Paul moves on from Athens to Corinth and finds new friends, Aquila and Priscilla, Jews from Rome. He works and lives with them for a time and then gives himself fully to “testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus” in Acts 18:5. He has been opposed, and often violently, in every city and the Lord tells him in a vision that he is safe, to continue to speak and not keep silent. The opposition comes, but Gallio, the government official won’t hear the charges and Paul continues for another year and a half. Aquila and Priscilla meet Apollos who was “”vigorously refuting the Jews” but only knew the baptism of John. They instructed him and sent him on. Paul heads to Ephesus, into Asia finally, and they only know the baptism of John. Paul “4 Paul begins by “telling the people that they should believe in the one who was to come after him—that is, in Jesus.” and then lays hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit. As resistance comes, Paul takes the disciples away from the synagogue to a lecture hall and spends two years in Asia.
Do Not Be Afraid, But Speak and Do Not Keep Silent
Acts 18:1–11
In Acts 18:1-3 Paul finds Aquila and his wife Priscilla and gets to know these new friends in Corinth. They work together as tent makers, which is one of the ways Paul funds his missionary work. But this also gives him an easy way to connect with people in the city.
There is though, one little phrase that signals the changing political climate toward the Jews in vs. 2 “Claudius had ordered all the Jews to depart from Rome”. And this “occurred in AD 49, about two years before Paul arrived in Corinth”.1
As one secular source records, “He banished from Rome all the Jews, who were continually making disturbances at the instigation of one Chrestus”.2 (More trouble, including the destruction of the Temple came later 66–73 CE)
In Acts 18:4 Paul was “in the synagogue every Sabbath” and when Silas and Timothy arrive in Acts 18:5, Paul “began to be occupied with the message” his full attention shifted and he was now “solemnly testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus”. Continuing until in Acts 18:6 “they resisted and reviled him” so he “shook out his* clothes and* said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am guiltless! From now on I will go to the Gentiles!””. Paul was happy to continue talking until they rejected the message, but he went a step further than most of us would by telling them their blood was on their own heads. Have you ever finished a conversation that way?
As he went, in Acts 18:8-9 “many … believed and were baptized”. But Paul had been down this path in many different cities and when people start believing, opposition rises up and Paul was a man like we are. Reading Acts 18:10-11 you can see the Lord calming his mind, he didn’t need to be looking over his shoulder with his bags packed. So he stayed a year and a half.
This Man is Persuading People to Worship God
Acts 18:12–17
Paul had just had a vision and the Lord said in Acts 18:10 “no one will attack you to harm you” and here in Acts 18:11-12 “the Jews rose up with one purpose against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat”. This looks bad. During this time, “Judaism was a religio licita, an authorized religion. But Paul’s teaching was ‘something new and un-Jewish …; it was, they urged, a religio illicita, which accordingly ought to be banned by Roman law’”.3 Then, as Paul was just ready to defend himself, Gallio, the proconsul said in Acts 18:15 “if it is questions concerning a word and names and ⌊your own law, see to it yourselves!” and the case was dismissed.
Strengthening All the Disciples
Acts 18:18–23
It isn’t clear why, but there is a shift in direction for Paul. He is headed back to Antioch. He does quickly pass through many of the places he has been before as it says in Acts 18:23 “strengthening all the disciples”.
He Knew Only the Baptism of John
Acts 18:24–28
In Acts 18:24-26 we find Apollos. He didn’t know everything, but he was going in the knowledge he had, and God connected him with someone, “Priscilla and Aquila”, that knew what he needed. And this man was powerful, “vigorously refuting the Jews”. We sometimes forget that it is God that prepares us for the work and it is Gods power working in us.
Did You Receive the Holy Spirit?
Acts 19:1–10
As Paul comes to Ephesus in Acts 19:1-7 he finds disciples that “have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit!” so in vs. 4 Paul is “telling the people that they should believe in the one who was to come after him—that is, in Jesus.” and they were baptized in vs 5 and in vs. 6 “when* Paul laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began to speak* in tongues and to prophesy”. Have you received this gift? Ask.
In Acts 19:8 Paul goes to the synagogue as was his custom “was speaking boldly for three months … concerning the kingdom of God” and in Acts 19:9 “some became hardened, reviling before the congregation” so Paul took the disciples and moved to a “the lecture hall of Tyrannus” who was “probably a converted teacher of rhetoric or philosophy”4 Paul took the disciples where they could be taught. Sometimes, we need to take the message to a place where people can receive. Maybe we can’t go to the local High School, and maybe there are regulations preventing us from meeting in the town square, but there will be a place.
When the Holy Spirit prevented Paul from going into Asia, it wasn’t that the gospel wasn’t to be preached there, it just wasn’t to be by Paul at that time. Now, in Acts 19:10 Paul spends two years in Asia.
Study Verses
- Acts 18:1–11
- Acts 18:24–28
- Acts 19:1–10
Today’s Reading
- Acts 18:1-24
- Acts 19:1-10
References
- 1. Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Ac 18:2). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
- 2. Tranquillus, C. S. (1889). Suetonius: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars; An English Translation, Augmented with the Biographies of Contemporary Statesmen, Orators, Poets, and Other Associates. (A. Thomson, Ed.). Medford, MA: Gebbie & Co.
- 3. Stott, J. R. W. (1994). The message of Acts: the Spirit, the church & the world (p. 299). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- 4. Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, p. 205). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.