Encouraged by Enemies
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2017 · 2 July 2017
This is the story of the arrival of the Apostle Paul and with him the Gospel in the city of Corinth. And we are seeing Paul who is somewhat discouraged. And God knows what he is going through and is going to encourage Paul. We learn that Christians are surely going to have trouble in the world, but God will accompany them through it. In fact, based on his experience Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:3, "God is the God of all comfort."
We saw as Paul arrived in Corinth on his second missionary journey, that he was discouraged. In 1 Corinthians 2:3, he wrote, "I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling." The very threat of the city itself, with its sinfulness, must have caused him to tremble. But God moves to comfort and to encourage him. We learned that there are four ways that God encourages him. We have discussed the first three.
God first encouraged him with companionship. Verse 2, "Paul found a certain Jew named Aquila born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla.” He lived and worked with them, for they were by occupation tentmakers or leatherworkers. Verse 4 says, "He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." After that God encouraged him further with two old friends, Silas and Timothy who came from Macedonia. They came bearing good news and brought money so that he didn't have to make tents anymore, and he could preach full time.
Secondly, Paul was encouraged by his apostleship as a preacher. He was encouraged by converts. People started getting saved, and his heart became thrilled. He testified to the Jews that Jesus was Messiah. Verse 6, “But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
Then he began his ministry among the Gentiles. He entered a certain man's house named Titus Justus. Probably this is the Gaius mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:14 whom Paul baptized and mentioned also in Romans 16:23. His name may have been Gaius Titus Justus. This man was a Gentile who worshipped God and his house was next door to the synagogue. This was his first convert.
The second convert was in verse 8, “Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized.” All in imperfect tense Greek verbs, which means they were continuously occurring, continuous action. Day by day people were hearing, were believing and were being baptized one by one. Not all at once.
Can you imagine the joy in Paul’s heart when he started seeing God just pull these people out of the Corinthian society one at a time? He was encouraged not only by companionship and apostleship but by thirdly fellowship. He was encouraged by his friends, and his converts and thirdly by his God, the God of all comfort. God is most encouraging by His own personal presence in the life of Paul.
By this time, they were tremendously antagonistic toward Paul. Verse 9, “Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent.” God is personally involved with His servants. So many times when we serve Jesus Christ, we get the idea that we're just a drop in the bucket. We're just one little piece of what God's doing, and He's really not interested in us. That is not true. God is personally, actively involved in the life of every servant.
The Lord spoke to Paul in the night in a vision. Paul right here was at the point of stopping his preaching. Because the Lord came to him and said, "Do not be afraid but speak and do not keep silent." Which implies that Paul was really thinking about stopping his preaching. The Lord gives him three guarantees in verse 10, “or I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.”
They are three promises that every Christian should apply in his own life. No. 1 "Keep preaching or witnessing, for I am with you." The emphasis is on God's very presence. That is the promise of power. None of us can begin to fathom the power of God. Maybe you can understand that once there was nothing and then there was the whole universe. Maybe that will give you some understanding of His power.
A God who can speak everything into existence must have some kind of incredible power. Think of the kind of fuel that it must take to drive all things in the universe at the speed of light. Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” We haven't even begun to see what God can do. And God is saying to Paul, “I myself am with you."
In the book of Judges we see a man named Samson. He kills 30, turns around and kills 1,000, turns around and kills 3,000 at the end of his life. How could he ever have that kind of power? You know the key to the Book of Judges is in 2:18, “And the Lord was with the judges." The key to the book is when the Lord is with you, you have power. Jesus said, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
The second thing God says to us, not only power but also His providence. “No one will attack you to hurt you,” That’s the negative. The positive is, "I'm with you." Look at verse 2 Timothy 4:16-17, “At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. 17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.” And it says, “Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. 18 And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom.”
When you understand the power of God and the providence of God working on your behalf, you have nothing to fear. The third reason not to stop witnessing is in verse 10, "I have many people in this city." In other words God promises that you will have results. Sometimes we underestimate God and we think that God is not able to use us to produce fruit.
God promises to every Christian that there will be fruit in that person’s life. Notice what God says here, "I have many people in this city." In other words, there are some elect here chosen before the foundation of the world, who are waiting to hear the Gospel so they can believe. God says, "I have chosen them. Their names are in the Book of Life. They need to hear the Gospel, so they can respond to it now."
Paul just preached the Gospel to everybody and let God worry who was elect. His responsibility was to deliver the Gospel to everybody. That's the divine side of salvation. The Bible teaches that God chooses people to salvation. Some people worry about the doctrine of election, because they think that makes everything unfair. Better that you should stop your panic and find out how you can deal with it, because it's in the Bible.
“If God is choosing people to be saved before the world began, how can You make men responsible? That's not fair.” Are you judging God? Are you the standard of what's fair, or is He? Who are we? Romans 9:20-21, “Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?”
People often say, "Well, if you believe in that doctrine, then you can say and do whatever you want." No. Listen to Colossians 3:12-14, “Therefore, as the elect of God, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.”
You cannot deny scripturally the doctrine of sovereign election. It's all over the Bible. He has called us to salvation before the world began, not just to Christ's likeness, not just to maturity but to salvation. Does that mean that if a person is not chosen, he goes to hell? Are you saying that if I'm not elect, I can't come to Jesus?" No, the Bible never says that. But the Bible also teaches human responsibility, doesn't it?
You see, the Bible teaches both of those things. You let them exist, as we said before in a paradox. God also says, "Whosoever will, let him come." If you are a faithful Christian witness, somebody is going to get saved as a result of your witness. It may be that you planted it, may be that you only watered it, but it's going to happen. Jesus said in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.”
It is ordained of a Christian that he brings forth fruit. Now let me take it a step further. In John 15:1-2 it says, “I am the true vine. My father is the vine dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He prunes." If there is somebody who is not bearing fruit, he will be removed. Is that a Christian? No, that is a non-Christian who only externally attaches himself to Christ, but his heart is far from Him.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” We are saved for good works. James 2:14 says, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?” Verse 20, “O foolish man, that faith without works is dead.” Verse 26, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
So what does that fruit consist of? Well, first of all, it consists of graces. Galatians 5:22-23, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.” Hebrews 13:15, "The fruit of your lips." Praise. In Philippians 4:17 we learn about the fruit of giving. Colossians 1:10 says, “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” And converts are also fruit.
God gave Paul companionship, apostleship, fellowship and lastly hardship. He was encouraged by his enemies. There are three ways, first, by who your enemies are. If you have bad, sinful and evil enemies, that's good. You are doing something right. Secondly, you can be encouraged by how ineffective they are. Thirdly, you can be encouraged by seeing what God does to them. Have you ever seen your enemies get saved?
Watch what happens to Paul. Verse 12, “When Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat.” Any verdict by a Roman proconsul became a precedent. So if Paul could be judged as a criminal, and his preaching stopped in Achaia, the other Roman proconsuls would do the same. Verse 13, “This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”
The Romans saw Christianity as a sect of Judaism, therefore, it came under what the Romans called "permitted religions." Judaism was one of the permitted ones. Christianity was seen as a sect of Judaism. What these Jews were trying to do was to get Gallio to acknowledge that Christianity was not Judaism. They wanted to convict Paul.
Gallio knew enough about the Jewish religion that they were looking for their Messiah. All that Paul was announcing was that Jesus is that Messiah. Gallio believed that Christianity was, in his mind, just a form of Judaism. It certainly was no crime, and that's exactly how he responds. Here we see how God uses Gallio providentially to accomplish His purpose.
Verse 14, “And when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or wicked crimes, O Jews, there would be reason why I should bear with you.” In other words, "If you actually had a case here, I would do something.” Verse 15, “But if it is a question of words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves; for I do not want to be a judge of such matters.” That's a theological problem. You deal with that one, no sense for me to get involved.
Verse 16, “And he drove them from the judgment seat.” They probably really hung around and persisted. Finally, he called the police to get them out of there. The Apostle Paul hadn't even opened his mouth. He was just standing there, watching all this going on. You see, you can also get encouraged by how ineffective they are, right? They couldn't stop him from preaching.
Look what God does with your enemies. Verse 17, “Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. But Gallio took no notice of these things.” Who are these all that beat them? We really don't know who beat up Sosthenes, but they beat him right in front of Gallio who "took no notice of these things."
But look what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:1, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother.” Look, it turns out that Sosthenes became a believer. God really encourages His saints by what He does to their enemies when He transforms them. Verse 18 says, “So Paul still remained a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him.”
Brothers and sisters, Isaiah was right. If you wait on the Lord, He will strengthen you with friends, converts, with His own presence, and even through your enemies. God in Isaiah 51:12 says, “I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die?” With God we don’t ever have to be afraid, Amen? Let us pray.