Do Not Be Afraid For I Am With You

ACTS 18:1-22  In Acts 18 we find Paul finishing up his 2nd missionary journey. Up to this point, he’s been beaten and jailed at Philippi, persecuted at Thessalonica and Berea, went alone to Athens where he revealed the Unknown God, and now alone he has come to face Corinth!

Corinth was a major city of the Roman Empire, at an important crossroads of trade and travel. Corinth was a city with a remarkable reputation for loose living and its pursuit of pleasure, sensual self-indulgence and especially known for its sexual immorality.

It was the center for the worship of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, and had a temple there with a thousand sacred prostitutes. From the fifth century B.C. on, the verb “to corinthianize” meant to be sexually immoral.

 Paul when he wrote the Book of Romans was in Corinth on his 3^rd missionary journey. Many believe Romans 1:26-28 is a description of what Paul saw in Corinth. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. ²⁷ Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. ²⁸ And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; ²⁹ being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, ³⁰ backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, ³¹ undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 

Every depraved thing that the imagination of man could come up with Paul saw in Corinth.

When Paul arrived in Corinth, he didn’t have Barnabas, Timothy, Silas or any of his traveling companions with him. Yet the bible says he went into the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

Acts 7:6 But when they opposed Paul and became abusive (and blasphemed), he shook his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

The Responsibility of the Prophet- Ezekiel Is a Watchman

Ezekiel 3:18-19  When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. ¹⁹ Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

Matthew 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. 

That doesn’t mean that you stop praying for them. That doesn’t mean that you stop loving them. It does mean that you stop wasting your efforts on people who refuse to listen. It does means that we move on to those that will listen, will soften their hearts, will open their minds to receive the Word and grace of God.

Acts 18:9-10 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. ¹⁰ For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”

These verses reveals the state of Paul’s mind and heart. According to this verse, in the early days of Paul’s ministry in Corinth, he was a wreck. He was fearful, discouraged, depressed, and he felt powerless.

Paul later writing to the Corinthians says of this moment in Acts: 1 Corinthians 2:3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 

Paul looked around him at a city filled with immorality, with thieves, with people who cared nothing about their souls. A city where people were totally immersed in the pursuit of pleasure, and he was weak, afraid and overwhelmed.

“Lord, there’s no way we’re going to make an impact here. Lord, these people are consumed with wickedness. Lord, can I just move on from here?

But the Lord comes to Paul “Do not be afraid-For I am with you”

I want us to see and understand this morning that even Paul, one of the men accused of turning the world upside down for Christ; Paul, the man who planted churches across the Roman empire; Paul, the man, who with divine inspiration wrote 2\3 of the New Testament; even Paul, was sometimes fearful, depressed, weak, and overwhelmed.

Discouragement and Depression are nothing new. They aren’t conditions new to society, and they do not affect only non-Christians. Some of the strongest Christians, some of the godliest people, some of the people most used by God, have suffered some of the worst periods of depression and discouragement.

JONAH, He was discouraged with both what God asked him to do and what God finally used him to accomplish: Jonah 4:3  Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!”

MOSES, when the people kept asking for meat to eat in the wilderness.                    Numbers 11:13-15a “Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep all over me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ ¹⁴ I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵ If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now…”

ELIJAH, after challenging 450 prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel and winning, finds himself running for his life (from Queen Jezebel) into the wilderness.   1 Kings 19:4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life,….”       

JOSHUA The Greatest General, handpicked by God to lead Israel into the Promised Land…after the defeat at AI Joshua 7:7 “Lord God, why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all—to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan!”

JEREMIAH In both the 1st & 15th chapters of Jeremiah, we read of the discouragement, the depression and the frustration of Jeremiah. He too cried out and asked how long God would forget him; how long God would forsake him. Jeremiah was discouraged.  (HANNA)

If there is one thing that is constant it’s that we are all subject to discouragement. There is no shortage of discouragements to hinder the work of God. The Bible is full of men and women of God who at times became discouraged. And you and I get discouraged from time to time.

But I am grateful that while enemies are actively trying to discourage me, God is constantly at work encouraging me. While enemies are actively trying to drag me down, God is constantly working to lift me up.                                     While enemies are actively trying to get me to quit,  I hear God’s voice:   “Fight the good fight and finish your course.” “Do not be afraid, For I am with you.”

The next time you feel alone and fearful, weak or trembling meditate on these verses: Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”

God speaking through Isaiah – Isaiah 41:10 “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Acts 18 “Do not be afraid-For I am with you” Is It enough to know that God says, “I am with you.”       (It will be reflected in our actions)

Paul obeyed God’s command by staying in Corinth for eighteen months.

As a result, the gospel spread through the whole region of Achaia. Map 2cor.1:1 & Romans 16:1

When we obey the Lord even when we are fearful, weak and trembling He multiplies our witness in ways beyond human imagination.

Paul arrived in Corinth, weak fearful and trembling. But that is not how he ended his ministry there. Before Paul left Corinth, he was preaching boldly, with power, and with victory. Before he left, he led many people in the city to Christ and he had planted a church.

Paul was able to say to these Corinthians – 1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”