Paul in Motion – Acts 18:18-23

I always enjoy reading what Matthew Henry says about the scriptures, but I don’t do it as much as I should.

I have so many commentaries that I often times don’t read all of them.

And Matthew Henry does not get into the details of the scripture text, defining words and explaining historical backgrounds, so sometimes I don’t read what he has to say.

But when I do I usually find a gem, which reminds me that I should read him more often.

Matthew Henry’s commentary could be described as a “devotional” or a “practical” commentary, in contrast to a “critical” commentary – with “critical” being a good word in this case.

It was Bro. Henry who gave me the title for this message: “Paul in Motion.”

In his opening thoughts about this passage he said,

“We have here Paul in motion, as we have had him at Corinth for some time at rest,

but in both busy, very busy, in the service of Christ;

if he sat still, if he went about, still it was to do good.”

I like that: “We have here Paul in motion.”

Once again, this message tonight shouldn’t be called a sermon,

but I can’t just skip over these verses in order to move on to the weightier matters of the Word.

If we did, we’d miss one or two good applications along the way.

So hang in there, and let’s look at Paul in motion, after what may have been two years ministry in Corinth.

And we begin in Corinth.

“And Paul, after this, tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren.”

We can not be sure how long Paul ministered in Corinth or Acaiah.

After the vision and the encouragement that the Lord gave him we read: “And he continued there a year and six month, teaching the word of God among them.”

What we don’t know is when that vision was given to him.

Was it just after he arrived in town, or had he been there a few weeks, or a couple of months?

We don’t know how long he had been there before Silas and Timotheus arrived.

And we have no idea how quickly the Jews elected Sosthenes to replace Chrispus, or when it was that Paul was arranged before Gallio.

It is safe to say that Paul was in Corinth a year and a half, but it may have been longer than that.

During that time a great number of people came to know the Lord, and a church was established.

Or was it churches?

Some listen to the opening words of I Corinthians and II Corinthians and think that they hear references to several churches.

“Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, & Sosthenes our brother,

Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia: Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.“

And then at the conclusion of the Book of Romans Paul definitely refers to another church:

“I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:

That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints.”

Yes, Bro. Matthew, even when Paul was not in motion, he was busy.

Perhaps at this point we should take a couple of months or more to study I and II Corinthians, but we won’t.

In those letters we learn much about the sort of church which was established in that city.

In some ways it was a great church, but in many other ways it was a very ordinary church.

It is a classic illustration for the proverb about churches being less than perfect, because they are filled with Christians.

The people whom the Lord saved and brought into His Corinthian “ecclesia” were sinners,

and they all carried with them a certain amount of baggage.

In some cases they grew in grace and in sanctification and in other cases they failed miserably.

If there is any church described in the Word of God that would be typical of churches today, perhaps this would be that church.

Eventually, as is often the case, the Lord finally revealed to Paul that it was time for him to move on.

His first stop after Corinth was Cenchrea.

This was one of the port communities for the city of Corinth.

It was on the eastern side of the isthmus looking toward Athens, Asia and Israel.

On the other side of the isthmus was the western port of Lechea, which was the quickest way to Rome.

If there were only five miles between these two communities, how large do you think that they were?

I know that technologically we live in a different world than Paul did,

But think about the fact that Corinth was not separated from Cenchrea or Lechea by more than five miles,

And yet there were churches in at least two of those communities.

That would be like having a church in Post Falls, and then having that church start missions in Stateline, and another in Huetter.

Perhaps with today’s ability to travel, it would be like having sister-churches in Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Liberty Lake, or Spokane.

Is there a lesson for us in this?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were large enough and blessed enough to have reason to organize four or five other churches in this valley?

“Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, & then took his leave of the brethren, & sailed thence into Syria, & with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.”

When Paul sailed away from Cenchrea, it was with Aquila and Priscilla, Silas and Timothy,

and as we shall see in the next chapter, apparently Gaius, Erastus and Artistarchus.

It is impossible for us to say why these people accompanied Paul,

and its difficult to say how far they traveled with him.

Several stayed in Ephesus, but did any of them travel all the way to Antioch?

By the way, a concordance reveals that the last time we read the name “Silas” was back in Acts 18:5.

Paul accompanied Barnabas on the first missionary journey.

And Silas accompanied Paul on the second missionary journey.

On the third journey we don’t know for sure that there was anyone with Paul when he first left Antioch, although we do know that by the time he reached Ephesus, once again Timothy, Erastus and others were helping him.

That brings us to the very confusing reference to the vow. Confusing?

First of all, we don’t know for sure WHY the vow was made.

Second, we don’t know for sure WHAT KIND of vow it was.

Third, we aren’t even sure WHO it was who made the vow.

There are many commentaries which say that it was Aquila who made the vow, because his name is nearest to the pronoun.

I think that it had to have been Paul, because he was the focus of Luke’s history,

and there would have been very little point to have said anything about Aquila in this regard.

But WHAT was the vow?

Some say that it was a Nazarite vow, and others say that it was more general than that.

Certainly, the Old Testament rules for a Nazarite vow were not fully obeyed in this case,

but then that would have been impossible anywhere except in Judea,

so perhaps the rules had been modified for situations like this.

Some say that it was undoubtedly related to a promise that Paul had made to God in regard to his preservation or his ministry in Corinth.

Others say that it was an effort to do something Hebrew in order to try to win the Jews to Christ.

And others say that it involved going to Jerusalem, or it was in preparation for going to Jerusalem.

But out of all that could be said, nothing might be said that we know for sure is true.

In fact we aren’t even sure if Paul completely shaved his head or just cut his hair, because the Greek could be understood either way.

It appears that this is something which needs to be left alone, at least by me, with what I know now.

The third city to which Luke refers is Ephesus.

“And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.

And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.

When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not; but bade them farewell.

saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.”

Ephesus was the capital of Asia.

It was an eight to ten day sail from Cenchrea.

It was one of the places that the Lord forbade Paul to minister, when this journey began.

It was the center of the worship of the Greek goddess Diana.

It will be a place to which Paul will eventually return and minister for at least three years.

It will be a city where a thriving church is established and to which Paul will write one of his Epistles.

It will also be a church to which the Lord Jesus will direct one of His epistles.

And even though today there is only a tiny, ragged village, it was once an important metropolis.

Luke says that Paul went into the synagogue, as his custom was, and reasoned with the people there.

It is most likely that Paul visited in the synagogue for only one Sabbath.

He doesn’t seem to have changed ships.

This was just one of the stop-overs, probably the only one, for a ship that was bound for Caesarea.

Paul just took the opportunity to temporarily disembark, see the sights, and to visit the synagogue.

And there he “reasoned” with the Jews.

The word “reason,” as we have seen was one of Luke’s favorite expressions to describe Paul’s ministry in the synagogue.

In most cases the first few discussions that he had with his cousins was usually cordial and well-received, as it was in this case.

It wasn’t until the third visit, on average, that the crowds turned hostile.

In this case, initially, they liked him and were sorry to see him go.

Isn’t that like us, when we get a visitor who seems to know something about the Word of God?

Unfortunately, sometimes they carry doctrines which are detrimental to our spiritual health.

And that is what they would have said about Paul, if he had stayed with them for another month.

But Paul wanted to be in Jerusalem for the upcoming festival.

Some say that it was Pentecost, and some say that it must have been the Passover.

I must say that I must not say.

No one can say for sure which it was, but we do know that Paul later tried to be in Jerusalem for another Pentecost.

Acts 20:16 – “Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.”

Maybe this was Pentecost as well.

The next cities mentioned or implied here were Caesarea and Jerusalem.

Caesarea was the place to which Philip traveled after giving the gospel to the Ethiopian in Gaza.

And this was also the city of Cornelius, the Roman centurion.

Although we are not told about it in this chapter we learn in Acts 21 that there was Scriptural church there.

And I’m sure that Paul dropped in to say “hello” to the saints that were there,

but he appears to have been in a hurry and didn’t spend any time.

And then he went to Jerusalem.

Apparently there wasn’t anything special which took place there.

He probably visited the temple.

Perhaps this had something to do with the vow that is mentioned in verse 18.

The scripture says that he “saluted the church.”

We don’t know if he spent much time with the apostles or with the church.

I would like to think that at the very least he reported what the Lord had been doing in Macedonia and Achaiah.

I would guess, from the zeal which he is going to have for raising money, that the city of Jerusalem in general and the church in particular were in dreadful straights financially.

Perhaps he couldn’t bear to see the first church of the Lord and the city of David reduced to poverty.

But quickly, Paul moved on and returned to his sponsoring church in Antioch, Syria.

And once again, we aren’t told about any of the events in Antioch.

The only thing that we learn is that “after he had spent some time there, departed.”

Paul had become a true missionary, and the comforts of home no longer moved him.

His heart was there on the mission field.

It had been three or more years since he had seen the churches which he started on his first missionary journey in Galatia and Phyrgia.

And as he expressed in some of his epistles about all his churches, he longed to see the brethren, to learn about how they were doing, and to see how he could help them.

So very quickly, he was on the road again.

I think that “Paul in motion” should remind us that WE have no permanent home here in this world.

We are strangers and pilgrims, and we shouldn’t dig our roots too deeply.

Soon the Saviour will call for us, and we’ll go home.

Let’s be busy about His work, whether we be still or on the move.