I Have Many in This City

When the gospel arrived in Corinth, it came into a wealthy seaport with a reputation for immorality, carried by a lonely, penniless preacher with no team and no invitation. By every visible measure, it was the wrong city and the wrong moment. Yet Acts 18 records that God had already gone ahead — providing a friendship at a leather-worker's bench, providing companions from Macedonia, providing converts from inside the very synagogue that had rejected the message, and finally providing legal protection through a Roman proconsul who had no interest in Christ whatsoever.

At the heart of the passage stands one of the most encouraging promises in all of Scripture. Speaking in a vision one night, the Lord said, "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you... for I have many in this city who are my people." Jesus looked across pagan Corinth and called men and women His own before a single one of them had believed. That promise is the foundation for courage in every hard place — including yours. Because Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried, and rose bodily from the grave, the Scriptures alone declare that sinners are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

In this message we trace the route of the second missionary journey from Philippi to Thessalonica to Berea and Athens, and then settle into eighteen faithful months in Corinth. You will be encouraged that God builds ministry partnerships at ordinary workbenches, that rejection at the front door never has the final word, that faithfulness is mostly showing up, and that the Lord governs even indifferent courtrooms for the good of His people. Whatever your Corinth may be, Christ has already been there — and He already has many in that city who are His.