Island Preacher

The road to Jerusalem continues...

Civil religion, according to New Testament scholar Michael Gorman, is what happens when the sacred becomes political and the political becomes sacred. Civil religion is also the result of the few and power wrapping up the culture they want to impose or maintain in the religious language of the many.

Preaching, conversion, opposition, confrontation...this pattern has emerged in Acts, so the events of chapter 18 are not surprising. However, Luke's account of Paul in Corinth gives us some insight into how Paul was able to endure, to continue, to overcome. He experiences a vision that tells him, not to go, but to stay, and this vision tells us how Paul was enabled and empowered for faithfulness. The Lord was with him...but not with him only.

The message of the cross has not changed. It is tempting to read Acts with a curiosity about how the same message we hold to so dearly today was received way back then in such a pagan, polytheistic culture. But what I want you to consider today is the possibility that the context and the culture haven’t really changed that much at all. Customs change, languages change, leadership changes, government changes, technology changes. Lots of things change, but don’t think for a second that we can’t relate to Paul and Silas and Timothy, and to those followers of Jesus in Philippi and Thessalonica and Berea. They faced the same kind of obstacles and opposition that we do today, that followers of Jesus all around our world and throughout history have faced when proclaiming the cross.