“All Things to All People (Acts 18:1-23)” | 7/17/22
Acts 18:24 - 19:20 | 7/17/22 | Will DuVal
We all love multi-purpose products, don’t we? Imagine trying to carry around a knife, scissors, tweezers, nail file, ruler, chisel, pliers, screwdriver, corkscrew, bottle opener, can opener, toothpick, magnifying glass, ballpoint pen, wood saw, metal saw, wire stripper, and fish scaler ALL in your POCKET at the same time?! Well, imagine no more: for a mere $69.99 all these tools and more can be yours, courtesy of the top-of-the-line Swiss Army knife.
Who could have imagined 20 years ago that today, we’d all be carrying our computer, cell phone, GPS, iPod, camera, video camera, day planner, and wallet around in our pockets, all in a single device. The smartphone has truly revolutionized life as we know it.
Or perhaps the greatest of all: I saw a commercial just the other day for the new KFC finger-spork. All the multi-functionality of KFC’s classic spork, NOW without all the hassle of having to GRIP. Cuz who needs all that physical exertion of actually holding a plastic utensil?!
Multi-purpose products are great; how about multi-functional PEOPLE? Or more specifically, multi-functional EVANGELISTS? A Christian who is ready and able to share the gospel no matter WHAT the context and circumstances. A “Swiss-Army evangelist”, who is equally equipped with a “nail file” gospel delivery that can subtly smooth out the rough theological edges of the pagan idolaters in one city, but who, when needed, can also pull out his gospel knife and surgically albeit spiritually cut his listeners to the heart, in another town. I’m talking of course, about the apostle Paul, the G.O.A.T. of evangelism, whose example we’ve been learning from for many weeks now, as we continue our study together through the book of Acts.
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And these past 2 Sundays in particular, we gleaned 16 principles of effective evangelism from Paul’s example in the city of Athens. And ONE of those principles was our need to be “responsive”, to recognize our audience, and then contextualize our gospel presentation for maximal relevance and resonance with our listeners. The good news is ALWAYS that Jesus died and rose to forgive our sins. That much doesn’t change. But how we share it, how we deliver it, can. Paul packaged it differently for the Thessalonian Jews at the beginning of Acts ch17 than he did for the Athenian Gentiles at the END of ch17. He actually packaged it differently for the Athenian philosophers than he did for the Athenian commoners, the polytheists. Paul was a MASTER evangelist, because he was a master contextualist.
But this morning he’ll face possibly his greatest challenge yet, in the city of Corinth. I’ll remind you, as we review the map here: this is toward the END of Paul’s SECOND missionary journey; he set out from Antioch back in ch15 and traveled through Syria and Cilicia, and then on to Derbe and Lystra in ch16, and then Mysia and Troas; Paul had wanted to go south into Asia, or perhaps north into Bithynia, but the Holy Spirit “FORBID” him, and God gave him a vision instead to head west into Macedonia, through Philippi, before continuing on to Thessalonica, and Berea, and last week, Athens. And this morning, he’s gonna cross from mainland Greece over to Achaia, and arrive in the city of Corinth. And before we even read the text, let me give you a little context on Corinth.
“It was the largest and most cosmopolitan city of Greece… While the population of Ephesus was over a half a million, Corinth’s numbered nearly 750,000… Tim Keller [notes that ancient] Athens was [kind of] like Boston, an intellectual center; Ephesus was like Los Angeles, a pop cultural center; and Rome was like Washington DC, the political center [of the Roman Empire; but] Corinth was like New York City, a commercial center” (Merida, Acts, 263).
But even more than its cosmopolitanism or its commercialism, Corinth was known for another “C”: its CORRUPTION, its immorality (Boice, Acts, 303). So much so that they turned it into a VERB in the ancient world: to “Corinthianize” was a euphemism for engaging in sexual deviancy. At one time there were more than 10,000 temple prostitutes in Corinth, such that prostitutes all throughout the Greco-Roman world came to be referred to as “Corinthian companions”. Corinth made Las Vegas look like Mayberry, from “The Andy Griffith Show”, or May-FIELD, from “Leave it to Beaver”.
It was the kind of place most respectable Christians today wouldn’t be caught DEAD. But not Paul. Paul, who thus far hasn’t stayed more than just a few months in any one spot on either of his first two missionary trips, is gonna settle down in Corinth for a YEAR AND A HALF; it’s his longest tenure anywhere, until he stays in Ephesus for two years during his third and final trip. And yet, Paul’s two NT letters to the church in Corinth make it clear: he didn’t stay because the ministry was EASY. It proved quite difficult to take the “Corinth” OUT of the Christians there. Years later, some of them were still worshiping Paul or Apollos, instead of Jesus (1 Cor 3), some were still sleeping with their stepmoms (1 Cor 5), others still weren’t TITHING - that’s the context for SECOND Corinthians.
And yet, despite ALL that, Paul remained UNDETERRED; that was another of principle from last week. Paul digs his heels in, puts roots down, and pours his life - and God’s WORD! - into these Corinthians. Here’s how he later put it in his letter; he said: “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with [you] in its blessings.” (1 Cor 9:22-23)
“All things to all people” - “To the Jews I became like a Jew, in order to win Jews…” To the Gentiles I became like a Gentile… And this morning, we’re gonna see three additional types of contrasting demographics of people that Paul was able to reach with the gospel, all because of his responsiveness, his flexibility, his evangelistic chameleon-ness. And with each, we’ll consider what Paul’s example has to teach us about our OWN witness. And then we’ll end with a grand finale finish in vv18-23.
I invite you to stand with me… Acts 18:1-23
“After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 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, 3 and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 6 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.” 7 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. 8 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. 9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 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.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, 13 saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.” 14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. 15 But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” 16 And he drove them from the tribunal. 17 And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.
18 After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. 19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. 21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.
22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. 23 After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.” This is the word of the Lord…
What does it mean to “be all things to all people”? Well, for starters, it means effectively reaching BOTH…
#1 - FRIENDS (vv1-3) AND STRANGERS (v4) with the gospel.
We find both categories of people here in vv1-4, as Paul’s gospel targets. First, we meet Aquila and his wife Priscilla in v2. They of course started OFF as strangers to Paul, but pretty quickly he grew a VERY deep bond with this couple. So much so that in Paul’s letter to the Romans, he writes that “Prisca and Aquila… risked their necks for my life”, and “not only I… but ALL the churches of the Gentiles give thanks [for them] as well” (16:3-4); Paul LOVES this couple.
But in vv1-3 here, Luke merely records for us the founding and initial flourishing of the friendship. He also gives us their backstory: how they were kicked out of Rome by the Emperor Claudius in the year AD49, who passed a decree expelling all the Jews (and fascinatingly, the Roman historian Suetonius records that he did so “because of the teachings of a Jew named Chrestus”. Most scholars think that’s a misspelling of Christos, and consider Suetonius one of NINE credible historical references to the person of Jesus in antiquity by non-Christians alone; there is strong evidence, even extra-biblical evidence, for Jesus’ historicity.)
So it appears that the gospel had already reached Rome, more than a DECADE before Paul would travel there himself; that’s how effective and how expansive the ripple effects of Paul’s FIRST missionary journey were. But in any case, Aquila and Priscilla get BOOTED from Rome, so they relocate to Corinth. And Paul probably met them in the synagogue there; in those days, Jewish men and women worshipped separately, but then all the men would sit together in different sections based upon their TRADE (Skip Heitzig, Acts 18, sermon). So as a fellow TENT-maker, Aquila was likely one of the first people Paul would have met when he arrived in town (in either the year AD50 or 51 now; we’re not sure of Paul’s exact timeline), but then after meeting at synagogue Paul’s first Saturday in town, they set up shop next to each other in the marketplace the following week as well, and resumed their conversation, “Say, Paul, tell me more about this JESUS guy you mentioned on Shabbat; does he have anything to do with Chrestus, that guy all the Jews back in Rome were talking about…”, and then at some point, Aquila and Priscilla invited Paul to just come LIVE with them, v3, and the next thing they know, they’re hosting the entire CHURCH of Corinth in their home. By which point, of course, they have also come to saving faith; certainly by v18, when Paul departs and recruits them to set sail for Syria with him. They are CLOSE friends with Paul by the end of his 18 months in Corinth.
Let me ask YOU: Is it hard to share your faith with your close friends, and family members? For some of us, they may be our most difficult gospel assignments, because we fear we have the most to LOSE. Your oldest, closest friend from way back in grade school… your SIBLING, your adult SON or DAUGHTER: “What if I share the gospel with them, and they DON’T receive Christ; that’s just gonna make things SUPER awkward between us. What if they even take OFFENSE, and cut me out of their life altogether?”
You know, I find it interesting that in all 13 of Paul’s letters, we barely hear a word about his family, his biological family that is - he’s constantly giving shout outs to his spiritual brothers and sisters, his spiritual sons and daughters who he discipled - but we hear almost NOTHING about his biological family. We’ll briefly meet Paul’s NEPHEW in Acts ch23, but that’s it. MY assumption is that as devout Jews, most of his family disowned Paul as a heretic.
Even in this relatively newer relationship with Aquila and Priscilla, Paul certainly stood to lose A LOT by bringing up Jesus - he risked making things REAL awkward in the synagogue… in the marketplace… he risked homelessness! - kick him back out on the street. Again, we don’t know the exact timeline, for when he went to stay with them, vs. when they came to faith, but you get the point: Paul was willing to risk relationship with OTHERS for the sake of his relationship with JESUS. Because when Christ unequivocally calls us to “be his witnesses” to “the ends of the earth” by STARTING in our own little “Jerusalems” - our own closest circles of influence, our friends and family - then our FAILURE to do that, our disobedience to his calling, even when our motivation is to maintain good relationships with those around us, that disobedience necessarily results in a breach in our relationship with JESUS instead. We’re essentially choosing relationship with others at the expense of our relationship with Jesus.
Imagine if my family was out boating on the lake and I asked my daughter Ellery to throw her brother Elijah a life preserver ring to hold onto, cuz his life jacket was too loose and he was struggling to stay above water, and she replied: “Dad, I don’t want to OFFEND him by suggesting that he needs HELP.” My son actually DOES this; a couple times this summer, I had to lunge and GRAB him just before he fell in the pool WITHOUT his floaty on, and his response every time was to YELL and HIT me - “How DARE you stop me; I can live my life however I WANT!” Some of your unbelieving friends may respond the same way to the gospel.
But friends: I’m willing to risk my son being upset with me to save his LIFE. I LOVE him that much. Do YOU, when it comes to your closest relationships with unbelievers? Are you willing to risk their being upset with YOU, to save their lives spiritually? Do you LOVE them that much?
Another reason, if we’re BRUTALLY honest with ourselves this morning, that some of us might struggle to share the gospel with our friends, is that we don’t HAVE any real ones. Maybe your relationships are a mile wide, but an inch deep. You’ve got a thousand acquaintances, but no one who would pick up your call at 2:00 in the morning if you were really in trouble. Maybe you’ve bought into the LIE that guys just don’t have friends; we don’t open up like that with each other. Or maybe you got burned in enough relationships in the past that now you’ve convinced yourself that getting close to people isn’t worth the risk, the vulnerability that true intimacy with another human being requires; I know quite a FEW folks who are emotionally closer with their PETS than they are with any other human being. Because your dog is SAFE. God programmed your dog to love you. But connecting with another person requires you to open UP, to be KNOWN, and frankly, that’s TERRIFYING to you.
This is really a topic for a whole ‘nother sermon, but can I just quickly encourage you this morning, from personal experience that: It’s WORTH it. God created you for relationship, in His own Trinitarian, inherently relational image, for deep, meaningful relationship with others. And to bring it back to evangelism, those close relationships are often your mission fields with the most potential. A stranger MIGHT stop and listen to you share about Jesus, but a true friend DEFINITELY should, because even if they don’t care at all about Jesus, if they care about YOU, and they know how much YOU care about Jesus, then they’ll at least hear you out because they LOVE and RESPECT you.
But pivoting to point 1B: “being all things to all people” does ALSO mean that you witness to perfect STRANGERS. That’s what we find Paul ALSO doing, in v4; witnessing in the synagogues every Saturday, in the marketplace all throughout the week; seemingly to anyone who crossed his path for more than about 10 seconds, you could rest assured Paul was gonna tell ‘em about Jesus.
I had a friend, who was probably the most committed, compelling evangelist I’ve ever met, who completely changed the way I think about evangelism; paradigm shift. He told me, “You know, I think sadly, many Christians don’t think about evangelism at ALL. Or if they DO, they pray, “God, if you want me to share the gospel with someone today, please make it ABUNDANTLY clear.” He said, “To ME, it seems abundantly clear already in Scripture that God wants EVERYONE to hear about Jesus, so MY prayer instead is: “God, if you DON’T want me to share the gospel with this person, please make THAT clear, because OTHERWISE, I’m gonna assume the reason you’ve crossed our paths is so I can either introduce them to Jesus for the first time, or remind them of their need for him if they’re still on the fence, or if they’re already a believer, just ENCOURAGE them with the good news again today. So God, unless you specifically say, “NO” to them, I’m gonna assume I’m supposed to GO to them.”
Now, I have to confess to you: personally, I still don’t live that way very often. I don’t pray that prayer every single morning. But I SHOULD. And so should YOU, Christian. And I pray that Paul’s example this morning will convict and COMPEL us to do so. May we be a church known for our boldness in sharing Jesus even when it’s hard - either because we fear the loss of a relationship, OR because there’s no relationship to BEGIN with! Total stranger.
#2 - May we ALSO be a church known for our willingness to take the gospel BOTH to “INSIDERS” (vv5-6; 8) AND to “OUTSIDERS” (vv7-8).
Now, the immediate context here in vv5-8 is the “Jew vs. Gentile” distinction. We’ve examined that at length in previous sermons in Acts, but v5, Paul was “testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 6 And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! …From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”” And just to further drive home his point, Paul leaves and finds literally the first Gentile he can - Titius Justus, who lived directly across the STREET from the synagogue; Paul did some door-to-door evangelism - but then we ALSO hear in v8 about “Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, [who] believed in the Lord,” and followed Paul out as well. And then later that “many of the Corinthians - presumably both Jews AND Gentiles - hearing Paul, believed and were baptized.”
When Paul wrote “I have become all things to all people” in his later letter to the Corinthians, remember he had this “Jew-Gentile” distinction specifically in mind. Paul was himself a Jew, “a Hebrew of Hebrews” he tells us (Phil 3:5), an INSIDER in that culture. And yet, in Romans 11:13, Paul calls himself “an apostle to the Gentiles”, to the OUTSIDERS; those formerly outsiders to God’s covenant promises, and personally outsiders to Paul’s own way of life. That’s what it meant for PAUL to evangelize both insiders and outsiders.
But as we think about what it might mean for US, today, I want to remind you that it’s not just the folks OUTSIDE the walls of the CHURCH who need to know Jesus. Not just “know ABOUT” Jesus; but to KNOW Him, personally. Again, it all comes back to relationships, doesn’t it; do you have a personal relationship with Jesus this morning? Perhaps you grew up “inside” the church all your life, you’ve spent decades AROUND Jesus, living tangential to the gospel; gospel ADJACENT. You speak “Christianese” fluently. Maybe you’ve even made a profession of faith, you got baptized, you officially joined the church as a member. By all APPEARANCES, you’re an “insider”; you check all the ‘good Christian’ boxes. You lack only one thing: a personal, saving relationship with Jesus!
63% of Americans self-identify as “Christians”. But only ⅓ of Americans, 33%, “believe they will go to heaven solely because of confessing their sins and embracing Jesus as their savior,” in other words, as Joe Carter put it in the TITLE of his Gospel Coalition article lamenting that recent poll: “[New] Survey [Finds]: Majority of American Christians Don’t Believe the Gospel”
(https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/survey-a-majority-of-american-christians-dont-believe-the-gospel/)
Friends, that’s like saying, “I’m a big Cardinals fan; I just hate BASEBALL.” Baseball is what MAKES them the Cardinals! The gospel is what makes you a Christian! My point is this: even if you subtract out the ⅓ of Americans who don’t CLAIM to be Christians, there’s still ANOTHER ⅓ of the country sitting in our PEWS who need to be EVANGELIZED! Cuz apparently they don’t know the GOSPEL - they haven’t yet confessed their sins and trusted in Jesus for salvation.
I mentioned this a few months back, with our Acts 1:8 Prayer Initiative here this year, praying and fasting together on the 18th of every month - tomorrow! - for those in our lives, on our hearts, who we desperately want to see come to know the Lord: we’ve gotta start by praying for the folks INSIDE the church. There’s ONE mom here, just ONE, who writes the SAME prayer card for her unsaved son, every single Sunday. Now I’m not suggesting that the rest of you don’t pray personally for your children’s salvation every single DAY, I hope, like I do. But I’ll just confess my lack of prayerfulness to you again: if you don’t fill out a prayer card that REMINDS me every Tuesday, I for one am not gonna remember to pray WITH you that week for your children. And don’t you want the entire CHURCH praying, fasting, for the salvation of your kids? I put BOTH my kids - I’ll go ahead and add my THIRD; it’s never too early to start praying for them, in utero! - all THREE of them are gonna be on the 1:8 Prayer List tomorrow, and I hope, I expect, I NEED you to be praying with me for them. Listen: I very much appreciate your prayers for ME, as your pastor; I know some of you are very faithful about that. But if you really care about me, then you’ll pray even more so for my KIDS.
Our evangelism has gotta start inside the walls of our church… inside the walls of our HOMES… But it can’t END there. Are we reaching OUT, beyond the walls, to OUTSIDERS as well? God wants to POP some of our Christian bubbles this morning. Some of us - all we KNOW are insiders; we’ve effectively insulated ourselves from non-Christians. Jesus said, “No one lights a lamp and then hides it under a bushel basket.” You know what ELSE you don’t do? Light a lamp in the middle of broad daylight. (Unless you’re MY wife and kids, then you leave ALL the lights in the house on, ALL the time… I’m gonna get in trouble later for that one…) But you get Jesus’ point: it’s the DARKNESS that needs the light. Yes, come to church on Sundays. But then let’s go out Monday thru Saturday and be light and salt in a dark, decaying world. All things to ALL people, even CORINTHIANS - one of the parachurch ministries we partner with here, FirstLight, they shine light specifically into areas of SEXUAL darkness and brokenness, so every June they go down to the big Pride parade downtown and hand out bottles of water, and ask if they can pray with people. While some of us stay home and scream, “You CORINTHIANS!”, FirstLight is showing us what it looks like to “be all things to all people”. Even outsiders.
And #3 - We’ve gotta go to BOTH the OPPOSED (vv9-10a; 12-16), as WELL as to the OPEN (vv10b-11; 17).
vv9-10: The Lord appears to Paul in a vision and warns him that some folks are gonna be HOSTILE to the gospel and ATTACK him, but God promises to protect him, and moreover, calls him to “go on speaking and not be silent,” because “I have many in this city who are my people.” In other words, “Paul, even… before the foundation of the world… In love, [I] predestined [many of these wayward Corinthians] for adoption… as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of [my] will” (Eph 1:4-5). So SOME folks are gonna be OPEN to the gospel, others are gonna be OPPOSED to it; but Paul: YOUR job isn’t to try and figure out who’s who; YOUR job is simply to preach the gospel to EVERYONE - all things to ALL people - and then let ME sort them out.
You say, “But I thought Paul LEFT the synagogue in v6; didn’t he give UP on the folks attacking him?” Well, apparently not; apparently Paul just couldn’t HELP but evangelize. Because sure enough, in v12, just like God promised, “the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law””; so he was STILL evangelizing the Jews, just not as publicly in the synagogue. So they drag him before the proconsul, Gallio, who couldn’t care less about their religious disputes. So he kicks them out, and they get even MADDER, and take it out on poor Sosthenes instead in v17, the NEW ruler of the synagogue, who replaced Crispus, who defected to Christianity in v8; well now apparently Sosthenes TOO was sympathetic to Paul’s message, he must not have argued their case as strongly as the Jewish mob would’ve liked him to before Gallio, so they beat him up. And the result? HE defects as well! Do you know how Paul’s letter to the Corinthians OPENS? Ch1, c1: “Paul… an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth…” - apparently Paul must have also recruited Sosthenes to follow him to Ephesus on his third missionary journey, to plant some churches.
But I just wanna PAUSE here and draw your attention to v9, where God has to ENCOURAGE Paul with the words: “Do not be afraid”. I think we should assume that God doesn’t waste His words, that God wouldn’t have bothered saying this to Paul if Paul didn’t need to hear it. In other words, the apostle Paul actually got AFRAID. And I for one find a lot of comfort in that. That Paul was HUMAN. He may have been the greatest evangelist of all time, but he was still HUMAN. Even PAUL got scared. Of losing friends. Of being persecuted. Of not having all the answers to all of their questions about Christianity. Friends: it’s understandable that we get scared in evangelism. But it’s also un-NECESSARY. Because the Lord has the same message for you and me this morning that he had for Paul, in the midst of HIS fears and insecurities: “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking… for I am with you”. And that’s ultimately where our hope and confidence comes from. God doesn’t say, “Paul, don’t fear: this is why you did AWANA all those years, Bible sword drills; it was all preparing you for this calling; you GOT this! You can DO it.” God doesn’t say, “Don’t be afraid; I won’t let them attack you; no, actually, God prepares him: they’re GONNA attack you.” But God says, “I’ll be WITH you,” through it all.
And that’s his promise to us still today, brothers and sisters: “Go and make disciples of all nations… For behold… I am [WHAT?] with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matt 28:19-20). Whether you’re witnessing to the interested or to the indifferent. To the hungry or to the hostile. To the elect or to the damned. In every case, God has promised to be WITH us.
Lastly, point #4 - Being “all things to all people” means we go WHEREVER, WHENEVER, and to WHOMEVER God so wills (vv18-23).
Paul concludes this second missionary journey with just a WHIRLWIND of evangelistic activity, in vv18-23. You get the sense from Luke’s writing that he almost had trouble keeping UP, keeping it all straight:
As for the “wherever”, Paul is all over the place: he “set sail for Syria”... But first he stops “At Cenchreae”... then he “came to Ephesus”... v21, he “set sail from Ephesus… and landed at Caesarea”... he “went up and greeted the church” [that is, the church in Jerusalem]... before going “down to Antioch”... and then “departed from there”, v23, and “went from one place to the next through the WHOLE region of Galatia and Phrygia”. And really, Paul’s second missionary trip just blends right into his third one, that we’re gonna start NEXT Sunday. I don’t think the guy EVER took a day off. Maybe as a tentmaker he did, but not as an evangelist. Paul knew you’re ALWAYS on call when you’re called to be an evangelist, which ALL of us ARE, as believers.
As for the WHENEVER, the duration of his stops in each city, we read that he “stayed many days longer” in Corinth... but then “When they asked him to stay for a longer period [in EPHESUS], he declined”. But in v23, he DID decide to “spend some [extra] time” in Antioch, his home church, sending church.
As for the WHOMEVER, Paul takes “leave of the brothers” in Corinth… but then he took “with him Priscilla and Aquila”... and leaves them in Ephesus in v19, while he goes “into the synagogue and reasons with the Jews”, evangelizing, but then in Caesarea he’s mainly concerned with discipleship; he goes to believers, to “the church”... and likewise throughout Galatia and Phrygia - he was “strengthening the disciples.”
And lastly, let’s just throw in THIS fun little bonus: Paul witnessed HOWEVER he could as well. Wherever, whenever, to whomever, and HOWEVER possible. He even used his HAIRCUTS as an opportunity for ministry: v18, “At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.” That’s the Nazarite vow, from Numbers ch6; it was taken by those “who desired to yield themselves completely to God” - Samuel, Sampson, John the Baptist, and now PAUL - but part of the vow was that you grew your hair out for the duration of the vow, as a symbol of your devotion.
(https://www.gotquestions.org/Nazirite-vow.html). But Paul TOOK this vow, perhaps when he first EMBARKED on the trip, way back in ch15, not only to commit himself wholeheartedly to the Lord, but his haircut (or lack thereof) would have ITSELF provided him unique opportunities, opened doors TO evangelize, both when it was super long in Athens and Corinth and Cenchreae… as well as after he CUT it and it was super SHORT in Ephesus, and Caesarea and Syria - in either case, fellow Jews surely would have stopped Paul and asked him, “Why’d YOU take the Nazarite vow, to yield yourself completely to God?”. And it would have given Paul yet another IN to share the gospel: “Funny you should ask… have you heard about JESUS…?”
Brothers and sisters: in both our coming and our going… whether here, there and everywhere in between… with friends AND strangers, insiders AND outsiders, the opposed AND the open… through heart-to-heart conversations and even HAIRCUTS, may we in ALL things, BE all things, TO all people, that by all MEANS, we might save some… ALL to God’s glory. Amen.