Do Not Be Silent (Acts 18:9–11)

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 18:9–11

Oh, this is such a good passage. So Paul’s in Corinth and he’s preaching the gospel and he’s facing all kinds of challenges and resistance. And Jesus comes to him one night in a vision and says, “Do not be afraid”. This clearly implies that Paul was afraid. So Jesus only says this because Paul’s actually afraid, which I think should bring comfort to us.

Acts 18:9–11 encourages us to depend on God in our evangelism.

This is Paul, the greatest missionary to ever live, and he was afraid. So whenever you have fear, when it comes to sharing the gospel, you’re in good company. The greatest missionary in the world had fear and Jesus came to him and said, “Don’t be afraid. Go on speaking. Don’t be silent”. So, Paul was even tempted to be silent. Have you ever been tempted to be silent instead of sharing the gospel with somebody? Paul’s familiar with that, too.

So this is all of us. I’ve felt that often; you too, I’m guessing, have felt that. Jesus says to Paul, and He says to us, “I am with you. I’m with you. You’re not alone. In your fear and your temptation to be silent, I’m with you”. And he goes on to say, “Not only am I going to provide for you, but I have many in this city who are my people.”

In other words, “Trust Me, I’m working here. You may not see it, but trust Me. I’m using your life and My Word in your life in ways far beyond what you can see. So just keep speaking, and I’m going to draw people to Myself”. And so Paul stays teaching the Word of God among them. And the Church is born in Corinth. The Church grows in Corinth because Paul keeps speaking by the power of Jesus with him, with trust in Jesus. And so I just want to pray this over your life and my life today.

Acts 18:9–11 challenges us to be bold with the gospel.

God, we confess that we are prone to fear and silence when it comes to sharing the gospel. We just confess that before You. Just like Paul was, we are. And so we pray for Your help. We pray that You’d help us even today to hear and receive this word from You, that You are with us, that Your Spirit is in us, that we’re not alone.

You’re for us. You’re going to provide for us even the words to say. And You are working. We trust, oh God, by faith right now, that You are working in people’s lives around us, and that You are drawing people around us to Yourself, in our schools, in our workplaces, in our neighborhoods, in places where we exercise, in the communities where we live in our cities, and among the nations. We trust that You’re drawing people to Yourself and that You will use our lives to do that work.

And so, God, we pray for boldness. We pray for love, for compassion. We pray for freedom from fear and confidence in Your Spirit, in us, with us. And we pray that You’d help us to speak Your Word today. We pray that You’d help us to share the gospel, the good news of Your love in Jesus with somebody today, tomorrow.

And God, we pray that You would draw people to Yourself around us. We pray for this, for our brothers and sisters who are spreading the gospel around the world in hard places; we pray that they would not be afraid. That they would not be silent. That they would know You’re with them and they would keep speaking, trusting that there are people in the cities where they live that You’re drawing to Yourself.

A Prayer for the Balkar People

God, we pray this for all who are working in Russia, specifically among the Balkar people, 125,000 of them with hardly any followers of Jesus. Please God, we pray for the salvation of the Balkar and for the boldness of all who are working for the spread of the gospel to the Balkar and to thousands of other people groups like them today. Help us to hear Your word to Paul in Acts 18 as Your Word to us today. And help us to speak Your Word, to not be silent, to be fearless with trust in Your presence with us and with trust that You’re working through us. May it be so. We pray all this according to Your Word in Acts 18. In Jesus’ name, amen.