Study the Word

Guest (Male): Enthusiasm in the Lord! What does it really mean? Here's Pastor Thom Keller.

Pastor Thom Keller: So what enthusiasm means, really literally, is the spark of God exploding within you. And you know, when we are in Christ, there should be nobody that's as enthusiastic as we are, right? Your sins have been forgiven. The shame is lifted.

We are a new creature in Christ, an eternity planned that no one can take away from us, a destiny that's set securely. We have a God who's watching over us. What should we not be enthusiastic about? Are there problems? Are there trials? Of course there are, but it should never rob that joy deep underneath.

Guest (Male): How excited should you be about your Christian experience? How would you rate your level of enthusiasm? How do we attain the right balance of having zeal but along with knowledge? We'll seek answers to these questions on today's Study the Word with Thom Keller.

As we continue today in the Book of Acts, we notice how nothing was going to stop the Apostle Paul in his missionary endeavors. Though it seems every attempt is made to do so, he keeps charging ahead. In Acts chapter 18 and verse 12, here's Pastor Thom.

Pastor Thom Keller: Verse 12. It says, "But when Gallio became governor of Achaia, some Jews rose in concerted action against Paul and brought him before the government for judgment." So now there's a new governor in town, and the Jews think this is our chance. Let's get this Paul, let's get charges against him, let's bring him before the court, and let's nail him.

Verse 13: "They accused Paul of persuading people to worship God in ways that are contrary to the law." And as we said last week, you will see this over and over through the Book of Acts, that the Jews try to get the government to do their bidding for them. They did it with Jesus. Eventually, it happens with Paul in later chapters.

They accused Paul of persuading people to worship God in ways that are contrary to the law. But just as Paul started to make his defense—so picture that. They make their charges. It's just Paul, maybe Timothy and Silas with him, maybe there's some other believers, but all these Jews they're before this man.

In fact, can you put up the one that says Bema seat? This is probably the spot where this happened, actually, because this is known to be the Bema seat in Corinth. And this is it. And when there would be a visiting dignitary, this was the base, of course, but it had columns on top, and he would stand and address the people from this area. This was outside of the Agora, again, the public area, and this is where they brought Paul to this area where Gallio was standing.

So all these Jews are around making their accusations. Picture them down here, Paul up here, Gallio up here. And as Paul just begins to make his defense, Gallio turns to Paul's accusers and said, "Listen, you Jews, if this were a case involving some wrongdoing or serious crime, I would be obliged to listen to you. But since it's merely a question of words and names and your Jewish laws, you take care of it. I refuse to judge such matters." And he drove them out of the courtroom.

The mob had grabbed Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and Sosthenes now is the one that replaced Crispus because Crispus became a believer. The mob grabbed Sosthenes. I can't for the life of me figure out why they would have grabbed him. Can you? It doesn't make sense. Sosthenes is the leader of the Jews now. He's the head of the synagogue. The crowd are Jews and they grab Sosthenes and beat him, unless it was the Greeks that beat him, but it's just interesting to me.

The mob grabbed Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and had beaten him right there in the courtroom, but Gallio paid no attention. Now again, this Gallio was the ruler of this region, and he gets criticized for many because of his callousness. They bring Paul in and he could have come to Paul's defense. He could have defended him and set Paul free and done the right thing. It's interesting, we know a fair amount about Gallio because his brother was the famous philosopher Seneca.

And Seneca, who was well-respected and a man of calm temperament, said this of his brother Gallio. He said, "No man was ever as sweet to one as Gallio is to all." No man is ever as sweet to one person as Gallio is to all people. So he was a really nice man, a gentleman, a kind man. And the question is, what happened here? Was it just a good man on a bad day? He just caught him in a bad way, someone took his last Twinkie and he was upset about it. What's going on?

No, what really is pretty neat about this is that Paul even addresses this later in the book of First Corinthians. Gallio was correct in that government has no legitimate role in attempting to decide religious matters. What would have happened if Pilate would have said that? What if Pilate would have said, "Listen, this is a matter of your Jewish law. I'm not hearing this. Get out."

Well, who knows how it would have ended, but it would have been the right role. Pilate didn't do that because he was afraid of the riot that could follow, which was masterminded because they did it the Passover where there were over a million Jews in Jerusalem. And so they had Pilate. They really had him. If Pilate did the wrong thing right now, and this city is a powder keg, it is filled with Jews, it is going to explode.

But look, you make the decision. It's your decision. Oh, and by the way, if you make the wrong decision and the city blows up, they're going to come and take this position away from you. But you do what you want. Can you hear him say that? And it's the same kind of thing here. But he doesn't bend. He doesn't yield. He does the right thing. He sends them out.

In fact, in First Corinthians, where again Paul is writing to the Corinthians, he says in First Corinthians six, "How is it when you have something against another Christian, you go to the law instead of taking it to other Christians to decide? Isn't there any of you that's wise enough that can decide these matters?" It's just interesting as I studied this thinking that he actually then wrote that to the First Corinthians at that very same point. Don't take it to the law. Isn't there anyone within the church that can settle these matters?

Now, if he would have had a trial, he would have had to decide for or against Paul, right? He would have had to make a decision. What would have happened if he would have decided for Paul? There would have been a riot, right? What if he would have decided against Paul? He would have been chased from the city, right? Imprisoned, at the very least, chased from the city. So really, by Gallio's backing away from making a decision was the best thing that he could have done.

Verse 18. It says, "Paul stayed in Corinth for some time after that and then said goodbye to the Christians and sailed for the coast of Syria, taking Priscilla and Aquila with him. Earlier in Cenchreae, Paul had shaved his head according to Jewish custom, for he had taken a vow." He had taken a vow. What does this mean to take a vow? There's no doubt, all the commentaries, it would appear pretty clearly that this was a vow of a Nazirite, enumerated in Numbers six.

And this is where somebody wanted to dedicate themselves to the Lord, or they would set a time a period where they were grateful to God for what God had done in their life. It was a period of dedication to the Lord. It was a period vow. Many times it was 30 days. That was kind of the most standard, just like fasting. When people talk about fasting, you can fast for a lot of different periods, but kind of the standard time that people fast is for a day, for a 24-hour period.

And the same thing with a Nazirite vow. There are a lot of lengths of time, but most times a Nazirite vow was 30 days. And this is what went with a Nazirite vow. They would shave their heads and they would not eat or drink any product of the grape. They would not eat any meat and they could not come near a dead body. If they did any of those things, they'd have to start their vow all over again.

At the end of this period, they were then to go to the door of the temple in Jerusalem. Again, there's only one temple, right? There are many synagogues, one temple. And the Jews can only offer sacrifice in the temple. And that's why people say, do the Jews offer sacrifices today? What ended the Old Testament law? Why aren't they killing cattle and sheep and goats today like they did back then?

And the reason is because they're not allowed to do that anywhere except the temple in Jerusalem. And the temple has been torn down in 70 AD. Once the temple is built, they will start sacrificing again. And you can go on the internet and find all kinds of examples where they're now gathering they've been working this, gathering the artifacts for the temple, so that when the temple is rebuilt, they can start sacrificing animals again.

So anyway, when this 30-day period was over, this person, and women could take a Nazirite vow too, this person would go to the temple and they'd shave their hair that had grown in 30 days and they would throw it under the fire which was burning where the peace offering was burned. And that then completed this Nazirite vow. But it had to happen in the temple. And that's why Paul is saying, "I need to hurry to get back to Jerusalem to fulfill my vow."

Verse 19. "When they arrived at the port of Ephesus, Paul left the others behind, but while he was there, he went to the synagogue to debate with the Jews." You kind of get this picture. Now they did this by ship. You kind of get this picture like picture a cruise ship, and it pulls into the dock, and everybody gets off. Most of the people go get a hamburger, somebody goes do a little sightseeing. Where does Paul go? Right to the synagogue and gets in a debate with the Jews. It's really pretty cool.

They asked him to stay longer, but he declined. So he left saying, "I will come back later, God willing," and then he set off for Ephesus. Now my footnote says that some translation manuscripts read, "I must by all means be at Jerusalem for the upcoming festival, but I will come back later." And again, the idea is that he was going back to Jerusalem for that festival to keep his Nazirite vow, to fulfill the completion of that vow. And then it says, "I will come back later, God willing."

And here's that God willing phrase again that we have in James, where God says that really when we say we're going to do something, we really ought to add to it God willing, Lord willing. You know, if somebody says, are you going to show up for my birthday party? Say, I'll come, Lord willing. How do you know? What if you get indigestion? What if anything happens? You don't make it there, and you said you're going to be there.

And that's why in James he says, "What man says he's going to go to such and such a town and build a profitable business? How do you know what you're going to do?" What you ought to say is, "If the Lord wills, I'll do this or I'll do that," because it says that kind of self-confidence never pleases the Lord. So that whole point about the Lord willing, it ought to start working its way into our sentences, into our phrases.

Or if someone says, do you promise to do something? Say, I will purpose to do that. But to promise, David in the Book of Psalms says that a man of integrity is a man that keeps a promise even if it ruins him. That's strong. And again, Paul understood it. He said, "God willing, Lord willing, I will come back." Then he set off for Ephesus. The next stop was at the port of Caesarea.

From there, he went up and visited the church of Jerusalem and then went back to Antioch. And remember, when you think about the time of Acts, that Jerusalem is not the center for the Gentile Christian church, Antioch is. Antioch is a huge city, and it is the center. We have a tendency to think that Jerusalem is the center for everything. It wasn't. Antioch was the center for the Gentile Christians. Jerusalem was the center for the Jews and for the Jews who converted to Christianity but stayed in their Judaism, who continued to practice Jewish law.

Now this whole point about Paul taking this Nazirite vow, people say why would Paul, who risked his life literally for the cause of freedom from the law, right? Paul said, "If I still taught the law, I wouldn't be persecuted. The reason I'm persecuted is because I teach freedom from the law." I mean, he went to bat—again, we're going to read this in Galatians—but it says that there was a time where he went back to Jerusalem and everybody became a legalist.

Even Silas turned against him. Peter turned against him. He was the only one that stood firm for freedom from the law. And yet here we find Paul taking the vow of Nazirite, clearly a Jewish law out of Numbers six, and still practicing it. Why? Why? And this is the beauty of Paul. This is the beauty of Paul. It was simply because it had meaning to him. That's why. It had meaning to him, but he did not try to force that onto another person.

And I've said this many times. The way that we should learn to obey the word should be from someone who has obeyed the word because of the joy and the fulfillment and the meaning that it has brought to them by fulfilling it. And I've shared this before, but this is so important. It's like you're a brand new Christian. You've just come to Christ, and you walk into a church, and they start talking about fasting and tithing and giving and all this stuff.

And you go up to someone and say, "Must I do this? Must I do this tithing thing? You give money to the church. Must I do that?" And the person says, "Absolutely. I had to and you have to. I didn't like it. I never did. I still don't. You probably won't either, but you have to. And you'll probably all be glad later, but you have to. Yes." What about fasting? That sounds like you mean you go without eating?

"Yes, you have to do that too. I do it too, and you will too. And you just suck it up and do it because we all do it in here, and we do it with great joy, can't you see? So get on board." You say, "Whoa, great. Okay. Glad I asked." As opposed to, you're walking down your new journey, you're walking with a seasoned believer, someone that understands grace. And you're walking down this hallway and you see this door and it says tithing.

I don't know what it means. And I say, "Hey, what's in that door? Must I go in there? That's about money, right? Giving money." And they say, "No, you don't have to go in there. You don't have to. No. God loves you just the way you are. But let me tell you some things that have happened in my life as a result of tithing." And they start spinning stories. And they get to the end, and you're so enthralled. And you say, "Can I do that?"

"Sure, you don't have to. Understand it's your choice. But I tell you, I have found it to be a source of blessing in my life." You go down the road and there's this door fasting. "Must I do that?" "No, you don't have to do that. But let me tell you about fasting. Let me tell you about some prayers that God answered that I think only would have been answered through fasting. And that the Bible even says it, that some prayers will only be answered through fasting."

And they start spinning off stories of how God was faithful and how He answered prayers connected to fasting, what God accomplished. And you say, "Can I do that?" "Sure, you can do that. You don't have to. You know, I couldn't go without breakfast, man. Well, you don't have to, but you can try it if you want." See, that's how we should be taught, and that's how Paul was. This vow of the Nazirite had meaning to him, so he kept it.

I'm sure there are parts of the Old Testament law that he discarded, but there were parts that had meaning and significance, and he kept it. Part of my tradition is foot washing. I come out of an Anabaptist background where it loved where we have communion, they would do foot washing. They would actually wash one another's feet. That still has meaning to me. We've not done that here. It's not part of this tradition.

And I wouldn't expect others to do that. I wouldn't impose that on other people. If I did, I'd be a legalist. I'd be trying to force on you something that has meaning to me. That's not my role. But it has meaning to me. I don't keep that because I feel like I have to or God doesn't love me. It just has meaning to me. It has significance. And it says so much about Paul. We have a tendency when we start carrying a banner around for something, it's hard to keep a balance, isn't it?

When you start campaigning for a certain point, it's hard to keep a balance and not go so far into that campaign that you start minimizing things that you shouldn't be minimizing. And here is just shows the character of this man, that he campaigned so much for not keeping the law, yet he himself continued to operate within the framework of some Old Testament law because it brought blessing to him. The same should be for us.

Verse 24. "Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had just arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord and talked to others with great enthusiasm and accuracy about Jesus. However, he knew only about John's baptism. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God more accurately." There's a lot in here, but one thing that's really neat is that Aquila and Priscilla were just tentmakers.

They really were nobodies. And this man was a gifted, eloquent speaker from a city, Alexandria, that was known as a city of scholars. It was known kind of as the intellectual community of the Roman Empire. And so these two people that were tentmakers that the world would have considered to be nobodies, they pulled this eloquent speaker aside and they told him, "Look, you're teaching an incomplete teaching. John did teach a baptism of repentance, but he pointed the way to Jesus, and that Jesus has come."

And Apollos was that humble a man that he took that counsel from this couple. This is again the city of Ephesus, a city of 225,000 people, again a very large city. And again, it's at the center of the East-West imperial highway linking Rome with the East. And as we're going to study next week, this is the center of Diana worship. And you don't want to miss next week. If you thought that Corinth or Athens was dedicated to a goddess, you want to hear about Diana.

That's Ephesus. The Temple of Diana was one of the seven wonders of the world. The Temple of Diana was 425 feet by 220 feet by six stories tall. 425 feet, so a football field and a half. The width of two football fields, 200 feet, and six stories high, dedicated to Diana. It's for this reason that Ephesus was also known as the home of criminals. And the reason was that the Temple of Diana possessed a right of asylum.

And the right of asylum meant that if a city or a temple had the right of asylum associated with it, if a criminal could make his way to the temple grounds, he could not be arrested. He could stay on the temple grounds and live there freely. Now they would venture back into the city at will when they had reason to and wanted to, but as long as they were in the temple, nobody could arrest them. It was why Ephesus was known as a city of criminals.

In verse 22 and 23, it speaks about this trip: Ephesus, Caesarea, Antioch, Galatia, Phrygia. It's in these two verses he travels 1,500 miles. Paul's third missionary journey, and on this journey which we're going to be starting next week, this is a trip of 2,700 miles. It's like going from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles. That's where Paul is going next.

Verse 27: "Apollos going to Achaia, and the Christians in Ephesus encouraged him to do this. They wrote to the believers in Achaia asking them to welcome him. When he arrived there, he proved to be of great benefit to those who by God's grace had believed. He refuted all the Jews with powerful arguments in public debate, using scriptures. He explained to them the Messiah you're looking for is Jesus." Now Apollos was born in Alexandria, and it says that he was fervent in the spirit.

Literally, it means that he boiled over in the spirit. And in effect, what it means to us in our language is the way the New Living Translation translates that, is that he's bubbling over with enthusiasm. With enthusiasm. And enthusiasm I think is one of the most beneficial character traits in the world. En-theos means the God. Theos is God, and en, E-N, means in. So what enthusiasm means, really literally, is the spark of God exploding within you.

That's what enthusiasm means. And you know, when we are in Christ, there should be nobody that's as enthusiastic as we are, right? Your sins have been forgiven. Amen. The shame is lifted. We are a new creature in Christ, an eternity planned that no one can take away from us, a destiny that's set securely. We have a God who's watching over us, promising that all things work together for good to those that love the Lord.

What should we not be enthusiastic about? Are there problems? Are there trials? Of course there are, but it should never rob that joy deep underneath, that joy deep, deep below. And he teaches that this Jesus is the one that you're looking for. In closing, I was thinking about this Apollos and Paul and how they traveled thousands of miles on foot, and they took jobs really solely for the purpose of telling people about Jesus.

And how far are we from that model? I mean, how far are we from that idea that I take a job, that my primary reason for taking a job should be that God would use that to tell others about Jesus? Boy, God, that God would give us the boldness, the heart, the passion, the zeal, the enthusiasm of Paul, of Silas, of Timothy, of Apollos. God grant us that.

Guest (Male): Timely encouragement from Pastor Thom Keller to adopt a different model for reaching the lost. Let's pray that God would indeed grant this to us. Thanks for listening to Study the Word in a part of our series in Acts. You can hear this message again by going online to ccleb.com. Again, we're at ccleb.com. There are many other messages for your growth and edification there, too.

Or call and request a CD copy at 717-507-7862. That's 717-507-7862. Here in the month of November, we're pleased to offer you a book by D.L. Moody we think you'll benefit from. It's called Your Victory in Jesus. If you're a Christian, you have victory, and that victory was secured by Christ at the cross.

But the question that remains is: are you living in victory? Join D.L. Moody as he explores true victory and start to experience the overcoming life ruled by Christ instead of fear. For a gift of any amount, we'll send this your way with our thanks. So call today, 717-507-7862. Or you can write to Study the Word, 741 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 17046.

You're invited to worship with us here at Calvary Chapel Lebanon, where Thom serves as pastor. Visit ccleb.com for our service times and see what's coming up at the church there, too. When you get a chance, download our free Android app. Search Calvary Chapel Lebanon in the Google Play Store. Thanks for studying the word with Pastor Thom Keller. We'll dig deeper into the Book of Acts with Thom next time. We hope you can join us.