Paul goes to Corinth and meets up with Aquila and Pricilla, Italian believers who left when Emperor Claudius kicked the Jews out of Rome ~50 A.D. He stayed and worked as a tentmaker with them. Even missionaries need to make money sometimes.

Every week Paul went to the synagogue to try to reason with the Jews and the Greeks. Silas and Timothy join him from Macedonia. Paul gets frustrated with the pushback from the unbelievers so he shakes out his garment and says he will only go to the Gentiles. He goes to house of Titus Justice who lives next to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue and all of his family believe. Many of the Corinthians believed. 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.” Sometimes the dissenters are loud, but we don’t need to think that they represent everyone. 

Paul stayed for a year and a half, and then some Jews brought Paul before the proconsul Gallio, the regional Roman governor, to complain that he was going against their religious law. He kicked them out of his court, saying that it was not about a vicious crime, but “words and names” within their own language. So, they seized and beat Sosthenies, the leader of the synagogue, but Gallio ignored them. The secular world does not care about religious in-fighting.

Paul with Pricilla and Aquila traveled by boat to Syria. Paul cut his hair as a conclusion of a religious vow. He left the couple in Ephesus and continued without them to Caesarea, where he greeted the church then travelled to Antioch, through Galatia and Phrygia, modern western Turkey. 

Meanwhile, a Jewish believer named Apollo from Alexandria began to speak eloquently about Jesus, although he only knew about John‘s baptism. Priscilla and Aquila took him aside and explained “the way of God more accurately”.  He went on with encouragement to Achaia, northwestern Greece, where he use the scriptures to show that Jesus was the savior. 

Here you can see that Paul is multiplying his work by spending time with other believers and then depositing them in other areas where they also work with others and send them out. Getting constant negative attention can be frustrating, but we don’t need to throw in the towel because God is still working.