Why We Need Presidents Who Will Appoint Constitutionalist Judges
Plus, why bi-vocational pastors are my heroes
Informal thoughts on Acts 18:1-17
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.
Corinth - one of the great cities of the ancient world, it was a city of 200,000 people, they were famous for their bronze and pottery works; they hosted athletic competitions that were comparable to the Olympics; and it was famous for its immorality and wickedness - the Acropolis of Old Corinth, rising more than 1880 feet above the plain, was the site of the temple to Aphrodite. This was a temple staffed by 1000 prostitutes -
In fact, it became a verb: to “Corinthianize” meant to live a thoroughly debauched life - they occupied themselves with booze and drugs and parties, so it became known as the place where people went to party down - so it was the San Francisco of its day, the Sodom and Gomorrah of its day, with a reputation for pushing the boundaries of sexual behavior -
Corinth was very cosmopolitan, very sophisticated, businessmen came from all over the empire to do business there - it was like the New York of the Roman empire -
Ran into Aquila and Priscilla, two Jews who had come to Corinth because they had been kicked out of Rome by the emperor Claudius, who had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome and go somewhere else -
The Roman historians say that the problem in Rome, the cause of the disorder, was the fault of somebody named Chrestus - which is likely an early historical reference to Christ - and a reference to a severe conflict between the Jews and Christians, Claudius threw them all out of town -
This is another point at which we can cross check the biblical record with history, because the historian Josephus and other Roman historians refers to this very same event - happened in about 49 AD - so everywhere we can check the record of Scripture against accurate historical accounts, it checks out every time -
Some people think that, well, the Bible is good for the God-stuff, it’s where you can go to find out stuff about God, but if we talking about history, geography, or science, Bible not really much use for those things - but realize this: we would know about the Jews being expelled from Rome whether Josephus was ever born - because of the historical record of Luke - so I say again what I say all the time: ladies and gentlemen, do not doubt this book -
Now Aquila and Priscilla were tent-makers by trade, which meant they worked with leather and canvas to make things like tents and sails - probably set up in Corinth because it was a very busy commercial port, and probably did a brisk business making sails and repairing sails for commercial vessels -
Paul was out looking for work, and he ran across Aquila and Priscilla because he was in the same line of work - probably learned this trade when he was growing up - the rabbis had an expression, “He who does not teach his son to work, teaches him to steal.”
So this is where they met, and they worked together in kingdom business for years after this - they were in Ephesus when Paul was there - Bible says they had a church in their house, they were in Rome when Paul was there, they might even have had something to do with starting the church in Rome -
Couple of things here - Paul was the first bi-vocational pastor in Christian history - he worked with his hands to support himself and then opened the word of God on Sundays - or Saturdays in his case - these guys are my heroes - it’s a very demanding thing to work all week and then teach the Word on the weekends - the pay is low and the stress is high - so I just want to take a moment to salute you guys who are in bi-vocational ministry, you are following in the footsteps of the apostle Paul and you can’t do anything greater than that -
Here’s another reminder, by the way, of the nobility of manual labor, the nobility of a man who works with his hands to provide for the needs of his family and the needs of our culture - nothing demeaning or second-class about that -
Everybody thinks white collar jobs are where it’s at, but these are the guys who build the houses we live in, who make the cars we use so we can get to work and to Little League practice and go on vacation, they drive the trucks that deliver our food and get the stuff we make to market, they run the farms and the livestock operations that give us food - there is everything noble about what they do -
Now Paul was certainly not averse to being supported in ministry - in fact, we’re told in verse 5 that, 5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. The Philippian church was not the richest church Paul founded - that probably would be the church at Corinth - but it was the most generous church he founded - they gave repeatedly to Paul to free him up to give his full energies to the word of God -
The word translated “occupied” can also mean to “seize” - so Paul seized the opportunity to devote himself fully to the ministry of the Word, he was occupied with it - that’s why we call them “occupations,” because they occupy so much of our time and energy - so Paul was occupied with the ministry of the Word - it took all his time, all his energies, took the best of what he had to give -
So guys, if you are a pastor, this is job one: to be occupied with the teaching of the Word - you are busy, very, busy with all the demands of shepherding a flock - but priority one is to make sure you are devoting yourself as you should to teaching the Word - easy to let the good crowd out the best here -
But the main thing is for you to teach the Word, can’t let anything crowd that out - you know, they say the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing - well the main thing is the teaching of the Word, and so your job is to keep the main thing the main thing -
But the Jews, just as they did everywhere, opposed him - that’s a military term which means to range in battle against, and they also reviled him, literally they blasphemed him, which means they told lies about him, they defamed him, they slandered him, they accused him of things that were flatly untrue, trying to poison his reputation to keep people from listening to him -
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.”
So he left the synagogue and went right next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, and set up a church in his home - and in the process, the head of the synagogue, a guy by the name of Crispus also began to follow Christ -
The gospel began to take root in Corinth and to spread like a prairie fire - so the Jews got angrier and angrier and were looking for ways to harm Paul - and it shook him up, just like Justice Kavanaugh I’m sure is pretty shook up to find out that a bad guy with a gun was in his neighborhood looking to gun him down - so here’s what happened:
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.” In other words, God says to Paul, “It’s too soon to quit - in fact, it’s always too soon to quit” - reminds me of a story of two boys who went through their neighborhood asking their neighbors if they could shovel their snow for them for $5 - one guy said, “Can’t you see that I’m doing it myself?” “Sure,” said the kid, “that’s why we asked. We get most of our business from people who get half way through and want to quit.” - 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
So God says I have many in this city who are my people - I’ve got people I can call on to come to your aid, and one of them it turns out was a proconsul by the name of Gallio - he was at the top of the political pyramid in Greece, he was the brother of Seneca, one of the most important and famous members of the Roman senate - this Gallio was a good guy, his brother said, “Even those who love my brother Gallio to the utmost of their power do not love him enough” -
So the Jews tried to get Paul in legal trouble by complaining that he was involved in a seditious conspiracy to break the law -
But Gallio tossed them right out of court and said a critically important thing: “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.
What’s critical about this ruling from Gallio is that it established a precedent in the entire empire that the dispute between Christians and Jews was not a criminal matter - it was a matter of an ideological dispute, and it wasn’t the business of a proconsul or a judge to try to settle the issue - and so it provided legal protection for Christians who would get taken to court in other jurisdictions -
One of the things this demonstrates is the importance of having people who will defend the First Amendment rights of believers in court, and the importance of having somebody in the Oval Office who will appoint impartial, objective judges to the Supreme Court who will follow the Constitution -
Great article Bryan!!!☺
Good insight again, mi amigo! God bless you!