'What happens in Corinth, stays in . . .'

In Scripture, the people who had the biggest manifestation of tongue-talking were the worst assembly Paul wrote to.

“Tongue-talking was a sign, not of spirituality, but of carnality, and the Corinthians were the most carnal church Paul wrote to,” says Jordan. “The reason the people at Corinth sought the gift of tongues is that gift is a sensational thing that makes you look real spiritual. You see, the spiritual gifts (I Corinthians 12:7) were the outward manifestations of the working of the Spirit of God in you.

“I look at you guys sitting here today and I don’t see the Spirit of God working in you. You don’t see Him working in me. He’s inside. You don’t feel it, you don’t sense it. It’s a non-experiential reality.

“Notice in I Corinthians 12:14 what Paul says you’re supposed to do: ‘Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.’

“You see, they were trying to get the spectacular. Paul says, ‘Everything related to what goes on in the church is for one purpose: edifying, building up an internal structure in the Believers that causes you to become mature.’

“He says in verse 26, ‘How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.’

*****

“Corinth was a port city toward the bottom of Greece and on the eastern side of the isthmus separating two inlets. On the other side was the port city of Cenchrea. These ports were vital to the shipping in the Mediterranean Sea.

“The shipping would come into Corinth and go by land just a short way over to Cenchrea, pick up cargo and then go on. Goods came from the east and south to Rome, which was the center of the known world at that time, and back again.

“The Mediterranean Sea was very treacherous with the way its winds, tides, and currents were, making shipping a risky venture. If you remember, Paul, in Acts 27, was in a big shipwreck. He was actually shipwrecked several times in that area down there.

*****

“It’s important to understand this port-city kind of environment and how port cities are notoriously wicked places. I say that as someone born and raised in the port city of the state of Alabama.

“My point isn’t to condemn a port city; it’s just to alert you to the fact there’s some things that go on in Corinth that have to do with its location. Phebe was from Cenchrea and these two cities’ churches and Believers were involved together.

“Paul leaves the intellectual center of Athens, which had a high-brow, intellectual philosophers’ concentration, for his very important ministry in Corinth. Corinth is quite a different kind of city from Athens; much more earthy, more blue-collar, more working-man and down to the nitty-gritty other side of life.

“He goes there and ministers and Acts 18:2-3 says, [2] And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.
[3] And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers.

[4] And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

“Priscilla and Aquila are two saints we know a lot about as we study Paul’s ministry. They hazarded their lives, Romans 16 says, for Paul. He meets them here. They are Jewish Believers who have come from Rome because the Roman government had run the Jews out of there. Paul was a tent maker, as they were.

*****

“Acts 18 continues, [5] And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.
[6] And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.

“This is one of three times in the Book of Acts where Paul looks at Israel, pronounces a sentence of unbelief and judgment upon them and says, ‘Lo, we turn to the Gentiles.’ The first time is in Acts 13 when Paul was at Antioch in Pisidia, which is in Turkey.

“Acts 13: 44-45 reports, [44] And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.
[45] But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

“These Jews objected to Paul preaching the Word of God to the Gentiles and they’re going to stand in the way of the Word going to them. They contradict and blaspheme, yelling, ‘What he’s saying is not so! It is not true that God has sent salvation to all men! Salvation only belongs to Israel! It’s not true that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead; you can’t be saved by grace.’

“They’re blasphemers, speaking evil of the things Paul’s saying. The passage goes on, [46] Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
[47] For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

“Paul, through his ministry, is demonstrating and declaring to the Jews in Asia that ‘through the fall of Israel salvation goes to the Gentiles.’ How do you know Israel is fallen? Paul says, ‘We preached the Word of God to you, we shared the message with you, but you refused it, you contradicted it, you blasphemed it; you don’t want it. You judge yourselves; you demonstrate yourselves to be in unbelief and lo, we turn to the Gentiles.’

*****

“With Paul’s move out of Asia into Europe, into Greece, what you’re seeing as you go through Acts is the next step in the ministry going out. The blindness starts in Jerusalem with the ‘stoning of Stephen’ in Acts 7, and then you see it in Asia in Acts 13. You see it in Europe in Acts 18 and again in Rome, which ruled the world, in Acts 28.

“When Paul makes this announcement in Acts 18, he is demonstrating the effect of the blindness on Israel. Verse 7 tells us, [7] And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

“He departed and entered into a certain man’s house named Justus. If you’ve got one of the new bibles, they called him Justus Titius, or Titius Justus, and you realize, ‘Okay, that’s what you call adding to the Word of God.’

"Paul’s declaring to the Jews the Word of God but they don’t want it, so he literally goes next door and starts preaching. What does that say? That’s saying God is leaving Israel and going over to a house of a Gentile. What’s God done? He’s left Israel and gone to the Gentiles.

“When it says the house is ‘joined hard to the synagogue,’ that means there’s a common wall between them, just like you see with city storefronts. He literally goes out of that synagogue, which is one storefront, into the next storefront, which is a man named Justus’ house.

“Paul gets up and leaves and a whole troop of people leave with him. All the Believers go with him next door. Now, notice what happens in verse 8: [8] And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.

“What did the chief ruler of the synagogue do? He believed on the Lord. Isn’t that interesting? It says, ‘With all his house.’ The passage goes on, [9] Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:
[10] For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.
[11] And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

*****

“It’s very important you understand Corinthians is written to a group of people where God is pressing an enormous dispensational issue with them. I mean, this thing is so alive and active!

“Now, there are theologians and commentaries that will argue it was unethical and unkind of Paul to leave a group and go right next door and start an opposition group. They say, ‘Surely he was being Anti-Semitic.'

“By the way, Brother Gil once brought some folks here to visit on a Sunday who were from some so-called Messianic assembly near his house, and they went home in the car warning him, ‘That preacher’s an evil man; he’s an Anti-Semitic.’

“You know why some react that way? Because they would come here and we would treat them just like any other Gentile, not giving them a special status any more so than we would give someone of any other (blood) background. Now, just imagine what they would have said to and about Paul in Acts 18?! That would have been real interesting to have heard.”  

(to be continued tomorrow)