Chapter 18: Chapter 18 Paul in Corinth; Return to Antioch

Because of the liberty in the Jewish synagogues in those days, it was customary to invite a visitor who was a gifted preacher or teacher to address the audience. There Paul testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ; that is, that Jesus was the Messiah whom they as a people had been expecting so long. But in Corinth he had a different reception from the one he found in Berea. You will remember that we read of the Bereans,

“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed.”

They were ready to hear, and when they searched their own Scriptures they found corroboration of the message that Paul preached. But at Corinth it was different. He came up against intense prejudice so that eventually he had to turn away from the synagogue altogether.

In condemning the unbelieving Jews Paul alluded to the book of Ezekiel. God said there that when He chose a man to be a watchman for His people and the watchman was on guard and saw the sword coming upon the land, if he blew the trumpet and warned the people and they refused to heed it and the enemy came to destroy them, they would die in their sins, but the watchman had delivered his own soul. On the other hand, if the watchman saw the sword coming and did not blow the trumpet or warn the people, they would die in their sins, but their blood would God require at the watchman’s hand (Ezekiel 33:1-6). Paul was God’s watchman, and he faithfully warned his Jewish brethren of judgment to come if they refused Christ. Since they had rejected the warning God had sent them, he said,

“You have had your opportunity. I am not guilty of your blood; now I turn to the Gentiles.”

So he began ministering to the degraded, ungodly Corinthians whom the Jews despised.

He went to the home of Justus, a Greek who heard, undoubtedly from the Jews, of the one true and living God, and had begun to worship Him. No longer an idolater, he was glad now of an opportunity to get further light and help through the apostle Paul and his companions. So he opened his house to them, and there they remained to minister Christ in Corinth.

Although the great multitude of Jews spurned the gospel, one of the first outstanding converts was Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue. Evidently the Word had already found lodgment in this man’s heart. When Paul took his stand so openly in connection with the opposition that he had met, Crispus came out with a definite acknowledgment of his faith and believed on the Lord with all his house.

As Paul continued to preach the Word, “many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized” (18:8). Notice the divine order there, because it is just the same today wherever God’s Word is literally carried out. The Corinthians heard the message of the gospel When Paul preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified, they listened earnestly. They believed the Word; they received it in their hearts; and then they said, “Now, Paul, we are ready to confess Christ openly in baptism.” They were not baptized in order that they might become Christians; but having become Christians, they were baptized to confess their allegiance to the Savior in whom they had put their trust.

By this time perhaps Paul was becoming a little restless, and might have been ready to move on, but we are told that the Lord spoke to him in the night in a vision and said,

“Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.”

God often speaks of the things that have not yet occurred as though they have. When He said, “I have much people in this city,” He was referring to hundreds of people who were living still in all the corruption of idolatry but would soon hear and believe the gospel message. They were still living in the wickedness that pertained to the worship of the goddess of lust who was the chief deity in the city of Corinth. But God looked on that which He was about to do, and He saw those people cleansed from their sins, made new creatures in Christ, So He said in effect,

“Go on, Paul. Do not let anybody turn you aside. I have much people in this city, and they are to be separated to me by the preaching of the gospel.”

Writing to these Corinthians afterwards, Paul depicted the awful condition of those who were living in sin and who will not have any part in the kingdom of God, and he said in 1 Corinthians 6:9,

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?”

Then he continued by describing the very kind of people that he had labored among for eighteen months:

“Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

In this awful list he was depicting the type of men and women who made up a great part of the city of Corinth; but he could add in the next verse (11):

“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”

What a wonderful triumph it was for this dear servant of Christ to go into that wicked city and, as he lifted up Jesus, find these corrupt, evil-loving people looking to Him! And when they looked to Him, it was as when those smitten Israelites in the wilderness looked to the brazen serpent, they were healed, they were changed. They never lived again as they had lived before.

People say, “I do not believe in this idea of salvation by faith alone. I think something more is required than that.” But many forget that when the sinner looks in faith to Christ, a change takes place. The sinner receives eternal life, which means he has been born again-he has a new nature. He learns to hate the sins in which he lived, and he learns to love the things that once he hated-holiness, goodness, purity, and truth. This is the result of looking in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. This was what accompanied the preaching of the gospel in Corinth. It is what accompanies it everywhere in the world when men believe it and receive it in their hearts in the simplicity of faith.

So Paul went on in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching the Word of God among them. If you want a full understanding of what took place there, read very carefully the two letters to the Corinthians. You will see how a strong church grew up in that vile, corrupt city, a church that came behind in no gift. God gave to the Corinthian Christians a great testimony and they went out to help and bless others. It is true that later Paul had to rebuke them for certain evils that had been allowed to creep in among them. There will always be danger of this kind when a church of God is established in a wicked, ungodly location. But it is the delight of God to plant a church in such a place, because His purpose is that every true Christian church should be a light shining in darkness so that poor, weary, wandering souls seeing that light may find life everlasting.

The same gospel that brought such miracles in Corinth long years ago is the gospel that works today. Men talk of the need of a new gospel for a new age, but our Lord Jesus Christ, in commissioning His apostles, charged them to go out into all the world and disciple the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and He added, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the [consummation of the age].” Until a new Savior is needed, we do not need a new gospel. We need no new Savior, for Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He is still changing men and women from sinners into saints. He is still giving life to those who are dead in trespasses and sins. He is still bringing peace to troubled hearts. He is still releasing men from the bondage of sin.

If these words come to any who are oppressed by any burden and who realize something of the bondage of iniquity, who feel that they are slaves and cannot free themselves, let me bid you look away to Jesus. On the cross He gave Himself for you. There He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities; there the chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him that with His stripes we may be healed. Millions have looked to Him. Untold myriads have trusted Him. They know the miracle of salvation, and you may know it today if you will only turn to Him.

Gallio the Indifferent (Acts 18:12-17)

In this section we have Paul’s hearing before Gallio. History tells us that his full name was Anneas Junius Gallio, and interestingly enough he was the half brother of the philosopher Seneca, who was Nero’s tutor. The two brothers were separated when they were very young and were adopted into different families and did not see each other for years. When Seneca finally did meet his brother Gallio again he was greatly impressed by the graciousness of his demeanor. He used an expression in describing him that we do not ordinarily apply to men. We would be more likely to apply it to a gracious lady. He called him “Most sweet Gallio,” and said of him, “Few men are so amiable about anything as my brother Gallio is about everything.” That was a great tribute for one brother to say of another, was it not? And as we read this account in Acts we can see how this accolade runs true to form.

“When Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul.” Paul had already spent a year and a half in Corinth, and God had used him in a mighty way in the conversion of a great number who had turned from idolatry to the Lord Jesus Christ. These were delivered from the corruption in which they had been living and brought into lives of holiness and righteousness. Now God allowed Paul’s ministry to be interrupted by this persecution. “The Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat”-dragged him before Gallio.

Their charge against him was rather peculiar for men who were themselves monotheists and who did not believe in the idols generally worshiped by the people of Corinth, They said, “This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.” It is remarkable how those who are opposed to the gospel of God can often seem to fit in with others with whom ordinarily they would have very little in common! These men, who had a revelation from God as given in the Old Testament and knew He was the one living and true God, were yet so prejudiced against the apostle Paul they did not even allow themselves to become thoroughly familiar with the message that he preached. So they charged him with persuading men to worship God contrary to the law.

Just as Paul was preparing to explain himself and his message Gallio interrupted:

“If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you: But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters.”

It was as if he said, “If you had evidence that this man was doing anything corrupt or that he was actually breaking the law of the country, then it would be reasonable that I should hear the charge that you have against him. But if it is simply a quarrel about religion, then it is too insignificant for me to pay any attention to it.” Gallio was not interested in Paul’s message. It seemed such a puerile matter that Paul went about the country giving people a little different slant on religion than that to which they were accustomed! To him it meant little whether what the man preached might contain a modicum of truth or not.

Yet Paul proclaimed the only message that could prevail for the salvation of a lost world! He wrote in his letter to the Corinthians what that message was:

“I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

He recognized, of course, that ungodly, worldly men did not understand until the Spirit of God had opened their hearts and exercised their consciences, so he said

“The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God…and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18-24).

But Gallic did not think it even worth his while to give the apostle Paul an opportunity to declare his message. How much he lost; how different his after-history might have been if on that day, though he silenced Paul’s accusers, he had turned to him and said,

“Now, Paul, tell me what it is you are preaching! What is this message about a crucified God that you are carrying throughout the world? I understand you are telling men that you have the only message of life for lost sinners. Tell me about it.”

If Gallio had only been concerned enough to hear Paul’s message, patient enough to listen to it thoughtfully and carefully! For as we trace his history in secular volumes we find that at last he became a thoroughly disillusioned man, who found that the world could not satisfy, and who possibly committed suicide. It seems sad indeed that this well-meaning, amiable man, this gracious and kindly philosophical Roman governor, should have no interest in the gospel of God!

Are there not a great many like him today-people scattered throughout the world who are amiable and kind, who have a certain interest in the welfare of others, and yet do not think the gospel of God worthy of their consideration? If this be true of you, will you not give for once in your life serious consideration to the gospel message? Face the matter honestly. This gospel has been used of God down through the centuries to transform millions of human lives. There must be something in it worth investigating. There must be something about it worth considering.

Thousands of intelligent, well-read, cultured, and refined people have found in the gospel that which has brought peace and blessing and joy to their lives. It has given them deliverance from the power of sin and altogether given life a wholly new meaning. Gallio missed his opportunity. He drove away the Jews who accused Paul from the judgment seat, but he turned away from Paul also.

Then we read that “all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat.” These Greek idolaters were only too glad to vent their contempt for the Jews who had accused Paul, and so they began to beat them. Gallio apparently did not interfere. He turned superciliously away. Let them fight out their religious quarrels between themselves if they would. These things were of no interest to him.

Gallio stands out on the page of Holy Scripture as a man utterly indifferent to the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. He “cared for none of those things.” And so he passes off the page of Scripture. But we may be sure that if we could follow him out into that eternity into which he has gone, we would find that Gallio cares now. We do not know whether or not before he left this world he had his eyes opened to the importance of spiritual realities. The inference would seem to be that he had not, but only God and he know what passed between them at the last before his soul and body separated. But one moment after he reached the other side he became thoroughly aware of the vital importance of the message that once seemed of so little account to him.

Though men turn away now from the voice of God as His servants proclaim it, we can be certain that the day will come when that message will be to them the most important message in all the universe. For many it will then be too late to accept the gospel invitation and know the cleansing that the blood of Christ brings. “Gallio cared for none of those things.”

Paul Begins His Third Missionary Journey (Acts 18:18-23)

Now we pass on to the record of Paul’s activities as he concludes his second missionary journey. “And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila.”

Then we have a statement that has puzzled many commentators: “Having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.” Does that indicate that Paul, though an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, had put himself under the bondage of a legalistic vow? I think it rather indicates this: That Paul, when he was converted on the Damascus road, was a Nazarite; some time before his conversion he had taken the vow of one separated to God. The Nazarite devoted himself to the Lord for a given time. It might be a certain number of months or many years, or possibly for life. As long as he was under the vow of a Nazarite, he was not to cut his hair, no razor was to come upon his head; he was to eat no fruit of the vine, whether moist grapes or dried, whether wine or fresh grape juice; and he was to come near no dead body, no matter how close of kin. All this had a spiritual significance. The Nazarite was a picture of one separated to God, one who turned from the pleasures of this world and sought to walk in holiness before God, undefiled by the dead. By sin came death. That was why the Nazarite was not to come near a dead body.

If Paul were a Nazarite at the time of his conversion, which seems to me most likely, he would not feel free to break that Nazarite vow even after he was converted. He would feel that he must go on and fill out his time. He had taken a vow to be a Nazarite for a certain number of years, and now, long after his conversion, those years had at last run out. If he had been unfaithful in his pledge, he would have lost the confidence of Jews to whom he sought to present Christ, and so he kept that vow conscientiously. The time had now elapsed and Paul was free to wear his hair as other men do. So he had the long locks of Nazariteship shorn.

There is one thing you will notice he did not do. He did not take an offering up to Jerusalem, which the law commanded when one had fulfilled the days of his separation. You see, he himself was under no such bondage.

And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not; But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus. And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up, and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch (Acts 18:19-22).

Paul had begun both his first and second missionary journeys from Antioch. He often returned to that church to give an account of the marvelous things that God had done among those who heard the message of the gospel. And now, after laboring in various places, Paul returned once more to Antioch to tell the church of the wonders he had seen of the grace of God working not only among the Jews, but among the heathen. To them the message had come, and tens of thousands of them had turned from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from Heaven. We can imagine something of the welcome that Paul received, and how the brethren there rejoiced over the evidences of God’s grace which he related to them!

Notice in verse 23 that after spending some time there he started out on his third missionary journey. He was getting to be an old man, but there was such a desire in his heart to carry the gospel to distant places and to help and encourage those who had already believed, that he could not be content in Antioch. He must go into the regions beyond. So “he departed, and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.”

How we would like to see today an awakening all over our own beloved land! In these dark and difficult days in which we live, should we not as Christian people be calling on God to make bare His mighty arm that men and women would realize their need of Him and fall to their knees before our Lord Jesus Christ?

Apollos Learns of the New Creation (Acts 18:24-28)

The author of Acts now returns our attention back to Ephesus where Paul had left his good friends Aquila and Priscilla. The interesting story of Apollos recorded in these verses of chapter 18 serves as an introduction to the events recorded in chapter 19. “A certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.”

Alexandria, at this time one of the great cities of the ancient world, had a very large Jewish population. It was there that the renowned Philo had taught-a man whose system was a strange mixture of Judaism and Greek philosophy. It is possible that Apollos was first of all a disciple of his and then, as we shall see later on, of John the Baptist.

Apollos is described as an eloquent man. God does not have a great many eloquent men, even in the ministry of the gospel. It is just here and there that He lays His hand on a man who can so speak as to stir men’s hearts. Such men are rare. Apollos was perhaps the outstanding pulpit orator of the first century in the Christian church.

He is also described as “mighty in the scriptures.” That is, he was familiar with the Old Testament. Remember, the Scriptures that were in the hands of all the early Christians were the Old Testament books. They did not as yet have the books of the New Testament. But Apollos had studied the Old Testament and knew it well. He knew the promises and the prophecies. He knew something perhaps of the types and shadows, and was looking for the full manifestation of the Messiah of Israel as promised therein.

“And being fervent in the spirit.” I like that. The word fervent means “boiling hot.” It is a great thing to find people who have received a message from God that so moves their own hearts that it fires them up and sends them out to proclaim it with great earnestness of purpose. You remember the apostle in writing to the believers in Rome, said we should be “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.”

I think a great many of us are fervent in business, slothful in spirit, serving ourselves! Of course we are not to be remiss in temporal things, but we are to see to it that we are fervent in spirit, that spiritual things grip our hearts and consciences and move us to earnest devotion to Christ. Well, this man was fervent in spirit, and “he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord.”

But we are also told of his limitations: “Knowing only the baptism of John.” Evidently he had heard of John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Whether he made a special journey to Judea or not we are not told, but he probably heard John preach and was baptized by him. Being fervent in spirit, he started out to visit the Jews in distant places and to carry to them the message that John was preaching, calling on men to repent and be baptized in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Apollos doubtless felt that if Messiah’s advent was so near, the Jews of the dispersion as well as those in Palestine should hear of it.

Now a good many years had gone by, but evidently Apollos had not returned to Jerusalem and he did not know that Messiah had come. We need not be surprised that this man, traveling and living among the scattered Jews, had not learned that Messiah had appeared, been crucified, raised from the dead, and ascended to God’s right hand. These things had not been made known to him. So he went out preaching John’s baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. “He began to speak boldly in the synagogue.”

In the city of Ephesus Paul’s two good friends, Aquila and Priscilla, were living. These, you remember, were the folk who were tentmakers and Paul had labored with them in Corinth. Now they had moved to Ephesus, and when Priscilla and Aquila heard of this eloquent Bible teacher who was giving out the Word of God in the synagogue, they went to hear him. There was no prejudice on their part that would keep them from entering the synagogue. And they were stirred as they listened to the messages of this man Apollos. But we can well imagine what they said one to another as they walked home:

“It’s wonderful; everything that he says is true, but the fact is he doesn’t go far enough. He is telling the people to get ready for the coming of Messiah. Evidently he doesn’t know that Messiah has already come, that He died and arose and ascended into Heaven. He must not have heard of the Holy Spirit that has come down from Heaven to baptize all believers into one body and to bring in the blessed and glorious truth of the new creation-a new creation in which all saints on earth are united to the glorious Head.”

So they decided that they must try to help this man.

You will notice that they didn’t go at him in a carping, critical way. We sometimes hear somebody giving out a measure of truth, and we approach them in a harsh, unkind manner. We find fault with them because they do not know more, and often we frighten them off instead of helping them. We Christians who love the Lord Jesus need to pray for a spirit of grace. We need to present the fundamental truths of Christianity with the winsomeness that characterized our Lord Jesus!

We meet people who have come just so far, and we find fault with them because they do not see more clearly. We forget that perhaps they have not been instructed. Many modernists are modernists only because they do not know any better. If we who know the truth would pray for them and would try in a gracious, kindly way to give them the truth of God, either by speaking to them personally or by putting into their hands some upbuilding literature, many of them might be won to a full, clear knowledge of Christ.

I think I have told before of a dear young man who came to me in a nearby city. He said,

“Do you recognize me?”

I looked at him and said,

“I’m afraid I don’t. Your face looks somewhat familiar (he had two eyes and a nose and a mouth, you know), but I can’t recall your name.”

“Well,” he said, “I couldn’t forget you because God used you to help me when I needed it, oh so badly. I had gone as a young man to a certain seminary. I went in as an earnest, flaming evangelist, and after four years in cold storage there I came out practically an agnostic. They had filled me with doubt and perplexity. They told me the Bible was not the inspired Word of God. They told me that blood atonement was not the way sinners were saved, and I came out of there with nothing to preach. I did not know where I myself stood. I thought I would go into business or take up some other profession. I was passing through Chicago, and my train connection left me some hours to look around. I had heard of the Moody Church, so I thought I would go up there. I inquired how to get there and I went up and met you and you took me through the building and then up into your study. I told you how confused I was and you sought to help me, and prayed with me. Just as I was leaving you handed me your book on the Epistle to the Romans. I read it on the train. By the time I got home, all my doubts were gone, and I had a gospel to preach again. That book changed my life, and for eight years I have been preaching the gospel in a Methodist church and winning many souls to Christ.”

I felt so unworthy. But it did me good because it made me feel more than ever the importance of trying to help those who really want to give out the Word of God but some way or other they do not understand. The full revelation of God’s mind has not been opened up to them.

Priscilla and Aquila were wise! They did not find fault with Apollos. I think they went up to him after the meeting and said,

“Brother Apollos, we certainly enjoyed your message this morning. We would love to have you come home and have dinner with us.”

So they took him to their home and then when they got him fed and he was feeling rested and happy, “they expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.” I think they would say something like this:

“My, we enjoyed your preaching, Apollos! That was a wonderful message, but did you not hear that Messiah did come and that He was crucified and raised again? He has gone up to glory, and He has sent the Holy Ghost down.”

Why, I can imagine Apollos saying,

“What proof have you of these things?”

And then they would begin to tell him of all the wonderful things they had received through the apostle Paul and other Christians; and as they opened up the Word, Apollos just drank it in. Oh, how grateful he was for these friends who so graciously and so kindly took him into their home and taught him. And as he learned these things, he felt, Well, I am not fit to go on preaching here, but if I could get to a Christian assembly somewhere, maybe I could learn more and extend my ministry to other places.

“And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace” (Acts 18:27). He went to them expecting to get help from them, and undoubtedly he did. On the other hand, this fine, fervent, Bible-taught young preacher, standing up among them giving out the truth, was a means of real encouragement to them. I don’t know anyone who does a staid, old Christian so much good as a young convert in the full flush of his first love for Christ and the truth! It was thus with Apollos. And so he helped the local assembly there and became one of the outstanding messengers of the early church. “For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.”