Okay, today we're looking at Acts chapter 18, Acts chapter 18.
We're just going to stroll through this chapter, verse by verse.
We're going to look it over and see if anyone from this chapter is in the little flock.
A new and very strange teaching has reared its ugly head, so we're going to address some of the issues today and just see if any of them has any validity, any substantiated biblical evidence to support it, to support its foundation.
Acts chapter 18, verse 1, After these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth.
Paul had just preached his Mars Hill sermon on the, there to the pagan idolaters before leaving Athens.
Okay, verse 2, And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because the Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and had come unto them.
Now, Pontus was a region in the northeastern part of Asia Minor.
It bordered the Black Sea, almost a thousand miles from Jerusalem.
Aquila and Priscilla had recently left Italy to dwell in Corinth where they could more freely practice the Jews' religion.
Verse 3, And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers.
Verse 4, And he, this is Paul, Luke's referring to, and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks, every Sabbath.
That would indicate that Paul spent at least several, we could be safe by saying he spent weeks in Corinth.
Verse 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.
Park right here for a moment.
Now Paul had left Timothy and Silas in Berea after the Jews from Thessalonica went there to get rid of him, to run him out.
Now, those who led Paul out for his safety were referred to as, quote, they that conducted Paul.
Notice that.
A chapter earlier, Acts 17 verse 15, there we find an indicator that indicates that he had people helping him to safely get from one place to another.
Timothy and Silas were to join Paul at a later time, and so they met him in Corinth.
After he had traveled south from Athens.
Verse 6, 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 into the Gentiles.
The Jews of Corinth reject Paul's news, reject the news that Jesus was the Christ, a necessary component for those of the Jewish religion to believe Paul's gospel.
See, Paul's going somewhere.
Anyone who doesn't believe that Jesus was, is Christ, cannot believe the gospel of the grace of God.
This not only applied then, this applies today.
Nothing to stumble over.
Verse 7, and he departed thence and entered into a certain man's house named Justice,
one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.
Now think, Justice worshipped God.
He may have been a Jew, but it is most likely that he was a Gentile who worshipped God.
It wouldn't matter anyway.
He was a man that allowed the Jews usage of his property.
During this time, Jews did not possess many rights under the Roman authority, unless they became Roman citizens.
While they were allowed to practice their religion, in most cases, they were not allowed to build tabernacles or temples.
And the Romans preferred their meeting places to be called, schools.
If they were not attached to a home, the only temple allowed to the Jews was the one in Jerusalem.
The Romans, Greeks, did not want temples built for any other gods besides their own.
Oh no.
You see, when you approach these verses in Acts, don't come in blind.
Come in with context.
This sort of information is valuable.
It will help you to navigate through the book of Acts.
The book of Acts is transitional.
You don't go there pulling here and pulling there and trying to build doctrine.
Not in the book of Acts.
That's not what the book was written for.
Okay, let's move forward.
Verse 8.
We're in the book of Acts, chapter 18.
Just going verse by verse, letting the Bible dictate to us.
It's the dictator, not us.
Is anyone from this chapter in the little flock?
That's the new thing going around.
You know, people out there are always itching ears, looking for something new.
Here comes a new thing from Preacher Rodney.
Okay, well let's see if Preacher Rodney's got it right.
Verse 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.
An example here of the Jews needing signs for their belief.
Remember that?
Hmm, yeah.
Don't forget these things.
Test these new doctrines when you hear them.
There's answers for why Paul does.
There's answers for why Paul says.
There are clear answers to why he does and says certain things.
But you're going to have to study.
You see, this new thing they've got going is for the lazy-minded.
Those who have came to these verses and have trouble figuring them out.
And that's okay.
But instead of digging in their heels and studying to show themselves approved, they
decide to, oh, there's got to be an easier answer.
Something we can all just, you know, breeze through, make it easy, and forget about having to study and figure out why Paul is saying or doing what he says or does here.
So they get all thrown off, sidetracked.
Next thing you know, Paul's teaching the little flock.
The little flock is helping Paul.
And this is not our rapture in the book of Corinthians and Thessalonians, no.
And oh, let's not forget, we won't be at the judgment seat because I thought our sins were already paid for.
What are we going to the judgment seat for?
Well, how about doing a little study and you'll find out.
Verse 9, and we'll get to that.
Judgment seat study, that's coming.
And we'll take you through and we'll figure this thing out.
We'll keep it simple, as did Paul.
Verse 9, Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace.
Verse 10, For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city.
Now watch.
Again, let's think.
Apparently, Paul was concerned with all of the uproars which had followed him from city to city.
These uproars were caused by the Jews who rejected Christ.
But the Lord tells Paul that he has, quote, much people in this city.
And not to be afraid.
These much people were people who had and would believe Paul's gospel, not the gospel
of the kingdom.
Paul never preached that.
Paul was not an apostle of the little flock.
You have zero evidence, zero biblical evidence to support that.
Paul made it plain, I am an apostle of the Gentiles.
Now, why could he not made it just as plain and said, I am also an apostle of the little flock?
I am an apostle to believing Israel?
No.
He was sent to Israel.
Every time you see the word Israel, every time you see the word Jews, does not denote
people who are believers.
You don't go, just as Paul went into the synagogues, every time he came, you don't go into synagogues to find believers.
They didn't believe, they weren't believers who believed Peter's gospel.
They did not accept Christ as Messiah.
That's who was in the synagogues.
Paul didn't lay on another man's foundation.
He didn't preach where the name of Christ had been named.
No.
These people didn't believe in Christ and that's who Paul was sent to.
Just because it says Israel, just because it says a Jew, just because it says a synagogue, you got to do some studying.
You, you study.
Don't just listen to a man looking into a camera telling you these things.
Come on.
Verse 11, and he continued there a year and six months.
So Paul still there, he stayed there for a while, teaching the word of God among them.
Verse 12, and when Galileo was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with
one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat.
Achaia was the region in which the cities of Corinth and Athens were located.
Gallio had been appointed deputy of this region.
He had the power to pass judgment on individuals.
He was very obviously a Roman official.
Verse 13, saying this fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.
Uh huh.
The Jews took Paul before the Roman judgment seat in order to have a Roman official pass judgment on Paul regarding Jewish law.
Now, this fellow Rodney's got this all mixed up.
Now let me, let me repeat this.
The Jews, watch, listen, the Jews, they are who took Paul before the Roman judgment seat in order to have a Roman official pass judgment on Paul regarding what?
Jewish law.
Come on.
Verse 14, and when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, oh ye Jews, reason with that I should bear with you.
You see, before Paul even opened his mouth to defend himself against the accusation of the Jews, the Roman official speaks to them.
This fellow with his newly discovered doctrine, you know, he's been preaching for 30 plus years and he just now discovered this, this new thing.
Now, I'm not talking about, you know, an epiphany and an aha moment.
Oh no, the new thing, the entire foundation has been off for 30 plus years and now he
figured this out.
He's got all these people in the little flock, but the evidence doesn't support it.
Okay, let's go.
Verse 15, but if it be a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it,
for I will be no judge of such matters.
What does a Roman official have to do with Jewish laws?
Huh?
Come on.
Just as Pilate, a Roman official before whose Roman judgment seat Jesus stood before, foundno fault against Christ because Pilate was not an executor of Jewish law.
Gallio says the same thing here at his Roman judgment seat pertaining to Paul.
Verse 16, and he drove them from the judgment seat.
Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat.
And Gallio cared for none of these things.
Why did the Greeks, now just stop and think, why did the Greeks, not the Jews, why did the Greeks beat Sosthenes?
It may seem odd, because the Jews were the ones who brought Paul before the Roman judgmentseat.
However, it is easily understood when we look at how the Jews have already behaved toward Paul, and how they will behave in the future.
We can also take a look at how the unbelieving Jews treated Christ.
Were they the ones who physically executed Christ?
Rhetorical of course, no.
The Jews didn't have legal power under Roman law to execute anyone.
They also didn't want to be seen as troublemakers in the eyes of the Roman government because they knew that that might just get their rights to practice their religion taken away.
In Acts 17, a chapter earlier, verse 5, the Jews stirred up lewd fellows of the baser
sort.
What for?
To assault the house of Jason because Paul, Timothy, and Silas, were lodging with Jason.
In other words, they had Gentiles to do their dirty work.
In Acts 21, the Jews from Asia who had gathered in Jerusalem were so angry with Paul that they gathered other Jews together and were about to kill him.
But when Roman guards showed up, they stopped beating him and handed him over to the Romans and marked him as a troublemaker.
Paul would eventually end up going before yet another Roman judgment seat here.
The unbelieving Jews were always stirring up others to attack those who preach Christ, and it was the unbelieving Jews who would bring those they opposed before the Roman judgment seat.
Verse 18, and Paul, after this, tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Centuria, for he had a vow.
Centuria was a port town of Corinth, and Paul's vow would be fulfilled at Jerusalem.
Although he was the apostle to the Gentiles, he still kept his vow in order to win unbelieving Jews.
Like the Bereans, search the scriptures.
Your answers are there.
You don't have to wait for the next video to slant your viewpoint.
Just go search the scriptures yourself.
Verse 19, and he came to Ephesus, and left them there.
But he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.
Now, don't go off track here, pump the brakes before you crash, because I hear some thatevery time they get to the word Jews, they automatically see believing Jews.
The little flock, the remnant, no.
In the synagogue, Paul reasoned with the Jews.
They don't believe, okay?
Ephesus was a region of Asia, west of the region of Galatia.
Aquila and Priscilla stayed behind at Ephesus.
Verse 20, when they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not.
The Ephesian Jews accepted Paul's gospel.
Get that.
The Ephesian Jews accepted Paul's gospel.
They were not believers, not what some today refer to as Messianic Jews.
But Paul, when he preached Christ the Messiah, the Son of God, when he could get them tosee that, he would then proceed to preach his gospel, the gospel we know.
They hearing it would believe it, being saved by Paul's gospel.
Verse 21, but bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem, but I will return again unto you if God will.
And he sailed from Ephesus.
Verse 22, and when he had landed at Caesarea and gone up and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch.
Caesarea is in the region of Judea.
Paul visited the church at Jerusalem, then traveled to Syrian Antioch, north of Judea.
Verse 23, and after he had spent some time there, he departed and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.
Now Galatia and Phrygia were regions northwest of Syria.
Verse 24, and a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.
Alexandria is northern Egypt, Africa.
A port city that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, Alexandria had one of the largest Jewish populations of all Roman cities, and was also a center for the Hellenistic learning.
For some time, the Jews, Greeks, and Egyptians lived in harmony.
But around 38 AD, the city was disrupted with riots between the Jews and the Greeks.
The unrest continued up until 66 AD when the Roman emperor Nero, that's when he sent
legions of soldiers, sent them there to slaughter the Jews.
Over 50,000 were killed, and all of their goods were plundered.
Likely Apollos left Alexandria to escape the unrest.
Verse 25, this man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.
Although he was well versed in scripture and tradition, Apollos had not ever heard the gospel of the kingdom.
He didn't hear the gospel of the kingdom as taught by the twelve apostles there at Jerusalem.
The baptism of John began before Jesus was crucified.
That's all he knew of.
And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.
Aquila and Priscilla.
This husband and wife team preached Paul's gospel to Apollos.
Verse 27, and when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting
the disciples to receive him, who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace.
Apollos was going to the region of Achaia, the region where the cities of Athens and
Corinth are located.
Those from Ephesus wrote to the believers in Achaia to inform them of how Apollos had
been a great help to the body of Christ, them which had believed through grace.
Verse 28, for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.
Apollos also convinced the unbelieving Jews that Jesus was Christ.
This was the biggest obstacle for an unbelieving Jew to overcome.
In order to believe unto salvation by grace through faith.
We have those that are being misled by this foul doctrine that's floating around.
You don't have to be.
You could put it to bed.
You could put it to rest today if you wanted to.
Get in your Bible.
Don't look at these things and say, well, this here that's kind of hard to explain,
you know, why Paul did this, or why he said this, or why he was talking.
Hey, instead of taking that way out, be as you're told to be.
A workman.
Do a little work.
Figure these things out.
It's not for the lazy minded.
One requirement is for you to be a workman.
Don't allow yourself to be ashamed and continue to spread things that you really can't support with scripture.
Not without reading into scripture.
Aquila and Priscilla were not members of the little flock.
Sosthenes, not member of the little flock.
Apollos, nope, you failed again.
The evidence for this false teaching wouldn't hold up in a court of law.
Not a chance.
Aquila and Priscilla were not members of the little flock.
They had never even heard the gospel of the kingdom.
Aquila was born in Pontus, a thousand miles away from Jerusalem, and moved to Italy at some point before going into Corinth.
And it was there where he and his wife Priscilla first met Paul.
There is no record... you are believing something that you have no record of.
There is no record whatsoever that Aquila and Priscilla ever believed anything other
than the traditional Jewish religion.
The same Jewish religion that Paul did not speak kindly of.
They believed that Jewish religion while they were living in these pagan ruled regions.
You must study.
And you'll figure a couple of things out here and there.
These two, a husband and wife team, were a great help to the ministry of the apostle
Paul.
They were Jews who were saved through his gospel.
Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue in Corinth, another Jew who was not a member of the little flock.
He had never heard the gospel of the kingdom, as the kingdom gospel had not even reached as far as Achaia, southern Greece.
Sosthenes was saved by Paul's gospel.
When Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, probably from Ephesus, Sosthenes was with him no longer at Corinth.
It seems likely that when Apollos went from Ephesus to Corinth, that word would have come from Sosthenes as one of the brethren who wrote to the Corinthians concerning Apollos.
Apollos, here we go again, not a member of the little flock.
He never heard the gospel of the kingdom.
You have no evidence.
What the evidence does show is, just as he stated, he had only known the baptism of John.
Hey, that was put into practice before the cross.
Come on now, Apollos was an Alexandrian Jew who was saved through Paul's gospel, which was preached to him by Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus.
Apollos went on to help with the churches that Paul established in Achaia, namely the
one there in Corinth, and he was commended to them by the brethren at Ephesus.
And this is why we see Paul referring to Apollos in his letters to the Corinthians.
Silas, the only one person mentioned in this chapter that could possibly be of the little flock.
Do we have proof of this?
No.
Silas isn't mentioned until Acts 15:22, and it was there when he was one of the chosen to go with Paul and Barnabas to take letters to the assemblies concerning the Gentiles.
We have no record of the conversion of Silas.
Was he adhering to the gospel of the kingdom?
Was he a former unbelieving Jew that was saved through Paul's gospel?
This, we do not know.
We do, however, we do know that Paul chose Silas to accompany him on his other journeys after his contention with Barnabas.
Therefore, we can conclude that Silas accompanied Paul for one of two reasons.
Either Silas was saved through Paul's gospel, or Paul thought it prudent to have representation from Jerusalem as he went to and fro into the synagogues throughout the Roman Empire.
Both are sound.
Both would make good common sense.
Either way, the presence of Silas on Paul's journey does not in any way indicate that
Paul would be preaching any gospel other than his own.
To make it so, you have to MAKE it so, because the Bible doesn't tell you that.
So you have to have an agenda.
Furthermore, we have no recorded sermon of Silas.
By the way, Silas and the quote, Silvanus, that is mentioned in the letters of Paul and also in the first letter of Peter, they're likely one and the same person.
Peter mentions him, but that doesn't mean that Silas is definitely a part of the little flock.
Peter mentions Paul as well.
When Paul is chastising the Corinthians for their schisms, such as some saying that they're of Paul, and others saying they are of Apollos, this is not because there are separate groups hearing separate teachings.
Oh no, but rather because the carnal Corinthians were focused more on the person, the personality, than the doctrine.
Sound familiar?
This is going on today.
Man followers, personality followers, those that are not really digging in themselves,they have to be hand-fed.
They find a teacher they like, you know they're fly-by-night anyway, they find a teacher they like, oh gosh, this is so, oh this is wonderful, he's this, he's...
And then later on, you know what?
Those same people, because they're ever searching, ever learning, never coming to the knowledge of the truth, then they find something else, and they go to that.
And a little while later, just mark them now, and watch them, a little while later, guess what?
Fly-by-night.
They're on to something else.
Can't get settled because they're not settling themselves in the Word of God, they're settling themselves in the personality of someone who's giving them, hand-feeding them the Word.
Come on, let's just get real and tell it like it is.
The Corinthians were acting like children, just as some still do today, fighting over
who was the supposed, flavor of the month.
Fighting over who was supposed to be following whom.
Paul straightens them out on this, affirming that he and Apollos are one.
They're one in their teachings, and that it matters not which one of them, it's not about the personality, it matters not which one of them they learn from.
Paul planted, Apollos watered, who cares?
Most importantly, it is God who gives the increase.
It is God who gets the glory, God who receives the honor.
Get your eyes off man.
This man with this latest teaching and his followers seem to believe that every time
the word Jew is mentioned, then that means they're the little flock.
They also seem to think that every time Paul preaches the gospel to a Jew, he's preaching the gospel of the kingdom that Peter and the eleven apostles at Jerusalem preached.
No!
How about a little bit more work, huh, huh?
Come on, Paul did not preach the gospel of the kingdom.
There is not one iota of evidence that he ever preached baptism for remission of sins.
Show me that.
Where did he preach sell everything and have all things in common?
Where?
I'll wait.
Where did he preach to wait for your sins to be blotted out in the future when the times of refreshing comes from the presence of the Lord?
Where did he preach hope to the end for the grace that is to come?
Paul never preaches this information to anyone, yet you've got him preaching the gospel of the kingdom.
You've got him preaching to the little flock.
Easier to say, harder to prove.
Paul never preached this information to anyone, not even the unbelieving Jews that he encountered.
He had his gospel.
It was given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ.
No man taught it to him.
Romans 15:20, you totally disregard this.
Yay! So have I strived to preach the gospel not where Christ was named.
Listen, Paul preached the gospel not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon
another man's foundation.
Verse 21, but as it is written, to whom he was not spoken of, they shall see, and they that have not heard shall understand.
Now that's a simple verse.
If Paul preached his gospel to those who already heard the gospel of the kingdom from the twelve at Jerusalem, he would be building upon another man's foundation.
He would be in violation of scripture.
No way.
He just said he wouldn't do that.
So, I guess they're saying Paul had a bipolar episode here and contradicted himself.
If Paul preached in areas where Christ was already named from the preaching of the little flock, he would be building on another man's foundation.
That's simple.
That's real easy to understand.
If Paul preached the gospel of the kingdom to anyone, he would be laying a different
foundation than the one he was instructed to lay by the risen, glorified Christ.
Paul had no reason to write to the little flock, and no, Timothy was not a member of
the little flock either.
That's absurd.
He was a Greek whose mother and grandmother was a Jewess.
Timothy knew the scriptures because of his mother and grandmother, but Timothy wasn't
even circumcised before he met Paul.
Now explain that.
How are you going to explain that away?
They were supposed to be circumcised on the eighth day.
Eight days old.
And here's Timothy in his youth, a young man who was not circumcised, yet he's a member of the little flock.
Oh, come on.
He wasn't circumcised before he met Paul, and Paul only circumcised Timothy because
of the Jews.
How about doing a little study?
The Jews would not allow uncircumcised Gentiles, hello, to enter the temple.
And just as Peter said, it was unlawful for a Jew to keep company with a Gentile.
They didn't even eat together.
How would Timothy ever be able to preach the gospel of grace to an unbelieving Jew if they wouldn't listen to him because he was yet to be circumcised?
Huh?
Come on.
Paul also reported back to the apostles at Jerusalem, even had funds delivered to them to keep their church afloat, and continually had to prove himself before them.
This is where some of you get mixed up.
He did this since the unbelieving Jews, who were zealous of the law, remember?
They were claiming that Paul was teaching other Jews in Asia to blaspheme the law of
Moses, and not to circumcise their children, which was a lie.
Isn't it an interesting thing that the Jews from Asia, in Acts 21, didn't have a problem with what James was preaching about Christ?
Huh?
Do you find that interesting?
James was not only keeping the law, he was TEACHING the law.
James was preaching the gospel of the kingdom, which included keeping the law.
The little flock was still offering sacrifices at the temple.
The Jews from Asia accused Paul of bringing uncircumcised Gentiles into the temple at
Jerusalem.
They hated Paul so much, they tried to kill him.
And when the Roman soldiers caught them beating Paul, they tried to have Rome kill him.
If Paul were preaching the gospel of the kingdom to the Jews in Asia, which included
keeping the law of Moses, would these Jews from Asia have had any problem with Paul?
Would they be reporting back to Jerusalem that this apostle that came out here from
you is teaching Jews to blaspheme the law?
There's no logic there.
How do you fall for this?
If Paul were preaching the gospel of the kingdom to the Jews in Asia, which included keeping the law of Moses, would they be claiming that Paul was defiling the temple at Jerusalem by bringing in an uncircumcised Gentile?
Would they be saying, men of Israel, help, this is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place, and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.
Would they?
Of course not.
They would have had no more issue with Paul than they had with James.
And they weren't trying to kill James, were they?
Okay, we've got more.
This is just the beginning of the dismantling of this theory, because that's what it is.
A theory which comes from the vain imagination of man.
Remember, you only get two educations.
The one you're given, and the one you give yourself.
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