WWUTT 1111 Your Blood Be On Your Own Heads?

The Apostle Paul preached the full counsel of God, so that if somebody rejected his message, their blood was on their own heads, not because of something

Paul didn't say, but because the people just refused to believe it, when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Acts, still reading through Paul's second missionary journey, and in our reading today, he comes to the city of Corinth.

This is Acts chapter 18, I'm going to start reading in verse 1. After this, Paul left

Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a Jew named Achilla, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife

Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the

Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them,

Your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent. From now on, I will go to the

Gentiles. And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titus Justus, a worshiper of God.

His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the

Lord together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing

Paul, believed and were baptized. 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. But when

Galio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying,

This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law. But when Paul was about to open his mouth,

Galio said to the Jews, If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint.

But since it is a matter of questions about words and names in your own law, see to it yourselves.

I refuse to be a judge of these things. And he drove them from the tribunal, and they all seized

Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Galio paid no attention to any of this.

And that's where we'll stop for today. So these first 17 verses of Acts chapter 18,

Paul's missionary to Corinth, which, as we read here, lasted for a year and a half.

So Paul left Athens, where we had left off last week was Paul's sermon at the

Areopagus. And he went to Corinth. Remember, Paul had preached at the Areopagus before Timothy and Silas had come to him.

So they don't make it to him until he got to Corinth. He had sent for them while he was in Athens, but he was so vexed in his spirit over the things that he witnessed there in this

Greek capital city that he just had to begin preaching. And so they brought him to Mars Hill, the place that we also know as the

Areopagus, and he preached there in the midst of those idols that the

Greeks had erected. And after the time that he spent in Athens, some people listening to him, most folks were just not impressed with this message that he had to share, especially when he started talking about the resurrection of the dead.

After that, he left Athens, he goes to Corinth. He obviously spends a lot more time in Corinth than he did when he was in Athens.

And the time that he was there in Corinth was when Silas and Timothy finally came to him. So in verse two, he found a

Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus. And what we know

Aquila and his wife Priscilla for mostly is that they brought Apollos to the Lord.

They filled Apollos in on the things that Apollos did not know about Jesus after the baptism by John.

So that's what they're most famous for in the book of Acts. But this is Paul's introduction to Aquila and to Priscilla, and they all became very good friends.

Paul even mentioned them in his letters to the Romans toward the end of the letter, Romans 16, verse three.

He says, greet Priscia and Aquila, Priscia is another name for Priscilla, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only

I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well.

And notice that Paul was writing here to the church in Rome, which was exactly where Aquila and Priscilla were coming from when he came into their acquaintance here in Acts chapter 18.

So verse two, it says, and he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus.

And Pontus, by the way, is on the northern end of what is modern day Turkey. It was up by the

Black Sea. And it said that Aquila had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all the

Jews to leave Rome and he went to see them. Now, this is an interesting story. So before Claudius was emperor, it was

Caligula. And before him, it was Tiberius. And before him, it was Augustus. You recognize some of those names, right?

So in Luke chapter two, it mentions that Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census to be taken.

And it was because of that decree that Joseph and Mary went from Nazareth down to Bethlehem, which is where Jesus was born.

So you recognize those names now, right? After Augustus, it was Tiberius. After him, it was

Caligula. Caligula was assassinated. And then after him was Claudius. Now, during the reign of most of these emperors, the

Jews enjoyed something that was called religio lacita. This wasn't like a an official

Roman law. It was kind of like, I don't know, sort of a just an unwritten agreement.

And it was that the Jews could continue their religion as long as they paid their taxes and they didn't cause any trouble.

They were not supposed to become proselytizers. They had to keep to themselves.

But if you were a Jew, you wanted to be a Jew, you were descendant of Hebrews, you wanted to practice your

Jewish religion, then you could do that. The Romans allowed the Jews to do that. Overall, the

Romans really just wanted things to be peaceful. They didn't want a lot of resistance and uprising.

They didn't want to try to stir people into that. And as I'd mentioned to you before, the Jews were just devotedly monotheistic.

They were not going to worship the false gods of the Greeks and the Romans. Rome, recognizing that they weren't going to make the

Jews into pagans, essentially, they told the Jews, you can worship how you worship. Just don't cause any trouble for us.

Well, what happened gradually through these emperors is eventually they thought of themselves as gods.

Caligula was one of those. He was the predecessor to Claudius. And he didn't last very long.

I think he died at the age of 28 or something like that. But he thought of himself as a god. So as the emperors began taking on this belief that they themselves were divine, they're starting to impress upon people, you've got to worship me as divine.

If you won't recognize me as a god, there's going to be consequences for that. So some emperors began to impose upon the people this sign of devotion.

They were to take a pinch of incense and throw it in the altar, and they would declare Kyrios Caesar or Caesar is

Lord. This gave rise to one of the earliest creeds and confessions in the church, which is that Jesus is

Lord, Kyrios Iesus. And so you would have later on, you would have stories of those

Christians, especially in Rome, when they were required to put the pinch of incense in the altar, instead of saying

Kyrios Caesar, they would say Kyrios Iesus, and they would be killed for that. So there was persecution that started coming upon the

Christians in Rome. Furthermore, after Caligula, you had Claudius, who was the emperor.

And what Claudius began to notice is that these Jews were not sticking with the unwritten agreement that the

Jews and the Romans had with one another. You were supposed to keep to yourselves. You could practice your religion. You can't proselytize anyone.

But what Claudius started to notice is that people were beginning to worship this Jew named

Jesus. So he's going, wait a second, you're violating our agreement here.

We said not to proselytize, but you're stirring up people to worship this Jew. So Claudius actually targeted the wrong number of people.

He did not realize there was a distinction between Christians and Jews. And since there was this rising religion of believing in Jesus as Lord and worshiping him and telling other people to turn from sin and worship

Christ, Claudius thought the Jews were behind this. So he banished the Jews from Rome.

And this was how Paul came into the service of Achilla and Priscilla, because they had been banished from Rome under Claudius.

It turned out that Claudius was wrong. He got the wrong group of people. So the Christians stayed there in Rome, even though the

Jews had been banished. The church that had been planted there in Rome then became the

Gentile converts. Those who were not Jews, but were Gentiles and had been converted to Christianity.

That's all that was in the church in Rome, just Gentile converts. But then after Claudius died, it was

Nero that assumed the emperorship after Claudius, and he allowed the

Jews to come back. Well, then you had the church in Rome that was filled with mostly Gentile converts, and the

Jews come back in, and there was a little bit of conflict there between what the Gentiles believed was acceptable worship before God and what the

Jews insisted was acceptable worship. And that was one of the reasons why Paul wrote the letter the way that he did.

It wasn't the only reason, but it's certainly some of the things that we see addressed in his letter to the

Romans. We see him making some distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, but then clarifying to them there is no distinction.

All have sinned before God, and it's only by faith in Christ Jesus that we are justified.

So it doesn't depend on you being a Greek or a Jew. It depends on faith in Jesus.

And you also see some of the more secondary or tertiary practices addressed in Romans chapter 14, which is what we commonly refer to as the

Christian liberty chapter. So those were some of the motivations behind Paul writing to the

Romans, and all of this is tied up in Claudius banishing the Jews from Rome because, in his view, they were violating that religio lacita clause.

There were still Christians there in Rome, but the Jews had to go, one of them being Aquila, along with his wife

Priscilla. And they meet Paul in Corinth, and they decide to start up a business together.

So it says Paul went to see them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tent makers by trade.

You've probably heard this said of Paul before, that he was a tent maker. This is where we get that. He was making tents with Priscilla and Aquila.

This hasn't been mentioned about Paul until here, but this was Paul's trade. He wasn't a

Pharisee by trade. It wasn't that he got paid to be a Pharisee, even though we know that's what he did before he was converted to Christianity, before his

Damascus Road experience. He was a Pharisee. But Pharisees were not full -time

Pharisees, not in the sense that they were paid for that labor. They probably received something from that work, but it wasn't a full -time job.

They still had to be tradesmen. They still had to have regular Joe work in order to provide for themselves and for their families.

This is one of the reasons why the Pharisees were so popular among the people. The Sadducees really weren't.

The Sadducees were like an upper echelon of people in the Sanhedrin, of rulers in the

Sanhedrin. And because they were generally rich and powerful and rubbed shoulders with governors and those that had power, the people didn't relate to them very well.

They weren't very admiring of the Sadducees. The Sadducees had the influence that they had because of the power they were connected to, whereas the

Pharisees were able to have the influence that they had because the people just liked them.

They were from the people. It's kind of like they were of the people and for the people. That was why the

Pharisees had that kind of influence. They had regular Joe jobs just like everybody else did in Jerusalem and Judea and the surrounding area.

So that's why we understand Paul being a tentmaker by trade and not somebody who was a full -time

Pharisee. This was what he did for his common work. And when he writes to the

Thessalonians, when he says to them, we didn't take anything from you even though it was our right to do that, we could have lived off of your support.

As apostles, we could have come to Thessalonica. We could have said to you, well, you have to provide for us.

You have to support us in this ministry work that we're doing. We didn't do that. Instead, we wanted to provide an example for you.

We wanted to show you that you need to mind your own business and work with your hands. And if somebody is not willing to work, let him not eat.

And so what was the work that Paul was doing while he was there in Thessalonica? Just as he was doing here in Corinth.

He was a tentmaker by trade. So he and Priscilla and Aquila, making tents together, doing some hard work.

He was a bivocational preacher. And in the meantime, he took this opportunity to establish himself in Corinth and share the gospel while he was there.

And he shared the gospel the way that he always did. He went to the synagogue. So verse four, he reasoned in the synagogue every

Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. Now, every

Sabbath, of course, being Saturday, that's when he was in the synagogue preaching. But it wasn't the only time he was doing ministry work during the rest of the week.

Just as we saw in Chapter 17 with Paul's stay in Athens, he would have gone to the marketplace.

He would have gone where people were and he would have had conversations there, probably even debated the philosophers in public in the view of other people.

So he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, trying to persuade both Jews and Greeks.

But as we will see as we go on reading here, the Jews were actually rather hostile to the message that Paul was preaching.

And we see the reason why as it comes up later, he's teaching people not to follow the law.

Instead, they need to follow Jesus. And we'll talk about that as we get closer to that. So verse five here, when

Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the

Jews that the Christ was Jesus. We're seeing this over and over again about Paul's ministry.

He was preaching this from the moment that he was converted, trying to convince people that Jesus is the

Christ. He's the promised Messiah. We've been looking for the Messiah. He's come.

See, this is why Acts is such a beautiful part, too, to Luke's gospel.

He writes about the gospel in Luke, and he writes about how the gospel then goes to the world in Acts.

So we already saw in the gospel of Luke that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.

And here in the book of Acts, Paul is able to say Christ is Jesus. We already know what it is that Paul is talking about because we read it in the book of Luke.

Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the law and the prophets. And so now Paul is persuading the

Jews of this. We've been looking for the Messiah. He's already come. You're expecting some sort of a king that's going to rise up in Jerusalem and sit on the throne and he's going to overthrow the

Romans and all our oppressors. Well, that's not the way Christ was to come.

And this was even prophesied in the Old Testament, exactly how he was to come and how he would be treated by his own people.

So he's teaching from the Jewish scriptures there in the synagogue, in the synagogue, testifying to them and persuading them that the

Christ is Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads.

This is a reference back to Ezekiel 33, where there is the call of the watchman.

And the Lord says, if I bring the sword upon a land and the watchman sees the sword coming and blows the trumpet and warns the people, then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning. His blood shall be upon himself. If he had taken warning, he would have saved his life.

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet so that the people are not warned and the sword comes and takes away any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity.

But his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. And this was something that so convicted

Paul that he understood himself to be the watchman, an apostle of Jesus Christ, who was warning the

Jews that the judgment of God is coming, just as we saw that judgment preached at the

Areopagus in Acts chapter 17. The apostle Paul said the times of ignorance

God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

So that same thing that Paul had preached at the Areopagus, he's preaching again here in Corinth in the synagogue, pointing out to the

Jews how this one who was raised from the dead, Jesus Christ, is the promised Messiah. He is the fulfillment of everything that had been written about in the law and the prophets.

The Jews didn't want to believe it. And we again, we get that explanation why later on. Well, Paul is telling us that we don't have to follow the law.

We just need to follow Jesus. And that's what they get upset about. And of course, the the leader of the tribunal there in Corinth is going,

I don't care about this. What are you talking about? This is your business. It's none of mine. So they're upset that Paul is saying that you must follow

Christ in order to be saved. You can't follow the law. Jesus kept the law and he's the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

You must worship Jesus to be forgiven and have right standing before God. And they hate this message.

Paul is doing exactly as he should. He is speaking everything, the full counsel of God withholding nothing.

And so when they reject him, their blood is on their own heads. Paul has done everything. He has preached what he is supposed to preach.

So he shakes his garment of them, shakes his garment symbolically as though to show

I am shaking myself free of you. Your blood is on your own heads. From now on,

I'm going to the Gentiles and we'll pick up the story there tomorrow. But let us all understand the call that is upon us to share the gospel, to warn people that the judgment of God is coming.

And how are you going to be able to escape that judgment? By turning from your sin and turning to Jesus.

Worship the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. May we preach the full counsel of God and may it not be said of us that we withheld from those who were perishing the answer to their sin, to the judgment that was coming upon them.

We had the answer and we didn't say it. The answer is Jesus. The solution to our sin problem is

Christ. The way to have forgiveness of sins and right standing with God is by faith in the

Lord. So turn from sin and believe. Amen. Let us conclude with prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray now, as I've prayed many times on this program before,

I pray for boldness, that we would have courage to share the gospel of Christ with somebody else so that they would not perish.

But may we also understand humbly that we don't have the power to convert the soul.

That is a power that is done, that's a transformation that happens by the Holy Spirit of God alone.

And so when a person is resistant to that message, it's not our fault if we have done according to the word of God, for they are going to have to stand before God on that day of judgment.

But let it not be said of us that we had the answer and didn't give it. We know that the answer for our sin is

Jesus, and the answer to everyone else's sin is Christ as well. So may we not withhold that answer, but preach it boldly, share it with others, that they may know this

Christ and live. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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