Hey. You're listening to Cut for Time, a podcast from Faith Church located on the North side of Indianapolis. My name is Claire Kingsley. Each week, I'll sit down with one of our preaching pastors to discuss their Sunday sermon. Cut for time is a look behind the scenes of sermon preparation and they'll share with us a few things that we didn't hear from the sermon on Sunday.

Thanks for listening. I just thought I heard small feet, but Oh, no. Soon as you hit record Oh. They come running. I know.

Maybe not. We'll see. Okay. Well and we better get rolling. We better get rolling.

Alright. Joey, you preached from it's actually the last Yes. The last sermon in this subseries. It was the very beginning of chapter 18 in the book of Acts. So why don't you give us a recap from your sermon on Sunday?

Yeah. Sure. So we're following Paul as he leaves Athens and heads west. It's a 4 or 5 day walk kind of a, you know, along the coast to where Corinth sits on this isthmus. It's, like a land bridge between the an island that's not an island because it's connected, so it's technically a peninsula, but whatever.

It's like a, I don't know how you're supposed to pronounce it. It's called the Peloponnese or the Peloponnese or something like that, and that and and mainland Greece. And so Corinth is right there and there's even a bridge right where, basically, you can take ships east, west, you can go over land, north, south. It's kinda the the center it it's like a center hub of of industry commerce. People coming, going.

There's the games. There's all this stuff that happens in Corinth. And, so we follow Paul heading in that direction. I think heading west probably back towards Rome is is kind of my guess. And, it's it's Corinth could just be a repeat of Thessalonica or Philippi or Athens even, you know, start to preach in the synagogue.

Some people are convinced. The more people are convinced, the more the the synagogue leaders, rulers are like, hey. This is not okay. We're gonna we're gonna try to stop you through violence or through dubious legal action or something. And then we're gonna beat you or convince you to leave or hold someone hostage or whatever until you leave town.

Right? So it could just be a a regular or or a repeat of of what has happened everywhere else. But Paul shows up, and we know from his letter to the Corinthians to the church that grows here eventually. Like, he was coming in tired. Weak, trembling are the words that he uses.

He's like, I just I couldn't do anything but just tell you about Jesus. That was really all I had. And so it it's in this context of he's exhausted, and we're getting this kind of repeat of the cycle. People oppose him that then Jesus shows up, which doesn't happen often in the book of acts. But Jesus shows up in a vision and says, like, it's gonna be okay.

I'm with you. You know, you're gonna get through this. There are a lot of people here who who are mine even if they don't know it yet, like, buckle in for the long haul. And he ends up staying for another, year and a half before, he is brought before the the proconsul at the time on some charges of, hey. This is not this is not Judaism that you're preaching here, and so this needs to get shut down.

And even after that, we didn't get to the the next verse. But even after that, after that case is thrown out of court, he he stays for many more days before finally heading back back east. And so what we focused in on the sermon was, like, in those that that kind of time of discouragement, it doesn't seem like anything's working. It's the same thing is happening over and over again. It's when Jesus shows up and says, I'm with you.

You can do this. Right? I'm not going anywhere. Keep going. And I think it was something that we all needed to hear, whether we are missionaries on the field like Paul and and trying to to keep going in the midst of opposition or if it's just in our own lives, the stuff that happens or may have even happened this last week.

Like, we all need to hear Jesus saying, I'm with you. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. You don't have to be afraid. You can do this.

Mhmm. And I mean, he really takes those words to heart because he could have been really afraid of, like, what had happened. And then he decided to stay. Right. Like, sit no longer.

Like, I think he we see him practicing, like, not having fear. Yeah. And I didn't really get into it in the sermon, but from where he's sitting in Corinth, it's kind of like he's he's, you know, literally at a crossroads and also kind of metaphorically at a crossroads. It's like, okay, Lord. If I'm gonna keep doing this, then I'm gonna get on a boat going west.

Or, Lord, if if I'm supposed to be done, then I'm gonna get on a boat going east. You know, head back home, head back to Antioch where he was successful, like, really successful. It's like, lord, what do you want me to do? And Jesus says, stay right here. Right?

There's the third option you hadn't thought of, which is stay right here. It's you know, we got work to do here. So I didn't go into that in the sermon, but it's we probably should. And maybe I should have said something. Like, we probably should see Paul, like, literally at a crossroads.

Which direction do I go? Mhmm. And Jesus says, right here because I'm with you. Mhmm. Mhmm.

Alright. So, what are some of the things that you needed to cut for the sake of time this week? Well, there's there is a lot of fun historical stuff and even archaeological stuff that I just didn't have time to get into. I mentioned Gallio, the proconsul of this region, called Achaea, which is, like, the northern half of this peninsula that that includes Corinth. The the proconsul is this guy named Gallio, and he's not super famous outside.

Like, this is what he's most known for is this incident in acts 18. But his younger brother was a guy named Seneca, Seneca the younger, because his dad's name was Seneca the older. So Seneca the younger is a a famous, stoic. And by stoic, I mean, like, actually subscriber to stoicism, the philosophy we talked about, you know, in Athens a couple of of Sundays ago. And so Seneca wrote, I don't know, a 140 letters or something like that, in a couple of of dissertations, about how you live a life in line with stoicism.

So he's got, you know, books or letters that are called things like on aging and on anger and on the good life and things like that. And some of those were dedicated to his brother, Gallio. And so, we know about him from that side of, you know, written history. But we also know about Gallio, because he he there's some inscriptions that were found, and I forget where. I think at Delphi, that mentioned that Gallio was the proconsul of Achaea in 52 AD.

It doesn't say in 52 because that's our numbering scheme, but it tells us enough that, you know, we know it was basically this year. And proconsul's only served for a 1 year term. And so one of the clearest, dates that we have for any of of the things that happen in the book of Acts are right here. Paul before Gallio had to have happened sometime in the year AD52. If it happened after 18 months of ministry, which is kinda the way I presented it in the sermon, then Paul probably got to Corinth early 51, And this happened maybe late 52, and then he stayed a little bit longer and headed back to Syria, back to Israel, Antioch, probably, you know, late 52, but maybe even early 53, kinda after the winter season when you don't really sail all that much.

And so then we're able to back things up, including, like, you know, Claudius. We know he kicked all the Jews out at some point in the late forties, early fifties, and we're able to say, what's probably closer to 80, 49 then based on this and other architectural arch architectural archaeological, information that we have from the ancient Near East. So, it's just it's always good to see. Like, Luke is even if we don't even if you weren't to consider Luke like scripture, Luke's account in his gospel and in Acts is some of the best and clearest, historical record that we have of the time period. He just and he is the the clearest, sort of recorder of maritime travel, of travel by sea as if we went from here to here to here to here.

And it's like, well, we know from archaeological evidence there's ports in all of these places, but in what order would people tend to do things? Well, a lot of what we know comes from Luke's accounts of all of, Paul's travels. So, yeah. So it's always good to kinda see how the stuff that we we find buried in hillsides reinforces and helps us bring some clarity to the time period of what's happening in in the book of acts. Yeah.

Yeah. Because while Luke's a great historian, he's also not, like, trying to set down a strictly chronological on this day, then this day, then this day, and give us these clear dates. Right? He's Right. We're following the main high points of what Paul's doing as it happens.

And Luke's sort of chronological markers are usually things like after many days or after this or sometime later. And so he doesn't tell us real closely or specifically, but we're able to figure some of that out from other historical Mhmm. Documents and inscription. Corroboration. That's great.

Yeah. Alright. You've mentioned that this is a huge moment for the church legally. Can you tell us more about that? Yeah.

So I didn't get into it in the sermon because it it there was enough background we'd given. But people may recall that over the course of the series, we keep talking about how, different places Paul goes. In some places, he's accused by Romans of being too Jewish, and in other places, he's accused by Jews of being too Roman. Right? Right.

Because he was walking this line of what are you? So we remember in this time period, the Jews had, as a people, and as a religious group, they had special permission to worship the way they wanted to across the Roman Empire. And that's rare and that's significant. Not everybody has that. Right?

We're not in a world of religious toleration. It's maybe pluralistic, but only if you're approved. Because the according to the kind of the Roman way of, well, the governmental way of working is that the highest, the highest god in the pantheon is Rome herself and the Caesar. And so all of the things that we would kind of think of as, like, celebrations of patriotism, right, Memorial Day, Labor Day, 4th July, football games, you know, other sports games, all those times where you'd see a flag or you'd see whatever, they all of those events came with a sense of, like, we are worshiping together the the state, the nation, like Rome herself or, you know, day what was day Roma? It's like the the goddess Rome.

Like, she's the one that we're worshiping, and the Caesar is himself elevated to the level of of being a god. And so if you didn't show up to the the former, the marketplace, or the agora, or the whatever for all of these celebrations, like, everybody knows. Nobody we're not living in our own homes all separated by yards and streets and things like that. Everybody's living on top of each other. Mhmm.

There's no there's no such thing as privacy in the ancient world unless you are, like, the top 1% of the top 1%. You can afford some privacy. And so the religious feeling is, look, if this is what we're all focused like, all of us are focusing here and you're gonna exempt yourself from that, like, you are a problem. It's like you are the person who is, you know, obviously sick, and you're walking into a crowd of people and you don't care who you're coughing all over. Or, you know, it's like you're spreading a problem.

Mhmm. So I guess that's the negative of it, though. When you're when you're exempting yourself from the gathered worship of the city, then what do you do if if you're a government official and you're mandating everybody needs to worship Rome and then there's this group that doesn't? Right? So that's the context we're in.

So the Jews have a special, dispensation. They're given permission. Like, okay. You guys don't have to do this the way you do. And the re the reason they were given that special permission is because they just kept, refusing to do it even to the point of where it's like, we've killed I don't know how many of them, and they're still refusing.

Like, this isn't worth it. This is not worth the cost of rounding them all up and slaughtering them all. Okay. They're just giving so it's just giving permission. Like, alright.

Fine. Whatever. Do what you want. Right? Well, into this world then comes Gentiles who don't have the special permission, who come to faith in the Jewish Messiah, but without adopting all of the external markers that let you know, yeah, this guy is Jewish now.

Circumcision, Sabbath keeping, you know, a lot of the external rules, the food that you eat and all of those things. It's like, okay. You say you're following the Jewish religion, but you're not acting like a Jew. So what are you? Mhmm.

And legally, where do you land? Like, do you get the Jewish exemption? Or are you still obligated to as a as being a Roman, are you still obligated to the the worship of the Roman state? And, of course, Paul as Paul writes all over the place, like, you turn from idols, you turn from worthless idols to serve the living and true God. So people who are coming to faith in Jesus are saying, yeah, I'm not gonna worship Rome.

Like, Caesar is not the Lord. Jesus is. And I'm not gonna worship him. And so, legally, it's like, well, which which of these groups do you land in? And the the Jews are saying, like, we don't want them to be considered part of us.

And the Romans are saying, like, if you're not them, you know, the anyway. So what happens here when Gallio, refuses to hear this case and just dismisses it, he's he is basically saying, as far as he's concerned and and remember, Gallio is the highest ranking official we hear from in the whole book of Acts as a proconsul of a whole region. Okay. Gallio is basic basically saying that being a follower of Jesus is just a variation. As far as the law is concerned, it's just a variation on the Jewish way of life.

So remember Paul in Galatia, on his first journey, we had all of these problems of, like, you're teaching Jews to you're you're telling Jews they can live like Romans. You're telling Romans they can live like Jews. And this just this is not going to work. Everybody can come to the same table. Right?

It's fights from both sides. Well, now we have a guy in southern Greece who says, as far as he's concerned, being a Jesus follower is the same legally as just being Jewish. And so, you know, nowhere do we see Paul then appealing to Gallio's ruling or anything along those lines. But at least for the church there and now kind of precedent for the church in the Greco Roman world as it is, it's like this is legally the same as being Jewish even though it is, you know, it's actually so very much different because now we're following the Jewish messiah. So all that to say, right, this means that non Jewish followers of Jesus can ab can say, like, I am not worshiping the the the city or the country or or, you know, Rome or the Caesar, right, and claim the same exemption and say, well, look.

We've we've got backing for it. So legally, pretty big deal. Doesn't necessarily preach all that great, so I didn't bring it up. But, it's a fascinating development overall in, in the history of the church in the Roman Empire. Mhmm.

Mhmm. Okay. I think we just lost all of our our listeners except maybe 1 or 2. So They're with us. You think they're still with us?

I think we have a committed group here. Okay. Alright. Yeah. Well, you know, continuing here, in this in this really I don't know what you call it.

Like Esoteric legal ramblings? Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure.

Sure. Sure. I just think, like, academic. I think I'm just Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We can go with that. Like, this is very academic. Okay?

Yes. Let's continue there. And, you mentioned that we could talk about some Latin. Yeah. So Yes.

So the fun thing about the fun thing, the academically fun thing, about Roman law is we have a lot of writing, so we know a lot of how Roman law worked. So for in in Acts 18, for the the Jews to bring a charge against Paul to Gallio, their charge is we think essentially, like, this is not Jewish worship what Paul's doing. And so, therefore, like, we're appealing to to Gallio to make a ruling. Is this Jewish worship, or is this not Jewish worship? That's not normally the kind of thing that Gallio would be responsible for judging on, but there is a, there's a provision in the law that allows, allows people to ask the proconsul to judge a case that is considered extraordinem or extraordinary out of the ordinary.

Right? Mhmm. And, he is allowed to pronounce a, a judgment of arbitrary justice. I forget what the Latin for arbitrary justice is. I can look it up.

Maybe. Arbitrium eudicantus. There you go. Arbitrary justice. And so he he is able to, to actually make a call if he wants to.

But often, it's like, look. If I don't wanna get involved, then I'm then the proconsul can say, I refuse to be a judge in this matter. So what were what I didn't really bring out in the sermon because it didn't really matter, for the point of the sermon is that, like, he's not just saying, like, look. I don't wanna judge it. He's giving his legal ruling is I reject this case on its merits.

I refuse to be a judge of this extraordinum case that you have brought before me. Mhmm. So I'm out. But the fun part of it then is, like I can understand why he did because it's like, okay. Legally, the state is not gonna decide the correct way to read the old testament.

He's like, I don't I don't wanna I'm not gonna try to decide, like, whether or not Jesus is the messiah and legally decide this for you. Like, this is require. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

This is names and laws and titles and questions that you this is theological. This is not political necessarily. Now saying that, I'm immediately going at, but we can't separate the theological and the political because they worship Caesar. They worship the state. He's just saying, like, I'm not getting involved in your little puddle of theology over there.

That's not that's not what I'm that's not what I'm here for. Yeah. Mhmm. Can you imagine what would happen in our culture if somebody, like, brought a lawsuit trying to, get the Supreme Court to decide whether or not Jesus had risen from the dead. Right.

Right. Right. It's absurd. They'd be like, that's not we didn't know. We do.

No. Oh, I refuse to judge that. Yep. In the end, I would just, like, want to bring it back to Mhmm. Jesus.

Like Jesus. Yeah. That's good. Oh, yeah. That's smart.

Yeah. And we said at the beginning of the series that we would, maybe try and always ask ourselves where is the gospel sending me today. Yeah. So wherever people find themselves today and wherever they believe that they are being sent or wherever that they are, like, the space that they're called to and the roles that they're called to, Jesus's words are for them. And I love that you said, like, I don't know what your boss said.

I don't know what your friend said. I don't know what grade you got on that test. Like, but I do know that Jesus said these words and these words are for you. And I just think that they are like such, like, words of comfort and peace. And so I don't know if you could just leave our people with that reminder.

I, like, don't wanna make you re preach that part, but, just somehow leaving us with encouragement from Jesus as people are going to and from their callings. Yeah. I, you know, I had a couple of good conversations after each service. And one person sharing, like, hey. You said, I don't know what your, you know, whatever whatever said.

And she's like, well, we heard yesterday, you know, this really bad news about someone we love. Mhmm. And someone else said, like, I I hear what you're talking about. Jesus saying, I'm with you. Keep speaking.

Like, I don't have anyone to speak to. You know? I'm, like, I'm exhausted by just life and and all that. And so, let me I'm gonna take the opportunity then to remind people. Paul was a single missionary with a team of people working behind the scenes so that he could focus 247 on reaching and arguing and dialoguing in the synagogue and the temple or not the temple, the forum.

K? That's not my that's not me. I'm married with a kid. That's not you. You're married with 3 kids.

That's not anyone, except for maybe there are a couple people I can think of in our congregation, right, who can actually do that. So wherever you are, like, look around you first. You have family around you. Like, that's your first ministry field or mission field. Right.

Right? Around that, you have the people that you are spending significant time with every day, you know, your work, your vocation, your calling, wherever you're going to work. And then you have the people you go and and play with. Right? If you're at the gym or in a soccer league or or in school or, you know, whatever.

Like, there are people that you are on teams with. And then there are the beyond that, the people you live right next to that you interact with probably pretty passingly. I mean, most of my interaction with my neighbors is seeing them moving around outside the window. Right? Not like creepers out right outside the window.

I just mean they're out in their yard and, you know, in their yard over there. So think in terms of those concentric circles of and Jesus is saying, hey. In your family, as hard as that is or as great as that is right now, like, I'm with you. It's okay. You don't have to be afraid.

Like, you can keep doing this. And then think of your work or your schooling. Jesus said, I'm I'm right here with you. You don't have to be afraid. Like, you can do this.

You can keep speaking. You can talk to people about me even there. And then the the teams that you're on, like, I'm I'm with you. Like, you can do this. I'm here.

You don't have to be afraid. And in your neighborhood, I'm here. I'm with you. Like, you don't have to be afraid. You can do this.

Mhmm. Now to Paul, Jesus said no one's gonna attack you to harm you. I don't know that I can say that applies to us. I know that ultimately, no harm can come to us because if God is for us, who can be against us. Right?

You know, to live as Christ and to die is face to face with Jesus. So ultimately, no harm can come to us. It doesn't mean that we won't experience harm now. There's a lot of things that are really harmful, difficult suffering, that other people can do to us. Sure.

Jesus isn't promising that, you know, you're not gonna lose your job or you're not gonna lose a friend or you're not gonna lose the things that you're putting at risk by living faithfully the calling that he's called us to. But, ultimately, we can't be harmed. And right now, in your home or your workplace or the teams you're on or the the the people you live by, Jesus, those words are for us because he said them all across scripture. I'm here with you. You don't have to be afraid.

You've got this. Keep going. Mhmm. So that's universally true for all of us. I'm with you.

Mhmm. It's good. Thank you, Joey. Mhmm. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Cut for Time.

If you wish to submit questions to our pastors following their sermon, you can email them to podcast at faith, live it out dot org or text them into our faith church texting number. And we'll do our best to cover it in the week's episode. If this conversation blessed you in any way, we encourage you to share it with others. Thanks for listening. We'll be back again next week.