There comes different seasons in the life of every Christian of which some are harder to bear than others. And one such season is a time of weariness, of fearfulness, or even depression. Sometimes they are all of the above. Most often they come after an extended time of spiritual battle. Sometimes that may be compounded by physical trials such as sickness, or marital problems, or difficulties with children, or financial problems. I have known them all at one time or another. And chances are that if you are willing to admit it, if you are human and not some sort of avatar, then you have been subject to such times in your life as well.

There are a few sanctimonious types out there that will try to lay a guilt trip on those poor souls that are already discouraged, and say that such feelings are sinful. I do not agree. I think that they are indicative of our fallen nature. They are indicative of our human limits, our finite understanding. But as Paul said in 1Cor. 10:13 there is “No temptation [that] has overtaken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” In other words, such trials are common to the human condition.

And Jesus took on human flesh that He might be sympathize with our weaknesses, did He not? He suffered in all points like as we do, yet without sin. Notice, it says He suffered. Even for Christ, life was not a constant, cloud 9 experience.

I must confess I found myself in a sort of depression this last week. For some reason I started remembering hurtful things from the past, I started comparing myself with other preachers, other pastors, comparing our church with other churches, and horror of horrors, started looking at old facebook pictures of times gone by and people that are no longer with us, and before I knew it I was in a funk.

So I found today’s message particularly apropos to my own particular situation this week, and I have the sneaking suspicion that not a few of you folks have been dealing with anxiety and depression lately as well. So I am hopeful that this message will resonate with you, as it did with me, and that you will be encouraged as a result of being here this morning.

Now as we look at this passage we are going to have to go beyond this particular group of verses if we are really going to understand the context. What is not readily apparent is that as Paul finds himself now in Corinth he is suffering from a sense of fear and anxiety and even quite possibly depression. And that is born out by his letter written to the Corinthians sometime later when he describes this time when he first came to them. In 1Cor. 2:1-5 Paul writes, “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”

So Paul was weak (which usually indicates an infirmity), he was in fear, and in much trembling. And he had every right to be anxious and fearful and even a bit depressed. After all, he was once again alone. He has spent years laboring faithfully for the gospel all over Asia and now into Europe, and yet he found himself alone in Athens, and now alone again in Corinth. His message had been rejected out of hand by the Jews time after time, he had been stoned, he had been beaten, he had been locked up and run out of almost every town he had been in. And now here he is again, starting over again in a strange town, in a foreign culture, probably sick and no one was there to stand with him in this great battle he was waging for the kingdom. Not only that, but he now finds himself having financial needs which are not being met and so he has to go to work as a tent maker in order to support himself and yet is still trying to preach the gospel whenever possible.

I want you to know that many great preachers and prophets of God have found themselves down in the dumps, dealing with anxiety and depression. It is a common malady of those who are in a spiritual battle day after day. Moses was often discouraged in the desert during the 40 years of wandering. David was often depressed and anxious. You should read the Psalms of David if you are feeling anxious and depressed and you will find a kindred spirit in David. Elijah was so fearful at one point that he started running and didn’t stop running until he had gone 100 miles, and then he got depressed and despaired even of his life and asked God to take it from him. John the Baptist was depressed after spending his life in service to God only to find himself in a prison waiting to have his head cut off. Martin Luther said, “Because I seem to be always strong and merry, men think that I walk on a bed of roses, but God knows how it is with me.” John Calvin was so fearful that he did not want to preach but to hide in his studies. The great Charles Spurgeon was depressed and anxious especially towards the end of his life. And I could go on and on.

So I say all that to say to you today that are suffering from anxiety and depression; it is not a sin, what you feel is not a sin. What you may do as a result of your feelings may or may not be sin, but simply to feel fearful or depressed is not a sin. It is human to feel. And chances are the more you are trying to live for the Lord the more such feelings are going to be part of your experience.

The good news is that God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear, but will provide a way for you to endure it. And that is exactly what we see illustrated in this passage in the life of Paul. God is going to help Paul. He knows that Paul is His man, His apostle. And so God gives Paul 5 things to encourage him. Five things that should also encourage us as we deal with the spiritual battle around us and the resulting anxiety and depression that are often the result of such battles.

First, God sends Paul some companionship. When you are sick or fearful or anxious or depressed, God provides the fellowship of other believers to be an encouragement to you. And that is the first thing that we see happen with Paul. He is in this corrupt, foreign city, where he knows no one, and somehow, God brings these two mature Christians to become his companions and co-laborers. It’s not clear when or how Aquila and Priscilla are saved, or how they came to meet Paul. But one thing is clear, they became dear friends of Paul and were a great encouragement to him at a time when he desperately needed fellowship and help.

My thoughts are that they were already established, mature Christians who had been saved in Rome, and when Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome they ended up in Corinth just in time to meet Paul. They had a common background as tent makers or leather workers. The word could be translated either way. But the point is that they took Paul into their home. They showed him hospitality. They shared with him their resources. They became his family in the Lord in a strange city.

You know I can attest to the value of sweet fellowship of a couple of mature Christians that have come alongside us in our ministry and showed us friendship and hospitality at a time when we most desperately needed it. Aquila and Priscilla became the pillars of the church there in Corinth, which was a great help and encouragement to Paul. And I would just point out the obvious, that perhaps that is your calling as well. To step up in the church and become the pillars, the mature Christian man or woman that is dependable, that is faithful, that stands with the pastor and church as partners in fellowship. So then for all of us, God has provided encouragement through the companionship that we can find in the fellowship of believers in our local church.

And then the second way that God brought encouragement to Paul was through the coming of Silas and Timothy. Now it would have been very encouraging just for Paul to see his two close friends and coworkers again. But I think there is more to the story than what is presented here.

In 1 Thessalonians 3 we read that Paul said he had sent Timothy from Athens to the church in Thessalonica in order to see how they were doing. And so now when Timothy comes to Corinth he gives a glowing report about the churches in Thessalonica and how they were growing in the Lord. So Paul is encouraged by Timothy’s report as he says in 1Thess. 3:6, “therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you an all our affliction and distress.”

Silas on the other hand had been in Philippi checking on the churches there. Paul writing later to the church at Philippi in Philippians chapter 4 says “When I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me as concerning giving and receiving but you only.” So they had taken up an offering and sent it to Paul by way of Silas in order to support Paul’s missionary journey. So Silas came to Corinth with a love offering for Paul, and Timothy came with a good report of the churches. So obviously it was a great encouragement to Paul.

Now one very practical reason that Paul was encouraged was because he now had the resources to be able to stop working as a tentmaker and devote himself fully to the Lord’s work. Vs. 5, “But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word.” You know, it can be discouraging for a pastor to have to work on the side in order to provide for his needs. It isn’t that a pastor is above doing manual labor, but the Bible makes it clear that he is to get his living from the church. Paul wrote later in 1Cor. 9:14 “So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.” But when that fails for whatever reason, it is yet another way for the devil to attack God’s servant and make him feel that he isn’t as good a preacher as he should be or some other such thing in order to discourage him.

I can attest to the great encouragement that we have received from people like those Philippians, people that don’t live here, yet from time to time they send an offering to support this ministry. I can assure you that if that wasn’t the case, then there would have been many a winter that would have done us in. So God uses the love offering of others as an encouragement to Paul, as well as the testimony of the perseverance of the saints. As the Apostle John said, in 3John 1:4 “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.” That is a pastor’s great joy to know people he ministered to are still walking with the Lord. And on the other hand, there is no greater disappointment than to see people who you invested so much in fall away from the faith and make shipwreck of their lives. So God can use you to be an encouragement to others not only by your giving, but also by your testimony of faithfulness.

Thirdly, God encouraged Paul by giving him some key converts. When the Jews in the synagogue began to resist the gospel and blaspheme in vs. 6, Paul shook their dust off his cloak and said “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” You know, there are going to be people that reject the gospel. Far more in fact will reject it than accept it. And when they do some of them will undoubtedly become the enemies of the gospel. They may not see themselves that way, but that is exactly what they are. There are people in this community that are so incensed about what I am preaching that they will go out of their way to call or email or even visit people in this church and try to turn them against us. There are people that try to replicate what we are doing and hold their own services on the beach as a means to upset us and demoralize us. Yet I have to remind myself that they did it to Paul as well. That is part of the spiritual battle we are in.

But Paul says I am done messing with you. From now on I go to the Gentiles. And so he goes right next door and starts preaching in the house of Titus Justus whose house literally butted right up against the synagogue. So Paul begins to preach in the house of Justus as the synagogue is going on next door. And Paul probably was a really loud preacher like I am, and his voice must have been easily heard next door in the synagogue, because it says that the leader of the synagogue, Crispus, becomes saved. And not only was he saved, but so was his household as well as many others who heard Paul preaching. I can imagine the whole synagogue standing with their ears against the wall listening to Paul preach to the Gentiles on the other side. And the amazing result being that the people in the synagogue end up believing and are saved.

I have been told I have a loud voice. I have had a number of people tell me after a service that they were a couple of blocks away and they heard my message as clear as a bell. I can’t help but wonder how many lives have been impacted with the gospel by someone hearing it without actually sitting down here in front and joining the fellowship.

But the encouragement that really warmed Paul’s heart was seeing people come to know the Lord. Whole households came and then followed the Lord in baptism. To me that means that they were discipled. They were responsive and obedient to the gospel. Just a few weeks ago we had 7 people baptized here on the beach. Three of them were adults from one family. Two others were a husband and wife. I am so encouraged when I see families follow the Lord together. That is the pattern very often intended in scripture. Some one here today might come to be saved during this service and they might be the catalyst for their whole family coming to know the Lord. I hope so.

Fourthly, God encouraged Paul with the word of God. This is one we all can definitely benefit from. Vs. 9 and 10, “And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, ‘Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.’”

Now this is so rich I am going to have to break it down into 4 parts. The first part is this; “do not be afraid, for I am with you.” Oh folks, if we could just really get the principle into our heads that God is with us then it would remove so much fear and doubt. Lately I have been using Psalm 23 as a prayer guide. And when you meditate on the fact that the Lord is your shepherd, that He is with you and guiding you and protecting you in everything you do, then all sorts of comfort begins to open up to you.

God said Paul you are not alone, I am with you. And if you are God’s child, then you are never alone either, God is with you. I am comforted when I think of my kids out in CA, they may be out of my reach, but they are not alone, God is with them. When you consider that God is with us, no matter where we are, or how difficult the situation, that our powerful God of the Universe is with us, then that is an immense comfort. I would like to quote part of Psalm 139, which I would encourage you to bookmark in your Bibles to turn to in time of distress and depression.   It says, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,’ Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You. For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.” If you are a child of God, then the Lord is with you. That is your strength and comfort no matter what happens. Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

The second part of the word of the Lord is “don’t be silent, but keep on preaching.” I love that. Sometimes I hear the devil say in my ear, “you know if you just lightened up a little people might like you more.” “ Try telling a few jokes. Take some time off. Stop being so serious. Stop preaching repentance so much.” But God said, “don’t stop preaching.” Keep on preaching the gospel until God calls you home. And God will take care of the results.

The third part of the word of the Lord is, “no one can hurt you.” I like that. I’m not going to worry about some crazy person cutting short my ministry. I’m not going to worry about the government shutting us down. I’m the servant of the Most High God and He will protect me and keep me until He is done with me. And nothing can hurt you if you are the Lord’s child. Jesus said in John 10:28 “I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”

And the fourth part of the word of the Lord is, “I have many people in this city.” I love that. I love how that echoes what God told Elijah the mighty prophet of God when he became tired and scared and depressed to the point where he ran 100 miles and then despaired even of life. He wanted God to take him out. And God said, I have 5000 men in this place that have not bowed the knee to Baal. God has people who don’t know yet that they are God’s people. They don’t know yet that God has laid claim to them, chosen them before the foundation of the world. God has elected them to salvation and yet they are unaware of it at this point. But God knows, and He wants Paul to be encouraged because He has a plan to bring them to Christ.

So that is the encouragement of God through the word. And we have that same resource. We may not receive visions in the night from God, but we have, as Peter said in 2Pet. 1:19 “So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.” What Peter is referring to as a more sure word than the word of visions, is the written word of God. It is inspired by God and sealed by God and refined as pure silver. And it is written down for us that we might find encouragement and a word from God at any time, day or night.

Finally, the fifth way God brought encouragement to Paul was in defeating his enemies. You know, you can’t preach the gospel for 9 years in this town without creating some enemies. The gospel of God is offensive. And sometimes I have to restrain myself from wrestling against flesh and blood, if you know what I mean. But it is an encouragement to know that God is fighting for us and God has a way of vanquishing our enemies while we stand by and watch. I have to remind myself to let God fight my battles. When I do I find we achieve a greater victory I could have ever done if I tried to do it in the flesh. And that is exactly what happens with Paul.

One day when he is preaching, the Jews come in force and drag him off to the procounsel who was named Gallio. And they trumped up some charges against Paul saying that he was teaching things contrary to the Law. But just when Paul is about to open his mouth, God stepped in and intervened. Gallio basically dismissed the case. He said he wasn’t interested in judging matters about their religion. In other words, Gallio just gave Paul the green light to be able to preach the gospel without fear of the Jews taking him to court. Gallio is saying religion needs to deal with religion, we will not judge that in this court. And he ordered them out of his courtroom.

Now that was a great victory in and of itself. But the really cool part from my perspective is the prosecutor, the head of the synagogue, gets beat up by the rabble from his own group. They turn on the synagogue official and beat him up right there in the court, and Gallio could care less. So here is Paul, who is usually the one getting beat up in a courtroom or getting lashes or whatever, standing there watching his opponents not only defeated, but publicly humiliated and beaten for good measure.

But there is really another side of that story which is even more remarkable. Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, is publicly beaten, but it only serves to beat some sense into him. Some how or another, Paul must have reached out to this beat up enemy of his, Sosthenes, and led him to the Lord. Because listen to what he says when he writes the church at Corinth later on; 1Cor. 1:1 “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth.” Sosthenes may have been beaten up and kicked out of the synagogue by his own people, but he was saved by the very gospel that Paul was preaching and led to the Lord by the very man that he was persecuting.   What a testimony that is. And what an encouragement that ought to be to all of us when we are faced with enemies of the gospel. We do not know the way God will work in the lives with which we are connected with. But we need to stand fast and wait and see the salvation of the Lord.

So it says in vs. 18 that Paul remained in Corinth many days longer. His ministry was fruitful. It wasn’t completed until God said it was completed. And that is our encouragement. God has called us to ministry. Each and every one of us is called to participate in the ministry of the kingdom of God. And if you haven’t found your place of service in it yet then you need to do so. You may not be called to leadership. You may not be called to be an evangelist. But maybe you have been called to be a Pricilla or Aquila. Maybe you have been called to be the pillars of your local church, to support your pastor, to use your resources in business or in your home to minister to the needs of the church.   Or maybe you are called to be like the Christians in Philiippi who purposefully supported the work of ministry with their offering even while actively engaged in their church at home. Or maybe you just need to be encouraged today by a word from the Lord, that He will never leave you nor forsake you. That He is always with you. That no weapon formed against you will prosper. That no one can harm you if you are doing the will of God.

Or maybe you are one of those people who don’t know yet that you are the Lord’s. You haven’t yet made a confession of your faith, haven’t yet publicly committed your life to Christ and followed the Lord in baptism and joined with the local fellowship of believers. Maybe you have been hanging around the outskirts of the fire, realizing that the gospel is the source of light and life, but as of yet not committing to come in to fellowship with Christ. I hope that today is the day you surrender to give yourself wholly to Him who is able to save you and make you a part of His body and give you the encouragement of the hope of eternal life.