Save Eyewitness Initials with airSlate SignNow

Add initial eyewitness

[Music] my wife and I are the definition of equal partners in fact in the New Testament we are mentioned six times always together never individually three times Priscilla is mentioned first and three times I am that indicates that we are considered as equally important and I'm totally okay with that the church that Paul established in Corinth was challenged by a large number of problems for many years Paul wrote letters and sent people to help them overcome their challenges [Music] before I tell you more about our relationship you need to know a little bit more about Corinth and its relationship to Rome in 150 BC it was not clear which city would dominate the Mediterranean Sea the two main powers were Carthage and Rome they'd been fighting for over 100 years with the three Punic Wars part of Hannibal and his elephants they were fighting Rome in the second Punic War in 146 BC Rome defeated Carthage and completely wiped it from the face of the earth the main remaining obstacle to Rome's complete domination of the Mediterranean Sea was corinth and its allies in the Battle of Corinth also in 146 BC the Romans defeated Corinth and wiped it from the face of the earth after killing all the men and selling the women and children into slavery from that time on the Romans plundered Greece they stole statues treasures and artists they took over the Greek language and philosophies they even stole the Greek gods and gave them Roman names they took ownership of the land but they had to stop there they couldn't take the land back to Rome a hundred years after Korres demise Julius Caesar recognized the strategic value of the city and refounded it as a colony in 44 BC shortly before his assassination it was rebuilt as a major city with a mixed population of Romans Greeks and other ethnic groups Goren it was perfectly situated to control the short Isthmus of Corinth ships could avoid travelling around the lengthy and dangerous Peloponnese if they landed at one side of the Isthmus and transferred their goods to ship on the other side this made Corinth a rich important port city and port cities are known for their loose morals Corinth became the byword for brothels drunkenness and worship of idols not a place where a good Jewish couple would want to live equivalent now we're living happily in Rome when we received word that Emperor Claudius was expelling all the Jews from Rome I never really understood why he did but we immediately left the city because we knew the Emperor could be erratic and deadly after living in the Italian countryside for a while we concluded that we had to move somewhere more permanently we were tip makers and it was important that we had a location where we could establish a good reputation we considered going to my husband's hometown of Pontus located in the northeast portion of modern Turkey but we found there was not a strong Jewish community and it would be hard to establish a good business there one of our friends mentioned Corinth was in need of a good tent maker so we considered going there we quickly concluded it was not the type of place we wanted to live and rejected the idea completely while praying one night God led us to reconsider so we moved to Corinth and established our business after living there for several years I begin to wonder why God will warn us is such a hellish place I trusted Aquila completely but was always a little concerned about all the temptations that were constantly shoved in his face if I had trusted God just a little more I would have understood that those temptations were the price we had to pay to truly understand the minds of the Corinthians that understanding would underpin all of our future ministry the Corinthians love to sin there I said it it is as if they are in a contest to create new ways to be evil there is nothing they won't do if it sounds like it will satisfy their cravings greed sexual immorality and are their normal modes of behavior my lovely wife is not exaggerating if Satan has a home his mailing address is in Corinth one way we survive is by having complete trust in each other when Paul first came to our home we were a little disconcerted we didn't need a new co-worker but the Holy Spirit called us to take him in it wasn't long before we understood why Paul began explaining the scriptures to us in a way that we had never heard soon we believed the gospel and became followers of Jesus Paul became our private teacher and we learned the Scriptures better than ever before one night Paul came to Brazil in me and asked if we could talk about something very important after dinner that night we prayed for two hours and asked Holy Spirit to be the leader of our discussion Paul believed we needed to have a long-term strategy of how to grow God's kingdom much much faster the good news had to get out Holy Spirit led us to a two-part strategy we needed to grow churches in the most important cities and then grow churches and surrounding areas we knew that flourishing churches already existed in the two important cities of Antioch and Jerusalem the most important place in the world for a new church was wrong the second most important place was Ephesus those two were simply obvious the third was a little less obvious because it was right under our noses Corinth Rome Ephesus and Corinth were to become the centres of our attention for the next decade no matter what it would take we needed to establish strong churches for the believers in those places we loved the Corinthians but they were like lost sheep going straight every opportunity over the next several years Paul wrote letters and sent his assistants back to guide and discipline the fledgling church your New Testament has two of those letters that provide snapshots of some of the issues and opportunities that we dealt with we Christian leaders spent an inordinate amount of time in the church at Corinth on his second missionary journey Paul stayed in Corinth for 18 months and taught about Jesus at every opportunity we established a church and we knew everybody in it personally these close relationships gave us the moral right to speak frankly to them over the next many years when Paul left Corinth he took brazillian me with him to the next major city Ephesus Paul left us there and while he continued on to Jerusalem he returned to Ephesus a couple of years later in stay in about three years we'd established a house church before Paul arrived and he really helped us to grow it it was during this three-year period in Ephesus that Paul wrote first Corinthians this was not the first letter he had written to them and he had already sent representatives to Corinth including Apollo's and Timothy and probably even gone back for a visit himself the name first Corinthians is a bit misleading it was a very long letter written in the midst of a string of personal and written communication concerning some messy situations as typical Paul opens his letter with favorable greetings reminding the Corinthians that God has given them every necessary gift and that God is always faithful he immediately addresses the problem of divisions in their church he wants them to be unified and all of their actions and words Paul is crystal clear that there is no distinction in his or Paulus's teachings concerning Jesus so that is not reason for division this will not be the last time that Paul please for unity in a church Paul II merely moves to talk about the power of the crucified Jesus he reminds them that the cross is central to the gospel he talks about the Holy Spirit being the only source of wisdom as Greeks the Corinthians are inclined to see wisdom in philosophy but Paul reminds them that wisdom comes from having the mind of Christ after establishing the authority of Jesus and Holy Spirit Paul returns to the subject of divisions in the Corinthian church he reminds them that no individual is as important as a unified church any individual who wants to be inappropriately important is essentially destroying God's temple something that God will not accept he tells them that they each belong to Christ and has no right or capability to be important on their own some of the Corinthians think they are as wise and knowledgeable as the Apostles and Christian leaders they think that their teachings are just as important and authoritative Paul directly confronts these people and reminds them that the leaders are God's servants who are charged with leading the churches no matter what personal hardships they endure Corinthians liked to engage in sexual immorality I know of no other way to put it Paul confronts them with the fact that one man in the church had started having sexual relations with his father's wife Paul is amazed because not even the pagans do such a thing but the Corinthian church seems to pride themselves about being tolerant of such a sin she commands him to ostracize the man in hopes that he'll repent and be saved from destruction Paul commands them to purify their church of those committing sexual immorality the greedy dollars the drunkards the Christians have had plenty of time to start bringing their actions in line with Jesus's teachings and Paul demands that they do so Jesus's words after forgetting a woman cotton sexual sin was to go and sin no more the actions of these Corinthian believers are an affront to Jesus and all other Christians in a most reasonable manner Paul offers them solutions to their problems he gives them principles for successful marriages Paul lived with Priscilla and me he watched us live and work and worshiped together Paul saw firsthand how a marriage submitted to God can function he knows that good marriages will allow Corinthians to avoid many problems that entangle them his instructions are so clear and lengthy that nobody can misinterpret them she says that good marriages involve good sex lives that husbands and wives shouldn't meet each other sexual needs if they do so this will remove a huge amount of temptation he goes on to address situations where people are not married or divorced or widowed Paul leaves no one out of his discussion he knows that many temptations start with physical needs being unmet although out of fashion in Corinth Paul's instructions for Christ followers about their actions and behavior in 1st Corinthians 7 will solve many of the problems in your world to the complications and consequences of sin are no joke but many would rather be like the Corinthians enjoy and you tolerant of obvious sin don't fall for it you're left for Jesus and the relationships you have are way too precious trust me I know a life without Priscilla I can't even imagine unfortunately I've watched many people destroy their lives and the lives of their family members by loving sin I don't want that to happen to you [Music] you