Acts 18:1-17 Fear Not
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts 18, page 927 in the pew Bibles.
There’s been something in my spirit this week that has been poking at me about the “words in red.”
In the books of Acts, we often focus on the Acts of the Apostles, after all, that is the name of the book. But we also can’t forget, or shouldn’t forget, that just as the book of Luke was given to show all that Jesus began to do and teach, the book of Acts is a record of all that Jesus continued to do and teach by the Holy Spirit and through the Apostles.
It just so happens that our text for this morning contains some words in red, and it’s those words that I’d like to focus on this morning.
First, Let’s pray.
Now, for clarity’s sake I first need to emphasize that though the words printed in red in some of our Bibles are attributed to Jesus, the words in black were breathed out by the Holy Spirit, and so, both are equally the Word of God.
So, let’s read the Word of God together.
After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 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, 3 and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 6 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.” 7 And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. 8 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. 9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 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.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, 13 saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.” 14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. 15 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.” 16 And he drove them from the tribunal. 17 And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.
So Paul left Athens and headed west to Corinth the capitol city of Achaia, now called Greece. He met some other Jews there in the city that had been expelled from Rome by the Emperor. They were both tentmakers by trade and also natives of the same area in Asia Minor so there was a quick connection made there.
Paul followed his custom and went to the Synagogue on the Sabbath day to reason with the Jews and believing Greeks and proclaim to them that Jesus is Messiah. After a while the Jews clearly had enough and became hostile to him and defamed him.
Paul then demonstrated an important truth in verse six. 6 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.”
The truth that Paul is modeling here is that, one, people are responsible for their own acceptance or rejection of Jesus as Messiah, and two, Christians are responsible to tell them either way. Not just professionals, everybody.
But what keeps us from sharing? What is it that most often keeps us silent instead of sharing the Good News of Jesus?
I’m sure that there are more than these three but way up at the top reasons that we don’t tell people about Jesus are:
First, ignorance, we either don’t know that it is our responsibility to tell people about Jesus and what He has done, or we don’t know exactly what it is that He did or how to explain it. Not exactly insurmountable obstacles.
The second, apathy, we just don’t care to tell people about Jesus. We often think that someone else can do it, someone else will do it, or, we don’t care if it gets done at all. Where ignorance is a mins issue, this is definitely a heart issue.
The third reason that keeps people from sharing their faith in Jesus is fear. Fear to speak up an speak out, fear of the response that we’ll get, and fear that nobody will listen to us anyway.
I don’t know if Paul was experiencing these obstacles or not, but even after leading a bunch of people to Christ and baptizing them Jesus still spoke to Paul one night in a vision. And here is what He said: “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 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.” 11 And [Paul] stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Jesus told this parable in Luke 14:
“A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
The banquet is the kingdom of God, those who were invited but refused to come are those who willingly chose to reject Christ beginning with the Jews, the servants are all believers in Jesus commanded to fill the hall with guests, all the poor and crippled, blind and lame, all the people in the highways and the hedges are everybody!
Our neighbors, our friends, our family, our coworkers, they all need to be invited to join us in Jesus’ banquet in His kingdom.
But fear often keeps us from inviting them.
So, what reasons do we have to be confident? If fear keeps us quiet, courage should give us confidence to open our mouths.
Here are the reasons that Jesus gave Paul.
First, it is the Lord’s command. Verse nine says,
Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent…
Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 28:18-20,
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
This is the job, for all of us, and it is a tremendous privilege!
But Jesus goes beyond just saying, don’t be afraid, get to work.
I can tell you as a dad, it never really worked when I told one of my kids to just stop being afraid. What did work was to remind them that I was there with them. And that’s exactly what Jesus did.
He not only commands Paul to not be afraid, and keep on speaking, but He also comforts him with His presence as he’s doing the work.
10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you…
David wrote in Psalm 23, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me…
Jesus told His disciples at the end of Matthew 28:20, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Paul wrote in Romans 8:31-39,
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
He will never leave us, He will never forsake us, no power on earth or in heaven can separate us from His love. We have nothing to fear because we are never alone, He is always with us!
Thirdly, Jesus promises, as it says in Isaiah 55:10-11,
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Jesus told Paul in his vision, “for I have many in this city who are my people.”
Paul would later summarize Numbers 16:5; Nahum 1:7; John 10:14, John 10:27; Luke 13:27; and 1 Corinthians 8:3 when He wrote in 2 Timothy 2:19, “The Lord knows those who are His.”
We must always add a “yet,” to those who don’t know Jesus. They don’t know Jesus yet. If they belong to Him, they will, and He may just choose you to introduce them.
We don’t know whom He has chosen and appointed to trust in Him, so we ought to act as if it’s everybody and tell them all.
So, let’s seize every opportunity for the gospel and deliver the message of salvation in Jesus with unshaken courage because He commands it, because He will be there with us, and because He will provide the fruit in due season.
Amen.
