The Birth Of A Church Series

We begin a new series today. Our church celebrates its 125th year anniversary. We have some things planned for later this year. We also begin a new book: 1 Corinthians. Many of you may think it odd to begin journey of a book of the Bible and then focus on Acts. Yet, Luke tells us the beginnings of the church in Corinth in Acts 18.

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, 3 and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. 5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 6 And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 7 And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. 8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. 9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. 12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, 13 saying, “This man is persuading people 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 wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. 15 But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” 16 And he drove them from the tribunal. 17 And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.” (Acts 18:1-17)

1. The City of Corinth

“After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.” (Acts 18:1)

Since we’re going to focus on Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church in the days to come, let’s focus on the city for a few moments. In verse one, Paul traveled 53 miles as he left from Athens to Corinth. Or, about the distance from Fayetteville to Van Buren (about 51 miles via I-540).

1.1 Corinth’s Importance

The City of Corinth was important for Paul’s purposes of reaching the world with the Gospel. Corinth and Ephesus were two important cities to Paul’s missionary work. He stayed in both of the cities considerably longer than other places because of their importance to surrounding areas. If you were traveling east to west in Paul’s day, you would have traveled through Corinth. It was a center of business, commerce, travel, and culture. Corinth was the most important city in Greece during Paul’s day. Corinth was the biggest city Paul had yet encountered with approximately 250,000 people.

The city of Corinth was just about 100 years old when Paul arrived. In 44 BC, Julius Caesar decided to establish a Roman colony at Corinth shortly before his assassination. Rome had destroyed the city earlier (146 BC) and nothing existed there for 102 years. So, Paul would not have encountered any building more than 100 years old. The poor of Rome along with numerous freed slaves had settled the town. In additional to slaves, Rome sent its army veterans there. Rome even gave them land to set up a home. Yet, Julius Caesar recognized the strategic location of the city and its ability to make lots of money. Corinth was the master of two harbors. It was a natural crossroad for land and sea travel. Cenchreae was six miles to east and opened ships to Asia. Lechaeum was two miles to the north and opened ships to Italy. A four-mile rock-cut track connected the two ports. This four mile land bridge saved sailors around 200 miles of sailing around the cape. Boats would be removed and placed on rollers to cross the isthmus. In additional, it prevented them from experiencing potential storms as they traveled around the cape of Greece was dangerous in the winter. There was a saying among sailors: “Let him that would sail around Malea make his will first.”