be on your own head.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody heard that message.
SPEAKER_01: Unbelief cannot stop the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: God will build his church, even though it appears and feels as though everything is against it.
SPEAKER_01: So, friends, don't let the rejection of the gospel keep you from speaking of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let one or ten people's refusal to believe hinder you from telling others about the good news of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because some will see Jesus as their savior and believe, while others choose him as their judge.
SPEAKER_01: You have no control over those results.
SPEAKER_01: We are just called to make disciples by being the trumpeters on the wall.
SPEAKER_01: Rejection of Jesus as God's promised Messiah, Lord, and King does not stop the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Rejection of Jesus doesn't steal away the power of the good news.
SPEAKER_01: Rejection of Jesus may be the very means he employs for others to hear and come to him.
SPEAKER_01: And that is always your hope and your encouragement and your motivation.
SPEAKER_01: These might not hear, but others may.
SPEAKER_01: That's a brief overview of this section.
SPEAKER_01: Highlighting the fulfillment of God's promise to save a people, not from his own nation, but from beyond his nation.
SPEAKER_01: Luke is saying, this is happening, it's being fulfilled right here, and it continues to our day.
SPEAKER_01: But now, even more briefly, look back at this whole section.
SPEAKER_01: As we see how Luke uses it, uses this whole section of Acts to show that Jesus' kingdom work is spreading unrestrained.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter if the Jews believe or not, it doesn't matter if the Gentiles believe or not, God's work is spreading unrestrained.
SPEAKER_01: We've seen how Luke traces the spread of the gospel in Asia Minor and Greece through the Jewish rejection of the good news and the Gentile reception.
SPEAKER_01: And as we look at the rest of Scripture, we see that Luke is tracing the fulfillment of God's promise to bring salvation to the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: While that's happening here in Acts 18 and 19, the people to whom we are introduced reveal how the gospel is spreading outside of the boundaries of the main storyline.
SPEAKER_01: Notice first what is implied through the introduction of Aquila and Priscilla at the very beginning.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 18, verse 1, it tells us that they were Jews from Rome who had moved to Corinth because Emperor Claudius kicked them out.
SPEAKER_01: Since Luke doesn't record their faith story, he just assumes it, and they begin working with Paul in ministry, we can conclude that they were already believers when Paul met them.
SPEAKER_01: If that's true, if that's a safe assumption, I think it is, this means that Christians were present in Rome before Paul's first arrival there.
SPEAKER_01: Before God ever sent a missionary, if we can use that in air quotes, Paul, before God ever sent Paul to the Roman capital, Christians were there.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel had reached the Roman capital long before Paul's arrest sent him there.
SPEAKER_01: And not only were Aquila and Priscilla Christians, they were mature Christians, capable of teaching others.
SPEAKER_01: That's an advanced level of faith and maturity in Rome and then in Corinth ahead of Paul.
SPEAKER_01: That shows us that God works not only through missionaries like Paul, but through ordinary, everyday faithfulness of Christians.
SPEAKER_01: You might be Priscilla or Aquila.
SPEAKER_01: Now notice what's implied through the introduction of Apollos in chapter 18, verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria, Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: You won't be able to see it very well here, but at the top left-hand corner of this map, you'll see Corinth.
SPEAKER_01: And then a little bit to the right at the top of the map, near the center, is Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: On the right over here, you'll see Antioch of Syria up towards the top of the right-hand side.
SPEAKER_01: You come down, you see Mount Hermon, and there's Mount of Olives, you see the Dead Sea down at the bottom.
SPEAKER_01: You come around to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, you see Alexandria.
SPEAKER_01: So directly south of Ephesus is Alexandria, Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Alexandria had a large and thriving Jewish population for at least 200 years by this point.
SPEAKER_01: It was a center of learning and scholarship in the Mediterranean world.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not surprising at all to hear of an eloquent, learned Jewish man who's competent in the scriptures who happens to be from Alexandria.
SPEAKER_01: That's not surprising.
SPEAKER_01: It is somewhat surprising to hear that he believed in and had been taught about Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Somehow the ministry and methods of John the Baptist had come around the bottom corner of the Mediterranean world and made their way to Alexandria, where this man, Apollos, had believed in the one whom John the Baptist proclaimed.
SPEAKER_01: But Apollos needed more instruction.
SPEAKER_01: So Apollos is like the Ephesian believers.
SPEAKER_01: He's one of those kind of transition folks in those early decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus, who needed to be brought along in the faith, have some things clarified, have some things strengthened, which is what Aquila and Priscilla do.
SPEAKER_01: But Luke has discreetly sketched the progress of the gospel in the Mediterranean world.
SPEAKER_01: There are Christians in the Eastern Mediterranean, there are Christians in the Western Mediterranean, there are Christians in the Northern Mediterranean, there are Christians in the Southern Mediterranean.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is in heaven, but he's working.
SPEAKER_01: And we can't always see it.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, God is fulfilling his plan and his purpose of hardening the hearts of his people so that the rest of the world can hear the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Luke shows Jesus drawing in his sheep as his kingdom work gradually expands around the world.
SPEAKER_01: And so that can encourage us in at least four ways.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, geography never hinders the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Geography never hinders the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, unbelief does not hinder the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, Jesus continues his work by known and unknown people to spread the good news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: You never know who God will use.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a fourth way.
SPEAKER_01: The work of making disciples should not be hindered by unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, it doesn't matter ultimately whether we think people are being saved.
SPEAKER_01: What matters is our faithfulness to the proclamation of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Because God uses it.
SPEAKER_01: Refusing to believe brings judgment on those who don't believe.
SPEAKER_01: But God uses that to continue his work of building his church.
SPEAKER_01: And he calls us, just like Paul, Luke, Timothy, Apollos, Aquila, and Priscilla, to be faithful in that.
SPEAKER_01: Let's be about it always and forever.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, use us, please.
SPEAKER_01: In ways that we don't even expect.
SPEAKER_01: May someone even today hear this walk-through acts and be convicted of their sin that keeps them from God and trust in Jesus Christ alone.
SPEAKER_01: You indeed are the Lord of our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And we thank you for that provision.
SPEAKER_01: May we never forget, though, that judgment comes with unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: May we be spurred on by this text and by your spirit with boldness and courage in your work.
SPEAKER_01: Proclaim the good news of Jesus as Savior and Judge.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.