Discovering the Other side of Discouragement.
Life of Paul • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsCure for Discouragement - How God Vindicates Paul -- How to move forward beyond discouragement.
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Good Morning, It has been a great week and I am thankful for the baptisms last weekend - It was joy to celebrate what God is doing in our church — .
Then Yesterday we had a workday at Elaines… What a blessing — thank you to everyone came out … it was good time..
We are in a sermon series on the life of Paul —
This morning Message is entitled -Discovering the Other side of Discouragement -
The New York Times published an article (in 2022)
entitled “The Rising Tide of Global Sadness,” —
This article was in response to a Gallup Survey.. called the life evaluation index survey.
Basically this index measures how people view their current and future circumstances..
The life Evaluation index measures three areas... Those who are thriving, those who are Struggling and those who are suffering
People were asked to rate their lives on a scale from 0 to 10- zero meaning you’re living your worst possible life and 10 meaning you’re living your best…
What the study revealed …
is that the suffering has quadrupled in the last 16 years…
In 2021 the index revealed that
27% of people around the globe were THRIVING
58% of people were STRUGGLING
and
15% of people were SUFFERING.
that same index in the United States .
revealed that..
51 Percent were THRIVING
43 percent were STRUGGLING
6 percent were SUFFERING.
In other words...… 2/3 people around the globe are ether struggling or suffering..… and about 1/2 half of Americans… One out of every two people are dealing with the same issues...
We are living in a time when people are desperate for Hope...
T/s We are in Acts chapter 18 and we are going to see how God helped Paul with his discouragement...
Paul is one of the great leaders in the Bible...…
He was incredible Missionarry and strategists…he was a great thinker and apologist.. (defender of faith) … He was an intellectual and master communicator..
On top of this..
Paul lived a bold faith - He expected great things and attempted great things for God
But…In Chapter 18 we are going to see another side to Paul … we are going to see
his inner life …his emotional life where he deals with his fears and doubts..…
One thing that makes the Bible so credible -
is that it presents us with real people who are living with the same kinds of struggle we have..
We are not given a perfect picture of Paul…rather .. we see him in his humanity…
We see his flaws…
he struggled with relationships.. ..he struggles with sin… and he struggled with his emotions….he had good days and bad days..
The truth is..
We are all impacted by our emotions…..
.Our Emotions are involved in everything we do.
God created us with Emotions..
Charles Stanley says that..
Emotions are a gift of God, who created each of us with a capacity to feel and to express emotions.
Charles Stanley
Emotions are a gift …a grace..
Thankfully because ..
if we didn’t have emotions we would be like machines..
But.. What is important ..is how we process our emotions..
We have seen in the life Paul that he has these huge pendulum swings…
one minute he is the valleys of life.. He is beaten and thrown into jail…
Next minute he is on the mountain top when the whole city comes Christ…
Last week talked about Paul and his ministry in Athens -
Athens was the intellectual capital of Greco Roman world.
As Paul strolls through the city streets… he sees all the Greek gods.. He comes upon an—inscription to an “the unknown God” -
Paul begins to dialog with the epicureans and the Stoics in the market place..
Paul is then dragged before the Are-a--pagus the “supreme Court"of Greece..
And he uses this inscription..to the unknown god ..to preach about God being the creator and maker of all things..
Paul gets a mixed response.. to his message..
a. Some mocked Him.
b. Other put off and dismissed what he said
c. Only a few Believed..
All this leads into what happens in the next chapter
What we find at the beginning of chapter 18 is that: Paul left Athens feeling alone and discouraged..
Acts 18:1
After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
Now The Phrase — “After this” — literally means …after the athenian episode was over.. In other words it was difficult for Paul to process.what had happened..
— as Paul walks the fifty-mile journey to Corinth -
He must have spent time reflecting on his experiences.. .
Later Paul would write to Corinthians… and say..... in
1 Corinthians 2:1–5 (ESV)
that he was gratful that he didn’t come with lofty speach.. but knew nothing among them except Christ crucified ..so that their faith would not depend on man’s wisdom but the power of God!..
Paul’s experience in Athens was discouraging…but he learned something.
He saw first hand that the Gospel cannot be intellectualized …
we are never going to win people to Christ by having a better argument..
He learned that the gospel needs be proclaimed in simplicity —
That Jesus died on cross for the forgiveness sins….So that our faith might not rest the the wisdom of man.. but on the power of God..
t/s What we learn from Paul is how to get to the other side of our discouragement … there are three gifts or graces that we find in our text ..
The first Gift is..
1. The Gift of Friendships.
1. The Gift of Friendships.
A number years ago a British publication offered a prize for the best definition of a friend.
Among the thousands of answers received ...The winning definition read:
"A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out”
Friendship is not a want…friendship is a need..
Every person has three basic emotional needs.
1. Every one of us has a need for someone to love and someone to love us.
2. We all need somebody to understand and someone who understands us,
3. We all desire somebody who wants us and needs us.
These are intrinsic needs that are met in the context of healthy friendships!
When Paul arrives in Corinth…He is alone - His traveling companions Silas, Timothy and Luke were still ministering in the city of Thessalonica.
Paul had been alone in Athens and now once again he is alone in Corinth..
Walking intoCorinth would be like moving into New York city on your own ..…
It would extremely intimidating..
— Athens was a city of around 10 000 people - Corinth was much bigger around 100 000 —
The marketplace was a center of trading for the world’s merchants from everywhere—from Africa to Syria and from Europe to Egypt—selling everything from Arabian balsam, Phoenician dates, Babylonian ivory, Egyptian papryus, Cilician goat’s hair, Lycaonian wool…
it was a tough city to make it..
One ancient writer described Corinth as a town where “none but the tough could survive.”
Not only this but.. Corinth was a city of cultural diversity, a hub of Roman paganism, it was the hotbed for immorality -
it has been said that ...-The Corinthians were skilled in sin. There was no city superior to it in its devotion to the altar of darkness-
Corinth was ‘the Vanity Fair of the Roman Empire’.
“to live like a Corinthian” (korinthiazesthai) meant to live immorally…
Paul experienced culture shock in Athens and moral shock in Corinth...
When Paul arrived he is alone and discouraged..
Let’s read our.
Acts 18:1–5 (ESV)
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.
When Paul arrived in Corinth… he was in desperate need for companionship..
we are created for friendship..
In creation God declared everything good on each day of creation.. but when he saw Adam alone he said is not good for man to be alone..
The bumps of life need the shock absorber of friendship.
Anonymous
When Paul entered into Corinth we are told that he “found a certain Jew, named Aquila.”
The phrase “ he found ” carries both the idea of intentional discovery and unexpected discover..
Friendships need to be discovered… if you are not looking for them you are not going to find them..
Paul knew that The emperor Claudius had expelled Jews from Rome because they were constantly rioting at the instigation of Chrestus ..(this was most likely mean fued Between Judaism and christianity)…
So Paul is aware that there would be Christians from Rome …in Corinth whom he could connect with..
We learn from Paul is that we should open to New friendships...
The first question should be...Who is near us?
Who has God put on our path or into our lives …Maybe we keep bumping into someone people regularly…
Maybe there name keeps comes up In conversation
We need to remember that friendships are gifts.. Grace needs to be dis covered..
We can Start looking for the gifts or the graces of friendship… treat each relationship as a gift..
What is surprising about friendships is that.
They are not necessarily formed along conventional lines of background, age, or social standing….We don’t necessary look for sameness.
Paul found Aquila and Priscilla… It didn’t take long that they discovered they shared the same interests..
Both Paul and Aquila were skilled tent makers or leather workers.
This friendship is going be huge..
Who would have guest that in the difficult city of Corinth Paul would discover life long friends..
Priscilla and Aquila played a prominent role in supporting Paul in his ministry and then latter leading a house church in Ephesus..
Paul speaks of them as his fellow workers - in Romans 16 he says that Aquila and Priscilla..
who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well.
Paul stayed with them In Corinth for a long time [LN].
then.. After some time
b. Reconnected with His Team…Silas and Timothy join Paul.
There is the new and the old..
Friendship have been described as the connectors like on a lego set..
There are some friends that are connected..
But we should also make room for more connections.. There are different levels of connection.. We need to make room for deeper friendships.
Paul had been on his own for some time... and the team /the gang -- were back together again....
There are old friends and new friendships..
....these were those friend who had walked with Psul in the trenches...
They knew his strengths - weakness. But They are still showing up!!
There are huge advantages of long time friendships some of them — they can be
safe places..healthy places.. where
- *We can know and be known."
- We can accept and be accepted.
- We can be love and be loved
- We can Serve and be served
We can Celebrate and be celebrated.
Paul was making tents until the gang showed then . We are told that after they arrived..
‘Paul devoted all his time to teaching’ ~ most likely Timothy and Silas brought support from Philippi and worked to support Paul..
T/S There are three Gifts that God has given us to get us to the other side of discouragement.
The first Gift is..
1. God has given us the Gift of Friendship
2. The Gift of Encouragement.
2. The Gift of Encouragement.
The word encouragement means.. To give someone confidence or boldness to do something.. it is a gift within friendships! .
..we can either give Courage or receive courage from others..
I can't tell you how far one word of encouragement goes.. And how destructive one negative comment can be..
… It has been said that it takes
Five positive comments to every one negative comments..
There was actually a man in South Africa who was court-martialed and imprisoned for being a discourager!
It happened during the Boer War at the siege of Ladysmith.
The future of the Lady Smith was hanging in the balance.
This man would go along the lines and speak discouraging words to the men on duty.
He was a discourager, at a critical time. The court-martial… judged it a crime to speak disheartening words in an hour like that. — he was put in prison for a whole year..
It has been said that.....
Encouragement is oxygen of the soul..
Have you noticed that discourages will suck your life of joy…we need to put those relationships on hold… …
When Silas and Timothy arrive from Philippi -
Paul reengages in full time ministry… Every day he is reasoning with the religious leaders in the synagogue..
But what he was found is that he just kept on hitting a brick wall.. and not only that he was getting heavy opposition.. and it got to breaking point
lets read our text..
Acts 18:6–8 (ESV)
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.”
Here is Paul giving it his all —He devoted and commited to the ministry… But then things take a turn for the worst..
Things are being said.. words are causing injury…
Our words are powerful… The bible says there is life and death in the tongue..…
James tells us that the tongue is the smallest member of our bodies....but just one spark can set a whole forest ablaze…
This verb reviled - means to speak against someone in such a way as to harm or injure his or her reputation
Things escalate to the point where Paul has to leave… and in protest he Shakes the dust off his robe… basically he was saying he was done..
He didn't want one little speck of dust from the synagogue to remain on his clothes-
This was a dramatic way of expressing his rejection of their rejection.
This was a vivid demonstrations of God Judgement over those who were opposing the gospel -
Paul says your Eternal salvation is in now on your own hands…and my conscience is clear — I have done my part in sharing with you the gospel..
there is a lesson here..
Don’t let any of the dust stay on you.. if says something about you.. … make sure you get rid of the dust… don’t bring that into new relationships.
This is a pivotal moment… because after this Paul no longer went in to the synagogues…He changed the way that he did ministry..
What followed is God’s vindication of Paul ministry....
Paul leaves his friends.. (Aquila and Presicilla house) and goes to the house of Titius Justice who is also a worshiper of God
Titus house happens live next door to the synagogue....
And at this point Crispus .... the ruler of the synagogue… comes to Christ and his house hold is saved…
this is clear a message.. That God has extended his mission to the gentiles.. The first house church is Corinth right next to the synagogue.. Where Paul is Rejected..
When you think of the emotional of Paul— He has these lows — disappointments follow by these highs.. .
Have you noticed that Discouragement—can come at the weirdest times! It can be in the middle of good things, wonderful things can be happening and then we can be struck with discouragement -
In the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel, the prophet challenges the prophets of the false god Baal to a contest to prove the true God.
The prophets of Baal try desperately to summon fire to consume their sacrifice, but their efforts fail, and Baal remains silent.
Then, Elijah calls upon Yahweh, the God of Israel, and , consuming his water-soaked sacrifice. Elijah witnessed this display of divine power, the people of Israel acknowledge Yahweh as the one true God and renounce their worship of Baal.
It was a land slide victory — But — After the showdown on Mount Carmel,
Jezebel, became furious with Elijah's and threatened to kill him, prompting Elijah to flee for his life into the wilderness.—
.Elijah sought refuge under a broom tree in the wilderness. Exhausted and emotionally drained, he sat down under the tree and prayed to God, And begged the Lord to take his life…
Paul is experiencing the Elijah Syndrome — God was working but he was simply exhausted. We need to know that..
A principal cause of discouragement is exhaustion.
Douglas Wilson
Paul was simply exhausted depleated of resources . This is when
God comes and ministers Paul in a very special way..
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.
How does God encourage Paul?
a. First God addresses His Fears
Go says “Do no be afraid” —
Fear is a major contributor to Discouragement..
There is the ...
1. Fear of Failure:
.
2. Fear of Rejection or Criticism:
3. Fear of the Unknown:
about moving forward.
Fear of Repeating Past Mistakes:
God deals with the root of his discouragement… the issue of fear .. and then
God gives an imperative ..
Go on Speaking -- and .Do not be silent… Keep on moving forward.. Because I am with you...
Application
It is amazing what encouragement can do... The best thing you can do is encourage someone...
Paul went from wanting to quit to preaching and teaching the word … to staying for 18 months..
During that time, Paul established a church and wrote two letters to the believers in Thessalonica (1 and 2 Thessalonians
T/S There are three Gifts that God has given us to get us to the other side of discouragement.
The first Gift is..
1. God has given us the Gift of Friendship
2. The Gift of Encouragement.
3. The Gift of Validation.
3. The Gift of Validation.
There is something Powerful about Validation… to validate.. means to acknowledge someones worth or contributions...
If you look back on your life — Think about the times that your were validated… Those were powerful moments… It may have been a word of affirmation.. It could be a graduation ceremony —affirmation of a parent.... what ever the case..
They powerful moments..
At this Point Paul l is on the other side of his discouragement.....
It doesn’t mean that his life trouble free.. but he has the emotional band width to get through.. what he faced next.
God said he would be with him and that no harm would come upon.. He has confidence..
Paul has renewed confidence..
but there is further opposition..
The formation of a growing “house church” right next door to the synagogue - provoked controversy and further opposition...
The Jewish leaders are feeling the pressure of Paul ministry…
Felt compelled to do something about it —so they rise agains Paul and bring before a Roman tribunal - In order to expose his teaching and have him removed.
But, Things don’t turn out like they imagine..
But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal,
saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.”
But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint.
But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.”
Paul is brought before a Roman Tribunal and accused of worshiping what is contrary to Jewish law…
For some reason they thought they would get justice and sympathy from the Romans courts but.. in realty there was only one thing that would have concerned Gallio —
And that was if Paul was causing a riot or an uprising… against Rome..
The rest was just semantics - Gallio did not care.. about doctrinal issues.
According to Rome...Paul has committed no crime. and the case is dismissed.....Gallio drove them off out of the court..
We see God is the Justifier… he is the rescuer..
What really happens in the court room is huge.. It is here that
c. Christian Faith is Validated in Roman world..
This was single most important event in Paul’s mission to gentiles.
. because it here that Christianity on was put on par with Judaism —
Meaning that it became acceptable…in the Roman world
but It meant that Christians could preach and practice their faith freely..
and the Roman State would not interfere with them,
This one of the great Reversals in the Bible — Where Rome now became the protector of the new teaching against Jewish opposition.
This decision by a official of high standing would become a precedent guiding the judgment of all future cases..
Conclusion -
What we learn from Paul is that..
We all have to deal with the challenges of life…and we need to understand that our emotions are part of the process..
In their book, “Untangling
Emotions” Groves and Smith
give four helpful steps - in working through our Emotions...
(1) identify what you are feeling,
(2) examine why you are feeling it,
(3) evaluate the good and bad aspects of the emotion,
and (4) act according to the evaluation.
I would add one more thing is bring it to the lord .. …David Jeremiah said..
In times of discouragement, run—don’t walk—to the Word of God.
David Jeremiah
God’s validation is the most important.. thing we can have..
God helped Paul work through his discouragement. God spoke to him.., Gave him a Word…
When Paul leaves Corinth… He is a changed
man.…
Chapter 18 begins with …After this… the Ordeal in Athens…
but when Paul leaves Corinth
we see him in a different place… he recommits his life to Christ...
We are told that he has a hair cut…and makes a vow to the Lord..
What is on the other side of your Discouragement? — Jesus himself...
Know that Jesus is near.. He is near to the broken hearted. Jesus said ..Seek and you you will find … Come to me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest..