Start Where You Are
First B Jackson
2025-06-22

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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He presented to Epicureans and to stoics on Mars Hill, and some of them accepted it, and some of it rejected it out of hand, and some of them said, I'll hear you further on this matter later. That's the way it's going to be every time you present the Every time you present either, someone's going to be absolutely no or absolutely yes or they're going to say, I'll listen to this guy later. I think that what it says is we ought to be winsome. We ought not turn em off just because we can because we can. Pretty easy to be a jerk.

Sorry. Just slipped out. So, Paul is here. He left Athens and he went over to Corinth and here is the map here and I've kind of covered it up with the star but from Athens over to Corinth, he probably, it says he went down by the sea. So, he probably went by boat and Corinth as a town was very very wealthy.

Y'all know any place like that? Very wealthy. They had an obsession with sports. Some of the Olympic games were held at Corinth. They had an obsession with nice things and they had wherewithal to dig a trench across this isthmus and it was kind of like the Panama Canal.

So, it's covered up by my star but they dug a trench across the landmass so that they could connect the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic Sea and then they taxed everything that went through their straight. Very very financially sound place. So, it's different than Athens. Athens was all about philosophy. They did nothing more than sit and listen to new things and Corinth is all about the money.

When we get to Corinthians, I'll go into greater detail but that's kind of gives you a sense of where they were and who they were. After these events, Paul left Athens. He went to Corinth and there he found a Jew, one of his countrymen, one of his fellow guys named Aquila. Aquila was a native of Pontus. I left out the map on Pontus.

I'll get it for you some other time. Having recently come over from Italy with his wife, Priscilla. So, this is our first introduction to Aquila and Priscilla in the book of Acts. Now, we will see them quite a bit and usually when we see him, Priscilla's name is first because she knew her stuff. She really really knew her stuff.

Some people think she wrote the book of Hebrews. I actually think she might have. She knew her stuff and it says that later on when when we talk about Apollos in first Corinthians, you know, are factions that were rising and it says that Aquila and Priscilla or Priscilla and Aquila taught Apollos the way of God more accurately. So they really knew their stuff, they were paying attention. Having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.

This is historical fact, you can look it up in extra biblical sources and see that Claudius had an edict to get the Jews out of Rome. They were causing trouble and they don't, you know, the Roman Empire, they don't like trouble. So they keep it down and they keep it down by edict or by persecution we call it sometimes, but Claudius saw the Jews as being problematic. Now, this was still in a time where Christianity was just seen as followers of the way within Judaism. So, it's very likely that the rub that was causing the commotion that caused Claudius to get them all kicked out was because the hardline traditionalist Jews that insisted on their old interpretation did not like the new interpretation of Christ being the Messiah.

That he was not a military victor, that he was not a political guy, that he was actually the suffering servant himself. And so, that's that's likely that that was the rub and Claudia says, get out of here. We don't need this in Rome and so they were sent out a diaspora. Now, he, that is Paul. He came to them the Corinthians, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them.

He stayed with Aquila and Priscilla, and they worked together for they were all tent makers by trade. This is the first time we hear of Paul's trade in Acts. Now, we see him doing this and we hear him mentioning it in the epistles but this is the first time that we've gotten a clue as to what Saul or Paul did for a living. We know that he was a theology major. We know that.

We know that he dug in at the feet of Gamaliel. We know he studied other stuff but what did he do with his hands? He made tents. So, he's a builder and Paul as was his custom, he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade both Jews and Greeks. If you go back in the book of Acts and you see what his custom is, he goes places and if there is a synagogue, he goes to the synagogue first, the Jew first, and then also for anyone else.

Well, he starts in the synagogues and in a lot of places, he encounters resistance in the synagogue after a week or two. One of em, he goes in and they said, oh, wow. Will you come back next Sabbath and tell us this again and by next Sabbath, every everybody on the roles is there for the vote, right? And they run him out of town and that happens pretty normally. Well, in Corinth, it says, he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and because of the way that the text is phrased here, it's not exactly the same as and every Sabbath he was presenting Jesus.

It gets to that but right now, Paul is alone. He's alone in Corinth after having been alone in Athens and we know that there were at least four converts maybe maybe a few more but Paul was reasoning synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade both Jews and Greeks. I think that he was taking a slower strategy in Corinth. I think I can show that in the text in the next paragraph. He was taking a course where he's saying, now, think about this.

These suffering servant passages that you've always seen as just being about Israel. Could it be? Could it be that this is about Messiah? He's presented this in other places and when he gets to that, that's usually where they run him off. So, I think he's he's making a framework.

He's making a groundwork. He's tilling the ground as it were. Paul was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath. He's trying to persuade Jews and Greeks but when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia. When Paul left on the first missionary journey, he had Barnabas by his side and John Mark.

John Mark went back to Jerusalem. In the second missionary journey, there's a little bit of scuffle beforehand and he takes with him Silas and along the way, he picks up Timothy. So, there's this band of guys that is growing a bit but there's running buddies. Luke joins the mass there. Paul, Silas, Timothy but then he's alone in Athens.

He's alone in Corinth. When they arrived coming down from Macedonia up in Berea down Corinth and they got there. It says, Paul then began devoting himself completely to the word. He was testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. Now, before that, I'm sure he had been reasoning with him.

He'd been thinking through it and saying, consider this, I know what you think but have you thought it might be this way and now that he's got some backup, he's able to say, it's Jesus. This is what I've been talking about. It's not only that it's prophesied that it would be this way. It has been this way and y'all are just getting news of it now but this is the way. Jesus is the way.

If I can step away from the text for just a second, this leads me to a point. To be here as the pastor here, and this is my primary occupation when I first got here. It's my only when I first got here, Ed Allen used to try to get me to drive a school bus. Every week, he'd come in and say, you need to be driving a school bus. I know you need school bus drivers, but I can't do that.

I'm barely surviving doing what I'm doing. To have Carl to be here this whole time Oh, here he comes. I was going to say something nice about him. To have Carl with me the whole time, He has allowed for me to really devote myself not just to the word but to the word and God's people. When on my application for coming here, they sent me an application.

19 pages long. Sent me an application to answer all these questions. It's 19. Forgive me, Dave. It was 19 by the time I finished it.

Right? I added a lot to the application. They asked what are two passions and I said, God's word and God's people. And I thought I thought God's word was gonna be the hard part of that equation. I really did.

I thought standing up in front of people and presenting the word would be the hardest thing that I did, but we have walked through so much hard stuff. We've walked through so much people stuff. I did two funerals and a wedding yesterday. And got a call in the middle of the night from the hospital. It's relentless and it has been so good to be able to devote myself to God's word and to his people because I've had help, right?

And we're going to have help. I'm not saying there will be a successor. There'll be somebody comes along. I know but this is cool that Paul was reasoning with him in kind of a slower fashion than he had been doing and then when Silas and Timothy get there, then, he is able to just scour God's word and really present it for what it actually says about Jesus, Old Testament stuff. Now, of course, this is what happens when you present the gospel.

There are going to be some that resist and there are going to be some that accept it, some that rejected, and some will hear you further later. These folks resisted it and it says they blasphemed. So, blasphemy is an interesting word. If we say blasphemy these days, it could be anything. I know a guy that put a big block hemi.

He put a hemi in a Chevrolet and Chevrolet guy goes, that's blasphemy. He actually named this thing blasphemy because of that, you know. Blasphemy is let me just define it. Blasphemy blasphemy is this, abusive or scurrilous language, and I guess I have to just say what scurrilous is. Scurrilous is making or spreading scandalous claims about someone with the intention of damaging their reputation.

A scurrilous attack on his integrity is kind of blasphemy but in this case, it's blasphemy because it's directed at God. We tend to think if we're theologically minded, we think of blasphemy as directed at God but I want you to hear what the word means. It means, literally, it means to be slow or sluggish to call something good that really is good. Or to be slow to identify what is truly bad as that which is really evil. Do you get that?

It's saying wrong is right and right is wrong. That's blasphemy. So, when Paul is presenting the gospel from the Old Testament and he's saying all of these proofs and all of these prophecies go right along with saying that this guy is the Messiah crucified, buried, resurrected, and seated at the right hand of the father. God is good. He gave us Jesus as a sack as the sacrifice once and for all.

To say that that's not true, I want to stick with the law. I'm going take my chances with doing doing the right thing. They're saying that the gospel is not good news. They're saying the gospel is not good news. That's blasphemy.

So, blasphemy literally switches right for wrong or wrong for right and it calls that which God disapproves right. In fact, in Romans one twenty five, you'll see it. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie. That's blasphemy. Are we with?

Are we together? So, that's what happened when Paul has been reasoning with him. It says, for weeks and then, he gets to the point of saying, it really is about Jesus and they resisted and they blasphemed and then, most of the time when it says they there was resistance or they took umbrage to what it was he was saying, then it says, and they seized Paul and they beat him, you know, or but the next thing that this says here is in Corinth, he had taken more time than anywhere else so far. And when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments, dusted off his feet, right? I'm done trying with y'all.

Your blood is on your own heads. I'm clean. I'm innocent of your blood because I've been sharing with you the scripture and I've been sitting in your lap. What are you going to do with Jesus? And you have said, I'm going to reject him.

I've done my job. I've I've I've clearly clearly given the message as best I can. I'm clean in this matter. From now on, I'm going to the Gentiles. Now, the progress from he starts in the synagogue and then he goes to the Gentiles happens multiple times.

The next town he goes to, he's going start in the synagogue because that's his custom. That's the way he does. These people ought to know. Romans one. Romans one comes up a lot.

Romans one says, I'm not ashamed of the good news of Jesus. For it is the very power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first because they had the Old Testament, they had the patriarchs, they had the history, and they should have known for the Jew first chronologically and also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed. The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. From faith to faith as it is written, the righteous one will live by faith. So Paul leaves the synagogue, the assembly point, probably a building and it's it is a building in this case, certainly.

Then he left the synagogue and he went to the house of a man named Titius Justice, a worshiper of God. Does Titius Justice sound Jewish? No. That's a Roman name. He's a worshiper of God whose house just happened to be next door to the synagogue.

So, probably heard the songs. He knows some of the folks. He comes to worship God just from proximity living next to the synagogue but Paul went with this good principle. Start where you are. Start where you are and I can say that for y'all.

I can say it for me. Start where you are. When long time ago, when I was working just regular jobby jobs, working on a sawmill or working in a sawmills and factories teaching safety lessons and feeling like these guys need Bibles. I started handing out Bibles. This is my job.

I didn't have to it wasn't my job to hand out Bibles but God help me with the Spanish and I'll give it back however I can. I started handing out Bibles. I end up living in Mexico. Just couple years later and I ended up here because of going there. Start where you are and go outward from there.

Work your way outward from there. I had a boss in that actually long long time ago. I told the story in the first service that he always said, don't step over business to get to business. I'm a terrible salesman. Absolutely terrible and I've proved it every time I've tried it.

I work for a screen printing company. I'm good at screen printing. I'm really good with process but he stopped doing screen printing and started doing especially advertising and didn't want to fire me. So, said, you just need to be selling these little trinkets with, you know, company names on em and stuff and I thought, oh my goodness. So, I made concentric circles.

Don't step over business to get the business, right? I made one sale and it was for refrigerator magnets for a pizza place and when they came in, they had the wrong number on em. They didn't even work. Sales. That's the only sale I had made and frustrated, I went to Mobile.

Mobile is five hours from where I'm from. I was stepping over a lot of business to get to business. But I went to Mobile and I got 200 pins with the name of this organization on it. Well, I was actually came back and I said, hey, I got an order and he goes, Saraland, Alabama. Why Sarah Land, Alabama?

I said, this is my two week notice. I went down on a job interview. I ended up selling 200p. So, don't step over business to get to business. That's just a concept.

He started literally next door to the synagogue with a Gentile guy who was already a worshiper of God, already ahead of most of the people around him and then the very next sentence says, now Crispus, Crispus was the leader of the synagogue. So, in the synagogue, he had my role. He's the leader of the synagogue and it says, he believed in the Lord. So, Paul had been reasoning with him and Paul had been presenting it and he hit resistance and they cast him or he he said, alright, I'm going. I'm out and when he said I'm out, the next thing that happens is the leader of the synagogue says, you know what?

I've been studying this stuff. It's my job to love God and love his people and I've been studying this stuff and I think Paul's right and so he believed. What happens when the, maybe I shouldn't ask this. What happens when the lead pastor and the congregation don't agree? Usually, they get rid of the lead pastor.

That's the normal thing. At least half the people leave. You know, that's that's the way that generally goes in the church split but Crispus, the leader of the synagogue believed, they believed in the Lord together with his entire household. So, now, things are growing in Corinth. There is Tish's justice is in.

Crispus is in. We see in first Corinthians a shout out. I'm thankful. There are factions that have developed in Corinth and Paul says, I'm thankful that I baptized none of y'all except for Crispus and maybe Gaius, you know, and many of the Corinthians, as they listen to Paul, they were believing and they were being baptized. He was faithful to be walking out the walk.

He was faithful to be proclaiming. It says what it says. Jesus is the way and so they're believing and they're being baptized and lord said to Paul by vision at night. Now, the last time we saw Paul give vision at night, it was when he was in Troas and they did not know where to go next. They had been hindered of the Lord to go into Asia and hindered of the Lord to go into Bethenia and they're sitting on the coast at Troas and they're going to sleep on it and Paul sees a vision of a Macedonian man calling out, come help us.

We need your help and so they took that to be. We're going. They got up the next morning by way of Samothrace. They made their way up to Neapolis into Macedonia and the first converts were two women and a and a Gentile. A woman, a slave, and a Gentile.

Now, this vision at night, the Lord says to Paul by vision, don't be afraid. Now, don't be afraid any longer. Any longer is in italics there. If you read italics in the New American Standard Version of the Bible, it's been editing in English to make it flow but it's not there in the Greek, okay? It's just any longer.

Don't be afraid any longer. That's kind of the same as saying, don't be afraid. God knows he's afraid. Don't be afraid, Paul. Keep on speaking and do not be silent.

Don't be silent. This place needs to hear what you have to say and I can say, hey, those of you who carry the evangel, the gospel in your heart, let it permeate and let your life live it out and then when the opportunity arises to defend the hope that is in you, do not be silent and do not be afraid. For I'm with you, God says, and no one will attack you to harm you. He says this to Paul, okay? He says this to Paul.

It's a specific vision for him. He said to Paul by a vision at night, don't be afraid, don't be silent, I'm with you, nobody's going to harm you here, for I have many people in this city. Ain't that encouraging? To know that when we receive a call to go wherever it is that God is calling us that he already has gone ahead of us. I mean, Carl's going to Madison, Alabama and God's going ahead of him.

He's prepared the way. He's made the way clear to him and he's given the power to carry it out. I have many people in this city and he settled there for a year and six months. Now, this is the longest we've seen since Saul has started his missionary journeys. This is the longest that we've seen him anywhere.

When he was converted on the road to Damascus and when he went to study in Arabia and when he went different places, he may have stayed longer but he stayed here. Usually, he was run out of town in the first few weeks and he was there for a year and six months and he was teaching the word of God among them. There are seasons in our lives and there are times when we're called to a specific place for a specific amount of time and do all the steps that God has for us there and I'm grateful that Carl's been walking this path together for a long time, together. He's been here fifteen years next week, fifteen years. Yep.

And I've been here thirteen. I got here just before him as an intern. Never thought I'd see him again and he's become my best friend. But while Galileo was pro console, I'd get back to the scripture. While Galileo was pro console of Achaia, you can look it up.

Galileo was indeed pro console of Achaia. The Jews rose up together against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat. Now, God said, don't be afraid and don't be silent. You're not going to be harmed. I've got many people in this city and Paul, I imagine is struggling with fear but he's getting through it He's not going to be silent and here is his chance.

God has told him through Jesus that it would be his job to go to the Gentiles and here he is. That's a Gentile guy, Galio, proconsul of Achaia. He's standing up in Corinth, majority Gentile place. The Jews rose up together against Paul, they brought him before the judgment seat, the Bema, and they were saying, this man is inciting the people to worship God contrary to the law. Now, this is a Jewish crowd before a Roman council, pro council and so, often in the book of Acts, Christianity is acquitted before the government.

This is not a danger for the government. This kingdom is not of this world. This man is inciting the people to worship God contrary to the law. This guy is a problem for us. We want you to deal with it but when Paul was just about to open his mouth because he was not going to be silent, Galileo himself said to the Jews, if it were a matter of some crime or some vicious, unscrupulous act, oh Jews, you've already been kicked out of Rome.

Don't be causing me trouble too. It'd be reasonable for me to just be putting up with y'all. But if there are questions and there's teaching about persons or your own law, see to it yourselves. I'm unwilling to be a judge of these matters. Court dismissed And he drove them away from the judgment seat.

Y'all get out of here. I don't want anyone here. Y'all deal with it yourself. It's okay. He hadn't done anything wrong.

That's obvious. I'm not even going listen to this nonsense. Think he might have been one of God's people in that city? I think he might have been. We don't know that from scripture but it sounds like he's like, oh, come on.

But the crowd, the mob, they did take hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue. Wait just a second. Wasn't Crispus the leader of the synagogue? Well, he was until he believed and then they took hold of Sosthenes who was the leader of the synagogue. Second command takes over for the first and doggone it if they he didn't believe too.

There's something about this job or there's something about ministry and y'all are all ministers. Don't get me wrong. I know that. There's something about when you take seriously the role that God has for you in life and you humble yourself before him that you get to see some crazy stuff. You get to see him move in some pretty miraculous ways and you get to see some pretty hard things too.

When they all took hold of Sosanese leader of the synagogue and began beating him in front of the judgment seat because that's what happened. Paul had the promise that he wouldn't be harmed but it was just in Corinth. He was beaten multiple times. He was run out of town multiple times, lowered down over a wall once, bitten by snakes, shipwrecked, all that stuff in the end of second Corinthians and 11. We see what his list was.

But Sosthenes believed in Jesus and they resisted him and they blasphemed the gospel again and they beat him in front of the judgment seat. There it is. Now, I I wanna call out that Paul called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and our brother Sostanes, same guy in first Corinthians. He's saying, y'all know this guy. He's been through a rough time for the gospel and I'm writing and called to be an apostle sent out one by Jesus by the will of God and our brother Sostanes is in there too.

I'm writing back to you all at his request. He's the leader of the synagogue and then he becomes a leader in the church when he's cast out of the synagogue. So, they began beating him in front of the judgment seat. Now, Christmas, the leader of the synagogue, that happens too. Those those two and their households come to Jesus.

Wow, then the whole synagogue is kind of left without a leader. They probably just pick somebody else. They'd say what they wanted to hear. And yet Galileo, the proconsul of Ikea, Galileo was not concerned about any of these things. I I want to say something.

When one of the hardest things, we've walked through a lot together. Carl and I and y'all as a congregation. I'm not saying it's just us but we all have walked through a lot of hard stuff in the last fifteen years, last thirteen years. A lot of death in the last ten years. A lot of really hard cases and tragedies and walking through y'all do so well.

Y'all, first service, second service, this church together do so well with helping out widows and orphans in their time of distress and we've had some very very extreme examples of very painful situation and this last sentence hit me as a yet Galileo was not concerned about any of these things. One of the things that widows often say after the passing of their loved one, even in tragic circumstances, they say, the world just keeps on going. They're completely unconcerned. Nobody cares but the body of Christ cares. Right?

Paul was concerned. I'm sure Paul was concerned about Sosnas. He loves him and continues a relationship with him but there's so much hard stuff and yet the world just keeps right on turning and that's really really hard. Like I said, when God's word and God's people, I thought that the people, I'm a people person. I love people.

I'm a super extrovert. I love all y'all. It's going to be easy but I never did imagine a lot of the situations that we're going to be in together. God's word just says, either they're going to accept it or they're going to reject it or they'll hear more from you later. Be as winsome as you can and there are going to be some things where there's just no easy way to say it.

Be as winsome as you can when you carry forward the gospel. Live it in your life, use it in your words, and when the world keeps on turning and they don't listen and they don't pay attention, God is gaining ground. The vast and unchronicled witness is the way the gospel goes forward. Right? Now, we got three minutes with Carl.

That's what he asked for. That's what he asked for and I said, do you want it three minutes or do you want a missionary three minutes? Because missionary three minutes can go a while. He said, three minutes ought to do it. So, here he is.

That's right and and I I do want to keep it brief. Otherwise, I'll just be a puddle on the floor. But first, be it has been an absolute joy and a pleasure to be one of your pastor pastors these last fifteen years. And God is gracious and loving and faithful and kind. And first b, you are a reflection of that.

And I wanna thank you. I couldn't ask for a better congregation, for a better staff to be a part of, for a better lead pastor and friend all these years, a talented and faithful worship team. And, there's really no good reason to leave. There there is really no good reason to leave at all other than God's divine hand leading us there. And there was no doubt about it, when the the time came, that this is where we're supposed to go.

We have peace about it. And and in God's wisdom and his sovereignty, he's we get to be near our family. For Christa, she gets to continue to be an elementary school teacher, which she's just wonderful at for our kids as they grow into adulthood. And even for me, I get to continue doing what I do here. I get to do it there at a little church called Cave Spring Baptist, who happens to need another pastor and a worship leader and someone to la launch a a children's program called Awana.

Wow. How about that? And there is no way that I could have orchestrated these things. None of mine. If if it were me, I could have messed it up royally.

And yet, God brought all these pieces together and put them just so in his way and his timing, and it's absolutely astounded me. But I will say this, I leave with absolute confidence and certainty, God who began a good work will finish it to completion. There is no doubt about it. And wherever we have seen the gaps at first b, God has graciously brought brought in just the right people at the right time. And he is doing that, and he will continue to do that.

And so I wanna encourage you in that way, and please don't be a stranger if you're passing through, and I mean it with all my heart. If you're passing through Huntsville, Alabama, it would make my heart so happy to see you there, or to worship at this this church that I'll I'll be at. Or if on a return visit, that I get to see you, or a text or a phone call just to say hello and I'm thinking of you. We have seen a lot of folks come and go here in in in Jackson, haven't we? It's a very transient place, but I'll tell you something that I absolutely love about first b.

When we see folks come back, it's always a joyful reunion. There's no weirdness there, and we just pick up where we leave off. And so first b, can I be one of those people for you? Can we just pick up where we left Where we left off? As Martin Murphy often says, here, there, in the air, we will see one another again.

And please keep us in prayer as we go. Really, there's there's work to be done. We will hit the ground running, and and and I will also pray for you as I think of you, will be very, very often. I love you, first b. Thank you.