Acts 18:1-24 - Corps Notes - November 16, 1976
Acts 18:1-24 November 16, 1976 The word homiletics means the art of preaching. Homiletically that perhaps is a classic of all classics in Acts 17. My recapitulation of things that I saw in Acts is not comprehensive. It only approximates some of the things that are there as to what God really is. I taught all of that. Acts 18:1 “Corinth” - Homiletically, it’s just one of the great masterpieces of all time and that’s why after these things had occurred there, he departed from Athens and he came to Corinth. Forty-five miles west and south of Athens is the city of Corinth. The city of Corinth was the capital of Achaia. It was utterly destroyed in the year 146 B.C. But an emperor by the name of Julius Caesar loved it so much that he had it restored in 46 B.C. and made it one of the most outstanding “truck-driver” cities in the world. It became the commercial trading center, and it was the Playboy Magazine in living reality in its day. It was the hottest town in the Near East. It was the sexiest of all sex places. And our Paul, bless his heart, jumps from Athens, that great wicked city of intellects, into the great wicked city of sex; Corinth. If you wanted sex you went to Corinth. You could get it any which way you wanted it, no holes barred. That was Corinth. And that’s the city Paul goes to. Acts 18:2 “Pontus”- -I think it is mentioned in I Peter as one of the dispora cities. [I Peter 1:1] The word “dispora” is transliterated into “dispersion.” You’ll see the word “dispora” used various times in theological works and writings. And it simply means, Jews, when they were kicked out and dispersed from their rooted areas, those are the cities they went to. So, Aquila was born as an outcast, so to speak, and he went to Italy, to Rome, and he lately came from Rome with his wife Priscilla. “Jews”- I have told you before, and I must tell you again, that the word “Jew” is not Jew at all. The word “Jew” was first used, in any writing at all, by Sheridan, who did a play called “Ro
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to Jerusalem, being an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures. But he could go to Ephesus because Ephesus was the great intellectual center of Asia Minor. It perhaps had one of the greatest libraries of all times. They could have made it in the accreditation association. They of course are doing some archeological work there, and I’m sure if someday they get around to it and don’t get disrupted too much, they’ll come up with the great library in Ephesus; a great seat of learning. This great intellect, Apollos, was really a sharp cookie; a PhD, PhD, PhD. He comes to this great intellectual city of Ephesus, and then the things begin to happen, and it finally ends up with that fantastic record of: all Asia heard the Word of God in 2 years and 3 months. Well, that gives you the setting of the stage for it. 328