Acts 18

Read Acts 18

During the reign of emperor Claudius all the Jews were expelled from Rome, as is recorded in this chapter. It is quite possible that the expulsion was due to riots that erupted against Christians. At the time, Christians were attempting to set themselves within Judaism. One reason was because the Jews had carried the message of the coming Messiah for centuries, so it was obviously a natural leap for them to faith in Jesus the Messiah. Another reason, though, was that Rome recognized Judaism as a tolerated religion. Many Jews adamantly fought the placing of Christians in Judaism. So it might seem at first that some of the incidents of this passage are marginal in importance. When Christians were expelled from Rome with Jews and when Gallio decided not to treat Christians as a separate religion from Judaism, it was a big deal. Christians were regarded as Jews and therefore would be not come under official Roman persecution.

Of course, that didn’t mean there was no persecution at this time, for many Jews did whatever they could to oppress Christians. And in fact this increasing hatred for Christians forced Roman officials to consider whether Christianity was indeed a Jewish sect. Eventually, they decided they weren’t, and all hell broke loose. However, this period of unofficial persecution allowed Christianity to settle firmly within the Graeco-Roman world. At this time, we see some very prominent individuals teaming up with Paul. There is the couple Priscilla and Aquila, leaders of the Roman church (Romans 16:3),the nobleman Titius Justus, the synagogue ruler Crispus, and the Alexandrian Jew Apollos (who most likely was well trained in rhetoric and philosophy. Alexandria was the intellectual capital of the world in that day).

Christianity was marching on at remarkable pace. But what is most remarkable is that the spread of Christianity was very much a normal lay movement. It did not start with professional clergy establishing institutions of worship. It was started and promoted by typical Jewish, Greek, and Roman individuals of all walks of life. Some were government officials, leaders in the Jewish community, well-trained intellectuals, soldiers, peasants, and even slaves. God didn’t change the world through one specific demographic or through professionally religious people. He did it through normal people whose lives he transformed. And he aided it with typical government procedures.

My point is that God uses everyday, normal events and people to accomplish his purposes. It should be very clear from the Bible, that God is a God of history. He doesn’t do his work apart from the normal events of history. He acts within history, and uses the typical people and events of history to change the world. Everyday life is the medium of God’s saving work. The typical events of our lives, our families, our government, and our society is all very much a part of God’s plan, and thus should should very much be a part of our ministry.