A Fertile Ground for the Gospel

A Fertile Ground for the Gospel

Life And Ministry

Sharing with Pastor Dapo Adeniyi

 

Acts 18: 18-28

 

Corinth was a place where the gospel through Paul gained a firm foothold, after much battle.

The word that God gave Paul earlier at Corinth brought much fruit.

Only the Holy Spirit can tell where the seeds of God’s word would do well.

Certain kinds of grounds are a lot more resistant to God’s word.

Even though opposition seems to persist everywhere, the word thrives in a place if we allow God to send us there in His own timing.

The pattern of Paul’s work seems to be to break new grounds for the gospel in new places.

He breaks the fallow grounds, introduces the seed of the gospel and leaves while it springs forth in his absence.

Corinth was a success story to the extent that, Priscilla and Aquilla could leave with him to Ephesus.

Paul clears a little space for the word also in Syria but quickly moves on.

The case of Ephesus is very interesting indeed.

This is the same region where God forbade Paul from entering to preach the word in Chap. 16: 6-7.

It proves that the issue was one of timing even at that period.

It could also be a question of divine priority – maybe God wanted them in Macedonia first.

The city of Ephesus was thirsty for God’s word but Paul could not wait now for personal reasons

The passage says Paul had a vow

This implies that Paul made a vow, most probably a vow of thanksgiving, before reaching the region of Syria and Ephesus.

Paul seems to live above a common pitfall of public ministry.

Ministers tend to spend much time attending to other people without working on their own relationship in a private place with God.

Paul seems not to be ignoring his own spiritual life.

We need to study for ourselves, apart from studying to teach others.

We must spend time praying to edify ourselves, apart from when we pray for others.

There are times when we have to leave God’s business in God’s hands when they prove to be too much for us to handle.

The hunger and the need in Ephesus notwithstanding, Paul dropped the work at Ephesus to continue back to Jerusalem for reasons of his own edification.