Hope for the Brokenhearted - Pt 1

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. (Acts 18:1-11 ESV).

As we read the Scripture today we should remember that Paul had been kicked out of Philippi, chased out of Thessalonica where he was only bringing trouble on Jason and the other believing brothers; he had been hunted down in Berea and separated from his companions Silas and Timothy, and forced out to pagan Athens where few people would believe in the Good News. Paul was a broken man. He had been throwing himself into the task of sharing the Gospel—exactly as he had been told—and has faced closed door after beautiful closed door; and, even after seeing a vision of the open door, Paul still gets kicked out of towns even there in Macedonia in which he’s only begun to minister. So, the apostle goes to the most unlikely of places, Corinth. Corinth was an unlikely place to find hope for the brokenhearted. If you look up “broken” in the dictionary, you’d find a picture of the church at Corinth. Closely related words would be splintered, dysfunctional, loveless, judgmental, and trendy. Yet, for now at least, Paul will minister in Corinth as a thoroughly broken man. So now, Paul is alone in a strange town. He knows no one. He’s sad. He may be wondering—in the flow of Acts—whether he’s doing any good at all. He doesn’t have the benefit of the rest of the New Testament to tell him there’s light at the end of the tunnel and to give him a vision of exactly what an earth-changing impact this one man will make in his lifetime. For now, he’s living it. He’s broken and needs an injection of hope and encouragement. You may be in that place today. In the coming days we will see how the apostle found a great hope, even in Corinth. Today ask God to begin the healing process for you.