SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/24/2018
9:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 Intro to Acts 18:1-17
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 18:1-17
Message of the
verses: “1 After these things he
left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And he found a 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, 3 and because
he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working, for by
trade they were tent-makers. 4 And he was reasoning in the synagogue every
Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. 5 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. 6 But when they
resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your
blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the
Gentiles."7 Then he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius
Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue. 8 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.
9 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; 10 for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm
you, for I have many
people in this city." 11 And he settled there a year and six
months, teaching the word of God among them. 12 But while Gallio was proconsul
of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before
the judgment seat, 13 saying, "This man persuades men to worship God
contrary to the law." 14 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; 15 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." 16 And he drove them away
from the judgment seat. 17 And they all took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of
the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment seat. But Gallio
was not concerned about any of these things.”
John MacArthur entitles this section from the book of
Acts “Encouraging the Servant of God,” and at first I was wondering about that
title, but then after reading this section again I figured out that he was
talking about God giving encouragement to Paul, as this was a time in Paul’s
life where there was little to know persecution for him. Paul surely needed a time when he could just
live in a place and teach the Word of God to those that the Lord had given to
him to preach to. I am sure from reading
the Scriptures that are about Paul that he went through times of
discouragement. Charles Spurgeon talks
about the fact that it is a little appreciated truth about those in ministry,
which is Pastors and missionaries who become discouraged:
“goo men are promised tribulation in this
world, and ministers may expect a larger share than others, that they may learn
sympathy with the Lord’s suffering people, and so may be fitting shepherds of
an ailing flock. (“The Minister’s
Fainting Fits,” in Lectures to m
Students: First Series [reprint; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980], 168).”
Let us take a moment to
read about the problems that Moses wrote about when it comes to despair in Numbers
11:11-15:
11 So Moses said to the
LORD, "Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found
favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? 12
“Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that
You should say to me, ’Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing
infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers’? 13 “Where am I to get
meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me, saying, ’Give us meat
that we may eat!’ 14 “I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it
is too burdensome for me. 15 “So if You are going to deal thus with me, please
kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my
wretchedness."”
Moses was not the only servant of God to express these
kinds of things to the Lord as we next look at what Joshua said after Israel’s
defeat at AI. “7 Joshua said,
"Alas, O Lord GOD, why did You 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! (Jos. 7:7).” Then there is another one that we can look at
and that is one that is familiar to me. Elijah
had a great victory over the prophets of Baal, as he murdered many of them
because of what they were doing to Israel, but afterwards he became distressed
and ran away from the woman Jezebel. You can read about that incident in 1
Kings 18:20 and following. It got so bad
for Elijah after he ran off into the wilderness that we read in 1 Kings 19:4 “But
he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down
under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said,
"It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my
fathers."” There are other examples
in the Old Testament like Hezekiah who after facing the prospect of death
pleaded with the Lord to allow him to live, which the Lord did for him as he
added another 15 years to his life. I
suppose the classic OT story comes from the book of Job as he went through some
very difficult situations.
I will end this first part of this introduction to these
verses in Acts by quoting a rather long paragraph from MacArthur’s introductory
comments on this section in Acts 18.
“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 (17:4). 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.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It was good to
better understand that discouragement can be used by the Lord in a good way, to
be able to help others if I am willing to do so.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to see me through some
discouragements of my own, and use them to bring glory to the Lord.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Hypocrisy” (Luke 12:2).
Today’s Bible
question: “What was the human name given
to Christ?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/24/2018 10:08 AM
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