Devotion to a Full Understanding of the Faith - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download

In Acts 18:18-19:7, Paul and those that he has met along the way offer teaching and correction to some others who have gaps in their understanding in order to further spread the Gospel message.

Transcript:

Acts 19, four through seven. Paul said, John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about 12 men in all.

Let us pray. Dear Father, as we come before your word this morning, we pray that you would open up our hearts, open up our hearts so that we would have a teachable spirit. Open up our hearts, father, so that we would seek the gifts that you give to us in Jesus Christ. We ask this in his name. Amen. You may be seated.

So who here loves to be criticized? Huh? No, no, no takers. What? Why am I not surprised? Most of us aren't huge fans of being criticized, even constructively criticized. And I think there are, there are at least two reasons why. The first is our ego, our pride. Criticism shatters any delusion of our own perfection. And at the same time, when someone criticizes us, it kind of raises our, our hackles. We think to ourselves, who do you think you are? That you're so better than me, that you can lord your opinions over me. The second reason, I think that, why we dislike criticism is that it can often turn up feelings of, of guilt or remorse, kind of thinking, ah, I should have, I should have known better. Or, there I go again, messing everything up, and on and on and on. Yes, we don't like criticism.

And yet, sometimes we just need to hear it, because it's the truth. I remember when I, I was a kid, I'd always fight it tooth and nail. I just have this vision in my mind of sitting at my grandma's counter and trying to do some math equations, and her trying to help me do the math and myself just throwing a fit because in my heart I hated the idea of not being able to figure it out myself. It is always a difficult medicine to accept when maybe you haven't been doing something right. It doesn't taste great, but time has taught me to take it over the years. And by taking it, I don't mean ignoring it. We live in a culture today that glorifies brushing off all criticism, like, well, you can think whatever you want, i'm just gonna do what I'm gonna do. That's a foolish attitude to have. Now, of course, some criticism should be ignored. We see Jesus himself, of course, do this, and he had every right to do that at every turn 'cause he was the only one that was beyond any critique. But we should not ignore all criticism, even criticism poorly communicated to us, criticism that might not be at all constructive in its presentation, because sometimes that sort of criticism still contains grains of truth that we should not let slip away.

I begin in this way because today's passage presents two instances in which good criticism could have been resisted and the truth lost, instances in which ego could have rejected essential help. So we're going to meditate on this example, and we're also going to meditate on the particular knowledge of the truth that was gained by those involved. So we pick up in Acts 18, starting in verse 18. Says Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken. They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. But as he left, he promised, I will come back if it is God's will. Then he set sail from Ephesus. When he landed at Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch. After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all of the disciples.

So you'll recall as we last, last left off, Paul had spent a good deal of time, at least 18 months in Corinth and God had given him some great success there, and at this time now he is departing. He's departing ultimately to make his way back to the church in Antioch. So he is gonna be departing from the Eastern Port Cenchreae. He's going to be kind of meandering his way down here to Jerusalem, which will take him back to Antioch.

Now before he leaves, Luke notes that in accordance with a vow that he, he had taken, he has all of his hair cut off. Now, that leaves us wondering, what sort of vow did he take? In the Jewish religion, in the Jewish faith, there is a precedent for making such vows. The one that most immediately comes to mind is taking a, a Nazarite vow. We see that in, in Numbers six. That was the sort of vow that Samson was under, you might be familiar with this, the story of Samson and how he was not to cut his hair. Now such a vow does reach its conclusion and you're supposed to offer your hair, you cut it all off, and then you, you present it before God in the temple. So this could have been the conclusion of such a vow. It could have been the beginning 'cause he is like, well my hair's gonna get really long, so I'm, I'm gonna call it and cut it all off right now so it has some, some room to grow. Some scholars though aren't convinced that this is a Nazarite vow because that sort of cutting would've had to have taken traditionally within the land of Israel, and Paul is not within the land of Israel. So it could have just been a similar sort of vow. We don't know, but this just is a good reminder to us that Paul is truly Jewish and there's no problem with practicing the, the Jewish traditions here 'cause it's, it's coming from scripture and it something that's within permission within the Christian faith. It doesn't contradict his total reliance upon Christ. And it may have been that he had made this vow as a response of thanksgiving to how God had been faithful to him in Corinth.

So he makes this vow, cuts off his hair, and he departs and makes his way towards Syria, and he does so by going through Ephesus. You'll see Ephesus here on the end of Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. I won't get too much into the details of Ephesus, though I could here 'cause he just spent some time here. We'll do that next week. But just so you know, it's a major city. It's a top five city in the Roman Empire, probably around a population of 250,000 people. So it's a good place to visit to try to preach the gospel. He goes into the synagogue there, as he traditionally does, to, to reason with the people there, to try to persuade them that Jesus is the Messiah. And he apparently has enough success that they would really wish for him to stay there longer. But he declines, but he assures them that he will come back provided that God wills it.

And just that little note there. That's a, that's an important kind of attitude I think to have, and one that we should have for ourselves in making our own plans. Some of you might be familiar with, how James, in the book of James, in James four 15, James says, instead you ought to say, if it is the Lord's will, we'll, we will live and do this or that. So we see that sort of attitude on Paul's part. He's like, I have a plan. I'd love to come back here, but ultimately I'm submitting to God's will and plan for my life and, and that's the sort of attitude that we should have even as we go about making plans for our lives.

And so he continues on from Ephesus and makes his way down to Caesarea. You see Caesarea right down there on the coast, and then he goes to Jerusalem, and then this is kind of the transition point between his second and third missionary journey. So the map changes and we see how he, in the previous one, he had gone from Jerusalem up to Antioch, so he does go back to his home base. Remember, that's a sending church for him, and then he's going to begin his journey from Antioch back into the areas that he had previously ministered in in Galatia and Phrygia. He's visiting the churches that he had established in order to strengthen the disciples there. And what we just see here is that Paul is not a deadbeat dad when it comes to these churches. He's, it's not as though he goes, preaches the message and he says, okay, good luck. He's invested in their success. He wants them to be healthy, growing, thriving churches, and so he's circling back around to them. Continuing on in verse 24, Luke then tells us about the, about what transpired in Ephesus during Paul's absence.

It says, meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native Alexan...