[2] Jesus has a message for you this morning and I hope you can hear it. I hope you can hear it with not just your ears but with your heart as well. It’s a message that we all need to hear and that we all need to remember every day of our lives. Some days we need to hear it louder than on other days – but every day we need to hear Jesus whisper into our hearts: “I am with you.” That’s the message from the Lord today. “I am with you.” [3]
No matter how difficult life gets, no matter how lonely life gets, no matter how confusing life gets, we need to be able to hear the voice of God assuringly speak into our hearts that He is with us!
And remember, He’s not just along side of us. He’s not just a holy presence around us. He’s not just a comforting ideology for our minds. Jesus Christ lives within our very being by the power of the Holy Spirit. [4]
[Read John 14:16-17.]
Jesus taught the disciples here and then again in John chapters 16 and 17 that once He went back to the Father, the Spirit would come to dwell within all those who believed in Him. Paul followed up that same teaching when he spoke of how all believers have the same Spirit of God living within them.
[Read I Corinthians 12:13.]
When we come to believe in Jesus Christ and are saved the Holy Spirit of God comes to live inside of us. Jesus’ message to you today is, “I am with you!” If we will remember this, it will give us the strength, the focus and the joy we need to live life God’s way no matter the circumstances surrounding us.
Now some of us here today might need this message more than others. You are finding yourself in a situation that has you down and feeling desperately alone. Well, you’re in good company. In Acts chapter eighteen we’re going to see how the Apostle Paul, because of the circumstances of life, needed this message from the Lord.
Paul’s been all over the region preaching the gospel. Wherever he goes lots of people get saved, they start a church, and then the Jews persecute him out of town. So he finds himself in the city of Corinth doing ministry. Now Corinth is one wicked place. It’s a wealthy, trade city that has lots of people constantly coming and going. But it’s also a city characterized by its sexual immorality. The main religion there was geared towards Aphrodite who was considered the goddess of love. And within their religious traditions were all kinds of sexually immoral practices in the name of their goddess. This is where Paul is. And for reasons that we’ll look at in a bit, Paul was not comfortable in Corinth.
[Read I Corinthians 2:3.]
So the Lord appears to him and reassures him that He is with him.
[Read Acts 18:9-10.]
The Lord tells Paul to hang in there, don’t be afraid to finish what you started, because I am with you. I am with you.
As we look a little closer at this passage, we’re going to see how the Lord gives us all this same message. He wants us all to know that He is with us no matter what life throws at us. So let’s go to the beginning of Acts chapter 18 and see what led up to the Lord appearing to Paul. As we do, we’re going to see how the Lord is with us [5] through life’s trials.
[Read Acts 18:1-6.]
Paul goes to Corinth after having to leave the great city of Athens. He goes from the intellectual capitol of the world to a city where prostitutes and drunks line the streets in the name of religion.
He’s by himself and out of money so he has to get a job. Paul was a tentmaker earlier in life so he hooks up with Aquila and Priscilla who were fellow tentmakers and works with them until Timothy and Silas show up with some financial support.
Now that he doesn’t have to work on the side any more he devotes all of his time telling people about Jesus. But the Jews that he worked with not only rejected his teachings but the blasphemed as well. (They were probably saying all kinds of evil things about Jesus Christ.) And Paul had had enough. So he yelled at them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
He was at that point. Ever been at that point? The trials of life have been slapping you around and you have just had enough!
That’s where Paul is. He seems to be sick and tired of the Jews continuing to reject the Messiah and these guys were so bad that they pushed Paul to the edge. I think this is one of the reasons that the Lord showed up to Paul and said, “Paul, I am with you. I know things look bad, feel bad, and maybe even are bad. But never forget, I am with you.”
[Haitian woman found alive after buried under a church for 10 days story.
“Thanks God! Thanks God!” “Her great faith kept her alive!”]
When the trials of life come rushing into our lives it doesn’t mean that Jesus has rushed out of our lives. He will be with us and will enable us to make it through the trials of life and to even come out on the other side stronger than ever.
Hebrews 13:5 reads, “for He Himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” God is with us through life’s trials. Paul needed to hear that. Paul also need to understand that God is with us [6] through life’s endeavors. Back to the story.
[Read Acts 18:7-8.]
Now let’s just pause for a moment. The leader of the synagogue, the place where the Jews had defiantly rejected Paul’s teachings about Jesus, their leader got saved – he and his entire family! And it goes on to say that many Corinthians were getting saved! It’s like a revival broke out there in that wicked place.
But Paul was still uncomfortable there so Jesus shows up and gives him the message that he needed to hear. A message that would enable him to finish the job there in Corinth.
[Read Acts 18:9-11.]
When Paul first got to Corinth life was tough. Then revival broke out, but Paul was still troubled. Even with the success that Paul was having there it seems that he might have wanted to get out of Corinth. As we read earlier in I Corinthians 2:3 Paul admits that he was fearful and uncomfortable there in Corinth. Maybe it was the atmosphere of the city. Maybe he was receiving threats from the Jews. Or maybe he was even a little intimidated by all the new believers and the pressure that comes with success. But whatever it was, Paul was about to leave a job unfinished - so the Lord reminded him that he is with him. Hang in there Paul, I’ll help you finish the job.
Well that’s all Paul needed. And he spent the next year and a half establishing the church there in Corinth. He realized what he later wrote in Philippians 4:13, that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Is there something in your life, that God has called you to do, but you feel like giving up? Some responsibility, or a God-given dream, or a ministry effort that you know you need to continue but you feel like bailing out.
If you’re a wife this morning, God wants you to be the best wife you can be. Now before you yell out, “Hey pastor, you try being married to my husband!” First of all, “Ewe.” But second of all, God is with you. God knows about your marriage. He knows more than you even know. “Well then why didn’t he tell me about this guy ahead of time?!”
Whatever God has called you to do, He’ll be with you. He will be with you when your business is booming, and He’ll be with you when it goes under. He’ll be with you when ministry is easy and He’ll be with you when you feel like giving up. Through all of life’s endeavors God is with you.
And finally, God is also with you [7] through all of life’s pressures.
[Read Acts 18:12-17.]
Here we go again. Paul does some great ministry in the city and then the Jews try and pressure him to stop. But this time something weird happens. This time the judge himself puts an end to it. Gallio decided that this was an internal matter and dismissed the case!
But after all, Jesus told Paul that no one here would harm him and that he’d be able to finish the job he started.
But let’s note something else here. The synagogue had a new ruler named Sosthenes. He probably took over after the former ruler Crispus became a Christian. And after Paul was freed by the judge this Sosthenes was beat down right out in front of the courthouse.
Now some translations incorrectly insert the words “the Greeks” at the beginning of verse 17 making it look like a group of angry Greeks were waiting for him outside. But those words are not in the original text. The verse should read “they all took hold of him”. The “they” in verse 17 are the same “them” in verse 16 who are the Jews who were accusing Paul in the court.
You see, Sosthenes failed to have Paul put in prison. As synagogue leader that was his responsibility. When he failed the Jews were so angry that they exacted a little cowboy-justice and turned on their own leader. Oh the pressure of leading a group of angry legalists.
But you know what, God would soon be with this Sosthenes.
[Read Acts 17:27, I Corinthians 1:1.]
When Paul wrote his first letter back to the church he started there in Corinth he let them know that the Sosthenes who was once against the Lord, was now a believer in Him. His eyes were opened to the fact that Jesus Christ was real. Now Jesus was with Sosthenes too! He would never be alone again!
Anyway, when the pressures of life come on you, remember that God is with you always and that He’ll give you the strength you need to hold back the tide.
[8] I want to share a story with you of some parents that had some incredible pressure put on them. Rick Hoyt was born in 1962 to Dick and Judy. As a result of oxygen deprivation to Rick's brain at the time of his birth, he was diagnosed as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. Dick and Judy were advised to institutionalize Rick because there was no chance of him recovering, and little hope for Rick to live a "normal" life. He couldn’t walk or talk or do anything by himself. But his parents loved their son and have done everything they could to help him have a normal life. They even had someone come up with a way for Rick to communicate by tapping a keyboard that was mounted next to his forehead. In 1977 Rick tapped out a message to his father. “I want to participate in a 5 mile benefit race for a friend of his who had been paralyzed in an accident.” Just how could this work? Well, the father would push him in a wheelchair through the entire race. And they’ve been racing for the last 30 years. As you watch the video about them, you’ll get a beautiful example of a loving father who is always there for his child. God is with you!
[Watch Hoyt video.]
[9] [Read Psalm 139:1-18.] [10]
