Redeemer Community Church

Collin Hansen: 00:01

Hey, everybody. As Joel said, this is the, spring break edition of Redeemer Community Church. Be sure and pick up your airbrush t shirt on the way out, and maybe an offensive koozie. We don't have those yet. We'll strike up a deal.

Collin Hansen: 00:24

I'll try not to pass out, and you try not to fall asleep. Okay? And if we can both even if it's 5050, if you keep your deal, it's this will be good. So, so if you would open up your bibles to Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18.

Collin Hansen: 00:44

We're gonna be looking at verses 1 through 11. Acts chapter 18 verses 1 through 11. Let's listen carefully to these words because this is the word of god. After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth and he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus. Recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome and he went to see them and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.

Collin Hansen: 01:28

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.

Collin Hansen: 02:00

And he left there and went to the house of a man named Tishas Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the lord said to Paul 1 night in a vision, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent for I'm with you and no one will attack you to harm you. For I have many in this city who are my people.

Collin Hansen: 02:40

And he stayed a year 6 months teaching the word of God among them. This is the word of the lord. Yes, sir. Let's pray. Lord, we are thankful for an opportunity to come together to worship you within community, to, to open up your word and to listen for your voice.

Collin Hansen: 03:06

And we ask that you would speak. We ask that you would teach us, that you would meet with us here, that we would be challenged, and that you would conform us by your spirit to be more like Jesus. Help us to trust you Lord and teach us tonight what that looks like. We pray these things in and for the name of Jesus here and around the world. Amen.

Collin Hansen: 03:37

So tonight, tonight we hit another turning point in the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul. After he was preaching to the philosophers in Athens, he's made his way to Corinth. That's probably a 2 day trip by foot, 4 hours by boat. And the city of Corinth was, was really, beginning to boom. It had, it had been conquered and taken over about a 100 years previous and so it had been going through a lot of rebuilding and restoration.

Collin Hansen: 04:06

And so Paul makes his way into the city and he comes across these, these 2 Jews who are of the same trade, Aquila and Priscilla. And they had made their way from Rome. They had been sent out of Rome, because Claudius, the emperor, had banished the Jews. Well, what what was probably happening there and what we see from some different Roman historians is that there was some kind of hubbub happening within the Jews in Rome. A problem was going on and that problem was was named in by these historians that it was the teaching of Chrestus, c h r e s t u s, crestus.

Collin Hansen: 04:52

And so what they were dealing with was that someone had come in and started teaching something that was causing confusion and strife within the Jewish community. And as they said, this was the teaching of Chrestus that was, leading into this confusion. What we can see is that there's probably a one to one relationship here, that this Chrestus was Christus, which is the Greek name and and and what was translated into the the Roman language there as Christ, the messiah. So this teaching concerning the messiah was causing a lot of problems. And it was probably the message of Jesus coming in to the Roman, city, and then some Jews believing and some Jews not.

Collin Hansen: 05:37

And so a problem was coming up. We're gonna see that happen again in Corinth, but that's probably what led to Aquila and Priscilla making their way. And so they set up shop, they they've got their trade, their business, and Paul makes a connection. Because Paul is a tent maker by trade. Now there was a common phrase that was passed down that if if you did not teach your son a

Jeffrey Heine: 06:03

trade, you taught him

Collin Hansen: 06:03

to be a thief. A trade, you taught him to be a thief. It's kind of cute. So if you didn't pass on some kind of trade, some something that they could do with their hands to earn money, then really you just taught them how to steal from other people. So as Paul knew this trade and he made this friendship with these believing Jews, Aquila and Priscilla, he stays with them.

Collin Hansen: 06:28

He lives with them and begins his tent making business. So as he makes these friends, and that's what he's doing during the week, it says in verse 4 that Paul would make his way to the synagogue to reason. He would make his way to the synagogue to persuade the Jews and the Greeks. And something that's really interesting there is that the the term for reason there is is to dialogue. He would dialogue with the Jews and the Greeks.

Collin Hansen: 06:55

And and I'd say that far too often, I, I do this and, and you might do the same, that we view the gospel as something to be monologue. That's something that I would just stand up and declare. I declare the gospel. I proclaim the gospel. But proclamation of the gospel also entails in that dialoguing the gospel, the word.

Collin Hansen: 07:20

But one of the reasons that I kind of shy away from that is because dialogue requires relationship. It requires interaction. It's not it it is a lot easier for me just to go somewhere and just shout at people, but to interact with them. There's also another qualifier in there for dialogue. You have to listen to other people.

Collin Hansen: 07:45

Hard stuff for a person like me, Maybe for you as well. But to listen, to listen to questions, to listen to angry statements, to to actually reason with someone to have back and forth. Paul did that. He went to the synagogue every Sabbath to reason and had an aim with that. It wasn't just an intellectual pursuit.

Collin Hansen: 08:08

Let's reason together. It was to reason to dialogue so that they might be persuaded that the Christ was Jesus, that the Messiah was Jesus. Paul saw that the word was a word to be dialogued. So much so that in verse 5 it says that when when Silas and Timothy come into Corinth from Macedonia, it says this, that Paul was occupied with the word. Another way to put this is that he was consumed by the word.

Collin Hansen: 08:47

He was overcome. That same word is used in other points by Luke to talk about like being afflicted by a disease. That he was so overwhelmed with the word. He was occupied by it. Occupied with the word.

Collin Hansen: 09:04

This word that he's talking about here later in a letter that he will write to these believing Jews and, and Gentiles, these, these Christians in Corinth. Later he will refer to this word as the word of reconciliation. He was consumed by the word of reconciliation, which declares that the perfect obedience of Jesus in his life, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension, our sinfulness applied to him, his righteousness applied to us that we are reconciled to the father. We are justified by his righteousness through the work of the spirit. We are united with Jesus.

Collin Hansen: 09:44

This is the word declaring it to people, but discussing it with them, sharing the word with them. Because he knew that the gospel wasn't just something to be declared only, but to be treasured, to be treasured and enjoyed within a community. And he desired to persuade these Jews and the Greeks and he reasoned with them. He reasoned with them because he loved them. First off, he was, he was broken for the unbelieving people and he cared.

Collin Hansen: 10:27

And as he was broken for them and as he loved them, he also loved the Lord. He loved Jesus and he desired to see as many that would come to worship and love and adore the Christ. And so he went out there to the synagogue every Sabbath and he faced rejection. Verse 6, he, he, he was opposed. He was reviled and many of the Jews and the Gentiles, the Greeks, they, they would mock Paul and they rejected him to the point that he said in verse 6, your blood be on your own heads.

Collin Hansen: 11:08

I am innocent. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. See, Paul faces the reality that you can't just make people believe. You can't trick them into belief. You can't just wrestle them intellectually into just succumbing to, okay, I've run out of good arguments.

Collin Hansen: 11:30

I I guess whatever it is this Paul is saying is true. Now, definitely the the gospel does wrestle our minds and our hearts into submission. But it's not just a clever argument. Joel talked about that last week and the week before. That the power of the cross and But Paul became frustrated, because he faced that rejection.

Collin Hansen: 12:07

But just as there was rejection from many, there were also many who believed, many who believed and were baptized. 2 of them, Tishus Justus, whose home was next to the synagogue and actually in Corinth today, remains are still visible of his home. And the head of the synagogue, Crispus, They believed, they heard the word of reconciliation from Paul and they believed it. And upon believing it, they were baptized. And then in verse 9, the next thing that Luke tells us is about a vision that Paul was given by the Lord.

Collin Hansen: 12:41

One night after Paul had experienced the rebuke and the rejection from the Jews and the Greeks that did not believe, the Lord appeared to him. And he said these words, verse 9, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent for I am with you and no one will attack you to harm you. For I have many in this city who are my people. He says, don't be afraid. And the primary reason why Jesus says this to Paul is not just the gospel going out.

Collin Hansen: 13:22

He is saying to Paul, take heart, don't be afraid because I am with you. It's Jesus being with him that enables him to not have fear. It's not just protection, although that's part of it. That's the second part is that he would be protected. The first truth that he had to come to understand and believe is that Jesus was with him.

Collin Hansen: 13:47

You see, we should be a little bit startled, depending on which version of or translation you might have of the bible because you might see that after a lot of pages that are black and white, you have red text. This is Jesus is speaking again. This should catch our eye. And so as Paul is going on this missionary journey, as he has this this word of reconciliation, this ministry that he is called to do, he is reminded that the living Jesus is with him. That mattered to Paul and that matters to us.

Collin Hansen: 14:37

Don't be afraid. I'm with you. Paul has already suffered tremendous amount of persecution and attacks. But the Lord tells him not to stop, don't grow weary, keep preaching. Go on.

Collin Hansen: 14:53

And he does. Paul stays a year and a half longer teaching the word of God, the word of reconciliation among the Corinthians. A year and a half longer. This is one of the biggest stops that, that he makes in remaining in his city. You know, this breakneck speed that we've seen so far, as he goes from city to city suffering persecution, sometimes leaving and turning around and coming right back to places where he was beaten, driven out of the city.

Collin Hansen: 15:21

And and he'd just make his way back. And as he's making these different journeys, but now he stops. And if we don't pay attention to that line, then we think that it's, you know, the same old Paul just speeding through these cities, city by city by city by city. But there's this line that we really need to pay attention to. That after this vision, after Jesus came to him and said, don't be afraid.

Collin Hansen: 15:45

Stay at this work of preaching and reasoning in the synagogues. Stay at this gospel work. I'm with you. Paul stayed for a year and a half, a year and a half. And I think there are a number of important truths displayed in this account that Luke gives us, but I'd like to focus in on one of them right now.

Collin Hansen: 16:10

And that is trust. In all 11 verses that we're looking at tonight, the importance of trust is really written on every line. Paul has to trust the Lord at every turn, from his decision to leave Athens, to taking up the weekly work of tent making, dialoguing with unbelievers in the synagogues every Sabbath, trusting in the message of the gospel, the work of the holy spirit in bringing new life, risking his own life and the rejection by the Jews and the Greeks and the Roman rulers of Corinth. Trust. Trust in so many ways is the heart and core of the Christian life.

Collin Hansen: 16:49

Charles Spurgeon said this, trust and obedience are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God trusts God and he that trusts God obeys God. For, for many of us, for many of us, our greatest need is not to read more books on theology to grant, to gain these deeper insights or to learn more sophisticated techniques and apologetics or to learn our church history better. More than anything, more than that, and those are good things. But more than that, what we need is to trust the things we already know.

Collin Hansen: 17:24

The things we already have in our minds and our hearts. Kierkegaard said this, he said, it is a trembling and terrifying thing to be left alone with the scriptures. Not because we can't understand them, but but because that we do understand them and we're afraid to live them out. What we need more than anything is to trust in the things that we already know and to live lives in work and in rest that practice those things out, to live those things out obediently. Trust.

Collin Hansen: 18:05

Three things about trust. Number 1. Trust is active. So often I live in a theoretical trust. I agree with the idea of trust.

Collin Hansen: 18:22

But trust is to be active. It's to be actualized. You see, we can't just go along in just saying that we think that obedience to Jesus is a good idea that we agree with. But we actually have to live in trust. An example of this that I thought of, when I, when I was working on this this past week, I worked at a camp a number of years ago and there was an alpine tower.

Collin Hansen: 18:50

And, and I was, one of the many camp staffers that would belay students up and down that were climbing, the alpine tower. And and so I would have to tie all these knots, which I can't remember any of them now, but these really impressive knots as I would take D rings and a harness and I would, I would tie them in and then they'd go over to the edge and as I would lock them in, I would say, on belay, belay on, climbing, climb on, all those little cues that you have to do and then they take off. And it was just inevitable about halfway up, you know, right when you you're you're about 3 times your own height, fear would just just take that kid captive and their little legs would start trembling and they would try to do all the climbing with their arms, which anyone that's climbing forces, that's the worst thing possible. As soon as your arms get tired, then you're done. You you you have no hope to make it to the top.

Collin Hansen: 19:46

But as they would, as they would make their way, I would coach them this direction and that direction. They finally make their way the top. And if they did, if they finally made their way to the top and they would feel so proud, so energized, but then they had one more thing they had to do, come down. And coming down, you would actually have to sit on the ledge and you're, you're pretty high up at that point, but you would sit on the ledge and you would have to inch your way off and let the rope take your weight. Now, I I watch kids do this for 10 weeks, 50 kids a day.

Collin Hansen: 20:25

And somewhere towards the end, we decided as staff one weekend when kids weren't around to have races to, to see how fast could you do it. Because now you knew all the different angles to go and and so we would have, 3 different stations set up and you would race to get there as fast as you could. And I remember getting up there decently fast and then they said, all right, time to come down. And I just couldn't push myself off. I couldn't trust that rope, that rope that I had tied hundreds of times.

Collin Hansen: 20:57

I'd seen exactly how the mechanics work. It didn't matter, thankfully, how strong the person belaying you was. It didn't matter. It had to do with the system of pulleys and, and you could trust the lock. But pushing off of there and making the idea of how all of this works become an actualized reality and putting my weight and my life on that rope was a different thing altogether.

Collin Hansen: 21:23

I talked about it day in and day out for weeks. I even got people to trust me as those kids would just let go and come down. But when I had to do it, it was a different reality altogether. And what we need is an actualized trust. A trust that is real and active, that we are living in.

Collin Hansen: 21:52

And that that leads to the next thing. Trust is continual. It's a continual choice that every day we choose moment by moment to trust in Jesus. Now, salvation is secured. Justification is secured.

Collin Hansen: 22:11

That that was accomplished by the power of the cross and the work of the Holy Spirit. That's not in doubt, that's not in question. But whether or not I live an abundant life, a a life that is trusting in Christ moment by moment by moment. That's a choice I make over and over and over. And it's a choice I can neglect over and over and over.

Collin Hansen: 22:35

Every day we are faced with 100 of tiny choices. It's not just these choices of, who am I going to marry? Where am I going to move? Big expenses, those kinds of things. Yes.

Collin Hansen: 22:49

Trusting Jesus is necessary in the big choices of life. But it's necessary in the millions of tiny little choices that actually make up your life. Trust is intentional, you know? We we we when we make these choices, these continual choices, it's it's on purpose. You're not gonna find yourself accidentally trusting Jesus.

Collin Hansen: 23:12

You're not gonna wake up one day and be like, wow, I didn't even realize it, but I just I was so focused and so earnest and looking to Jesus as my only source of hope in the world, on accident. I didn't even realize it till now. And we fix our eyes on Jesus and we trust him actively and continually. The third thing is this, our trust in Jesus is evident. Trust is demonstrated.

Collin Hansen: 23:46

Two ways that we see Paul trusting in Acts 18, 2 ways, is in his work and in his rest. In his work, think about this. The apostle Paul for a year and a half, the bulk of his weeks were taking up, it was taken up with tent making. Tent making. Some of you have real questions about the work that you're doing right now, like where you're employed.

Collin Hansen: 24:18

You feel like, I don't know if this matters. I don't know if this is if this has some lasting value. There's nothing more there's nothing else that personifies transiency more than a tent. Okay? Like, I I don't know anyone that says I've got a relic of a Pauline tent.

Collin Hansen: 24:34

Like, this is I've got a I've got a good Paul tent that's still lasting. No, it's it's a tent. It's a temporary dwelling. It comes and it goes. By the very nature of what it is, it's transient.

Collin Hansen: 24:47

It does not last. And that's what he spent the bulk of his week, month in, month out for a year and a half. Now some of us, we could say, where was the kingdom good? Where is that kingdom work? That real kingdom work there?

Collin Hansen: 25:06

Paul, you could have written just, like, one essay on baptism. Like, one solid, just how old you need to be. All the like, just what you could have written a couple more letters. You you could have you could have driven around. You could have taken a couple of donkeys and gone somewhere and planted more churches.

Collin Hansen: 25:21

A year and a half, you're in one place. And guess what? When we read your letters to this church later on, they don't seem that awesome. They don't really seem to have it all together. That's not the super church.

Collin Hansen: 25:31

He wasn't in Corinth for a year and a half, building up the super church that never made a mistake. It's the church that he has to write back to and say, do you all even understand what we're trying to do here? That was a church that he spent a year and a half with, building up and making tents. He trusted the Lord in his work. He was being obedient to Jesus.

Collin Hansen: 25:58

And also in that, as he worked as a tent maker throughout the week and as he went to the synagogue on Sabbath and some of that probably changed at different times, how much time he was spending. It's not, we're not gonna extract a formula here of how much your work week should be. But but also during this time, he rested. Don't ever forget, don't ever lose sight on how much your rest testifies to your trust in Jesus. The time when you're not working, the time when you're missing out on things, The times when you are turning an ear towards the busyness and distractions, even good things, even great things.

Collin Hansen: 26:51

Your rest testifies, it demonstrates, It makes evident your trust in Jesus. We demonstrate our trust in Jesus in, in our work and in our rest. We see some of these, the, the emphasis of these in, in Paul's letter to the Ephesians in in chapter 2 verse 10, where, where he says you are created for good works in Christ Jesus. You were created for work. But Jesus also says in Matthew 11, He calls out to the weary.

Collin Hansen: 27:28

He calls out to the heavy laden and he says, in me you will find rest. So this isn't a false dichotomy. These aren't separate things. These are ways in which we express and demonstrate our trust in Jesus, in working, righteous work, and in righteous resting. Trust is active.

Collin Hansen: 27:52

It is continual and it is evident because Jesus calls us into an active and continual trust in which we rest and work in obedience to him. And I'll go as far as to say this, many, if not all, and I'm speaking to myself here as well, but I'm going to say you because it cuts a little bit harder. Many, if not all, of your daily fears and frustrations are the result of your neglect of actively trusting Jesus. Let me say it again. Many, if not all of your daily fears and frustrations are the result of your neglect of actively trusting Jesus.

Collin Hansen: 28:44

I've had to say that to myself a number of times this week. See, that fear and those frustrations, it can manifest in anger over your lack of control, anxiety over your future, impatience with the people and the things around you. Your neglect of actively trusting Jesus results in a fear and a frustration that can grip you. A fear and a frustration that can overcome you more than the good news of the gospel. You see how that ties in?

Collin Hansen: 29:19

As Paul was trusting in Jesus, as he was actively trusting him in work and in rest, he was able to be completely and fully occupied with the word, occupied with the gospel. So that that tells me that when I'm more occupied with my fear and my frustration, my anxiety, my anger, that it's a direct result of me not trusting Jesus. Maybe in theory, may I, maybe I still agree with the idea, but I'm not actively. I'm not sitting in it. I'm not giving my weight to it and actively trusting Jesus.

Collin Hansen: 30:02

And the good news of the gospel, the good news of this word of reconciliation is this, that everything you most desperately need to obtain and become, you already have and are. Let me say that again. Everything that you most desperately need to obtain and become, you already have and are. By the grace of God the father, the cross of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. And what you need to obtain most desperately is reconciliation with the father, forgiveness of sin.

Collin Hansen: 30:44

And what you most desperately need to become is adopted. A son or a daughter of the living god. And those are the 2 things that you most desperately need, and those are the 2 things that you have and are in Jesus. That frees us up. That actually sets us free to an active and continual and evident trust in Jesus.

Collin Hansen: 31:13

And we exercise our faith in obeying him and our working and our resting. And this is rooted in, as I always like to go back to with Paul. It's rooted in the fact that he loves Jesus. That that's what just refutes every interpretation that Paul's trying to give some kind of works based or anything like that, that you earn your your salvation through work. It just throws that completely out the window because all that he is saying with our work and our rest and being obedient to Jesus, is rooted in a trust that comes from love.

Collin Hansen: 31:52

He loves him. He loves Jesus like crazy. And it's out of that love that he trusts him. And so I have 3 questions for you, and this is how we're going to wrap up here. Three questions.

Collin Hansen: 32:07

If you want to write them down, they're going to come up again in your home groups. And, and, and so what I want is for us to be chewing on them now, being ready and able to vocalize these things in our home groups. So here it is. Is my staying or my going? Is my working or my resting a result of trusting Jesus or trusting myself?

Collin Hansen: 32:42

Is my staying or my going? Is my am I working or my resting? Is that a result of trusting Jesus or trusting myself? Coming up with my own plan, my own story, my own future, or am I trusting in the one who writes my story and who has written me into his story? Question 2, is it evident that I'm daily choosing to trust Jesus?

Collin Hansen: 33:15

Is it evident? Is it demonstrated that I am daily choosing to trust Jesus? Sub question, can others see it? I mean, that that's how we know. Right?

Collin Hansen: 33:31

I mean, we need to be asking this question in regards to ourselves of other people. Can you see this? Is this demonstrated? Because I might think, oh, yeah. My my choices, the way that I'm living now, that's an active trust.

Collin Hansen: 33:45

Does it seem like that? Do you see me trusting Jesus or does it appear that I'm doing this on my own? Do I talk about how I'm trusting Jesus? Is that on my lips that I'm desperate to know what Jesus wants for my life? How I can be obedient to him in my working and my resting?

Collin Hansen: 34:11

3rd question is this, whether you are a tent maker or a doctor, a student, you work at home, regardless of where you are for your profession, are you occupied with the word? See, Paul was occupied with the word when he was a tent maker. The bulk of his time, making tents, mending tents, selling tents, getting materials for tents. Sometimes it's even hard for me to think about Paul in that kind of a setting Where if I, if I looked over and somebody said, hey, that's the apostle Paul over there and he's writing something down. Like, he's probably writing the most beautiful prayer to a church far away from here.

Collin Hansen: 35:00

And he's writing a supply list for making a tent. Like he he lived and worked in this real world. And we have to realize that our calling to be obedient is a dynamic, continual, active trusting of Jesus. And so asking these questions, am I occupied with the word? Because that that might lead me to looking at my fears and my frustrations.

Collin Hansen: 35:26

It'll help me to look at how I'm neglecting an active trust of Jesus. And you might be able to ask me all the right questions about the theory of trusting Jesus, but is it actualized? Is it real? Is it present? Cause when I'm frustrated and I'm broken and I'm being rejected and reviled, where is my hope?

Collin Hansen: 35:52

Where's your hope? Where is your trust? Where's your obedience rooted and grounded in a love for Jesus because of his great love for us. So we're going to take some time to pray through those things, to, to think about the greatness of the gospel, the goodness of God to extend that gospel message to us and to pray. And so let's begin in that time now.

Collin Hansen: 36:34

Lord, teach us what it, what it means to live lives that truly trust in Jesus. Lord, help us as a community to walk through these questions and, and your word in such a way that we examine ourselves sober mindedly, honestly, That we would help one another to answer these questions, that we have a responsibility even to do that as the church, as we confess sin, as we point one another to forgiveness in Christ, as we point to your justification that you, you give us the righteousness of Jesus, that He takes away our sinfulness, that He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf, that we might have His righteousness, that we would point one another to the truth of the gospel, That we would stand firm and rooted in that gospel. Freed up to live lives of trust. And that in our coming and our going, that in our community we would see active trust. People leaning on Jesus.

Collin Hansen: 38:11

Father, give us eyes to see our lives honestly. Give us voices to preach and proclaim the gospel in dialogue with one another. And Lord, that our humility would, would really define this church community. That our humility and willingness to acknowledge our sin, to walk in your forgiveness, to trust in Jesus, that these would be keystone traits, attributes that define us as a community. And so we ask that you would lead us in this time, spirit, that you would strengthen us as a community.

Collin Hansen: 38:58

You give us voices to speak truth and love to one another. And ultimately, that we would worship you, Father, Son and Spirit. Try you, God. By whom all things are made for whom all things were created. Or lead us as your people.

Collin Hansen: 39:24

We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.

Joel Brooks: 39:27

Amen.