Do not be afraid
Acts 18:5-11
Black Bart was a professional thief whose very name struck fear as he terrorized the Wells Fargo stage line. From San Francisco to New York, his name became synonymous with the danger of the frontier. Between 1875 and 1883 he robbed 29 different stagecoach crews. Amazingly, Bart did it all without firing a shot. Because a hood hid his face, no victim ever saw his face. He never took a hostage and was never trailed by a sheriff. Instead, Black Bart used fear to paralyze his victims. His sinister presence was enough to overwhelm the toughest stagecoach guard.
I think back a few years and I remember my kids expressing fears over all kinds of things that bothered them. The dark, thunderstorms would be two that were hard to over come. Then there were fears that something would happen to daddy when he was gone. There were fears about bullies. Fears of tornadoes or other disasters that they might see on TV.
Sometimes it was fairly easy to ease their minds and other times the kids just grew out of it over time.
In today’s scripture we learn that even the Apostle Paul seems to have fear and God givens him encouragement..
Paul seems to have been in Athens a fairly short time. He has his day in front of the leadership and scholars of the city and he leaves before his companions Silas, Luke and Timothy arrive. This is a bit confusing because Paul sent word that this friends join him in Athens. It is not like he can pick up a Cell phone and change the plan. Oh, don’t meet me at the mall, meet me at McDonalds. I guess he could leave word for them where ever he was staying.
Ok Paul is a big boy and he can take care of himself. But, why does he move on?
From our stuffy last week we know that he has some mild success, tow people names and others.
Do you think it has any thing to do with the fact that on each of his different mission trips he gets thrown out of town some times physically abused.
The other guys he is traveling with don’t see to have the same problem. It seems to be something about him. Does he leave Athens because of mild success or does he heave to avoid arrest and abuse?
Personally, of I had Paul’s experiences It would have been a very real thought on my mind. How do I get myself into these messes? Man I need to cool my heals and stay under the radar for a while.
I wonder if that is the reason that Paul moves on without his companions.
He leaves for the capitol city of Greece, Corinth. It is like what we have heard about in modern port cites. There is decadence and money.
It’s not long before he meets up with Aquila from Pontus, he and his wife Pricilla. They have left Rome when the Jews are run out of Rome because they are such troublemakers.
They join forces so to speak as tent makers. It is believed that they work together and Paul is supporting himself. Then he starts his normal pattern. H goes to the synagogue and teaches from the scriptures about the message to the Jews and believing Greeks.
We don’t know how much time goes by before his friends arrive. It might be a fairly short time. What we do know is that he does not seem to get the Jews in the Synagogue angry with him during the waiting period.
When Silas, and Timothy and Luke arrive Paul’s pattern changes. He stops working with Pricilla and Aquila and starts preaching full time. Maybe the friends brought some funding. It is after their arrival that it mentions that Paul testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
The Jews become abusive, at least verbally and Paul responds by shacking out his clothes. Sounds weird, doesn’t it. It comes form other scriptures had history. When the Jews did not listen to a prophet (rejected the word form God), his response was to reject the people by shaking the dust from their town off his clothes indicating that God was no longer going to try to reach them. Jesus told his disciple to do the same thing if they were rejected when he sent the disciples out to preach.
Then Paul says, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."
Paul teaches in the synagogue up to the point where he gets verbal resistance then he basically says, you can’t fire me I quit.
He makes a scene and he leaves the synagogue and goes next door to Titus Justice’s house. Titus was one of the Gentile converts to Judaism. Then we learn that “Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.”
Crispus is the head of the synagogue. He is not some man that sits in the back just to keep the minimum obligation. He is the leader and his leads not just the services but the whole Jewish community. What he says goes.
He ends up going next door. He leaves his important position because he hears the message and believes and because he responds many others respond as well.
You would think that Paul would be on top of the world right now.
Cha Ching, instant success. This formal breaking with the synagogue worked great.
But the scripture gives us an insight into something more. It says in verses 9 and 10:
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."
Ok, this messes up something. I don’t know about you but I think of Paul as being tough and passionate. I seem him as a man that gets in peoples faces and tells it like it is. I don’t see him being afraid of anything.
But, here in these verses, God see that Paul is afraid. Did we need to know this? Did we need to have this insight that might make us think less of Paul.
I like thinking that he is a man of iron and unshakeable. That he faced the threats to his life without fear. The idea of being abused in prison or in public meant nothing to him.
Paul , afraid of anything, no way.
But, we learn that at least on the inside, Paul was actually human. He had some kind of fear.
During World War II, a military governor met with General George Patton in Sicily. When he praised Patton highly for his courage and bravery, the general replied, "Sir, I am not a brave man. . . The truth is, I am an utter craven coward. I have never been within the sound of gunshot or in sight of battle in my whole life that I wasn’t so scared that I had sweat in the palms of my hands." Years later, when Patton’s autobiography was published, it contained this significant statement by the general: "I learned very early in my life never to take counsel of my fears."
It seems that for the most part Paul did not take counsel of his fears. For the most part he stood firm, he got in faces, he spoke the word that God gave him to speak.
But he evidentially had fears that were on the edge of influencing him.
Who could blame him? Gods people that would be so vindictive that they would make up stuff about him to get him in trouble. The results beating and nasty prisons.
He had to wonder if it was him. His companions did not seem to cause the same stink. I wonder if he thought, If I just hold back a little. If I just don’t go overboard. It will be easier. I will be able to stay in on place longer If I just hold back.
I mentioned that children and young people have fears. What id did not mention what that adults have even more powerful fears. Bills to pay, health issues, problems in the family and who knows what else.
Adults have fears that seem more real. We have learned from a life time of problems and failures that our lives can be destroyed by an accident, a wrong decision, and sometimes by something that is not even anything we did wrong. Like health, or a criminal or a drunk drive.
But the things we fear most come form our own failures. Sometimes the things we do just don’t turn out right. And from our experiences we, we begin to make easier and safer choices.
It is easier to not work son hard not to see the results we expected. IT is easier to avoid relationships new and old to avoid the chance of pain. It is easier to do nothing that to get involved.
I wonder if Paul was thinking about moving on or just avoid preaching in public or both.
It’s time to get out of town before I get in trouble again. These people in this house church have a good start so I need to get on the road before I find out what the Jail in Corinth looks like.
God speaks to Paul in a vision and tells him not to be afraid, keep on speaking, teaching…don’t change a thing. He basically assures him that nothing is going to happen to him here. He is safe to remain and to help this church to mature.
I wonder how I would react to a vision about my fears. Would I respond like Paul? Would I ignore it and just think it was a dream?
Do we want to know that God knows us that well? That he really knows our inner fears.
I don’t know about ya’ll, but I have Paul in a pretty high pedestal. In a way I see him as being so strong in his faith that he could face anything with no doubts and fears. When I do that I might start to think that there is not way to be that strong, no way that I can face my problems like he does. No way that I could take a stand and risk like he does.
And then, in today’s lesson, I see that he is also affected by pain and failures. He is open to influence to the internal pressures to yield to his fears.
Two explorers were on a jungle safari when suddenly a ferocious lion jumped in front of them. "Keep calm" the first explorer whispered. "Remember what we read in that book on wild animals? If you stand perfectly still and look the lion in the eye, he will turn and run." "Sure," replied his companion. "You’ve read the book, and I’ve read the book. But has the lion read the book?"
Here is the simple message for us today:
God is with us whatever we face. He has many people around us that will be with us in our journey. We have not met them all. By faith and with the help of his people and his presence we can face every fear. We can stand firm and move ahead in our lives if we will listen to him.
Paul responded to this vision:
So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
