Acts 18 - The Corinthian Suburbs

Summary:
In this week's podcast, Paul and friends are still on the move -- and still in danger! And yet, they keep on preaching. Join Gregg DeMey (Lead Pastor), Jeff Klein (Pastor of Outreach), and Caryn Rivadeneira (Director of Care and Worship Planning) as they wade into Acts 18 and discuss what kept Paul going and how his face reflected both his hardship and the Spirit of God within. 

Today's Hosts
Gregg DeMey, Lead Pastor
Jeff Klein, Outreach Pastor
Caryn Rivadeneira, Director of Care

Questions/Comments:  We'd love to hear from you! Email ASK.

Note: Wade in the Word is a weekly podcast designed to take a deep dive into scripture for the weekend message. Join our pastors, staff, and occasional special guests as we reflect together.

Wade in the Word podcast is a production of Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church, located in Elmhurst, IL. Wade in the Word is produced and audio-engineered by Kyle Olson, Technical Director. For more information about Elmhurst CRC or to find out about other tools and resources to grow you and your family in faith, visit elmhurstcrc.org.

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Caryn Rivadeneira, Gregg DeMey, Jeffrey Klein

Gregg DeMey  00:08

Hey folks, welcome to the Elmhurst CRC Wade in the Word podcast. I am drinking some coffee this morning. Pastor Greg DeMey here chuckling along with the Reverend Jeff Klein

Gregg DeMey  00:22

joining the Bri the pre show Bay's had a lively pre show conversation. Some of it about NFL football some of it about funny words in the Bible. Yes. And as well we are accompanied by Caryn Rivadeneira soon to be a proud graduate of Northern Theological Seminary, Lord willing well soon

 Caryn Rivadeneira  00:43

No, it's but it's it's coming up hopefully sooner rather than later. But starting to have those nightmares you know that you get like, Oh, you forgot this class and bla bla bla so

 Jeffrey Klein  00:53

that my roommate in college I got a call the night before graduation from the registrar answered the phone. No way. Yeah. And she says is Dave right center there? I said, No, ma'am. He's He's at a theater, like kind of going away thing and she said, Well, you better go find him because he's two, she's two credits short.

 Gregg DeMey  01:09

He needs to take an entire class before tomorrow morning.

 Jeffrey Klein  01:12

I literally ran over there.

 Gregg DeMey  01:18

That's funny. I do remember that old world of sitting down with like a college right? Log as a college freshman and just trying to plot out in 18 different ways how you could go over four years to kind of satisfy all the requirements of righteousness to get there

 Caryn Rivadeneira  01:34

the nice I mean, mine is a little more literally a program so right for more programming. But yeah, there are a couple things that I've swapped and done. So you kind of think like, oh, man, if somebody decides, you know what, this isn't gonna qualify?

 Gregg DeMey  01:46

Yep. Well, we have our degree programs, we have our systems and ways of organizing things. God doesn't usually operate that way. In the big picture of the book of Acts is a stunning example of a whole group of people trying to follow Jesus, often knowing what the next step is, but usually not knowing what's six months or a year down the road. So we have three more podcasts on this journey, Acts chapter 18. Today, we're going to journey into Knight chapters 19 and 20 in the coming weeks, and then we will take a little time out with our podcast the first few weeks of November and then relaunch the week of November 28, which marks the beginning of the church here and the first Sunday of Advent. So you can start your morning and weeping right now. How are you make it through your day podcasts will be on a three week hiatus.

 Caryn Rivadeneira  02:43

Or maybe people will feel grateful maybe that'll be you know, then they don't have to listen.

 Gregg DeMey  02:46

Right one thing one more thing that I'm not behind on

 Caryn Rivadeneira  02:49

exactly.

 Gregg DeMey  02:51

Time to catch up. Amazing. Yep. All right, let us head into Acts chapter 18. We're going to tackle the first 17 verses which involves Paul arriving in the city of Corinth and some adventures there.

 Jeffrey Klein  03:07

Alright, here we go. Then Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he became acquainted with a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with his wife Priscilla. They left Italy when Claudius Caesar to port it all the Jews from Rome. Paul lived and worked with them, for they were tentmakers just as he was.

 Caryn Rivadeneira  03:26

Each Sabbath found Paul at the synagogue trying to convince Jews and Greeks alike. After Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia. Paul spent all his time preaching the word. He testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. But when they opposed and insulted him, Paul shook the dust from his clothes and said, Your blood is upon your own heads, I am innocent. From now on, I will go preach to the Gentiles. Then he left and went to the home of today's justice, a Gentile who worshiped God lived next door to the synagogue, Christmas, the leader of the synagogue and everyone in his household believed in the Lord. Many others in Corinth also heard Paul, sorry, many others in Corinth also heard Paul became believers and were baptized.

 Gregg DeMey  04:09

Then one night, the Lord said to Paul in a vision and told him, don't be afraid, Paul, speak out, don't be silent, for I'm with you, and no one will attack and harm you, for many people in the city belong to me. So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half teaching the Word of God

 Jeffrey Klein  04:27

going, Gao Galio became governor of Acadia, some Jews rose up against Paul and brought him before the governor for judgment. They accused Paul of persuading people to worship God in ways that are contrary to our law.

 Caryn Rivadeneira  04:41

But just as Paul started to make his defense, galeo turned to Paul's accusers and said, Listen, Hutus, if this were a case involving some wrongdoing or a serious crime, I would have a reason to accept your case. But since it is merely a question of words and names and your Jewish law, take care of it yourself. I refuse used to judge such matters. And he threw them out of the courtroom. The crowd then grabbed sauce bunnies, the leader of the synagogue and beat him right there in the courtroom. But Galio paid no attention.

 Gregg DeMey  05:12

Wow, modern life, we think it's chaotic. But really, it's fairly calm compared to some of the scenes that we see in the ancient world. So just a number of fascinating windows into the life and times of Paul in the early church in Corinth in these verses. So first of all, we sometimes hear even modern times this phrase, tent making ministry. And that word really originated with Paul, and probably this passage where he runs into these partners, Aquila, and Priscilla, sometimes known as Priscilla, and aquilla. Who are also tentmakers. The word can also mean kind of leather workers so we don't know if they were actually there in the marketplace, making tents or working on different pieces of height or leather. But kind of wonder Paul's traveling around the world, how's he paying the bills, right? How's he finding lodging, how's he finding a couple square meals a day. And it seems that at least from time to time, Paul would kind of default to this handiwork like just simple, productive manual labor to get things done. This isn't so much how we do pastoring or church planting or church ministry, sometimes again, we still have this word tent making, I actually went planting a church in ludington, Michigan, like worked 30 hours a week at a college and trying to channel all that tithes and offerings into into ministry and building the church rather than personnel. At that point,

 Jeffrey Klein  06:49

I had the same experience church planning. You know, I was sponsored by my church I used to work at out in Indiana, they for the first three years, but they give you full salary, then two thirds, then 1/3, then your salary goes away. So that's the first year it was like, Okay, got like, maybe 10 givers and we've got lots of bills. And I don't know how this didn't work. And that's when the radio thing came for me, the Walk The Way radio on Back to God Ministries totally came out of nowhere, it was a totally God thing. And I end up doing that as a tent making thing. And that allowed me to then say to the church, I'm good, you can just keep paying me whatever. And you know, just let it keep going. And we'll just figure it out. So it was good to have this other thing current making?

 Caryn Rivadeneira  07:35

I like I do. I mean, I work full time here. But yeah, I still write and take on freelance current clients. And, obviously, I mean, I think it is a wonderful, wonderful gift that, you know, we can be on staff and paid 100%, you know, well, it's, you know, it's it's a huge, huge gift. But there is something interesting about, you know, the bi-vocational pastors or people who do work in a separate world there is, I mean, obviously, that's exhausting. I mean to work 30 hours at a college and then do it or whatever other people do, you know, they're working in an accounting firm, and then showing up and preaching or whatever. But in a way, there's something nice about that, too, though, in the sense of like, it takes you out of the church world, you know, not that churches, like an ivory tower kind of place, but it but I feel like there is a kind of, you know, but I think there's there's also a blessing that for Paul to be in the marketplace, or wherever just working with regular folks, whether he's making their tents, or belts or whatever, I

 Gregg DeMey  08:29

just want to reiterate that word of gratitude, I think, for sure. Yeah. Be thankful for the gifts and faithfulness of a congregation that supports us and many other coworkers. Yeah. Yeah, the flip side is that the church can become a world or a microcosm unto itself. There's so many people in our community, there's so many needs here. We could never turn our focus anywhere else. And there would be more than enough to occupy all of our three of us and, and everybody else and all of our leaders and all of our volunteers. That's just, I love human life and behavior. I think. I would certainly say like, for me, the most fruitful time of relationship building and connecting with just non- Christians was around that college. hardly had a co worker, this is in northern Michigan, but it's still it's academia. Yeah, right. And I'm teaching in the music and arts part of the college, which is not necessarily known for, like, attacking, like, conservative rule followers, right? So just a very colorful student population, awesome faculty, but everybody there knew, like I'm following Jesus, and that I'm dedicating all of the time and attention and creativity I can into starting a church so that just sparked hundreds of great conversations and connections and curiosity out of people at this experience with me and music, but thought lousy things about Christians. But then kind of challenged their thinking, and you put those two things together. Yeah, compelled them to wonder a little more about Yeah, yeah. Yeah,

 Gregg DeMey  09:06

I mean, I also think it does something for us, when we have more, quote unquote, real world experiences you need to understand most people here are not working at churches or even church ministries and that sort of thing. So it is, it is good to sometimes, you know, have those experiences with I don't know how people, you know, with big business and doing, you know, and, you know, we're that's the rule of the day, I think it kind of gives us better insight into people's lives. And, yeah,

 Gregg DeMey  10:37

so probably most of our listeners are not full-time Christian church employees. So I think one of the things we're trying to express is like, wherever you are, like, awesome, God put you there. And the more explicitly you follow Jesus, like, right where you are, that's when the amazing things happen, and are being in a very small percentage of people who do have full time, Christian jobs. I mean, our work is to help empower and inspire you to be that in the place that you are, because

 Jeffrey Klein  11:07

and to equip you absolutely right. The tools that hopefully you need to be able to be the be the witness or the presence of Jesus, wherever you find yourself during the week.

 Caryn Rivadeneira  11:18

Yeah, I love what you said, Gregg, about causing people to wonder, because that's, I think, my favorite form of evangelism. You know, we think that it's like, well, you've got to make sure that in your cubicle, you've got the cross and you're always praying before the company lunch, me or whatever. And that's, that's all fine. And that's good. But it is just sort of being a person of faith being an obvious person of faith, but yet also a normal person, a good worker, a funny person, a good friend, that music, whatever, whatever your your role is in that space, because I think that does make people wonder whether it's saying is that Christians were kind of jerks, but she's pretty nice.

 Jeffrey Klein  11:52

If you're lousy at your work you're listening to,

 Caryn Rivadeneira  11:56

like the bad driver with the fish on their car. Like,

 Gregg DeMey  11:59

we'd like to inspect some of Paul's tents though, just to make it's

 Jeffrey Klein  12:02

true. We're really what they were.

 Gregg DeMey  12:06

I would guess he had some run on stitches from from the way his grammar goes, Okay. Yeah, can

 Jeffrey Klein  12:13

I nerd out a little bit on this? So I like some of the cool stuff that's going on here. You know, like this Claudius dude, kicking the Jews out of Rome.

 Gregg DeMey  12:22

Claudius Caesar. Yeah. And he wanted a good list of the Caesars because yeah,

 Jeffrey Klein  12:26

cuz the Jewish, the Jewish people were caught constantly causing problems. And if you read the history books, it's because of this Christus this movement of Christus. So again, the Christian faith is causing uproars and cities because the Jews are going bananas, and beating people and locking them up and causing so that's one cool thing the other thing I think is

 Gregg DeMey  12:46

Yeah, so pause right there. Just imagine in modern times if a president or prime minister expelled an entire ethnic or religious population out of a city

 Jeffrey Klein  12:57

like you have to all the people that are all the Dutch people to leave Chicago right now and you can't use gotta leave you gotta go right? Yeah,

 Caryn Rivadeneira  13:04

well, I mean, it's the stuff of World War II, essentially. Oh,

 Gregg DeMey  13:07

yeah. But at this point, I mean, we're talking like 80-90 years ago with that. I'm saying like in our in our lifetimes, like just imagine in 2022, Canada decides to expel right everyone of Irish descent or something, so

 Jeffrey Klein  13:23

it's kind of cool to think that Priscilla and Aquila are Italians. They came from Italy correct? Right and they're Italians and they're and they're they're

 Gregg DeMey  13:32

Aquila I was born in Pontus, which is really south coast of the Black Sea in Turkey. Right?

 Jeffrey Klein  13:37

Right. That's good. Okay, so anyway, but they were living in Italy so we don't know if they were a times nine, I guess. But it's kind of cool to think these are people and I think if I think in Hebrews 13:24 there's a reference to these greeting these welcoming these Italians who are being kicked out, shoved out it's it's you gotta it's a nuanced verse, you'd have to really read, you know, but I've looked at different translations. It's pretty interesting that you know, this writer Hebrews was writing about this persecution breaking out and so a lot of the theme of Hebrews and he's, he kind of says, Welcome to the Italians. Depends how you read the Greek and all that in that verse. But it's not really translated that when everyone had Bibles, so don't don't freak out on me. Don't be calling me this way.

 Gregg DeMey  14:17

Yeah, so to keep up with the nerdiest for nerdiness for a second. This is one of the passages that helps us date. Yes, New Testament stuff because we have the name of Gallo who is the lead administer administrator in the province of Achaia, which is basically like the south of Greece. Yeah. And we know from Roman records that this Galileo was actually the brother of the Roman philosopher Seneca. Yeah, so if you ever were forced to take a Latin class, to read a little Seneca, so Gallio it's a little bit of a

 Jeffrey Klein  14:50

Yeah, we're very excited. And what they found is a letter that was written by Claudius to Galio saying we need to re-populate Delphi. Because Delphi become unpopulated because people have stopped listening all the oracles that the Romans were like we don't Oracle's it's nonsense. So people have moved out of Delphi. And he writes his letter to Gallio saying, we got to repopulate this city. It's it ought to be populated. It's a great place. And we're like, you know, keep it going. And that's me on you. So this is the letter they found. Yeah, to yellow.

 Gregg DeMey  15:20

So we do know Gallio was this regional governor in 51, and 52 AD. So Paul was in Corinth, like somewhere in 5152 AD. So everything else you can kind of like either backdate or for date in the book of Acts from this moment, so everything that we've read thus far happened in the 15 or 16 years from Jesus death and resurrection. Yeah, until this point.

 Jeffrey Klein  15:46

Yeah. And before they found this letter, a lot of people thought Luke was a bad historian. This this letter was discovered about 1905. And that's when they sort of said, Wow, this Luke guy, because before that, there was no reference outside the Bible to this Gallio. Oh, so they thought Luke's making these names up like what's he talking about? So all of a sudden they find this letter to Gallio this pro counsel and they're like, Huh, okay, so it's pretty cool. So I know that's pretty cool nerdy stuff for me. I like I like when some of the archeology lines up with

 Gregg DeMey  16:15

Yeah, love it. So somewhere along line, God sends yet another vision to Paul to encourage him. So again, I think we we can't really underestimate it's hard for me to imagine the amount of like chaos and public violence. I mean, pretty much every chapter somebody is getting, like beaten outside in front of a courthouse or caned or flogged,

 Jeffrey Klein  16:37

or Paul is himself. Yeah, exactly.

 Gregg DeMey  16:40

Exactly. And in this particular passage, I mean, it's great the first leader of the synagogue, a guy named Crispus, becomes a believer and then maybe a year later or so, the the next leader of the synagogues sauce the knees, probably as a believer because the Jewish community is then beating him in front of the courthouse so like go go Paul for making inroads among like the local leadership, however, have to think Paul had his moments of discouragement and we don't hear about them explicitly but the fact that God sends him this vision in which the voice of God says Don't be afraid why probably because he's afraid speak out. Why? Because probably Paul is wondering like am I gonna get killed if I keep saying this stuff? Don't be silent Paul for I'm with you and no one will attack and harm you for many of the people in the city belong to me.

 Jeffrey Klein  17:33

It reminds me of Elijah right when he goes to the mountain there's like he says, no one's left it's only me God say no, I've got my people here. So it's the same thing in free I agree with you i think Paul's probably like gotta have PTSD the guy everywhere he goes he's waiting for like what's gonna where's the shoe gonna drop? I get pummeled or dragged in the quarterly that

 Caryn Rivadeneira  17:54

he will but like if people who are becoming Christians are getting attacked too I mean then it's like there's that responsibility then my goodness what is this going to do? Yeah, How is this even gonna help the movement if my words are causing so much fury that now even other people are getting attacked on my behalf? But yeah, we talk about my just about the guy who lived next door to the synagogue. I think that's a very cute detail. Like Is that why cuz I was just thinking about like, church neighbors.

 Gregg DeMey  18:19

What was his name again?

 Caryn Rivadeneira  18:22

Part of why we were laughing Titius Justus.

 Gregg DeMey  18:27

No, I think the former Latin has more explosive teas. But in in Spanish, she'd be Tito Gusto, great. And now

 Jeffrey Klein  18:45

Tito, he's living next door to the synagogue. And he's

 Caryn Rivadeneira  18:49

like, Is that why I just I'm just struck that that detail is in there because I think okay, the synagogue must have been a good neighbor that would have like, right he would have been sitting there maybe well it says

 Jeffrey Klein  18:58

he worship God. So he was one of the Gentiles that had come to

 Caryn Rivadeneira  19:02

life right which came first the next door I'm just curious.

 Gregg DeMey  19:05

So I mean, part of the detail is that Paul ends up staying with him so he's probably living at his house for an extended period of time here. Right so first he's working and living with Priscilla and Aquilla I just wonder how that went. Maybe they were like a Tito Gusto, he's got a great it's got an extra apartment close

 Jeffrey Klein  19:24

to the synagogue convenient but it is cool that he is living with this Gentile because the Jews have again in the synagogue basically told pa you're a bunch of nonsense we're tired of the start insulting. I mean he's he shakes the dust off his feet is okay, I'll go into the Gentiles. You guys later. off he goes. So and he ends up with this guy. That's good.

 Gregg DeMey  19:43

Cool. All right. I have one kind of weird thought. I'm going to try to get this out. But amongst human beings, there's kind of two different kinds of violence. There's like reactionary violence where you just like sort of in the moment, like get super upset and react or attack. And then there's like premeditated and planned which is typically like how warfare works out, right? And even in our law code, like whether an act of violence is premeditated, the way the law interacts with you is a bit different, right? True. So, until very recent times, biologists believe that like humans were mainly like the premeditated kind of violence and that animals were exclusively like the just like the reactionary kind that is false. There's a few of like, the higher animals that actually like plant stuff out.

 Jeffrey Klein  20:43

Like like a lion.

 Gregg DeMey  20:46

Well, I think that is like it lies in weight. But when I see something, it just reacts to the presence of the animal. Right? Whereas like, amongst like, chimpanzees or bonobos, like they don't have like 10 on 10 wars, it's like four or five of them will get together and like hang around and they find one chimpanzee from another tribe, they'll attack that one. Like it's I mean, if we think that in human terms like it's really wicked, right? However, like the instances of like reactionary violence amongst other primates is like 10 times 20 times like what it is amongst humans and like wonderfully over time I would say we modern humans are becoming less reactive in our violence. And we see not that these people are primitive that is not what I'm saying there they have brains exactly like us an amazing culture and Corinth super well-educated people. But we do see these like scenes of just like reactive mobbing and violence like breaking out all over the place yeah, and except the Christians do not pass this on right so this is one of the like outstanding I would say features of gospel living is that the Christians are treated with reactive violence and I don't think that there is an instance like in the book of Acts and whenever there are moments like that Jesus like Peter put away your sword This is not what we do right this

 Jeffrey Klein  22:18

is how we rise right and this was a super civilized I got to visit Corinth and one of my trips over there and I mean the bath house is unbelievable. Like you would not realize I mean it sounds crazy to say but it's like seriously the the toilets were like modern toilets there were there's a modern sewerage system where the sewage went out it just would you know it didn't just pile on a valley somewhere it was like being taken out of the city the showers the gym that the this is this judgment seat where they take Paul to is still there you can stand before the judgment seat and then you know there's a whole acro Corinth which is above the city and you got a picture picture in my Bible it's big tech it's really quite a spectacular set of ruins to see as like wow this is a quite a city

 Caryn Rivadeneira  23:07

they just uncovered an ancient toilet overlooking Jerusalem Did you see that and it was amazing it was a single toilet because otherwise even though there's a lot of places it was everybody men women children lined up I think we talked about this before I read about it earlier

 Jeffrey Klein  23:23

that's our corn towards the snake the bad rice in the corn was yeah all these toilets line

 Caryn Rivadeneira  23:27

everybody in there together Yeah, again we think our societies

 Gregg DeMey  23:32

know if you traveled to Eastern Europe today still the phrase Turkish toilet is a thing yeah, it means just a hole in the ground. Yeah,

 Caryn Rivadeneira  23:40

exactly. Another thing to be thankful for indeed our toilet so

 Jeffrey Klein  23:45

we're going all over the place now.

 Gregg DeMey  23:48

One last little thing. Paul has been to so many different cities and towns at this point and significantly. Acts 18 mentions that Paul stays in the city of Corinth for a year and a half Yeah. So in terms of his own like relational connection and I mean inevitably like love for this city, this community of people also because he's there so long the potential for like deeper issues and problems to erupt and arise which is why we have two really long letters to the Corinthians and third letter that is referred to a painful letter that we don't have in the Bible but that Paul also wrote

 Jeffrey Klein  24:32

Yeah, I know it's

 Caryn Rivadeneira  24:34

Yeah, to know them well and all these are weirdnesses

 Jeffrey Klein  24:38

this was a large city to this probably 100,000 people may This is bigger than Athens I think by like five times at this time. So this is a quite large

 Gregg DeMey  24:46

so I'm I'm kind of convinced that Corinth of 2000 years ago bears the greatest parallel or connection cultural connection to our modern Western cities, and That I know the issues that arise in the book of Corinthians like that's some of the like easiest stuff to connect to our modern life and times at some point I would love to like take six months or a year just like work through the two Corinthian letters and just like draw all the connect it would be humbling, I think for for we modern people to like be addressed by the word of God. Yeah, the way the Corinthians were addressed directly, for sure.

 Jeffrey Klein  25:29

Yeah, right. These these stories late Acts, I think are the best roadmap for mission for us in America today, because it's like, these guys are in now this European setting and they're, they're employing these missionary kind of strategies that I think we could probably learn from in our modern context that are very similar context. So yeah.

 Gregg DeMey  25:52

Yeah. All right, we're going to continue with verse 18. One other geographic detail current is a big city it's not quite on the coast. It's actually situated near something called the Isthmus of Corinth I'm not going to remember how it's like 17 miles 20 miles to connect kind of the Aegean Sea on one side and the the water on the other side. So some ancient ruler got the idea of like we should like dig that sucker out and over I mean years and years and years the number of like slaves that perished trying to dig like hundreds of feet down for miles to make this a canal they didn't quite make it where they came super close, but in modern times, this has been accomplished I forget I should have looked this up. Wait, what year was accomplished, remember

 Jeffrey Klein  26:49

Yeah, I know. I know like being in Corinth you drive there from Athens like in the modern day you can just take a car and you're there in like 20 minutes or 20 minutes. So it's not a bad drive, but I'm sure back then it's a lot further walk. Right?

 Gregg DeMey  27:05

So not too far from Corinth is a city of Cenchrea, which is like the port city. So when you hear sankri in this passage, like that's where the ships are coming and going, but Corinth is like the, the big time the big city. Alright, Chapter 18 verse 18. Paul stayed in Corinth for some time after that, and then said goodbye to the brothers and sisters and went to nearby Cenchrea because he's gonna sail somewhere. There he shaved his head, according to Jewish custom, marking the end of a vow and then he set sail for Syria, taking Priscilla and Aquila with him. They

 Jeffrey Klein  27:41

stopped first at the port of emphasis where Paul left the others behind. While he was there, he went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews. They asked him to stay longer, but he declined. As he left However, he said, I will come back later, God willing, that he set sail from emphasis.

 Caryn Rivadeneira  27:57

The next step was at the port of Caesarea. From there he went up and visited the churches Jerusalem, and then went back to Antioch. After spending some time in Antioch. Paul went back through Galatia, Phrygia, visiting and strengthening all the believers.

 Jeffrey Klein  28:13

So now we're going back to Turkey. I've traveled all the way back to Israel. Right, exactly.

 Gregg DeMey  28:18

Right. So yeah, Paul is leaving a chaos or kind of modern Greece and significantly he takes Priscilla and Aquila with him. This is just further underlining Paul's kind of leadership model like I'm going to bring along the people who really I sense like, God's Spirit has failed and have the potential to carry out this work. So at this point, there's been Barnabas, there's been Silas, there's been Timothy, Luke, the writer of the book to some degree, and now Priscilla and Aquila are in on this. And on the same ship as Paul, right, going to these traveling with him, right, so after Corinth, probably the city of emphasis will become like the second other like great city that Paul spends a lot of time in. So they drop in there briefly and then sell back to Israel.

 Jeffrey Klein  29:07

Again, the best ruins to the city to visit if you're ever going to go over there, get the Turkey, Ephesus is like, gotta be top on your list. It's amazing. We should organize a trip. We should have a trip maybe. But I mean, this is the theater. There's is complete, it's monstrous. And which we'll get into actually really the next chapter 1, Paul actually goes into that theater, the crowd that wants to strangle him, and he's like, I'm gonna go talk to him. Yeah. So yeah,

 Gregg DeMey  29:37

great chapter. So Paul goes from kind of like the edge of where Christianity has impacted all the way back to the epicenter. So he ends up back in Jerusalem, then back in Syria in Antioch, which really was the mother-sending Church of these early missionaries. And then we get this detail again that Paul goes back, another time to visit these churches. Turkey that he had planted any number of years before presumably to check in and courage them equip them to help empower the leaders there. So it just makes me wonder a little bit like I don't know, in modern times that, you know, pastors do this so much.

 Caryn Rivadeneira  30:22

Go back and check in on the churches they've left or started well, like

 Gregg DeMey  30:26

sometimes I go back to Sacramento and check in, but it's not like I go back there and people are like,

 Jeffrey Klein  30:33

they've moved on to the new pastor. Exactly.

Caryn Rivadeneira  30:37

are sending them letters on everything. They're doing wrong. Do you ever do that one?

 Gregg DeMey  30:41

I have refrained from the candidates. Probably again, I've occasionally had opinions.

 Jeffrey Klein  30:47

Yeah, as soon as you're invited back to preach it these places that you once were doing your thing, but yeah, often they've moved on to the new leader, the new pasture, and they don't really look to you as being like,

 Gregg DeMey  31:00

no. And when that does happen, usually it's viewed as like, inappropriate or meddling or image. Sure, yeah,

 Caryn Rivadeneira  31:08

right, man, I suppose I mean, obviously, this is different, because it would be like the main missionary going back to visit some different the church plan, like the church plan, or whatever, doing different things. So it is different. But that is, that is interesting.

 Gregg DeMey  31:23

So I think this ties back to the tent making part where Paul is not receiving his livelihood, from the churches that he was planting. And in terms of his like, motivation of why he traveled there, of why he spoke the way he did, of why he connected, why he served there, there was not a financial element to it. So I think he could return there, within the same motive that got in there in the first place. Whereas I think always in the background is like, hey, yes, we're serving in Jesus name, but like, we're paying you to do this, this is your job.

 Caryn Rivadeneira  32:03

I think it's good point.

 Jeffrey Klein  32:04

I mean, this is, you know, when I, when I did plant, my church, and then it all kind of came crumbling down. One of the Reformed Church, Well, a couple of Reformed Church guys sat down with me higher ups and said, "So Klein, what would be your perfect job?" I said, "Well, to be honest, give me a pastor alongside me. You know, real pastor, you know, not like me, but a real pastor. And then, you know, like, have me I'll go with that person, I'll plant out and plant the church, I'll get the excitement going, get it going for like three years, and then I will leave and turn it over to that person to run the church." Because often in church plan even year three and four and all sudden shifts from entrepreneurial build and start things and get it going and excitement into now Oh, man, we got people out. We have to organize, we have to get things you know, in order. And that's when I of course, I'm really good at order As you've probably learned, just masterful, masterful ordering of good things. And so at that point, I just get like, almost, you know, like,

 Gregg DeMey  33:01

how long have we been working together? Three years,

 Jeffrey Klein  33:05

trying to see if I can get anything ordered. So yeah, but I mean, it's just, it's interesting to different giftings. You know, so here's Paul, this guy who's great at starting and planting these things, and then, you know, handing them off to other leaders in those towns to run and kind of take care of and shepherd those churches. It's a pretty good model. I don't know how I would have done that with my family dragging them from town to town port to port, you know, 

 Gregg DeMey  33:29

Why Paul stole singleness as well. 

 Jeffrey Klein  33:31

There you go. So but, yeah, it's certainly a model.

 Caryn Rivadeneira  33:35

I also find it curious that not you know, 10 verses after he just said he's done what the Jewish people and he's only going to preach to the Gentiles that he is back. reasoning.

 Gregg DeMey  33:45

I don't think there was a universal declaration. That was

 Caryn Rivadeneira  33:49

the Corinthian declaration, but

 Jeffrey Klein  33:51

and he's still very Jewish, I love his first you know, the second right in verse 18. He's shaving his head, right? So this is probably referring to a nazirite vow, which is I think a numbers right as a numbers, as right violin. So we are one of our famous NAS rights was Samson, who was a lifelong Nazarite right, but you took a Nazirite vow for a time. And you honor that. So here's Paul practicing his Jewish, he's doing a spiritual discipline here, which is pretty awesome. At some point, he decided to do this. And now it's time for him to shave his head and go back to normal, which is, you know, he's done with his vows he's done with his time of discipline, which is pretty cool. Like that's something we probably all need to emulate, emulate in some way. Like, what are the things we're putting in our lives these disciplines are these special seasons where we go, I'm going to set aside this time specially to really go after God and stay connected to him. This is a guy on mission but he's like, I got to stay connected to the Lord. I got to stay connected to my to the roots. I can't just always be out going, going going. Right. So

 Gregg DeMey  34:50

yeah, that's a good word. I think we North Americans could benefit a ton by thinking more about spiritual seasons, and rhythms and for Paul again, this was a lifelong thing we don't know what motivated the vow right on a superficial level is kind of amazing to think of Paul with like big hair or long hair A day later with a shaved head

 Jeffrey Klein  35:11

Have you ever read read the description of Paul in the apocryphal books you probably have

 Gregg DeMey  35:14

I haven't I heard it just this morning yes somewhere I can't remember where but we devotion Will you share some of the highlights of

 Jeffrey Klein  35:21

yeah they they describe them as a bent over bow legged eyebrows meaning in the center with a large nose and may a man not have much stature so pretty short so they describe Paul and this apocryphal writing and it's it's an I've read some other stuff where they talk about how the beatings had made him bend over even more and just had made him just really decrepit so he even writes in Corinthians I was I came to you and you didn't think of me as really you know physically so good am I my words were powerful I think you said your words are powerful but his his his appearance is really not too much

 Caryn Rivadeneira  36:00

and he had a shaved head on to that probably some cigars and

 Jeffrey Klein  36:05

supposedly it just got this could be a weird looking

 Gregg DeMey  36:09

shaved head but a unibrow exactly

 Jeffrey Klein  36:13

this gives me a weird look and do to come into your town and start preaching Jesus but then I guess you know the other thing that same writer then at the end says he had the face of a man at times but then also the face of an angel so he he points out that there was something about the Spirit of God through Paul that would like make people pay attention right which is pretty cool.

 Gregg DeMey  36:30

That's a beautiful line I like all these physical characteristics but something spiritually manifesting through this yeah so person's face

 Jeffrey Klein  36:38

yeah so like it's very fascinating like I don't think Paul would have been a megachurch pastor probably based on his appearance, but his spirit right the Spirit of

 Caryn Rivadeneira  36:47

God and the radio is he could have done it. But once TV entered here. So it was

 Gregg DeMey  36:51

pretty well. Turns out God looks more at the heart. That's right. Yeah,

 Caryn Rivadeneira  36:55

God does. Yeah, we Yeah, that's that's the point.

 Jeffrey Klein  37:01

Yeah, I think it's cool that Yeah, just think about the humaneness of Paul Yeah. And these passages give us some that human is right he's probably afraid discouraged at times. You know, he's taking these vows to keep himself on the straight narrative keep yourself focused on the goal. He's getting beaten and you know, running out of cities and I was hiding and it's just this weak guy who's just you know, trying to make it go is to having a tent mate to pay his bills. He's you know, just think about this life. It's like, wow, this is not that glamorous.

 Caryn Rivadeneira  37:32

Horrible glamorous

 Jeffrey Klein  37:35

So Jesus calls you into this and you immediately assume Oh, God, Jesus called me into this gonna just be all peaches and roses, and they're like, bless me every step of the way. Blast all the time. It's like Paul said yes to this and kept saying yes to it. Even though he was being completely pummeled. Throughout the process, he kept trusting Jesus and following him and saying, This is what you call me today. I'm gonna do this. That's pretty sweet. Totally like,

 Gregg DeMey  37:58

so this part about Paul's face? really interested in that. I am assuming we've all run into people who, you know, have a bright countenance. And it's not probably that they're a magazine model, but you can kind of like see a light or joy or a life that's coming through somebody's face. And it really has nothing to do with like how physically attractive you are right? Or how symmetrical your faces. So Nicky Gumbel, the Alpha guy, tells a great story about this Roman Catholic Father Raniero Cantalamessa who is riding on a train, I'm assuming he's wearing like his priestly collar and stuff. So he's identifiable as a as a Christian. But this Italian woman comes up to him and says something to the effect of like, I don't believe but your face, it compels me to ask. Yeah, so just like this guy sitting on a train was provocative enough to a non-Christian woman to like, cause her to speak out. like yeah, that's pretty cool.

 Jeffrey Klein  39:10

It is sweet love

 Caryn Rivadeneira  39:11

that. I one of my favorite moments in the Bible is when Jacob is coming back and Esau is there to greet him and he says seeing you is like seeing the face of God. And maybe that's just an idiom or something. But I just always read it that it's he saw his posture that he's after all these years after being ready to kill him 20 years before that. He's happy to see his brother and that transformation that took place I just Yeah, yeah, that's the same thing. Sometimes just the face.

 Jeffrey Klein  39:35

My daughter-in-law was just at a church in Wheaton. It's called The Wheaton Christian Center. And there have been there but it's apparently the pastor now is in younger African guy, but the older African guy that we thought she was there was preaching. And she said he was probably like 80 years old, kind of bent over just you know, like she was they when they walked in her initial judgment was oh boy, this could be a train wreck. Right? This is like an old dude who then she said she said you know he was so anointed like it was unbelievable like it's like the Holy Spirit was just oozing out of the sky like the whole time he preached to talk it was like the whole room leaned in because the Spirit of God was just emanating from him so that that's a that's a cool goal to have right like I would get the Spirit of God be so powerful and me are so like part of my life I've kind of yield to the spirit so much that now when I speak or do ministry it's not Jeff they're saying but it's like the Spirit of God is like that's I don't think I figured that I

 Gregg DeMey  40:41

would be like that by the time we're eighty, but yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, or maybe sooner

 Caryn Rivadeneira  40:45

I don't know. Yeah. But what I love too though is just something must have even happened in her spirit to be receptive to that because sometimes I wonder if that isn't happening all the time but yet we just walk into a place like you know, if she would have stayed in that posture of like, oh boy, here we go. But something along the way allowed her to receive it as well you know, and that's

 Jeffrey Klein  41:07

didn't Paul right? We walk by faith not by sight. So I mean, it's that's an interesting thing to think about. We often walk by sight and I'm sure in our culture, right?

 Gregg DeMey  41:17

So here's the challenging question, dear friends, what does your face bear witness to in the world? There's a proverb from somewhere that's like hey, for your first 20 years of life like you have the face that nature gave you that after that it's on you.

 Gregg DeMey  41:38

Alright, let's bring chapter 18 to its close here, we get to meet one other early Christian superstar man named a palace take us away, Jeff.

 Jeffrey Klein  41:50

Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord and He taught others about Jesus with enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John's baptism.

 Caryn Rivadeneira  42:08

When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, it took them aside and explained the way of God even more accurately,

 Gregg DeMey  42:16

Apollos had been thinking about going to a cave and the brothers and sisters and emphasis encouraged him to go. So they wrote to the believers and akia that's where Corinth is asking them to welcome him. And when he arrived there, he proved to be of great benefit to those who by God's grace had believed he refuted the Jews with powerful arguments and public debate and using the scriptures he explained to them that Jesus was the Messiah. So we hear a little bit about Apollos here he comes up in the Corinthian letters. Some people theorize it might be the author of the book of Hebrews, who knows, according to the Corinthians, many thought a palace was a better speaker. Yep. Then Paul and Peter. So this guy is clearly gifted intellectually, as a preacher, as a teacher,

 Jeffrey Klein  43:09

as a debater,

 Gregg DeMey  43:11

as a debater. As someone who is Jewish culturally and religiously and in particular knows the scripture so well that

 Jeffrey Klein  43:19

I've watched I remember when I was at Timothy and that mock trial team watching that I would just always be like envious like, wow, if I can only put thoughts together like these, like these 17 year

 Gregg DeMey  43:29

olds you know, they practice and prepare a lot I know

 Jeffrey Klein  43:33

that I mean, still, if you watch a good debater, they're they're amazing at you know, one of my friends in college, the guys talking about Dave Ries, you know, he was an amazing debater, you could not debate you could debate under the table under any topic because he had been trained in debate and just kind of knew that the same guy who though was to credit chat, there was the same guy to credit shy Yes.

 Gregg DeMey  43:53

He won the debate with a registrar though he did graduate and

 Jeffrey Klein  43:56

actually he graduated time because his theater Professor wrote up an independent study forum for two credits that night and he turned it in and that was it so so that's the deal going down. But he is a super Okay, I believe.

 Gregg DeMey  44:12

So as smart and talented as a policy as he clearly was missing something. So he believes in Jesus, but he is preaching John's baptism and baptism in the Holy Spirit. So like, what is that about? What does John's baptism mean?

 Jeffrey Klein  44:30

john the baptist I mean, you know, he would say repenting me baptized every one of you. So John's baptism was all about repentance. It was obviously before Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead. It was before the Holy Spirit was given to the church. So he's got an understanding. It's interesting. There's actually a modern day sect of this. The sect of john the baptist, I had people in my church and Wheaton, what from they were from like, overseas. They were from the Middle East or something. It's like they would call themselves John the Baptist. From that John the Baptist. So it's not like this has gone away. And I remember having these discussions with them. You could look this up, I don't know, I haven't I couldn't tell you what they believe or what there. But I know this is a thing that's still out there. But that's really, you know, they were just they were just lacking that he was lacking deeper understanding about how the Holy Spirit enters your life and those kinds of things. Sure.

 Caryn Rivadeneira  45:23

I mean, it's again, I always feel bad for these early Christians who are just trying to piece things together. And you know, we take for granted all the information we have access to all the time. So the fact that he probably had just, I mean, it's wonderful even that they say like, they taught him more accurately, like he wasn't chastise. He wasn't like You fool, blah, blah, blah. He was just probably going with whatever information and still the idea of being baptized and repentance is very compelling. Something is happening. So yeah.

 Gregg DeMey  45:53

Yeah, one way I look at this is like John's baptism, the baptism of repentance is more backward looking. So it's recognizing our sin and failures and wrong footedness. In our walk with each other in the walk with the Lord, and it's a desire to turn from that. Whereas, think Jesus baptism, the baptism of the Spirit is more of a forward looking baptism. It's the baptism that gives new life that fills you with the spirit that opens you and equips you for whatever is whatever God has for you next.

 Jeffrey Klein  46:26

Yeah, that's good. I like that. I mean, you know, John's baptism came out of the whole mikvah thing. If you weren't in a synagogue, you went in wet, because you went in through the mikvah, which was kind of the symbolism, I want to start over. I'm gonna start my week over again, I'm going to cleanse myself and then I'm going to go in and start over so.

 Gregg DeMey  46:43

So it would be a mistake. And sometimes Christians have made this mistake that if I've experienced baptism through the Spirit, like, I don't need repentance anymore, because I've been spilled to the field of the spirit and resurrection life. But no, no, we're still human beings. Right? Sometimes our old self can punch our redeemed self in the face and temporarily, exerts power again, which needs to be repented of. Yeah, so even post New Testament and baptism in Jesus name being filled with the Holy Spirit. Of course, there's still the need to repent and be washed clean again, and again and again.

 Jeffrey Klein  47:18

And some of the stuff Paul writes about in his letters, you know, the deeper spiritual realities that go on when the Spirit of God enters your life. And when this resurrection life enters you, is very different than John's baptism, simply just repent of your sins, then going forward, trying to do better than next week is like no, in the in the way of the Spirit, you're not trying to do better. You're trying to lean into the spirit, surrender to the spirit, let the spirit keep remaking your heart so that you're becoming again, more like this, Paul, who's emanating the spirit from his face, because he just, you know, getting more tuned into the Spirit of God. So I think that's probably some of the deeper explanation that was going on with, you know, Aquila, and Priscilla, who had learned from Paul, that's such an awesome picture discipleship. Like, you know, you kind of think, who's your Aquila? and Priscilla? Do you have one? Who's your Apollos? Is there someone out there that you're walking with and explain more deeply the Christian faith that you've come to understand? You know, how do we keep raising up more people raising each other up?

 Gregg DeMey  48:15

Yeah, so I feel this tension between these two baptisms, often on Sunday morning. And quite frankly, it's easier to lean into the John's baptism posture. I mean, to give kind of the talk of like, Hey, we're not doing good enough. And here's what you have to do next to be a worthwhile follower of Jesus. Right? I could sometimes like think of the analogy like, hey, would someone come in here and it's like, whatever your life is a wheelbarrow, and you already have your burdens, and there's some like rocks and bricks in there that put 10 more in and then we're like, did you leave? Right? Did we did you leave today with a lighter, a lighter load? Or did we just toss three more things,

 Jeffrey Klein  49:01

right and three more boulders in your wheelbarrow? Now we'll that thing out.

 Gregg DeMey  49:07

Whereas, which is not saying like, we should never have a moment of confession and admitting our sin and recognizing our failure and lack of holiness and God's presence and receiving forgiveness. But ultimately, I mean, my hope and this is why I would we plant services in such a way that hopefully, we worship and go feeling lighter and feeling more full of the Spirit. And not necessarily that there's less rocks in your wheelbarrow, but your arms and legs are stronger to bear with it.

 Jeffrey Klein  49:38

But some would say if you're confessing your sins, you are bamboo mat, you man, he just walked out maybe you got some new rock. So

 Caryn Rivadeneira  49:47

yeah, and I, again, I mean not to like, for me, it always comes back to why I love infant baptism, but part of it is again, it's such a lightning thing in the sense of lightening. Just this idea of that It's God's act, God's movement toward us and God holding us. And that in and of itself is like yes, there's repentance and all that that always needs to go along with the Christian life. But I just think that that's right the idea of the the new life and the forward thinking, the idea that God holds us and reaches out toward us. I feel like it's the thing that allows us to ease ourselves with some of those burdens. And you know that it isn't just about us doing everything all the time.

 Gregg DeMey  50:27

Yeah, amen. I wish friends that you got some bonus spiritual points with God for listening to this whole podcast for an hour, but it is not the way it works. I wish we got bonus righteous points for recording this to me as bycatch. But no, that isn't the way it works, either. It turns out, it's all about gospel and grace at the end of the day, thank God. So we have two more chapters to go Acts 19 and 20. With love it if you hang with us the next couple weeks. Thanks to Billy Heschel and Kyle Olson. who faithfully make this happen every week and listen to us

 Jeffrey Klein  51:02

somehow Billy starts back there and then Kyle somehow emerged like Billy ages decades.

 Gregg DeMey  51:06

Every time

 Caryn Rivadeneira  51:08

we do a podcast at least a tentmaker.

 Gregg DeMey  51:10

It's crazy. Billy is a tentmake, Yeah. Vocational Billy. He's also a motorcycle writer. Yep,

 Jeffrey Klein  51:17

and a guitarist, and a rock star. It's unbelievable. And a

 Gregg DeMey  51:20

cat owner. We'd love you Billy, and thanks for hanging out with us. Peace. Hope to see you in Sunday worship where we get to come into the presence of God and experience this chapter in a little different way. But hopefully it will be good for your spirit. Peace.