Do Not Keep Silent

Introduction

To high school. For some of you, that’s a short trip. For some of you, you need to pack an overnight bag. But you remember high school, you remember particularly on a think about your senior year of high school, and even more specifically, I want you to think about those kind of silly senior awards that were given out. You know, those that are in the yearbook, most likely to succeed. Cutest couple, most athletic. Not to brag, but I won one of those awards. I wasn’t a part of the cutest couple. I wasn’t the most athletic.

Every one of my teachers could testify to that.

And I’m guessing that I’m not unique in that. We all get in trouble saying something we shouldn’t have said. Or talking when we shouldn’t talk. James, we studied recently in the book of James in that famous section in chapter three about the difficulty of taming the tongue. That he says if any is able to restrain or tame that tongue, he’s a perfect man and stable in all his ways. And we all, to some degree or another, struggle with that, don’t we? But this morning, I don’t want to talk about you talking too much. And I don’t want to talk about you talking when you should be silent. I want to talk about another extreme misuse of the tongue. And that is not talking when you should.

Not speaking up when it’s the right time to say something. And not talking when it’s the perfect time to talk. You turn back with me to Acts chapter 18. We looked at that section this morning in our adult Bible class here in the auditorium of the establishment of the church at Corinth. And I want to use Paul’s time there in Corinth as the basis for our lesson this morning, and specifically a statement that God said to Paul. Paul, as he often did, met with some resistance and trouble here at Corinth. And can we surmise that that discouraged Paul and may be tempted to silence Paul? But God to Paul would say, don’t keep silent. Keep talking, Paul. Advice that he would pass along to his young protege Timothy sometime later when he would tell Timothy to preach the word.

In season and out of season. He’s going to tell Timothy the same thing. Timothy, don’t be quiet. Now’s the time to talk. Now he’s not talking about idle talk, certainly not talking about gossip or backbiting, but the talk that we’re talking about is the idea of sharing our faith, presenting the gospel. It may seem remarkable at first that a man like Apostle Paul would need this godly prodding to not keep silent. We think of Paul as this fearless presenter of the truth, this preacher of the gospel who would risk life and limb to preach the gospel. But even Paul had to be reminded by God Himself, Paul, don’t keep silent. They need to hear this. Tell that to them.

Paul has left Athens and made his way to the little isthmus that contains the city of Corinth. And he finds there a married couple, Aquila and Priscilla, who had recently been kicked out of Rome for the crime of just being Jews.

They’re all tent makers. And as you know, Paul from time to time would still apply his trade to support himself in the preaching of the gospel. And so he will stay here, the text will tell us for about 18 months, making tents and preaching. And as was his custom, he would usually start by going to the synagogue, finding those who already had an interest in God, and would try to reason from the Old Testament scriptures with them that Christ was the fulfillment of everything they’d been waiting and reading about. But as often was the case, some would listen, but some would not, and some would violently not listen, and they cause stirred up trouble. And so Paul turns his attention to the Gentiles and preaches to them, reasoning with them that there is one God, one creator and maker of all, and he has sent his son to die for our sins.

But again, those Jews cause this trouble. This trouble is stirred up, they bring it before the magistrates.

This is Acts 18, verse 9, saying, Do not be afraid, but speak. And do not keep silent. For I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you. For I have many people in this city. We talked about that at the close of our Bible class. I think what Paul, what God is saying, I have many people who will obey. Not that I have a lot of Christians here that are you don’t know about, but I have future Christians that you may not know about. But he says to Paul, don’t keep silent. Don’t be afraid and don’t keep silent. Keep preaching the word. I want to use some this text and some statements from this text as the basis for our lesson this morning and an encouragement for us, like Paul, to not be afraid, to wear our Christianity, to be that light, that salt of the earth that God has called upon us to be, and to do what he told Timothy to do, preach the word.

1. Christianity Is Rational

Let’s see what we can derive out of Acts chapter 18 in Paul’s time here in the church at Corinth. We first learn in verse 4 that Christianity is rational. Paul’s trade was not just a tent maker, his trade was a teacher, a preacher of the gospel. And the way he would do that is that he would declare he would speak the word of God to people with the goal of convincing them of the truth of the gospel and of Jesus Christ. And in order to do that, he had to relay a rational, reasonable message. Look at verse 4. It says, of Paul, he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. He reasoned, and he persuaded them. That’s how the gospel works.

The gospel is an intellectual message. It is delivered through words and through reason and the rationale that attacks or addresses the mind. You remember earlier, turn back one page in your Bibles to Acts chapter 17 and verse 2, in the city of Athens. It says, or excuse me, there in Thessalonica in Acts 17, verse 2, then Paul, as his custom was, went into them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures. That’s how the gospel works. We are to reason. We are to use the mind. Now there’s a couple implications from that. Number one is that God has always used earthly messengers to impart the gospel. Look at some of the language in our text here. Look back to chapter 18 and in verse 5.

Look who all was involved. Acts 18, verse 5, Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia. Paul was constrained by the Spirit. Aye, like most scholars, take that to mean the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was involved in Paul being there. Skip down to verse 9. The Lord, we just read this, the Lord spoke to Paul. And so here is the Holy Spirit moving upon Paul. Here is the Lord speaking directly to Paul. Why didn’t the Lord just speak directly to the Corinthians? Why didn’t the Spirit just act directly upon the Corinthians? Why the middleman, Paul? Well, we could conjecture a lot of possible reasons, but the reality of it is that’s the reason is because that’s the way God saw to do it. And that’s the way he’s always done it.

Even in the first century, where the Holy Spirit was very active in the lives of Christians, when they were able to perform miracles and speak in foreign languages that they weren’t trained in, when they were able, like Paul and others like him, to just speak by inspiration, that they spoke not their own words, these many New Testament evangelists and the apostles, they spoke the words as the Holy Spirit moved them. Even then, God chose to not act directly upon the heart of the sinner, but to use an earthly messenger to reason with them. Look at an example. Hold your finger here in Acts 18 and go back to Acts chapter 8. A good illustration of this is the conversion of the Ethiopian. Look there in Acts chapter 8, beginning verse 26.

An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip and told Philip, the evangelist, Philip, you go and preach to this man. Now, why didn’t the angel just go and preach to that man? Well, because the angel said, Philip, you go. Look at verse 29. Then the Spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake this chariot. And so there’s the angel, much like Paul in Carnage, the angel and the Spirit, but not working directly upon the heart of the recipient of the gospel of the sinner who needed to be saved, but working upon the heart and the motivation of Paul and now Philip, the evangelist. And he says, You go and you talk to this man. And that’s exactly what happened. You know the story. The Ethiopian was reading from the book of Isaiah.

He had a scroll and he was reading from it about Isaiah 53 of the suffering servant. And he had some questions about that. And what did Philip do? Prompted by the angel, prompted by the Spirit, Philip gets up in the chariot and he reasons with him from the scriptures. He preaches Jesus to him. That’s how the gospel works. God has chosen not to work directly and miraculously upon the heart of the unbeliever. But to send an emissary, to send a messenger, to reason. Now, things are slightly different now than they were then. God’s still using messengers, but now that the New Testament has been complete, this may be the messenger. It’s possible someone to just pick up a Bible and read. I want to tell you a quick story, a true story that was told to me that happened in another country.

They had reasoned with a young man, and he had decided to obey the gospel. They didn’t have a baptistry there as we do in our building, and so they had to go to a body of water to baptize this young man. And as they were getting ready, and it kind of became obvious to the onlookers what was going on, and they got ready to baptize, and they did baptize this man. And like the Ethiopian eunuch, they came up out of the water, and another young man approached the preacher. And the preacher said, Can I help you? And he says, I want to be baptized too. Now the preacher who told me this story said, at first I thought he was mocking us. I thought he was saying, Yeah, I want to be.

But he says, after I talked to him, he really wanted to be baptized. He had been reading his Bible on his own and read stories like we’ve been reading in the book of Acts, and realized that’s what you need to do in order to be forgiven of your sins and to be a Christian. And he realized that he was a sinner and needed to be saved, and he wanted to be saved the same way they did. And maybe providentially, maybe coincidentally, he saw somebody doing that. And so he said, I want to do that. And so you may be taught by a messenger today. We need to be careful that that messenger’s message lines up with the message. But it’s also possible that that earthly messenger is the word of God today.

That those first century messengers wrote down for us. But the scriptures are intended to reason with the mind. Another implication or thought that springs from this is that Christianity is an emotional experience. Let’s not rob it of that. If anybody has reasons to rejoice and to be joyful, it’s Christians. And we need to tell our faces that sometimes and rejoice and be happy. But we need to also understand that that emotion is an outgrowth of the intellect. Keep your minds here in Acts chapter 8. Remember the story of the Ethiopian after he had been baptized, Philip and he went down into the water, and Philip baptized him, and it says they came up out of the water. Philip went on his way, probably preaching to somebody else, and the Ethiopian went on his way rejoicing.

2. We Might Be Surprised Who Will Accept the Truth

There was emotion. But it wasn’t led by emotion, it was led by the intellect and the reason of the mind that resulted in that emotion. And so emotion and intellect are not mutually exclusive. One should lead to the other. And so our job is to reason with the scriptures, to reason with people, recognizing that it’s a rational exercise. And so let’s engage the mind and not be afraid to engage the mind and to encounter others with the gospel. Back to Acts chapter 18. Another lesson we learned from the church at Corinth or the establishment of the church at Corinth in Acts chapter 18 is that we might be surprised who will end up accepting the truth. Think about Acts chapter 18. Look at verse 8. It says, then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household.

The ruler of the He’d been the one who was appointed to take care of that building and the Jewish religious gatherings at that building.

Now that’s going to be a change for Crispus, isn’t it? Not only a religious change from studying and obeying the old law to now believing and having a faith in Jesus Christ and the new covenant. But he’s out of work.

Judaism was more than just a religion that was observed on the Sabbath day and certain feast days. It was a way of life to these people. So much so that when we see in Acts and other places the threat to expel someone from the synagogue, it wasn’t just excommunicating them from their religious observance, it was kicking them out from their family, from their way of life, sometimes their occupation, the way of doing business. What a change for Christmas. And I don’t know about you, but if I had been one of Paul’s traveling companions, along Silas and Timothy and some of those other guys, I might have said, Paul, don’t waste your time. This guy is too religious. He’s not going to leave that to become a Christian.

Do we make those judgments today? Of someone who’s very religious, but maybe religiously wrong, but they’re so wrapped up into their church and their religion and so ingrained, and they’ve been that for generations. In fact, they may have a position in their church. And so we think, oh, they’ll never listen. That’s going to be such a change for them. We might be surprised who the gospel, this rational, reasoned treatise might affect.

Continue reading in verse 8. After talking about Crispus, this very religious person whose life was going to be altered. Look what it says about the other believers. Many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptized. Don’t pass over that. We talked a little in class this morning about the city at Corinth, of how idolatrous. You remember 1 Corinthians chapter 6? Not many idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, list all of those things, and he says, such were some of you.

Again, maybe if we’d have been a traveling companion of Paul, we’d have said, Paul, it won’t do any good talking to those people. Those people are so far away from God. You think they’re going to give up that mess of an ugly, ungodly lifestyle, and just become a Christian? No. You see what we do sometimes? We want to cherry pick those to whom the gospel should be presented. We’ll exclude the very religious, those who are so ingrained in their religion that we think we couldn’t pry them out of that. And we also want to exclude the totally irreligious, the wicked, sinful people. They won’t make that drastic change. But if we can find somebody in that little sweet spot, that little land of they’re good, but they’re not too invested in their current religion.

That’s who we’ll. That’s who we need to preach the gospel to. But Paul said to Timothy, don’t be afraid. Don’t keep silent. I’ve got some people here. I’ve got some people at the synagogue. Who their whole life, and their parents’ life and their grandparents’ life traced all the way back to Abraham, have worshiped me one way. If you reason with them, they’ll change. And I’ve got some people here that go to that idol’s temple and do unspeakable things. But if you’ll reason with them, they’ll hear. And the same is true today. The same gospel is the power of God to salvation. It’s still living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. And so let’s not keep silent. And not be afraid. But we couldn’t study a section and a story in the book of Acts without making this observation.

3. Some Will Listen, but Some Won’t

That some will listen, but some won’t. Isn’t that kind of the way the book of Acts is written? Anytime you’re reading a good story in the book of Acts, get ready, the next one’s going to be a bad story. If you read about Barnabas and others selling their possessions to give to the needy Christians, get ready, because here comes Ananias and Sapphira, and they’re going to lie and mess the whole thing up. If you read about those on the day of Pentecost that are obeying the gospel by the thousands, get ready, because the apostles are about to be arrested and beaten. If you hear in Paul and preaching in one city about people obeying the gospel and coming, get ready because there’s going to be others who are not going to obey it.

In fact, they’re going to violently stone Paul, put him into prison, or run him out of town on a rail. That’s the way the gospel is.

And we shouldn’t be afraid. And we shouldn’t keep silent. Go back to Acts 18 and let’s pick up our reading in verse 11 of Paul. It says he continued there a year and six months and teaching the word of God among them. Now, when Galio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, saying, This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law. Now, when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galeo said to the Jews, if it were a matter of wrongdoing or wicked crimes, O Jews, there would be a reason why I should hear you. But if it’s a question of the words and names of your own law, look to it yourselves.

For I do not want to be judge of such matters. They drove them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. But Galeo took no notice of these things. For some reason, some people can’t just pass on the gospel. They have to get angry. They have to oppose it. And sometimes violently so. And we shouldn’t be surprised by that. There may come a day in our lifetime in which preaching the gospel out of love and concern for people’s souls may be met with threats and violence. And we may have to stop what we say in our prayers now. My whole life I’ve heard men in public prayers thank God that we can worship him in peace.

That we don’t have to worry about someone breaking in and disturbing us. And I’m glad we can pray that prayer, but there may come a time when our prayer will be, Lord, will that come again? And our prayers may be altered like the statement of God to Paul, God give us the strength and the courage that we won’t be afraid, and that we won’t keep silent, but we’ll speak.

But it’s so important to our soul and theirs, and to God that you can’t shut us up. Paul had a little trepidation.

Conclusion

And I think was tempted to not keep preaching, at least there in Corinth. But Paul said, I’m going to do what God told me. And so he stayed there 18 months. And he wasn’t afraid. And he preached the gospel. And again, the text says, many hearing, believed, and were baptized. We have our goal. We have our mission. The question is, will we speak? Oh, we get in trouble sometimes speaking when we shouldn’t. But let’s never get in trouble for not speaking when we should. Preach the word. Be urgent and ready in season. And now when it may be out of season. But don’t keep silent. Would you do what those Corinthians did? Leave your life behind, whatever it was, and come to Jesus, believing and being baptized this morning.

Can we help you in that? I mean, help you in any way as you respond to the gospel call, then let it be known right now as together we stand and as we sing.