11  Encouraging the  Servant of God  (Acts 18:1–17)

After these things he left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working; for by trade they were tent-makers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. And when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be upon your own heads! I am clean. From now on I shall go to the Gentiles.” And he departed from there and went to the house of a certain man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue. And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized. And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.” And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.” But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrong or of vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you; but if there are questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters.” And he drove them away from the judgment seat. And they all took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment seat. And Gallio was not concerned about any of these things. (18:1–17)

A little-appreciated truth about the ministry is that pastors and missionaries, perhaps more than other believers, are subject to discouragement. Charles Spurgeon explains that

Some of God’s choicest servants have undergone times of severe despondency and despair. Burdened with the weight of a rebellious, grumbling people, Moses cried out to the Lord:

Following Israel’s defeat at Ai, Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord God, why didst Thou ever bring this people over the Jordan, only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? If only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan!” (Josh. 7:7) Elijah knew what it was to plunge from the height of success to the pit of despair. Following his dramatic victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:20ff.), he fled into the wilderness in fear of Jezebel. There he despaired of life and said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers” (1 Kings 19:4). Faced with the prospect of imminent death, godly king Hezekiah wept and pleaded with the Lord (Isa. 38:1–20). After his world collapsed and his God seemingly abandoned him, Job cursed the day of his birth (Job 3:1ff.) and complained bitterly about God’s treatment of him (Job 9:16ff.). Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet, and even our Lord was described as “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3).

Nor did the apostle Paul escape the throes of discouragement. The opening of Acts 18 finds him at a low point in his grueling ministry. His second missionary journey had been arduous. After traveling through Asia Minor “strengthening the churches” (Acts 15:41), he crossed the Aegean Sea to the Greek mainland. His healing of a demon-possessed girl in Philippi sparked a riot, and he and Silas had been beaten and thrown into prison. After being released following a devastating earthquake, he was forced to leave the city (16:39–40). From there he went to Thessalonica, where his ministry enjoyed great success (17:4). Persecution forced him to flee to Berea (17:10), where many also responded to his preaching and teaching (17:12). When persecution followed him there from Thessalonica, Paul was again forced to escape danger (17:14). He arrived alone in the great city of Athens, where his brilliant speech in defense of Christianity had largely been ignored (17:19–32). He then left Athens and went to Corinth, a fifty-three mile walk.

By Paul’s day Corinth had replaced Athens as the leading political and commercial center in Greece. Corinth enjoyed a strategic location on the isthmus of Corinth, which connected the Peloponnesian peninsula with the rest of Greece. Nearly all traffic between northern and southern Greece passed through the city. Because it was a 200-mile sail around the peninsula, some ships were put on rollers and pulled across the 4-mile bridge of land. In A.D. 67 Nero began work on a canal, but one was not completed until 1893.

As a trade center, Corinth was cosmopolitan, with a largely unsettled population. Pfeiffer and Vos note that “much of the population was mobile (sailors, businessmen, government officials, et al.) and was therefore cut off from the inhibitions of a settled society” (The Wycliffe Historical Geography of Bible Lands [Chicago: Moody, 1967], 481). As a result, Corinth was one of the most debauched cities of antiquity. R. C. H. Lenski writes:

Towering some 1,500 feet above Corinth was the Acropolis, on top of which was the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Each evening the temple’s one thousand priestesses, who were ritual prostitutes, would descend into the city to ply their trade. In sharp contrast to the sedate (by comparison) intellectual and cultural center of Athens, Corinth was “undeniably a rip-roaring town where ‘none but the tough could survive’ (Horace, Epistles 1.17.36)” (David J. Williams, New International Biblical Commentary: Acts [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1990], 313).

As he arrived in Corinth, Paul felt greater discouragement. “The combination of only limited success at Athens, loneliness, and the prospect of facing this city, with its commerce and vice, accounts for the weakness and fear that gripped the apostle as he arrived to begin his work” (Everett F. Harrison, Interpreting Acts: The Expanding Church [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986], 292). Reflecting on his state of mind when he first arrived in their city, Paul later wrote to the Corinthians, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3). He also spoke of his trial in his first letter to the Thessalonians, written from Corinth. In 1 Thessalonians 3:7, Paul wrote, “For this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith.” Their faith was a beacon of hope in his darkness. Besides his discouragement, he may have been physically ill, perhaps from the lingering effects of the ill-treatment he had received in Philippi (16:22–24). Physical weakness often makes discouragement even worse.

But the “God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3), who “comforts the depressed” (2 Cor. 7:6), did not leave Paul in his downtrodden condition. He encouraged his struggling servant through four means: the companionship of friends, the blessing of converts, the fellowship of God, and the frustration of his enemies. These are the very blessings any depressed servant of the Lord can cling to for encouragement.

THE COMPANIONSHIP OF FRIENDS

And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working; for by trade they were tent-makers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, (18:2–5a)

Paul’s struggle was made more intense because he had to bear it alone. With Silas and Timothy still in Macedonia (v. 5), God knew Paul needed someone else to help him shoulder the formidable burdens he carried. Paul found that desperately needed companionship in a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. In Corinth Paul first met this husband and wife team who were to become two of his closest friends, even eventually risking their lives for him (Rom. 16:3–4). Pontus, Aquila’s home region, was located in Asia Minor, on the south shore of the Black Sea. Because his wife Priscilla is named first four out of the six times the couple is mentioned, some have speculated that she was a Roman woman of higher social rank than Aquila. More likely, she is mentioned first because she was the more prominent of the two in service to the church. Paul always refers to her by her formal name, Prisca (Rom. 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 4:19), while Luke always uses the diminutive form Priscilla (cf. vv. 18, 26).

The Bible does not record the conversions of Aquila and Priscilla, but they were probably already Christians when Paul met them. They had come from Rome, where a church already existed (Rom. 1:7–8), and they are not listed among the Corinthian converts, either in this chapter or anywhere else in the New Testament. Had two such prominent individuals been saved under Paul’s ministry, their conversions would no doubt have been recorded.

In accounting for their relocation to Corinth, Luke explains that the two had recently come from Italy because Emperor Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. That decree is mentioned by Roman historian Suetonius, who wrote, “As the Jews were indulging in constant riots at the instigation of Chrestus, [Claudius] banished them from Rome” (Life of Claudius 25.4, cited in F.F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971], 368). Since Chrestus differs in only one letter from Christus (Latin for “Christ”), it is commonly assumed that Suetonius refers to disturbances in the Jewish community sparked by the preaching of Christ. Writing seventy years after the fact, he wrongly assumed Chrestus (Christ) to have been in Rome instigating the riots.

Having been forced to leave Rome, Aquila and Priscilla moved their business to Corinth. Paul, no doubt looking for work to support himself, met them there, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working; for by trade they were tent-makers. Skēnopoios (tent-makers) could also refer to leather workers, a trade that included the making of tents, which were often made out of leather. It was customary for all Jewish boys, even rabbis’ sons, to learn their father’s trade. Paul had no doubt learned from his father to work with this skill.

Paul, of course, did not neglect his ministry. While working alongside Aquila and Priscilla during the week, he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. As noted in the discussion of 17:2 in chapter 9 of this volume, reasoning denotes a dialogue. Though the gospel was his single subject (cf. 1 Cor. 2:1–4), Paul did not only preach; there was the give-and-take of questions and answers. His goal was to persuade the Jews and Godfearing Greeks (prosyletes to Judaism) that Jesus Christ was Israel’s Lord and Messiah and the Savior from sin and hell.

The God of all comfort met the need of his discouraged servant for companionship not only by providing two new friends but also by bringing back two familiar ones. The arrival of Silas and Timothy from Macedonia no doubt greatly encouraged him. Although Acts does not record it, Silas and Timothy had apparently rejoined Paul at Athens as he intended (17:15). From there he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica (1 Thess. 3:1–6). Silas was also sent somewhere in Macedonia, since he, too, came to Corinth from that province. He may have gone to Philippi (cf. Phil. 4:15; 2 Cor. 11:9), since Paul kept frequent communication at this time with his first European church.

THE BLESSING OF CONVERTS

Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. And when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be upon your own heads! I am clean. From now on I shall go to the Gentiles.” And he departed from there and went to the house of a certain man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue. And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized. (18:5b-8)

The generous gifts from the Macedonians (2 Cor. 11:9; Phil. 4:15) brought by Silas and Timothy allowed Paul to cease leather working and begin devoting himself completely to the word (cf. Luke 24:27; John 5:39, 46; Acts 6:4; 1 Cor. 9:6ff.). Using the Old Testament, he was solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ (cf. Acts 13:16–41).

As so often happened when Paul presented the gospel to his countrymen, many in Corinth’s Jewish community rejected it. Resisted is from antitassō, and literally means “to arrange in battle array” (Lenski, Acts, 748). They organized themselves to fight Paul’s teaching and even blasphemed the name of Christ—the most serious sin (cf. Matt. 12:31–32; Luke 22:64–65).

At length Paul, realizing the futility of continuing to throw pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6), shook out his garments in the traditional, dramatic Jewish gesture of rejection. Jews returning from Gentile lands customarily shook the Gentile dust off their sandals, an act which became a symbol of their hatred of non-Jews (cf. Luke 9:5; Acts 13:51). Paul’s act symbolized his rejection of the Jews—an infuriating act to them by one of their own. It also showed his abhorrence of their blasphemy; he did not want any of the dust from the synagogue where that blasphemy had taken place to cling to his clothes. His shocking statement, your blood be upon your own heads! I am clean (cf. Josh. 2:19; 2 Sam. 1:16; 1 Kings 2:37; Ezek. 18:13; 33:4; Matt. 27:25) indicated that his opponents were fully responsible for what they were doing. Like the faithful watchman of Ezekiel 33:2–5, Paul absolved himself from any guilt connected with their rejection.

His ministry of the gospel was then to go to the Gentiles, so Paul departed from the synagogue and went to the house of a certain man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. As a worshiper of God, Titius Justus, though a Gentile, had shown an interest in the God of Israel and had attached himself to the synagogue. His name indicates that he was a Roman, and, since Romans often had three names, some have speculated that his full name was Gaius Titius Justus, thus identifying him with the Gaius of Romans 16:23 and 1 Corinthians 1:14.

Paul’s passion to reach his fellow Jews with the gospel (cf. Rom. 9:1; 10:1) did not allow him to go far from the synagogue. In fact, the house of Titius Justus was next to the synagogue, which no doubt further infuriated the unbelieving Jews. Still worse (from their perspective) was the startling news that Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household. That astonishing conversion must have sent shock waves through Corinth’s Jewish community, which watched in mounting alarm as many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized. Desperate to halt the rising tide of belief in Jesus as Messiah, they soon hauled Paul before the Roman authorities. Before that ordeal, however, the Lord provided the apostle with the most encouraging comfort—He came Himself to Paul.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF GOD

And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.” And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. (18:9–11)

Paul’s friends, both his newfound ones and his old ones, gave much encouragement to him, as did the many Corinthian converts. Yet those very converts brought intensifying opposition from Corinth’s Jewish community—to the extent that Paul was struggling with whether he should continue to preach at Corinth. To encourage His servant at the highest and most strengthening level, the Lord Himself said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent.” This is one of six visions Paul received in Acts (9:12; 16:9–10; 22:17–18; 23:11; 27:23–24), all coming at crucial points in his ministry.

The Lord’s encouraging message, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent” answered the struggle in Paul’s mind. The supernatural vision provided four reasons for him not to give up proclaiming the gospel in that city. First, God commanded it specifically when He said “go on speaking.” Second, God reminded him, “I am with you.” He gave a similar revelation to Joshua when he assumed the leadership of Israel after Moses’ death:

With the Lord’s powerful presence aiding his ministry, Paul could accomplish whatever God intended him to. The Lord stood by him until the very end of his ministry (2 Tim. 4:16–18) and promises His presence to all believers (Matt. 28:20; cf. Isa. 41:10; Jer. 1:17–19).

Third, God promised Paul that “no man will attack you in order to harm you.” Those under God’s protection are invulnerable (cf. Isa. 54:17; Rev. 11:5).

The final reason God gave Paul to keep preaching was that He had many people in this city. All those in Corinth who “had been appointed to eternal life” had not yet “believed” (Acts 13:48). The truth of election expressed in verse 10 balances the truth of human responsibility in verse 6. As always, Scripture presents those two inscrutable truths without attempting to harmonize them. Both are true, and there is no real contradiction between them. (For further discussion of this issue, see the exposition of Acts 13:46, 48 in chapter 3 of this volume.) Here it is clear that some people belong to the Lord who are not yet saved, and they will not be saved without the preaching of the gospel (cf. Rom. 10:13–15). Paul defined his preaching as having the purpose of bringing the elect to faith (cf. Titus 1:1).

His strength fully renewed by God’s promise to him, Paul settled in Corinth for another year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. He continued to minister in that strategic location, and the elect continued to be saved and grow in their faith. During that period a certain incident provided the final source of God’s encouragement to Paul.

THE FRUSTRATION OF HIS ENEMIES

But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.” But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrong or of vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you; but if there are questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters.” And he drove them away from the judgment seat. And they all took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment seat. And Gallio was not concerned about any of these things. (18:12–17)

Paul’s Jewish opponents had watched in frustrated rage as more and more people came to faith in Christ. Finally, in desperation, they tried to get the Roman authorities to put a halt to Paul’s preaching.

That authority was vested in Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia. Gallio was the brother of Seneca, the famed Roman philosopher and tutor of Nero. Seneca described his brother as “an intelligent person who hated flattery, and was blessed with an ‘unaffectedly pleasant personality’” (Simon J. Kistemaker, New Testament Commentary: Acts [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990], 659). He was proconsul of Achaia from July, A.D. 51 to June A.D. 52. Luke’s use of the title proconsul is another important testimony to his painstaking accuracy as an historian, as Richard N. Longenecker explains:

Hoping to capitalize on Gallio’s inexperienced authority, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat. The judgment seat was a large, raised stone platform that stood in the agora (marketplace) in front of the residence of the proconsul and served as the public court where he tried cases. The Jews hoped for a favorable verdict from Gallio, which could then be cited as a precedent in other places where the gospel was preached. They began the proceedings by saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.” Judaism was officially tolerated by the Romans, who at this early date viewed Christianity as nothing more than a sect of Judaism. Their charge challenged that conventional wisdom by saying that since Paul’s Christian teaching was outside the bounds of Judaism, Christianity should not receive the toleration from the Romans that Judaism did.

This was a charge with far-reaching implications. Had Gallio ruled in the Jews’ favor, Christianity could have been banned not only in Corinth but also throughout the Empire. Gallio, however, was not to be so easily duped. As Paul was about to open his mouth to defend himself, Gallio cut him off. The proconsul refused to meddle in what he viewed as an internal dispute within Judaism. Accordingly he said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrong or of vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you; but if there are questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters.” Gallio rendered what in today’s courts would be called a summary judgment and threw the case out. He officially ruled that there was no crime involved but that the issue was merely one of semantics. When the Jews persisted in arguing their case against Paul, Gallio drove them away from the judgment seat.

Though the specific antecedent of they all is not clear, the most reasonable interpretation is that it refers to the angry Jews who vented their frustration by taking hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beating him in front of the judgment seat. That seems most consistent with Gallio’s refusal to stop the beating (see the discussion below). Whether Sosthenes was a Christian at this time is not known, but he later is identified as one (1 Cor. 1:1). If he had already become a Christian, the Jews’ motive for roughing him up is obvious. If he had not, his fellow Jews were probably upset with his bungling their case before Gallio. As a leader of the synagogue (as was Crispus, v. 8) he no doubt had presented the case against Paul to the judge. But consistent with his refusal to meddle in the internal affairs of the Jews, and in recognition that it was a religious issue for them, Gallio was not concerned about any of these things.

God strengthened Paul through friends, converts, His own presence, and through the discomfiture of Paul’s enemies. He was faithful to His promise recorded in Isaiah 40:29–31:

That same comfort and encouragement is available to all who faithfully serve our Lord.