Fear. Fear is something we all have, whether you want to admit it or not. It's something that we all face. There is no absolute guarantee in our lives that bad things won't happen to us. Even if we try to avoid it with all our might, there's no guarantee that bad things won't happen to us.
It's not how you avoid fear that really matters, because it's impossible to avoid all the dangers that are out there. But how you deal with it when it comes around is what matters. How you deal with, pain and suffering when it comes around is really what matters. Like the young Irishman. I'm sorry if you're Irish.
And, this young man, learned about fear the hard way. You see, he was walking on the streets of Belfast one evening, and there was violent uprising in that time between the Protestants and the Catholics. Obviously, he was afraid, as were many in Belfast in that day. He hoped to get home safely without being attacked, but suddenly a dark figure came out of the shadows, and it grabbed him around the neck. He stuck the point of a knife against his back, and in a gruff voice asked, Catholic or Protestant?
Seized with panic, the man reasoned with himself. If I say Catholic and he's a Protestant, if I say Protestant and he's a Catholic, then he thought of a way out. He said, I'm a Jew. The assailant chuckled. He said, I'm the luckiest Palestinian terrorist in Belfast.
Do you think you're scared? I was very scared. This morning we're going to be looking at a moment in the Apostle Paul's life when fear seriously reared its head in his ministry. Next week, we're going to take a big step as a church, and we're going to walk through these streets, and we're going to knock on doors, and we're going to ask personal questions of people. Next week could be a day, next Sunday could be a day that we fear, that we're afraid.
How are the people going to react to us when we knock on their door? How will I answer if they attack my faith? If they question what I believe. This morning, I'd like us to have a look at this moment in Paul's life. If you know the book of Acts, you will know that it follows a very amazing structure.
In Acts 1, Jesus ascends to heaven, and He gives the disciples the commission. He says, you are to go and preach in Jerusalem, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. That's what He says. You will go and preach, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will preach to Jerusalem, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. And then as you read the book of Acts, you see that the gospel actually spreads in exactly that manner.
It starts with Peter and the disciples in Jerusalem, then it moves to the surrounding countryside around Jerusalem, moving to Samaria, which is a little bit north, sort of the cousins of the Jews. And then from chapter 10 onwards, starting with a man called Cornelius, the gospel goes to the gentiles. Just like a great action movie as well, and it's one of my favourite books, the book of Acts highlights the great action heroes of the faith. Men and women like Peter, like John, like Barnabas, like Philip the evangelist, like Aquila and Priscilla. But there's one person who receives an extra amount of attention.
The man's name is Paul. The majority of Acts is actually spent talking about the story and the ministry of this man, and of his mission. It was a mission that saw him come face to face with kings, with judges, with magistrates. It was a mission that saw him beaten and flogged. It was a mission that saw him shipwrecked and imprisoned.
He certainly was a man of action in the book of Acts. But Paul was also a man, and unlike some of the Hollywood stories we see about our action hero sometimes, we do see him in moments where he experienced real pain, where he experienced real fear and discomfort and frustration. So this morning we'll be looking at what happened to cause this fear and how he overcame it. If you have your bibles with you, I'd like you to turn with me to Acts 18:1. After this, Paul left Athens and he went to Corinth.
There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every Sabbath, he, which is Paul, reasoned in the synagogue trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, your blood be on your own heads.
I am clear of my responsibility. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshipper of God. Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord, and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptised. One night, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision.
Do not be afraid. Keep on speaking. Do not be silent. For I am with you and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city. So Paul stayed for a year and a half teaching them the word of God.
So for the reading, we see that Paul moves from Athens, the capital of Greece, to Corinth, which is also in Greece, a port city, a very cosmopolitan place. Lots of hustle and bustle, It's a merchant city and it also became one of the early church's main hubs for the early church, a fairly strong church. We see here the birth of this church. Paul moves to this place called Corinth. He was a tentmaker, which is what some people call now a sort of a dual ministry of a tent making ministry, where someone can work and does ministry, partial ministry, at the same time.
So they support themselves through a normal work and then they also do ministry at the same time. So this was what Paul was doing for a while in Corinth. He was making tents, selling them in the market, earning a bit of income, and then on the Sabbath day, he would go and preach in the synagogue. He would try and convince the Jews about Jesus Christ, about what had happened. We see in verse five, however, that Silas and Timothy come from a place called Macedonia, and they come to serve and help Paul in a mission at Corinth.
It probably means that he could be supported by his co workers. So they were working, they were earning a living, probably living together, and it meant that Paul could then go and spend every day in the synagogue. He could spend every day preaching and teaching God's word to the Jews. They enabled him, Silas and Timothy enabled Paul to do that. We see that he was able to spend all his energy, both physically and mentally, in proclaiming the gospel and defending its legitimacy.
When I read this, it was really interesting to me because in Paul's letters, writes of Silas and Timothy as coworkers, as ministry workers. And I always had this idea that they must be preaching and they must be teaching and they must be doing a lot of things in the synagogues or in the churches or whatever, but here we see that how Silas and Timothy served the church, how Silas and Timothy served Paul and were co workers, was by how they provided for Paul. In their provision for Paul's ministry, they took part of the ministry, the mission. And for me, that was a great indication of how we can think of ministry. Sometimes we think, well, I'm not a pastor, so I'm not involved in ministry.
The truth is, I'm a Christian first and a pastor second. And you are Christians first, and engineers second, mechanics second, homemakers second. How you are a part of this mission of God in this church is through something like, Silas and Timothy's provision for this church. There is an absolute precedent we see here where the church is supported by ministry workers that give of their time and give of their money. So that was really interesting.
Silas and Timothy came. But focusing on Paul and what he was doing, we see that in the synagogue where he was teaching, the people became abusive. The Jews became angry at his claims. This man Jesus, he was just a criminal martyred or killed on a cross. They became abusive and Paul, in reaction, shakes the dust from his clothes and says, I wash my hands off you guys, and he goes around the corner to a gentile house.
The whole shaking the dust of your clothes thing is a very cultural thing, which was to indicate that I protest and I, in turn, condemn, your attitude. In Luke 10, we see that Jesus said to his disciples that they were to go into a person's house and if they also rejected them, that they were to wipe the dust off their feet in protest off against them in protest to say that you have rejected not only me, but you have rejected the message that God has sent me to share with you. It's a sign of protest and condemnation. So Paul is done with this story. He's done with these guys.
He's fed up and he leaves the synagogue in verse six. And so he goes to the house of a man called Titius Justus, which is a gentile name, and we see here in the scripture that he is a worshipper of God. Again, this is an interesting phrase, which actually means that he was a gentile who believed in the god of the Jews. He was, but he wasn't involved in Judaism because he wasn't circumcised. So as a gentile, he didn't want to go the whole hog.
He didn't want to get the snip, and he remained only a god worshipper, not a true Jew. Paul leaves the Jews and immediately goes to the Gentile house, which is right around the corner. Paul is absolutely done with these guys, the Jews, and he knows he's going to spend his extra bit of energy that he has left on the Gentiles. Now we have to remember where Paul is coming from. A few chapters before, in chapter 14, he is at a place called Lystra, and Paul there preaches the gospel.
There's there's miracles, there's healings. People want to make him and Barnabas gods, they want to worship him and Barnabas. They're like, you know, no way. You've got the wrong idea here. Jews come in, Jews that have heard about Paul and Barnabas' ministry, and they, in this frenzy, psych up the crowd to say, well, okay, we're going to put these guys to death.
So Paul is stoned, which means pretty much held down and thrown with rocks, even big rocks, and he is stoned to the point where they think he's dead. They drag him out the city gates, leave him outside the city gates, leave him to die there. Paul, amazingly, isn't dead. He gets up, he is healed or he's brought to recovery by the Christians in the area, and he goes on. Later on, we see that he's also, in Acts 16, he's taken in Philippi, and he's flogged and severely beaten and put in jail for preaching the gospel, again by the Jews.
So by the time we get to Acts 18, you can almost see Paul going, alright. I'll give this a go. But as soon as there's resistance, I know what's gonna happen. Paul puts himself on the line again for the mission, for the calling that he has. He gets rejected.
He gets abused. And in that frustration, he runs away. He gets out of that synagogue, and he literally walks around the corner to the next guy's house. How often do we do that? If you think about it, how often do we do that?
Bad relationships. Bad relationships with friends or family members or whatever. We give it a half a chance. We're like, alright.
I might go for a quick coffee, but as soon as he mentions the bull's losing again, in the Super 15, I'm out of here. As soon as he mentions my limp, I'm out of here, we give relationships, we give people half a chance. We give situations half a chance. A difficult task. We'll give it a go, but as soon as it gets difficult, as soon as it gets frustrating, we give up.
We've given it a go, we give up. Let's have a look at what happens after Paul leaves. We see that he goes to the house of this man, Titius Justus, a worshipper of God. There, Crispus, ironically, who is the synagogue ruler, who was sitting in the synagogue probably when Paul was there, maybe follows Paul around the corner and he goes and listens to Paul preach. And in this house, which then becomes the church, which is probably where the people started meeting, in this house, the Bible says many Corinthians who heard this message believed and they were baptised.
So it's working with the gentiles, it seems. It's getting a bit of momentum going here. But one night, we see in verses 9 and 10. After Paul has had his fill of Jews, after he said, now that's it, no more with these guys, the Lord, Jesus Christ, comes to him in a vision and gives him a threefold command. He says, don't be afraid, Paul.
Keep on speaking and do not be silent. Do not be afraid, keep on speaking and do not be silent. Now, these are very interesting words here. The first one, follows the word for fear, which is in, in Greek, where we get our word phobia from. It means to be generally and genuinely fearful for your life.
So Jesus was saying, don't fear in this situation. Keep on speaking also is very interesting because it's put in the present continuous, which says, do not stop speaking. Continue to keep on speaking. Continuously speak. If it were to be put in the negative, it would say don't ever shut up.
Don't shut up. Not for a moment. Don't be silent, which is the last command here, means to be calmly quiet. In other parts of New Testament, including in the Gospel accounts, that word means to be calm, to be content, to be placid. So when Jesus calmed the storm, the storm became this word, silent.
Content. Peaceful. It's as if Jesus was saying, don't let this fear calm you down. Don't let it quench your simmering discontentment with a world that needs to hear the gospel. Don't be content.
Don't let the passion simmer down. Stay passionate. In other words, Jesus says to Paul, don't be afraid, don't ever shut up, and don't be content with this situation that you have left behind. Don't be happy that you walked out of that synagogue, don't be happy that those guys just go on and do whatever they were doing before. People who are sold out for the gospel can definitely take some wisdom from these words.
If Jesus Christ is for us, who can be against? If Jesus Christ is for us, who can be against? In the face of our fears, when everything inside us tells us to stop, to shut up, to be quiet, to back down, to lie down. The reminder here is that Jesus Christ is still very much active in the spreading of the gospel, even to the ends of the earth, which for them was Corinth, but which is for us Australia. How more to the ends of the earth can you go than Australia?
Don't be afraid. Don't shut up. Don't be content with rejection. I read a poem once about two frogs who reacted very differently in a bit of a sticky situation. The poem goes like this: Two frogs fell into a cream bowl.
One was an optimistic soul, but the other took the gloomy view, we shall drown, he cried, without much ado. So with a last despairing cry, he flung up his legs and said goodbye. Quoth the frog with a merry grin, I can't get out, but I won't give in. I'll just swim around till my strength is spent, then I will die the more content. Bravely he swam till it would seem his struggles began to churn the cream.
On the top of the butter at last he stopped, and out of the bowl he gaily hopped. What of the moral easily found, if you can't hop out, keep swimming around. Keep churning that butter. Keep churning that milk. In tough situations, God encourages us not to give up.
Again, the amazing sensitivity of our Lord is so amazing here. Jesus goes to Paul and comforts Paul saying, I am with you, in verse 10. I am with you and no one is going to attack you and harm you. I have many people in this city. I have many people in this city.
And if we read that and we think back on our Elijah series that we did a few weeks ago, we remember that moment where Elijah was ready to give up, and he had come to that thing sitting under the juniper tree and just saying, God, take me now, I want to die. And I'm the only one left, God. I am the only one left. Elijah is comforted by God, and God tells him, no, you're not the only one left. There's still 7,000 people.
Jesus is saying here to Paul, you are not the only one left. There's still many people, many of My people in this city. Many people that believe now, many people that will believe. So you are surrounded by a church who's going to support you, who's going to pray for you, who's going to protect you, who are going to be that safe haven in a world where ministry is tough. You are not alone, Paul.
The Lord makes two important promises here. He says, there are many people in this city, they're going to support you, they're going to carry you through this. And the other thing is, Jesus says, I am with you. I am with you. And that is one of the greatest, greatest promises that the Bible can make.
In Isaiah 43, the term for that is Immanuel, I am with you, God says. God says to Israel, fear not, I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.
The flames will not set you ablaze. And then it says this in verse 5, do not be afraid for I am with you. And we come to Acts 18, and what does Jesus say in verse 9? Do not be afraid, Verse 10, for I am with you. That is the greatest, single most greatest promise you will receive as a Christian.
Your Lord, the king of the entire universe, the one who holds everything in the palm of His hand, is with us. No matter where you find yourself, no matter how deep that cream bowl is, and how much cream there is to be churned, the promise is that God is with you. When Paul was fed up, when he was knocked down, when he was pushed out, he decided, well, that's it. I'm out of here. You guys don't deserve this.
I've given it a go. Lord, I wash my hands of this mess. Lord, I'm afraid of what will happen to me. I've been stoned by these guys, these same fundamentalist believers. I've been flogged, I've been beaten by them in other cities.
I just can't take this anymore. You know that feeling. You know that feeling when everything just seems to be too much. When everything just seems to be too much, and it's coming from all sides. And Paul just wanted to run away.
Afraid and worn out, he is met by the Lord so compassionately. And it wasn't while he was fleeing from his problem, it wasn't while Paul was still hot tempered and furious and screaming out, as he was just walking to the street, God came to him. It was in the cool of the day, it was in the nighttime when Paul was about to go to sleep. After Paul had thrown his tantrum, so to speak, the Lord approaches him. And while Paul is relaxed and calm, maybe lying on his bed, the Lord appears to him and strengthens him.
When Paul was tempted to give up, the Lord said, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to speak up, don't ever shut up, and don't remain content. And that's what Jesus encourages us to do today. When we are tempted to give up, don't.
When we are tempted to throw it all in, to raise the white flag, to chuck in the towel, the Lord says, don't be afraid. Don't shut up. Don't put up. Don't be content. I have a plan for this church at NTC.
Do we believe that? That God could do something amazing with us, through us. There's a whole neighbourhood that needs saving out here. There are many people that still live in darkness and despair. There are still areas in our lives that need sorting out.
The promise is don't be afraid. Don't be afraid, I'm with you. What was the result of this amazing, intimate moment that Paul shared with Jesus Christ? What was the result of the encouragement? Well, have a look at verse 11.
It says, so Paul stayed for a year and a half teaching them the word of God. Paul was ready to leave. He was ready to get out of there. And being encouraged by that, he stayed for another year and a half. A bar of steel can be worth $10.
Just an iron ingot. $10. When it's turned into something ordinary like horseshoes, then it's worth $20. If this same $10 bar is manufactured, however, into surgical needles, its value rises to $350. And yet, if this $10 bar is made into delicate springs for expensive watches, it's worth more than $250,000.
This same bar of steel is made more valuable by being cut to its proper size, by being refined in fire from one blast of a furnace to another, again and again hammered and manipulated, beaten and pounded, finished and polished until it's ready for its delicate tasks. Our life, which may not seem very brave, which may not seem very spiritual, which may seem not very extraordinary, can be formed into a finished product that is priceless in the Kingdom of God. Don't ever forget that. We've sung about the potter's hand. It's not so much the clay that is important but the skill of the potter.
God is in the business of using humble things to astound the world. That's His method. That's how He's done it over and over again. He uses the humble to astound the world. The fear and the frustration and the anxiety becomes a part of our story.
It's not an evil that we need to avoid. It is part of our story. It becomes part of our formation as vessels that God can use and will use. It becomes part of our refinement to be useful tools in the plan for God in this world, in this nation, in this neighbourhood. Paul might have understood it, he may not have understood it then, but he was being refined for a very specific reason.
In fact, if you were going to go on and read the other chapters in the book of Acts, you'll see that Paul only became more courageous, more outspoken, and he was used more powerfully by the Holy Spirit. In the very next chapter, in fact, we see that people would take their handkerchiefs that Paul may touch it and that they may take it back to the sick, and they would be healed. Paul's ministry, from here on, just grew and grew and grew. But in that crucible, in that middle of the flame, in that furnace, the cost for Paul putting himself on the line seemed too great. He just thought, I cannot go through this again.
It was too painful. It was too frustrating. He was afraid. But the Lord comforted him. He was down and out, but he got back up again.
The Lord's promise for us is that in the midst of our fear, in the midst of our self doubt, when we live our daily Christian lives, taking up our daily crosses and following Jesus, we put ourselves on that line every single day. When we decide to act in a way that is contrast to what the world expects of us, we put ourselves on that line. When we clear our throat and we speak out above the din of a thousand other voices and when we say, No, there is a better way, there is a better way, we put ourselves on the line. And so, we will, if we do that, we will get put down, and we will get ostracised, and we will be rejected, But be comforted there are many people in this city that belong to God. Many of God's people are in this city, And it sucks and it hurts.
No one likes rejection. It stinks. But you're in a church that loves you. You're in a church that is praying for you, that's cheering you on. And be comforted because Jesus Christ, the King of the world, is with you, is for you.
He will not let anyone strike a fatal blow to you, even though we can feel the pinpricks of rejection. Keep being courageous, don't be afraid, keep preaching, don't ever shut up, keep being moved in your spirit, don't ever be content with a world that needs to hear the life giving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't become content. The Lord calls us to a great mission, the mission of Acts, to spread the Good News of the Kingdom of God to Jerusalem, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. But He hasn't called us to this task without the assurance that He will be with us, that we will be supported by our brothers and sisters.
We know the message of a loving God dying for sinners can seem ludicrous. The message that a God dying for sinners seems ludicrous. We also know there is nothing more comforting than knowing we are the sinners that this God died for. It is a message that needs to be heard. It is a message that needs to be lived out.