Thursday, April 16th

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Thursday, April 16

Acts 18:1-11

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

One of the things we used to do to try to encourage conversation at the family dinner table was a game called “Highs and lows.” We went around the table and each person had to describe their “high” and “low” for the day. The game wasn’t always terribly successful, but sometimes it would spark meaningful conversation or we would at least learn something about what was going on in  each of our lives.

In these few verses from Acts 18 we see a picture of Paul’s highs and lows.

High: Paul meets Priscilla and Aquila and adds them to his team.

Low: Paul shares the gospel in the synagogue but is completely rejected.

High: Titius Justus, Crispus, and many other Corinthian gentiles respond the the gospel and are baptized.

Low: Paul fears the same backlash from enemies of the gospel that he has experienced in other cities.

High: The Lord comes to him in a dream and promises to protect him.

Have you ever felt like you are on a giant roller coaster ride in terms of your faith? I think most of us have felt like that at times. There are times when we feel very close to God and good things are happening at every turn. There are other times when it seems like our prayers bounce off the ceiling, God seems far away, and nothing is going right.

If we look at Paul’s life and ministry we see that both highs and lows are part of the journey of the Christian life. Paul experienced both tremendous successes and heartbreaking failures, and all the while seeking to serve and follow Jesus the best he knew how.

That tells me that God does not typically seek to protect us from the lows of life. Rather, it seems he allows us to go through those times so that we can learn and grow in important ways.

Later in his life Paul would affirm this truth as he wrote:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)

Paul learned, and is teaching us, that both our highs and our lows can be used by God to build our character and to bring him glory. Knowing this doesn’t make our lows any less difficult or painful, but it does remind us that even our suffering can produce good when surrendered to his hands.

Pastor Brian Coffey