The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the Book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 18, verses 3 through 6.

Tony Clark: Even though salvation is free, don't think it's just free for you to just sit around. No, you have to do something. Do something for the Lord. So Paul made tents to support himself until Silas and Timothy could come to bring financial support so he could preach the gospel full-time.

Now, the Greek word for tentmaker is skēnopoios, and it means a leather maker. So, yes, it includes making tents that were made out of leather, but it also included anything that was made out of leather as well. They were skilled in this leather-making thing. They were skilled in making things out of leather.

Look what it says there in verses 4 through 6. It says, "And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said, 'Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.'"

Now, in these verses, we see Paul continues his custom of going into the synagogue in verse 4 and reasoned with the Jews and Greeks on the Sabbath day. Now let me bring something to your attention. Paul worked and he did ministry. In other words, Paul didn't allow his job to keep him from doing what God called him to do.

Well, Pastor Tony, that's easy for you to say because you are full-time. Don't think I've always been full-time. Let me just give you a little history. When I was in the Marine Corps, I had to drive an hour from where I lived to the part of Camp Pendleton that I was on. I had to drive an hour.

And then once I got out of the Marine Corps, I worked for the cable company that was another 10 to 15 minutes further up the road. That would mean I had to drive an hour and 15, hour and 20 minutes depending upon traffic. And I still came back and was at church every Sunday, every Wednesday, and during the week just in case they needed me for something.

So you're not listening to someone who doesn't know what it is to have a full-time job and to serve at the church. Let me take it a step further. When I first started the church, way back in the day, I would get a little salary. But then there were a group of people driving about 45 minutes from here, and then a guy came out and wanted to start a church there.

I said, "Y'all go over there and help that church get going." Offering went down. I had to go back to my tentmaking job, back to the cable company here. Now, I'm already pastoring the church because I got a wife and three little bitty babies that are looking to me and saying, "Daddy, are we going to have a roof over the head and food in the house?"

And I worked full-time at the cable company, doing sermons in between jobs. I had commentaries on the steering wheel, and I'm trying to write and stuff. And then some Wednesday nights I came in with my cable uniform on and said, "Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Leviticus." And then right after church, I had to go back and do another job sometimes.

So I know what it is to have a full-time job and to serve. Paul did not allow his job to keep him from doing what God has called him to do. And I just wonder, are you using your job as an excuse for why you can't get involved in serving and doing what God has called you to do? Are you saying, "Well, I had to work, I got a job"? Don't we all?

But are you using that as an excuse? Paul didn't use it as an excuse for him. Now let me just take the time to thank those of you who work full-time and come and serve here at the church. Keep in mind, there are only one to two people on the worship team that are full-time: Mike Banks and my wife.

The rest of them have full-time jobs, and they come and lead you in worship for four services. Four services. Then we have some back there in the media. We have folks in the parking lot, in the children's ministry dealing with your bad kids, serving so you can come and hear the word of God unhindered in here.

And they are serving all over the place. There are people you come in, it's smelling good and all that kind of stuff. You got stuff stocked in the restroom. There are people who come in after working all week long and they come in in the evening time and do that for you. These people, I just want to thank you.

Those of you who are serving, God bless you. You are a blessing to me and to this church. The ushering, the parking lot, the children's, they're working in the youth, back there in the kitchen so the cafe can have some cookies for you. All that stuff. These folks are not full-time. These folks have full-time jobs, and they come to serve.

God bless you. I so appreciate you. You are a great blessing. You enable me to do this unhindered. God bless you. Now, also Paul didn't, and I want you to catch this too, Paul didn't allow his personal circumstances of being lonely, discouraged, or depressed to keep him from the ministry God had called him to.

He didn't allow that either. We see that God used Paul's new friends, Aquila and Priscilla, to encourage him, but also used his old friends as well because verse 5 says that Silas and Timothy finally arrived in Corinth from Macedonia. Now we know that Silas and Timothy met Paul in Athens according to Acts 17:15.

However, from 1 Thessalonians 3:1-6, Paul sent Timothy to Thessalonica and Silas perhaps to Philippi. But now they are meeting up together in Corinth. The generous gift of the Macedonians brought by Silas and Timothy allowed for Paul to stop his tentmaking job and do ministry full-time.

Verse 5 says that Paul was compelled, notice that, by the Spirit. The Greek word is synechō, and it means to compel, to arrest, to constrain, to hold. In other words, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, held as a prisoner by the Spirit, arrested by the Spirit to do what? To testify to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ.

I have to ask us this morning, what is the Spirit of God compelling, arresting, holding you as a prisoner to do for him? I want you to notice, whatever it is that God wants you to do for him, you won't be able to shake it. You'll wake up every day thinking about it. Every moment that you're not doing it, you are vexed by it.

You'll be compelled. It's like you're held as a prisoner until you do that particular thing. And what is that for your life? You won't be able to shake it, whatever it is. It's not like, "Well, I think I'll do this for the Lord," and next thing you know tomorrow, "No, I don't want to do that." No, it won't be that.

You will be compelled. You would think that you're held as a prisoner until you do that particular thing. Notice how God will always, don't miss this, he will always compel us to do something that has to do with speaking for him. In Paul's case, it was to testify to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ.

This is what Jesus said the power of the Holy Spirit will enable us to do: speak for him. Acts 1:8 says, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" to do what, God? "And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." In other words, the Spirit of God will empower us to speak for him, to be a witness.

I just wonder, are you a witness in your Jerusalem? That means your home. In your Judea? Maybe your workplace. In your Samaria? Maybe around the city as you go to the store and stuff, and to the ends of the earth. The purpose of the power of the Holy Spirit is not so we can do bizarre things in church and run around and flip and flop and do bizarre things.

No, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to empower us to speak for him, to testify, to be a witness for him. It's confirmed also in Acts 4:31. And when they had prayed, underline that, the place where they were assembled together was shaken. When we pray, God shakes things up. That's what we have to see.

This is why we're trying to turn the temperature up in prayer because we want to see God shake some things up in our homes, shake some things up in our city, in the 757, in our nation. We want to see God shake things up, and he shakes things up when we pray. And he says, "And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit" to do what?

"And they spoke the word of God with boldness." How do we get this power? How can we get this boldness? Just ask for it through prayer. Luke 11:13 says, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

So asking for the power of the Holy Spirit is a good gift to ask God for. If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more would your Heavenly Father give to those who ask? So to ask for the power to speak boldly for him is a good gift to ask God for. I just saw that this morning, and I was like, "Lord, that's good. I got to jot that down."

I read and quoted that verse so many times, and then it just hit me today. It is a good gift because if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, those bad kids that make those bad grades and you still give them good gifts, how much more would God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?

It's the power of the Holy Spirit. When you're saved, we have the Holy Spirit, but this is the power of the Holy Spirit to speak, to speak for him. I love that. Just ask in prayer. Isn't that what we just read in Acts 4:31? It says, and when they prayed, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word with boldness.

What happened next? Well, what happened in every city Paul visited: the Jews opposed him in verse 6. So this means expect opposition when you open your mouth to talk about Jesus Christ. You can talk about sports, you can talk about your favorite team, your favorite college team, your favorite pro team, how it stinks and all that sort of stuff.

You can talk about the weather and the hurricane. You can talk about whatever you want to talk about, and it's all good. But when you open your mouth for Jesus Christ, expect opposition. Don't be weirded out by it, don't be ashamed of it, don't be afraid of it. It's going to happen when you open your mouth for Jesus Christ.

So they opposed him. The Greek word for "opposed" is antitassō, and it means to resist or oppose. It literally means this: to arrange in battle array. Meaning that they organized themselves to fight Paul's teaching to the point where they started blaspheming the name of Christ. We know this from verse 5 because Paul said that he was testifying that Jesus is the Christ.

When Paul heard this, he shook the dust off of his garments to signify his rejection of their blasphemy. And this is what he said: "Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean." Now what Paul was saying to them was, "You're responsible for what you're doing. I did my part by sharing the word of God with you."

Now, there is a huge difference between the two statements: blood on the hands and blood on the heads. In Ezekiel 3:18 as well as chapter 33 and verse 6, the Lord said this to Ezekiel. He says, "If you don't warn people and tell them the truth, their blood will be upon your hands." The idea came from the watchmen who were in the tower looking out for the enemy.

If he saw the enemy coming and didn't warn the city, if anyone was killed as a result of his negligence, their blood would be on the watchman's hands. And so too we are the watchmen of this world. It is our responsibility as Christians to share the gospel with people and warn them of the coming judgment.

If we don't or refuse to warn them, their blood will be on our hands. And this should bring a sense of urgency and fear in our hearts to warn people of the judgment to come. There is judgment to come. Don't think that God, who made the eye, is blind to the evils that are going on in our world today.

There is judgment to come. Well, why isn't he bringing it? Because he's giving people time to repent. He's giving people time to repent. That's why he hasn't brought that judgment. We've been crying out for thirty-some years, "God, come. Lord, come. Bring your judgment, Lord, come."

And if he had answered our prayers thirty-some years ago, how many of you would have been saved or born? See, there is judgment to come, and the Lord, he hears our prayers, but he's giving people time to repent. Are you in here today? Because there's the last person that will repent, and the rapture will happen and we are going to be with the Lord in heaven.

Are you in here? Maybe it's one of you. You're the last one holding us up. You better repent, get right. Ready for the Lord to take us out of here. You holding us up. And so it's our job to warn people of judgment to come. Now, the statement "blood upon the head" that Paul is using in verse 6 means you brought judgment upon yourself.

We see this illustrated in Joshua 2:19 with the two spies who went in to spy out the city of Jericho right before the Israelites came in to destroy it because they were coming into the promised land. Jericho was the first city. They sent two spies to spy out the city. They came to the house of Rahab.

And the word had gotten out and said, "Hey, some spies, couple guys came in from the Israelites camp. We gotta go capture them." And Rahab protected them. And so they said, "Well, since you protected us from being captured, we will protect you when the armies of Israel come to destroy the city."

And they went on to tell her to gather her family and anyone else she wanted to save into her house and that she wanted protected. But if anyone went outside of the house, here it is, their blood will be upon their own heads. Therefore, because Paul was faithfully sharing the gospel with the Jews in Corinth, their blood will not be upon his hands, but it will be upon their heads.

Now this is a serious responsibility for all of us who call ourselves Christians. Our job is just to share the gospel. The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, letting people know that they can be forgiven through the cross of Jesus Christ, that they no longer have to carry the weight of their sin and their guilt, that Jesus Christ paid it all and all to him we owe.

And that's our job to share the gospel. The results we leave to God. How people receive the message is up to them. If they reject it, their blood will be upon their own heads. If we refuse to share and they die in their sin, their blood will be upon our hands. How are you receiving the word today?

Are you receiving it? Are you rejecting it? It's my job just to share the word. It's up to you how you receive it. I'm sharing the word, I'm doing my part. If you reject the word, your blood will be upon your own head. And I pray that it's not. I pray that you'll receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your soul.

Remember, the boldness to share Jesus with people is given by the Holy Spirit. Boldness is a characteristic of being a Christian. Proverbs 28:1 says the righteous are as bold as a lion. So boldness comes out of righteousness or right living. In other words, when we aren't living right, we will lack the boldness to share Jesus Christ with those around us.

So if you're lacking boldness to talk to people about Jesus Christ, evaluate your life. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says examine yourself to see whether you're in the faith, prove yourself. Do you not know yourselves unless you failed the test? Examine your heart. When God shows you some sin, confess it and say, "Oh God, oh forgive me. And Lord, fill me with your Spirit so I can speak your word with boldness."

Now after this, Paul said at the end of verse 6, "From now on I will go to the Gentiles" or the non-Jews. Paul was indirectly fulfilling what Jesus said in Matthew 7:6, which says, "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."

In other words, when people are determined to reject the gospel, we shouldn't keep trying to force them to hear. "No, no, no, I got one more point. No, you just need to hear this one." No. Don't keep giving the precious pearls of the gospel when they are bent on rejecting it. What happened next? Well, you have to wait until next week.

Let me conclude with this. In this message, we saw how Paul found comfort and encouragement from new friends, Aquila and Priscilla, on the job and from old friends, Silas and Timothy. In other words, you don't have to stay in a state of loneliness and discouragement. God will send you people. Yes, people.

But Paul found Aquila and Priscilla on the job. You have to be looking for other believers to connect with to encourage you, and you encourage them on the job, at church. Isolating yourself is not a good thing. When you isolate yourself, you're going down into the pit of despair, discouragement.

You can't do this Christian life by yourself. It's not meant for you to do it by yourself. Also, God will give us the boldness to share the gospel with people if you ask him according to Luke 11:13. And finally, we don't want people's blood on our hands by refusing to share with them out of fear.

God will give us his power and boldness to talk to people about him if you only ask. So we can surmise from these verses, we can see that the way out of loneliness, discouragement, and depression is getting godly people around you either at work or church, and/or both.

And by sharing Jesus Christ with those who are without hope, hurting, and devastated all around us. Looking outside of yourself and your circumstances and try to help a hurting world around us. The quickest way to stay in a pit of despair is to take your eyes that are looking outwardly and turn them inwardly.

That is the quickest way to just go into a pit of despair. Stop, look for other people to serve. So what? They are on the corner, they are begging for money or whatever. Give them a couple dollars. Tell them the Lord loves them or whatever. "Where they gonna take my money?" Oh, you got a few dollars anyway. Give it to them.

To me, I'll give them money just for having the boldness to stand out there in every fifteen million cars driving by, looking at them standing out there like that. I'll give you money just for that. Just for that. It's more blessed to give than receive. The quickest way to maintain joy is Jesus, others, and yourself.

When you put yourself first, you're going to stay in a pit of despair. Look to Jesus. Look to serve others and put yourself last. "What else? That's all I do." I can hear some moms now. "That's all I do. I put others before me." Keep doing it. Keep doing it. That's what you do in life. That's what y'all do.

God made y'all to do that. It's a chore for us as men. Y'all are made to do that. Y'all kind of got it written in your DNA to do that. But we struggle with it, but we still need to look to Jesus first, others second, and put yourself last. That's the way to maintain joy.

Father, thank you so much for your word. I pray, God, your Holy Spirit will move in the lives of your people. Dear Lord, I pray for those who are lonely, discouraged, and depressed. I pray that they will look to you first and look to serve others and put themselves last. Lord, I pray you give them eyes to see that there are those who are in worse situations than they are.

And God, I pray for those who hear who've never repented of their sin and accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. I pray, God, that you will move in their hearts. Draw them to you. Lord, I pray draw your people to you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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