Acts 18:18 – 19:7

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Since September of last year my daughter, Katie, her husband Steve and their three children have been living with us while they are remodeling their home in Willow Glen. The original home was a tiny two bedroom one bath home built in the 1920’s. When she first called us about buying it, I had some reservations. First, there were no anchor bolts on the foundation; second, the living room floor had a slight slope down to the fireplace; and third, a large playroom was added to the detached garage, but was not built with a permit. I raised my objections, but to no avail, for my daughter was enamored with the house, not to mention the idyllic neighborhood, which was filled with children, had an elementary school and park across the street, and was within walking distance from downtown Willow Glen. They bought the home and have loved living there, but, before they moved in, dad had foundation bolts installed.

With the growing needs of their family, they decided to add a second story with two bedrooms and a bath, while reconfiguring the downstairs. With an excellent contractor and quality craftsmen, the work took off and the second story shot up quickly on a new foundation at the back of the house, while the original foundation and the fireplace at the front of house which had sunk 4 inches was left untouched (not as bad as the Millennium Tower which has sunk 17 inches and tilted 14 inches). But three weeks ago the work came to sudden halt and couldn’t resume until the original foundation was raised and made secure.

Enter Foundation Strategies. They designed a process to lift sunken foundations by driving steel piers down to bedrock. Then they attach them to the existing foundation, and once in place, they slowly lift the foundation. For my daughter’s home, 9 piers drilled down an average of 30 feet to hit bedrock. On Wednesday the magical lift took place, and now that their foundation is level and secured to bedrock, construction can continue. The moral of the story: If your foundation is not secure, stop the construction! The same applies to the church, which is likened to a holy temple that God is building and we, who are believers in Christ, are “like living stones that are being built into a spiritual house” (1 Pet 2:5). Paul writes,

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 3:10–11 ESV)

As the psalmist affirms, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain” (Ps 127:1 NIV). To emphasize the point, Dr. Luke gives us back-to-back incidents where kingdom work comes to a halt to address a deficiency in the foundation of the disciples’ faith. Once the problem is addressed and corrected, the construction of God’s house continues. We pick up our story at the conclusion of Paul’s second missionary journey in Acts 18:18–23.

On his second journey, Paul and his companions preached the gospel throughout Macedonia. Despite violent opposition from unbelieving Jews, they successfully planted churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, Borea and Corinth. In Corinth Paul met a married couple, Aquila and Priscilla, who worked together as tentmakers (or leather workers) and welcomed Paul to share their home and their trade. This began a lifelong friendship. The couple joined Paul when he sailed to Ephesus, and they moved their business there for the next four or five years while hosting a congregation of believers in their home. Paul was given an open door of evangelism in Ephesus, the strategic city he had longed to evangelize, but he turned it down to pay his vows and honor God for his faithfulness in Jerusalem. Richard Longenecker writes,

Nevertheless, he promised to return, if it were in the will of God. And with