"The Fellowship of God" (Acts 18:9-11)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/29/2018 8:27 AM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  The Fellowship of God

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 18:9-11

            Message of the verses:  “9 And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, "Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; 10 for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city." 11 And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.”

            When we began this section I had made a comment that the Lord was going to give Paul some rest after such difficult times, times when he had been run out of towns just when he began to get a church together, but persecution came about and he then had to flee, finally to Athens where after preaching there were only a few that had accepted Christ.  Paul must have been down and disappointed, but now as we see in our verses for today the Lord assures him that he will be able to stay put for a while in Corinth, which was a place where he needed to be for a while because of the kind of city this was.

            John MacArthur points out that the vision that Paul received in verse nine is one of six visions that are recorded in the book of Acts.  They are found in Acts 9:12; 16:9-10; 22:17-18; 23:11; 27:23-24, along with the one found in 18:9.

            MacArthur points out that this supernatural vision provided four reasons for Paul not to give up proclaiming the gospel in that city.  We will look at these four reasons as we continue looking at these three verses.

            First of all we see that God commanded it specifically when we read in the last part of verse nine “but go on speaking.”

            Second we see that God reminded Paul in verse ten “for I am with you” something that I am sure that Paul knew.  I realize that there are times in my prayer life and in the prayer lives of others to ask God to be with us, and yet we know that as a believer that the Holy Spirit is living in us and is always with us, and yet I suppose there are times when we need assurance to this fact and that is why we pray this way.  Another reason to pray this way could be that we truly need God in a specific way in our lives and so we ask that God would be with us in that specific way as we go through a difficult situation.  Paul was familiar with what happened to Joshua as he was about to take over the ministry of Moses, and as we think about that for a moment we know that this must have been a very difficult time for Joshua, and I am sure that he needed a message from the Lord which he did receive in Joshua 1:5 and nine where we read:  “No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life.  Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you…Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous!  Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

            Paul knew with the powerful presence that was aiding his ministry that he could accomplish whatever it was that God wanted him to accomplish, something that Joshua found out too along with many other leaders from the nation of Israel.  We can read from his last letter which he wrote to Timothy these words “16 At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. 17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”  We will look at a few more verses that go along these lines:  “20  teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20).”  “10 ’Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand’ (Isaiah 41:10).”  “17 “Now, gird up your loins and arise, and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, or I will dismay you before them. 18 “Now behold, I have made you today as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole land, to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests and to the people of the land. 19 “They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you," declares the LORD (Jeremiah 1:17-19).”

            The third promise comes also from verse ten “no man will attack you in order to harm you.”  I am sure that this must have brought great comfort to Paul as he had been attacked many times in the past.  John MacArthur writes that “Those under God’s protection are invulnerable (cf. Isa. 54:17; Rev. 11:5).”  We will look now at these verses:  “17 “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me," declares the LORD.”  “5 And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.”

            The fourth and last reason that God gave Paul to keep preaching was that He had “many people in the city.”  Yes we are talking about God’s sovereignty here as God the Father is saying here that in eternity past I chose certain people who will belong to my Son, and my Son will come to earth to purchase these people who will become His bride, and I have many of them here in Corinth and I want you to keep on preaching so that the Holy Spirit will give an effectual call to these once they have heard the message of salvation.  John MacArthur writes “The truth of election expressed in verse 10 balances the truth of human responsibility in verse 6.  As always, Scripture presents those two inscrutable truths without attempting to harmonize them.  Both are true, and there is no real contradiction between them.”

            God had renewed Paul’s strength through these promises and so we read that Paul settled in Corinth for another year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.  This was a strategic location and Paul obeyed the call of the vision that God had given to him.  It was during that period writes MacArthur that “a certain incident provided the final source of God’s encouragement to Paul.”  The final source of encouragement that Paul had is what we will look at next as we wrap up this section from Acts 18:1-17 which is “The frustration of his enemies.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  How is it that I as a believer knew that it was of the Lord to write my Spiritual Diaries and then eventually put them onto my blogs?  I can assure you that it was not from a vision like Paul received here in verse nine.  However there were certain circumstances that did occur in my life as I was encouraged by my daughter and also a godly woman from our former church to do this and so one day, July 3, 2011 after finishing up my study of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles that I decided that I would take a step of faith and publish my Spiritual Diaries onto a blog.  I knew very little about how to do this, only that my daughter and son-in-law had published a blog on the events leading up to adopting their first son, and so I searched the internet and found how to do this not knowing what the Lord would do with this, but determined to follow through and publish what the Lord was teaching me as I studied His Word each day, or mostly each day.  I am thankful to the Lord for allowing me to do this, and continue to pray that the Lord will use these Spiritual Diaries to bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, to cause believers to grow in grace, to bring revival to believers who are in need of revival, to ask the Spirit of God to continue to send these Spiritual Diaries around the world each day, and also I pray that the Lord will use these Spiritual Diaries on the last day of the church age to bring thousands to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in a similar way that He did on the first day of the church when thousands of people heard the message of the gospel in their own language.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To trust the Lord to answer my prayers concerning these Spiritual Diaries.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Timothy” (2 Timothy 1:1-5).

Today’s Bible question:  “How many years did Israel’s monarchy last before being divided into two kingdoms?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/29/2018 9:27 AM