This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
There is this truth in the Bible called election.
And so God has already ordained people that are going to get
saved based upon hearing the gospel.
So the the cool thing is when you and I go out, people are
already planned, planned by God to believe, right?
And you and I just have the easy responsibility to tell people
the truth. And people believe.
It's not anything we did other than just giving them the
gospel, because that's how people believe when they hear
the truth. But God's already chosen them to
become believers. It's scary to witness to people
about the gospel. After all, we know that not
everyone is going to be receptive to our message.
Some may be apathetic, but there's always a chance that
someone could respond with anger or hostility to the good news.
But Pastor Clark reminds us today that when we witness to
people, we're not just planting seeds.
In some cases, we're watering the ground so that the seeds
that God has already planted can flourish and his presence can
bloom in their hearts. Now here's Pastor Clark in the
book of Acts Chapter 18 with today's edition of Living Waters
of Grace. We are in the book of Acts, Acts
chapter 18, and as we study this book, I don't know about you,
but I find that I experienced sort of a, a deeper relationship
and friendship with the people that I'm studying about or
reading about. I've known the Apostle Paul ever
since I first got saved back when I was 20 years old.
And I, I know so much about his life and his ways and his
passion, his ministry, his, his perseverance that I, I, I sense,
and I'm sure you do that. I actually, I'm a Co laborer
with him in this day that we live as you are too.
We're all missionaries. We're all in the ministry
together. And so as we study these
teachings in the book of the Acts, it's the history of the
church and how it started and how the Lord used certain people
to spread the gospel and how people became believers as a
result of these men and women who gave of themselves for the
sake of others. And when we study this, I, I'm
challenged myself to think about the depths of love and humility
and yieldedness that Paul and and the others that we read
about had. And as I am being worked on by
the Lord, as you are too, I find that my will is becoming more
his will and less my will. When I was younger as a
Christian, I always blew through the red lights and I always
wanted my will first. I'm sure you did too.
And I've learned through life that that doesn't work.
God's will is the perfect will and it's the best will to
follow. And whenever God begins you to
give you a check in your spirit where you are yielding to
wanting his will and not your will be done.
Boy, that's that's amazing work of God's Spirit, isn't it, to
give us that sense. Oh Lord, what do you think about
this? What do you want?
What do you want me to do? What do you want me to use my
resources for my gifts and my talents, my abilities.
And it's more blessed to give than receive.
And I think of my own life. Well, what can I give to the
Lord? He's given me and you so much
more than what we could ever ask or think right or deserve.
And what could we give him? Will we give him our lives?
We give him maybe a deeper consecration, a more willing
heart to surrender and and want his will above our own will.
And that would really honor him. So as we study this this
chapter, we'll see a man and others are mentioned in here
that live their lives for the sake of God's will.
And may we all be blessed by what we here today and learn.
Father God, we commit ourselves to you today and we're just so
grateful that we can come together as a community of
believers that love you and love one another.
And Lord, we truly are here today that we might learn how to
follow you in a deeper way. Thank you for the example of the
apostles and, and those who served both the men and godly
women that we read about today. And it's just amazing, God, how
you established your church, how you went before everyone, before
they even began to do these things.
And you had a plan before the foundation of the earth to save
Lord, to deliver, to set free, to transform.
And we're still doing that today and the days that we live.
And so, Lord, we just thank you and we praise you for who you
are. Ask Lord your blessing and favor
upon your word, and may it touch every heart that you brought
here today. And those who are listening
online or on the radio, however they connect with this church,
Father bless them. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.
So we'll look here at verses one through 3 as we begin this
chapter. After these things, Paul
departed from Athens and went to Corinth.
So after these things, we talked about the ministry of Paul on
Mars Hill when he was proclaiming the gospel to a
Pagan people that knew nothing about the truth of the living
God. They had a statue that was there
in honor of the unknown God. And Paul was making it clear to
the people in Greece that there is a God that you can know and
that he's real and he's living. He's not a statue and he's the
Lord Jesus Christ. So he continues on this vein of
preaching and he's left Athens and he's now in Corinth.
And Corinth is a isthmus South of Athens.
And it's a little peninsula. Basically it comes off the, the
nation and it's only about two to five miles wide.
So what would happen is that travellers on the two sides of
the seaports and boats and ships would come to Corinth to, you
know, transport their, their goods.
And it was a big, big city in regard to commerce.
Unfortunately, what Corinth is known for is its blatant
immorality and ungodliness. They had a temple there called
the Temple of Aphrodite, who was the fertility goddess building
on the top of the hill there that thousand prostitutes would
come down every night to engage in their occupation, to be
tempting the men in the seaport at the time.
And the money that would come in through the prostitution would
support the prostitutes as well as continually fuel the power
and the energy of that godless temple that people were
worshipping at. And because of this issue of of
Corinth in the the immorality and godliness, it's interesting
that Paul wrote the book of Romans from the city of Corinth
in the 1st chapter. Chapter 1 talks about all the
ungodliness of sexual morality and perversion and homosexuality
and lesbianism and on and on and on.
The filth and the godless heart and mind of the people that
lived in the city. And so this is where Paul is
right now. Initially he's here by himself.
And it says, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born
in Taunt Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with
his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the
Jews to depart from Rome. And he came to them, this
couple, interesting Priscilla and Aquila, husband and wife
team that loved the Lord, knew the Lord and were very
influential in ministering with Paul.
They're mentioned in numerous times and in the New Testament
in the book of Corinthians and their ministry with Paul.
It is evident here as we study that they were believers and
they were in that city providentially to we'll see in a
minute here, to work with Paul in the ministry there.
They had to leave Rome because Rome had a hatred for Jews.
And so the edict was by the leader at the time that all
Jewish people had to to get out of Rome.
And so they ended up in Corinth providentially and it says and
he came to them. So Paul finds out where they
are. Doesn't give a lot of details on
how he knew them, but one thing they had in common for sure
beside their faith was that they because he was of the same trade
he stayed with them and worked for by occupation.
They were tent makers and tent makers, they were primarily
involved with working with leather goods, and that's how
they made their livelihood. Paul at times was supported by
the churches when he was on his missionary journeys.
And at times he would work with his hands and earn extra income
so that he would not be a burden to anybody.
And so this is where he's at right now.
And it says in verse 4. And he reasoned in the synagogue
every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.
What's remarkable about the calling of God on Paul's life,
being a Jew versus being a Gentile, was that he had access
to the most influential places of spirituality, places where
they would want to talk about God, they would want to worship
him, they would want to know him.
It wasn't like he went into a city and civil war.
How do I get started here with telling people about who Jesus
is? He had the privilege, because he
was Jewish, to go into the synagogue.
And so he would have respect and honor, and he would be able to
go in and begin to discuss the gospel and Jesus being the true
Messiah. And he did this in every
synagogue and every city that he had visited.
That's where he always started. And his goal was to persuade
people by the power of the Holy Spirit to believe that Jesus is
truly the Messiah. And so it says in verse 5 when
Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia.
Now, if you remember, he told them in chapter 17, hey, when
you get done, quickly come and catch up with me.
They had eventually come from where they were.
Timothy was working in one of the church plants, as was Silas.
And Paul is, I'm sure, really grateful that they're there now.
And Paul is now compelled by the Spirit because he's encouraged
by these two guys. They're giving him a report of
how the church is doing where they were serving.
And it's like when missionaries come here and they come here
whenever they're on furlough to give us updates as to what's
happening in the field and what's what's going on with the
church and people coming to faith in Christ.
And we support these missionaries.
And it's exciting for us to be a part of that because the the
fruit of their laborers is accounted to your account in
heaven because we're part of what God's doing in these other
foreign countries through our prayers and through our
offerings that we use to help support them.
So when they come and give a report, it really edifies us.
It builds us up, it excites us, us to know that God is working
not only here, but he's working all around the world.
And so they're a blessing to Paul giving these updates.
So he's now filled with God's Spirit, excited about what it is
he has an opportunity to do. And he testifies to the Jews
here that Jesus is the Christ. But when they opposed him and
blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, Your
blood be upon your own heads. I am clean.
From now on I will go to the Gentiles.
So not every time in every place that Paul went any more than you
or I. When we share our faith with
family, loved ones, Co workers, neighbors, whatever are we
receive well, many times we're rejected.
Many times people don't want to hear what it is we have to say.
And obviously we're not alone. The apostle himself encountered
these kind of experiences of opposition and rejection lots of
times whenever these things happen, it really didn't seem to
disturb him. He didn't say a whole lot.
But in this particular instance, it seemed to get him really
upset. So he he rebuked them when they
opposed him and said you blasphemy.
Blasphemy is a lot of people say, well, what's blasphemy?
It's abandoning God. It's speaking evil of God.
It's not believing in God, it's rejecting the gospel of Jesus
Christ. There's only one sin that people
can't be forgiven of, and that's blaspheme of the Holy Spirit.
And sometimes Christians will say, I don't know.
I think one time I blasphemed the Holy Spirit.
Well, we all did it one time before we came to faith in
Christ. We rejected him, we denied him.
We may be cursed about him or didn't believe, but then when we
became believers, it's impossible to blasphemy the Holy
Spirit. Blaspheme of the Holy Spirit is
rejection of the Gospel. And so Paul is exhorting them
and warning them and telling them that they're blaspheming
this truth of Christ being Messiah.
So he's physically showing this attitude of disappointment and
he shakes his garment, saying them, your blood be on your own
heads. I'm clean.
In other words, I gave you the truth.
I'm not going to be held responsible or accountable for
not speaking the truth. And that's sort of an
interesting verse because I think it's a challenge for all
of us that we are not going to be held responsible for not
telling someone about Jesus that the Lord spoke to you and me
about witnessing to Sometimes we get afraid of witnessing or
we're getting embarrassed. We don't want to share our
faith. It's just our pride or whatever
should never be embarrassed about sharing the gospel.
But sometimes that happens to us.
You know, sometimes God, you know when I sometimes all the
time, God sets up opportunities for us to be able to witness.
Not everybody you meet, you're going to have an opportunity to
maybe talk about the Lord, but sometimes, you know, real clear
that you got a connection with someone that God wants you to
tell them about what Jesus did for you.
And you want to be free from the responsibility of being judged
for not being faithful to share the gospel.
And that really was a heavy burden on Paul.
He never, ever wanted to be in a place or situation where he
would be judged for not doing what it was that he was called
to do. And I think that's a good
challenge for all of us that we would not be responsible for not
telling someone what they need to know to at least have a
chance to to believe. And then he says, from now on,
I'll go to the Gentiles. So Paul was the apostle to the
Gentiles. That was his call in ordination
from God's plan before he was even saved.
He was chosen to be an apostle in his mother's womb.
The Bible tells us for now on, he's going to focus on the
Gentiles. But he still has a heart for the
Jewish people. He's Jewish.
And so he departs from there, and he enters into the House of
a certain man named Justice. His name also is believed to be
Gaius, one who worshipped God, whose house was next door to the
synagogue. So Paul's able to hang out now
right next door to where he was just preaching with this
believer, this man named Justice.
Then Crispus, this is fascinating.
Verse 8, the ruler of the synagogue believed on the Lord
with all his household and many of the Corinthians hearing
believed and were baptized. So in spite of the rejection and
a lot of people not believing, the good news is someone will
always end up believing. It's like a numbers deal.
The more you tell, the more opportunity you have to see God
harvest people and bring them into the Kingdom.
And what's really powerful should give you and I confidence
there is this truth in the Bible called election.
And so God has already ordained people that are going to get
saved based upon hearing the gospel.
So the, the cool thing is when you and I go out, people are
already planned by planned by God to believe, right?
And you and I just have the easy responsibility to tell people
the truth. And people believe.
It's not anything we did other than just giving them the gospel
because that's how people believe when they hear the
truth. But God's already chosen them to
become believers. And so that's why you want to
spread the gospel, as Jesus said to every living creature, only
God knows who's going to come to him.
And it's not our job to decide who's going to come and who
isn't. Our job is just to share the
truth of the gospel. So here the probably the most
unlikely person at the time that you would think would believe is
the ruler of the synagogue. He's the big guy, he's the
leader, he's the one that's responsible for the services and
and this guy becomes a believer. It tells us later in the book of
Corinthians that this guy was baptized by Paul along with
justice. So this move of God, this
wonderful and he believed on the Lord.
And not only did he believe, but his whole family ended up
believing. And as a result of that, many of
the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized.
So in spite of the rejection, in spite of Paul may be getting a
little frustrated, God still did what he promised he would do.
He would save people from the preaching the gospel.
Now in verse 9, now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a
vision. Do not be afraid, but speak.
Paul had six visions. I've never had a vision.
I don't. I've never met anybody that's
had a vision. I think it'd be sort of cool to
have a vision if it was from God.
I don't want a deceptive vision from the Evil 1 or some lying
vision, but I'm up for any visions that God wants to give.
But it had to be so encouraging to Paul to have the supernatural
connection with the Lord that he was chosen to have revelation
given to him. That was uncommon pretty much
for most people, because he's an apostle, I'm sure, and because
he had the weight of the building of the New Testament
church in the beginning stages. He needed all the help he could
get. And Jesus is telling him here,
do not be afraid, but speak Now. Paul's obviously afraid he
wouldn't have this vision. He's maybe nervous about
something, apprehensive about something.
He sees the conflict, he sees the hatred, he's aware of the
martyrdom, he's aware of the danger, the stoning, the
imprisonment, all the things that can happen if you represent
the Lord in a country like this, at a time like this.
And the Lord is comforting him. He's saying don't be afraid and
do not keep silent. In other words, just keep
preaching for I am with you and no one will attack you to hurt
you for I have many people in this city.
How comforting they had to be. To Paul, it was an assurance
that keep doing what you're doing this maybe down the road
you're going to have some issues and he did.
But this wasn't the time that his life is going to be taken.
He had opportunity now to be bold and to proclaim Christ in
the midst of the culture that wasn't really open to what he
had to say. No one's going to hurt him.
And so he needed to hear that, I'm sure, in Corinth, because it
was a barbaric, godless city. And he was pretty much by
himself outside of Priscilla and Aquila at the time in regard to
doing this ministry. And I love what it says here.
He's encouraging Paul. For I have many people in the
city. In other words, Paul, there's a
lot of people that live here in Corinth that need me, that will
come to know who I am because of what it is you're going to tell
them. I remember years ago, my brother
was a church planner and he had an opportunity to take over a
fledgling Baptist Church in Ambridge.
It was previously pastored by a transgender, believe it or not,
person dressed up in dresses privately.
He was a preacher. I have no idea how that
happened. So my brother had to go in and
try to get this church back on its feet again.
And so we were at a pastors conference and we had an
opportunity to talk to Chuck. He had finished one of his
messages and we went up and I went in to introduce Pastor
Chuck and my brother Doug. And Chuck says where where are
you serving? And Doug says Ambridge,
Pennsylvania. And and then Doug began to tell
him what a terrible city it was. It was, you know, really rundown
because of steel mills had closed down a lot of drug
addiction, alcoholism and poverty.
And and I'll never forget what Chuck says.
He looked at me. He says couldn't be any worse
than corns. And he said the dog, he says,
you know why you're there. And Doug just looked at him
shell shocked. And Chuck said because many
people need me there. So wherever there's a church, no
matter how big or how small, it's there.
And those cities, because people need Jesus, God placed us here
in this city because people need the Lord, they need the word,
they need to be taught, they need to be fed.
So God has all these plans. And so Paul's encouraged by this
vision that the Lord gave him, and it says he continued there a
year and six months teaching the word of God among them.
This particular town was the place that Paul spent his most
time. He's never been in a place this
long in regard to ministry, 18 months.
So he's discipling, he's teaching, he's educating, he's
equipping, he's establishing this church.
And of course, we studied First and 2nd Corinthians.
You remember a lot of the craziness in that church that
carried over from the culture, people getting drunk at the
agape feast, sexual immorality in the church.
I mean, this whole kind of messes, egos, some saying, well,
I prefer Paul's preaching. I prefer Apollo's preaching,
preaching. I I prefer Cephas Peters
preaching. And Paul had to teach him, hey,
it's not what these guys are doing, it's what the spirits
doing. All they're doing is watering,
watering the word into your heart so only God can give the
increase. So he said, you know, you don't
have favorites, you don't play this kind of political game,
just a lot of things in the in the city of Corinth, even after
the church established that needed to be dealt with.
And then it says in verse 12 on Galileo, Galileo was his name
was pro council of Archaea. The Jews with 1 accord rose up
against Paul and brought him to the judgment seeing saying this
fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.
Once again, these rebel rousers, these Jewish people is
continually causing problems in the in the city are causing
problems again, trying to set Paul up and lying about what it
is he's doing. And so when Paul was about to
open his mouth, and this is interesting too, I got to give a
defense. If I'm slandered, if I'm accused
of something I didn't do, the first thing you want to do is
clarify to people who are judging or accusing you,
especially if it's a legal issue.
This is what my testimony is. This is what the truth is.
Well, he didn't even have to say anything.
He was getting ready to speak this pro council leader.
And this would be in the center of the city, a high platform
where people would bring grievances to this judge and he
would have to make a ruling. Thanks for joining us on today's
edition of Living Waters of Grace, a ministry of Calvary
Chapel, Westmoreland. Today, Pastor Clark is teaching
about the book of Acts. And as we learn more about Acts,
it becomes clear that the early church didn't miss a single
opportunity to share the gospel. In nearly every chapter, you see
apostles like Peter and Paul stepping into conversations,
crowds, and crises with boldness, ready to proclaim the
name of Jesus. Their example challenges us to
consider how we might step into gospel moments in our own lives.
What doors might God open this week for you to speak truth,
offer hope, or live out your faith in a way that points
others to Him? The story of Acts reminds us we
are part of the same mission. Today, let's live with eyes open
and hearts ready to respond. We hope you are challenged by
today's message. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
area, we'd love to see you in person this Sunday at 10:30 AM
at 400 E Pittsburgh St. Unit 6B.
For more information, visit calvarychapelonline.com.
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