15 - Paul in Corinth -The Itineraries Of Paul
Paul in Corinth When you say to someone today, “You’re very religious,” to them, that may be a compliment but you know what the word religious means and what religion is. Paul said, “I noticed all these objects of worship, probably more here than any place else in the world. There was one that I was especially interested in; the one that says, ‘to the unknown god.’ That’s the one I want to talk about.” Then he goes into, “God that created the heavens and the earth.” It’s really the Word but he’s not saying, “It says in the Jewish scriptures.” He’s just saying thus and thus happened. These are basic principles with which the Stoicks in particular would agree. The Epicureans would scratch their heads because they believe the world happened by chance. The Stoicks would believe that there was a creator. Then he talks about the times determined before; how God appointed these times by his foreknowledge. He’s talking about God’s foreknowledge. God doesn’t overstep the freedom of will. There’s more that Paul said than what’s recorded here. This is the gist of it; the highlights. It’s the same way with all these messages recorded in here; all lot more things were said. These are the salient facts or truths. He taught them how that by God’s foreknowledge God knew what would happen. That’s close but distinctly independent of Stoick philosophy because they were fatalists. They believed in appointed times but that it’s by fate; that you have no decision. Like the story of Achilles; how he was killed. An arrow or spear hit him in the heel. That was the only vulnerable place he had; the “Achilles heel.” His mother, when he was born, dipped him in pool of protection so you couldn’t wound him in any place except where she held him by his heel. That arrow hit him in the heel only it was determined by fate according to Greek philosophy that that was the moment of his death and therefore if he would have gone to war (which he did) or if he would have stayed home he still would have di
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hold you peace, just speak the Word. Acts 18:10: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. Do you think those persecutors are going to come down and get Paul this time? No, God said nobody’s going to touch you; nobody’s going to hurt you in this city. Maybe they did in a few other places. “We always got you out of town, remember, Paul? But not in this city, you just stay there. Fear not! Speak the Word! Many people are going to believe here, Paul.” You go into one community and there’s only a few that believe but you go into another community and you really work like crazy. Does it depend on the size of the community? Not for the most part. It may have something to do with it but it’s a matter of how many are in that city that really want to believe. And there was a lot at Corinth. Besides that it was a big trade center; the Word