Acts 18:18-22 • Know Your Calling And Direction

Know Your Calling and Direction

Acts 18:18-22

Paul stayed in Corinth for about 1.5 years

v. 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

v. 18 After this, Paul stayed many days longer

Along time for Paul

Paul moved on – the life of a missionary

A missionary is one sent on a mission

Latin missionarius, from Latin missio

Apostle is one sent with a message

Greek apostolos ‘messenger’, from apostellein ‘send forth’

A missionary is one that is sent out by the church to a new place to proclaim the message

Lk 6:12 In these days he [Jesus] went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 And when the day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:

Lk 6:17 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon,

NOTE: All disciples are to be disciple-makers

Not all disciples are missionaries but all disciples are to make disciples

Great commission

Paul moved on

With him Priscilla and Aquila

v. 2 “Jews” 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.

v. 18 Now they are traveling companions for the gospel

They came to Ephesus

Paul left Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus

The Jews asked him to stay but he left

Had to stay focused on the direction

Distracted by doing good (mission drift)

The most painful part – who not to tell about Jesus

Know your calling

Jesus is our prime example

Matt 15:24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

John 17:4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

Know your direction

Matt. 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans,

God has purpose and timing

Paul

Acts 26:17 delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you

Peter, James, John, Paul, and Barnabas

Gal 2:8-9 (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and them to the circumcised.

You must know your calling and direction

Obedience requires maintaining direction

Until God changes the direction

Paul had to say "no" to maintain direction

Call to action:

What is your calling?

What direction is God leading?

Are you a disciple?

Are you making disciples?