Acts 18:12-22. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on June 30, 2024.
In our passage today, Paul finishes his 2nd Missionary Journey, which has taken him through the central area of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) and throughout the coastal cities of Greece.
We pick up with him ministering in the Greek city of Corinth, where the Lord has told him not to fear because there are many in the city who belong to Him. Paul ends up ministering there for at least a year and a half. This is what sets up our story in verse 12.
Let’s look at our passage.
There is a reason why Paul spent longer in Corinth than he did in many other cities. It has nothing to do with God loving Corinth more than other cities. Part of it has to do with the receptivity of the people in the city. However, how many places did Paul not visit?
The good thing is that these cities generally became hubs of evangelism into the region around them. Paul isn’t the only one that can tell people about Jesus. Aren’t you thankful for that? Paul was faithful share the Good News of Jesus to others who would then become faithful in sharing such to new people. This was true within nations, regions, cities, and even within the lives of you ministers like Timothy and Luke.
There is a passage in 1 Thessalonians 1:8 where Paul is praising the church there for its faith and evangelism. He says that “from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out…”
We are not given a direct timeline, but we know that Paul, believers of the Jews and Gentile God-fearers had separated from the synagogue at some point. The church of Corinth essentially began in the house of a man named Titius Justus next to the synagogue. Even Crispus who was the synagogue ruler had believed and joined these followers of Messiah Jesus.
We eventually come to this scene where the leaders of the synagogue have brought Paul up on charges before the Roman Proconsul, Gallio. There charge is stated in verse 13. They accused him of persuading people to worship God against the law. It wasn’t against the law to worship God or the gods. However, the Romans did have a policy that only religions recognized by Caesar could be promoted. This was not about Romans approving of a religion, but rather about keeping control over disputes, uprisings, and unrest. They had recognized Judaism as a legitimate religion that had a certain amount of protection under Rome. Thus, the charge is about Paul starting a new religion.
This reminds me of China’s policy. There it is illegal to proselytize people to any religion. However, if a person asks you about your religion, then you are free (it is lawful for you) to speak about your religion to them. It is different, but in general, it is a similar control mechanism.
We are told that Paul begins to give his defense, but is interrupted by Gallio. Paul is not promoting a new religion. He actually represents all that the people of Israel had been praying for and preaching about for millennia, the coming of Messiah. This is just an in-house disagreement over who Messiah is. Yet, Gallio doesn’t give Paul a chance to defend himself.
Gallio points out that he would hear the case, if it had something to do with a wrong that Paul had done to them or some knowledge they had of a wicked crime that Paul had committed. However, he then warns that he is not interested in judging matters that have to do with words, names and Jewish law. Of course, this is all about Paul naming Jesus as the Messiah.
Now, it is very likely that Paul looks even more Jewish than the Corinthians Jews that are charging him with promoting an illegal religion. Paul didn’t quit being Jewish. He dressed like a first-century Jew; he talked like one. I believe that Gallio sees a group of Jews trying to charge another Jew that is clearly not from Corinth, i.e., he is actually from Judea. He either knows this is a squabble among Jews about Jewish things instinctively, i.e., from past experience, or he has information from others. Of course, their Jewishness is not the reason that there is a dispute between them and Paul. This is a problem for all people of every kind. We can be very creative in our ways of disputing with one another. Regardless, Gallio immediately sees that this is another one of those internal Jewish matters, and he is not interested in being dragged into it.
On one hand, these are proper words. The government of a people should have no part in judging, or controlling matters of faith. Of course, if our disputes over religion break into criminal activity- God forbid!- then government should intervene in regards to the criminal activity. Again, I will point to China as a place where Christians are told what they can teach and promote in their churches. This is inappropriate for any government, much less one that is atheistic.
On the other hand, I get the sense that this has nothing to do with Gallio trying to do the right thing and give justice. It seems that he is more annoyed with “these Jews and their squabbles.” Note that, just years prior, Claudius Caesar had made the Jews leave Rome because of disputes over a man named “Chrestus” (see last weeks sermon on this). Gallio has some knowledge about this rising dispute within Judaism that threatens the precious Pax Romana.
Let me put a finer point on this. The squabble is the result of God moving in this Corinthian synagogue and some of the Jews didn’t like it. Gallio is more like these Jews he is standing against than he would like to admit. Yes, from time to time, we see the Roman government helping to shield Paul from his fellow Jews. However, this very same Rome will eventually put Paul, Peter, and others to death. Rome didn’t like this move of God any more than some of the Jews in the synagogue. Rome executed Jesus who is the very essence of God’s move in His Church.
This is a spiritual dynamic. Those who are resisting the work of God are a hodge-podge of many powers, beliefs, and people. They don’t always like each other. It is a very dog-eat-dog arena. At this time, Rome is the top dog, and it is letting these Jews charging Paul know that it is in charge. So, let us not imagine that there is anything more going on here than exactly that.
We are then told that Gallio drives Paul’s accusers from the judgment seat, the bema seat (bay-muh). No doubt, this means he had some guards do so. They are driven from the place of presenting cases back into the area of spectators.
This is a human bema seat, and not even the highest one at that time. Any decision by Gallio can be appealed to Caesar by a Roman citizen. It is one thing to receive or not receive justice in the bema seats of this world. However, one day, we all will stand before the bema seat (the judgment seat) of Messiah Jesus. Paul reminded the Roman believers of this in Romans 14:10. “But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you view your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” (LSB). Paul reminds them that both sides of any matter will stand before Jesus. What will he say of your squabble then?
Jesus warned us of judging one another. He didn’t say we shouldn’t judge because there is something inherently wrong with making judgments. Rather, he points out that we are going to receive the type of judgment we give to others, and that we will receive it in the measure (much or little) that we give to others. This is a shot across the bow of every human being from the One who will sit on the greatest bema seat ever raised up. Jesus warns us that he will give us what we gave to others. This ought to humble all of us, but it generally doesn’t. Most people give a “meh” over such statements and continue on judging others unfairly and harshly. The sad thing is that, when Jesus judges them, it will be harsh, but completely fair.
We have all failed in this. Can we be freed from that future judgment? Yes! The Holy Spirit brings stuff to our mind from time to time. It is called conviction. Conviction is not condemnation. Condemnation tells you all the ways you have failed and tells you that you can never get out of it. It motivates you to quit and go your own way. Condemnation is not from God. It is from the devil and our own soul. Conviction is different though it too starts with how we have failed. The Holy Spirit points out our failures so that we will feel sorrow, repent and put our faith in Jesus. When we confess that Jesus was right and turn to him for forgiveness, then he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). “God, I was so judgmental. Please forgive me because I don’t want to be that kind of person, much less be judged by Jesus when I stand before him.” Of course, the Holy Spirit will also lead you to tell people you are sorry for your harsh judgments. This is called works that are worthy of true repentance.
In 2 Corinthians 5:9-10, it says, “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for [d]his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (LSB). The point is that we are to do what we do to please Jesus. We must be less concerned about dragging others before courts in order to obtain justice, than we are about the day in which we will personally be judged by Jesus.
The amazing thing is that God created humans in such a way that we can be redeemed! No matter how broken you are, your life can be redeemed (has been redeemed by Jesus already) when you turn to him in faith.
The ruler of the synagogue, Sosthenes, is then beaten. The New King James Version mentions that this is done by “Greeks.” However, the word “Greeks” is not some of the ancient manuscripts. Scholars are left with trying to determine what was the original wording? The manuscripts that don’t have this word essentially say that “they all took Sosthenes…and beat him before the judgment seat.” So, is the emphasis upon the Greeks doing it, or was it a simple “they all?”
It seems most likely that the word Greeks was added rather than removed. There is no evidence that scribes were purposefully removing words from the original writings of Scriptures ever. So, how could they justify an addition? Sometimes a scribe would put an explanatory note in the margins of a manuscript. Later scribes who were copying the manuscript before it became too old to be useable would generally continue the note in the margin. However, some would put the word in the text, perhaps unsure as to why it was put in the margin or accepting it as inspired testimony from the past.
Why would a scribe feel the need to emphasize this was the Greeks doing this? The “they all” in the scene could be read as those who were on the plaintiff side. This would have Jewish people beating up a Jewish ruler in the court. This seems improbable, though we could suppose some sort of anger that they were made to look bad in public.
The Greek insertion, or marginal commentary, would help to make clear what was happening. Sosthenes is attacked by the Gentile observers as a public rebuke of bringing a frivolous case before the Proconsul.
This penchant for mob violence is a theme throughout the New Testament, but also in the testimony of history. Paul and the Christians are not on the side of beating up their accusers, and neither should we be. It is not good to be “in one accord” (v. 12) when we are doing evil because we will find it rebounding back at us (v. 17).
There is a possibility that this Sosthenes later became a Christian. First, we already know that Crispus, who also was a synagogue ruler, had become a Christian. Secondly, in 1 Corinthians 1:1, Paul mentions a fellow brother Sosthenes that is with him when he greets the Corinthian believers. I wonder if this beating at the hands of the Gentiles was used by Jesus to get Sosthenes attention? Regardless of whether this is the same Sosthenes or not, this is the kind of God we serve. In His mercy, God allows hurts and pains to come into our life because they soften us up to what His Holy Spirit is trying to say to us. In fact, Saul of Tarsus, Paul, came to know Jesus through an eye-damaging affair, and that was done by Jesus himself. God is not looking for reasons to reject us. He is faithful to work daily through the good things of life, and through the bad, to draw us into relationship with him, to repentance.
At this point the story turns and moves very rapidly. Paul is going back to his home church in Syrian Antioch. However, he takes time to go to Jerusalem first.
Verse 18 tells us that Paul “still remained a good while.” This can be interpreted two different ways. Verse 11 tells us that Paul stayed in Corinth for 1.5 years. Then, we had the event before Gallio, and then, we have the statement that Paul still remained a good while.
These can be seen as sequential. Paul was there for 18 months, and then, this charge before Gallio occurred. Following that, Paul still remained a good while. That last phrase is nebulous, but it would be interpreted to mean that Paul was most likely there for another 6 months to a year, for a total of 2 to 3 years.
However, verse 11 can be seen as a kind of thesis statement for the section that follows. Overall, Paul stayed there for 18 months. During that time, this event before Gallio occurred. Following it, Paul stayed there for a good long time, but still encapsulated within the year and a half.
Regardless of how long Paul stayed in the city, it is clear that Corinth was very open to the Gospel, even though it was a very sinful city. Sometimes people who are in the depths of sin are more open to the Gospel because they are daily suffering the bondage and ill-effects of it. We can’t always know the people or places that will be receptive to the Gospel. We can only be faithful to follow the leading of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
Luke mentions hair being cut off in Cenchrea because of a vow. Cenchrea was a port city to the east of Corinth. Luke spends very little time on this, so neither will I. It seems to serve as the reason why Paul will later tell the Ephesians that he cannot stay with them, i.e., the vow requires him to go to Jerusalem within a certain time.
Some will try to say that it wasn’t Paul who made the vow. However, this is highly unlikely. All the other verbs are clearly telling us what Paul did. Even when it mentions Aquila, it does so in a prepositional phrase. It literally says that Paul took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria with Priscilla and Aquila. The most natural way of reading the hair cutting (it is a participle) is that it is describing Paul.
Some immediately connect this to the Nazirite vow spoken of in the Old Testament. It involved not cutting the hair until the end of the vow, as well as not eating or drinking of the fruit of the grape vine, nor touching any dead body. However, a person could make a vow regarding their hair without it being a Nazirite vow. If it was a Nazirite vow, it begs the question as to why the hair was cut off in Cenchrea and not Jerusalem. A Nazarite vow requires that the hair be cut and offered up with a sacrifice at Jerusalem.
We really are missing too much information to be dogmatic about any of this. From time to time, Jews would make a vow to Yahweh. Typically, they were either consecrating themselves to a task, or there was something they were desiring from God. So, what is Paul doing?
Some are troubled by this as if a vow represents Paul hypocritically lapsing into Judaism. This is a nonsense argument. First of all, Paul’s teaching was not about getting rid of anything that looked like Jewish things. He was concerned that certain Jews were trying to require that Gentiles follow the requirements of the Jewish Law in order to be acceptable to Jesus.
Thus, Paul’s argument to Gentile Galatians is that they should not be circumcised. They are acceptable to Jesus by the spiritual circumcision of the Spirit, not of the flesh. He even warns them that they are in danger of cutting themselves off from Christ in such acts. However, we should not make the non sequitur conclusion that Paul would say the same thing to a Jewish Christian who had a new baby. “Whatever you do, don’t circumcise that baby or you will have nothing with Christ!” The church in Jerusalem was made up of a large majority of Jews. They still did Jewish things, dressed Jewish, went to the temple, etc. However, they were putting their faith in Jesus now.
Ask yourself, is making a vow to God a Jewish thing or a Christian thing, a law thing or a Spirit thing? It is clear that many people have made fleshly vows to God, thinking that they can manipulate Him, or impress Him into giving them what they want. If this is your purpose, then you will be unsuccessful. In fact, people have made foolish vows. We are warned about how we make our vows. We need to do so humbly and led by the Holy Spirit.
There is a holy place in our relationship with God where the Spirit of God moves upon our heart and we vow to put our cell phone away for a week, or social media usage. This is not a Christian thing or a Jewish thing. It is a person-having-a-relationship-with-God thing, a person who is having a real relationship with God. This is not something that everybody has to do. It is a personal thing that surfaces in the life of a person as they serve Jesus. This would have been Paul’s heart in the matter.
Next, we see that the ship makes a stop in Ephesus. It appears they are stopping for supplies, trade, or both. Paul took advantage of this to go to the synagogue and reason with the Jews and Gentiles who were there. It appears that the Ephesian synagogue was open to hearing more. They wanted him to stay longer, but he declined due to a timely need to go to Jerusalem, most likely having to do with his vow.
This may be why we are told that Priscilla and Aquila remain in Ephesus. They could continue their trade of tentmaking while helping the Ephesian believers to understand how the work of Christ fulfilled the Scriptures and what God wanted believers to do in this new era of Messiah.
However, Paul does promise to return to them, God willing. We do not need to turn this into a required ending to every sentence, but every servant of the Lord needs to have this humble attitude. Of course, God often works through our godly desires and intentions. However, He sometimes has a different plan than we do. Paul is not rejecting them by not staying. Rather, he is fulfilling something else between him and God. When that is satisfied, he will attempt to come back, but even that is dependent upon what the Lord allows or tells him to do.
We should note that the Gospel is not dependent upon any one person. Yes, Paul is the Apostle to the Gentiles, and God works powerfully through him among them. Yet, God’s sending of Paul to another place besides Ephesus does not limit what He can do there. Even people who are being led by the Holy Spirit need to remain humble about what they think is God’s will.
I should remind us that the Holy Spirit forbade Paul from going into the province of Asia, of which Ephesus was a major city, on the first missionary journey. Yet, he is now here speaking to the Ephesians about the Gospel. So, we see God’s timing without explanation. In chapter 19, God will allow Paul to come back and spend 2 years here on his third missionary journey. Thus, “God willing” is a phrase that recognizes the sovereignty of God in matters of direction and timing.
Paul boards the ship again and sails to the cost of Judea, landing at Caesarea. They travel from the coast up to Jerusalem. To give you an idea, the temple mount is about 2,428 feet above sea level.
Jerusalem is not mentioned by name here. Rather, it speaks of him greeting the church. No doubt, he also gives a description of his journey and what God was doing among the people of Greece.
Paul then goes down to Syrian Antioch (modern day Antakya Türkiye), his home church at this point. It is good to have a home, and a home church as a base of operations. It represents a safe place, a strengthening place, a re-energizing place, and a place of people who love and support us. He could share with them the results of their labor of financial support and prayers for him and his missionary group.
We might even think of that as we go out from our churches each week into our daily lives. We return again, whether at the end of the week or periodically throughout the week. It is meant to be a place of people being real and loving with one another. May we be a people who are quick to repent, quick to forgive, and quick to support God’s work in one another’s lives.