So Paul was particularly unsuccessful at Athens. It had been and was still considered the capital of learning and culture. It seems odd that he might do better in a cosmopolitan seaport than in the sheltered cloisters of schools and academies. Athens was proud and old. The intellectual pride proved to be a more formidable obstacle to the Gospel than the most flagrant immorality.

Common sense tells us that Paul probably arrived in Corinth a disappointed and dejected man. He must have been in a quandary about why the Gospel showed so little power among those with the best mental equipment to receive it. It is not surprising that Paul’s health reflected the strain of his spirit. In his first Epistle to the Corinthians, he admits that he arrived in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. Paul was used to achieving success even in those places that ran him out of town. This must have been almost disabling.

In Paul’s frame of mind, it was fortuitous to meet Aquila. They had a great deal in common. They were both Jews and they were both well born. They had both traveled a good deal, Aquila on business and Paul on his mission. They were both refugees. Aquila and Priscilla were driven from Rome when the Emperor tried to purge all Jews from the city. Paul had been driven from a number of cities. They were both Christian pilgrims. And they both had the same trade.

It appears that Paul stopped preaching when he arrived at Corinth and worked his trade as a tentmaker. The physical effort seemed to rejuvenate him and then he argued in the synagogue every Sabbath. By the time Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was arguing to the Jews that the Messiah was Jesus. When the Jews opposed his arguments and reviled him, he had his fill of their reluctance. He was so upset with the Jews that he even left Aquila’s house and moved in with a Gentile named Titius Justus.

As we have learned, Paul was not a man to straddle a fence. He refused to give John Mark another chance. He was a decisive person. He even refused to live with two close fiends because they were Jews. Not everyone can be so decisive and not everyone should. There is a place in the church for unquestioned decisions and there is a place in the church for compromise and reconciliation. Most of us have to be both at different times in our lives. It takes a great deal of wisdom and charity to know when to do which. If Paul questioned his decision, God clarified His intent in a vision, "Have no fear, speak on and never stop, for I am with you, and no one shall attack and injure you; I have much people in this city."

We could all use such encouragement. It is easy to see how a preacher could appreciate these words. We need to be reminded that the news must be told; the word must be spread. It is easy to think, "I’ve already told them and they didn’t listen." How many times have you told your children something before the message really stuck? It is no easier with adults. They have even more things distracting their attention. Sometimes it doesn’t strike a chord with their mindset. Sometimes it gets mixed into their thoughts about work or home. We all know it happens. It is better to not remember a sermon than it is to get home after church and not remember any part of the drive.

This message applies to each and every one of us. Consider your attempts to tell the government that they failed to meet your standards. It appears they are not listening and we can be resolved to remove them with our vote someday. But it is only appropriate that we tell them in advance what is expected. Whether it is a personal moral failure or a piece of legislation that encourages sinful practices, we cannot stop telling them what we think. God’s promise is there for all of us. "I am with you." When you have said all you have to say, say it again. The whole story is never told and perhaps their reception will be better on a different day. And we can’t forget the reminder that follows God’s promise, "I have many people in this city."

It was fortunate for Paul that Gallio was pro-consul of Achaia at this time. Gallio was cultivated. His younger brother was Seneca, the philosopher. He was accustomed to dealing with big things and did not bother with the trivial and unimportant issues around him. He was not trapped by petty and personal considerations. He was capable of seeing an issue apart from his own relationship to it. He had the wisdom to discriminate between serious disorder in society and juvenile petulance among the brethren.

When Paul was brought to Gallio, the charge was that he was breaking a Roman law. However, Judaism was permitted in the empire. They claimed that Paul was preaching something different from the historical Judaism and technically violating Roman law. Gallio saw through the charge at once. Before Paul could even defend himself, Gallio said, "The matter you bring before me is not a matter that involves Roman law at all. It involves only your own personal bickering. As such it does not come within my court, and I refuse to have anything to say about it."

At this point the Greeks were so overjoyed that the Jews had been put in their place by the Roman officer that they took the ruler of the synagogue and beat him. Gallio took no notice. Some people seem to know what to see and what not to see. It is not that they are indifferent, but that they have learned to discriminate between the important and the unimportant. It is sometimes better to leave the unimportant things as you find them; they will often take care of themselves. A good parent knows when not to notice as does a good businessman. Gallio let this situation go, assuming it would straighten itself out, and so it did.

While Paul was going to Antioch and revisiting Galatia and Phrygia, a Jew named Apollos came to Ephesus. By many standards, he was a Christian. He had knowledge of the Scriptures. He had bee instructed in the teachings of Jesus. He had the desire to pass on to others what he himself had. He was a missionary. So what was he missing that Aquila and Priscilla felt it necessary to correct? Acts only tells us that he did not have the baptism of Jesus; he had only the baptism of John.

If Baptism only refers to the ceremonial or ritual act, there would be no significance between the baptism of John and the baptism of Jesus. The baptism of John was a baptism into moral improvement. It initiated men into a great reform movement, and its importance should not be underestimated.

However, the baptism of Jesus was a baptism into death and resurrection. We call it a baptism of regeneration. It was a dying to self and recognition that you can do nothing on your own. It shows that you are willing to stand as a sinner in the presence of God, claiming nothing, only counting on his love and forgiveness. It changes you from self-directed effort to God-given grace. Apollos missed the meaning of the gospel. He was a Christian but did not understand he must surrender to God’s will.

Churches are filled with people who are Christians, but not quite. They know the gospel. They try to live a good Christian life. They have a high sense of moral responsibility; they assume their part in the life of the community. But, they have missed what the Way of God really means. They have the baptism of John, but not the baptism of Jesus. They have been the givers of God’s goods, but not the receivers of God’s grace. It is the difference between the religion of good works and the religion of faith. To obey the commandments of Jesus, and to practice the principles set forth in the Sermon on the Mount is a moral goal to which all Christians aspire. But if a man has nothing more than a moral goal to strive for, he has missed the meaning of Christianity.

The church was not, is not, and never can be a society for the improvement of morals. It was at the start, is now, and always must remain a resurrection center, in which men and women see the reality of God, surrender the direction of their lives, die to their own selfish wills, and are raised into a new and different life. This new life will have all the old problems but underneath the disquietude of this world will be "the peace of God, which passes all understanding."