FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF VILLA RICA, PCA

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Rev. Todd W. Allen

Villa Rica 1/22/06

Acts 18:1-11

                Thomas Carlyle is quoted as saying, “If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him.  They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of it.”

     This is the kind of reception the apostle Paul got when he visited Athens and spoke at Mars Hill to the Athenians. We are told that they spent their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new. They were interested in philosophical dialogue but the gospel was foolishness to them. As Paul wrote the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 1:18-31   ¹⁸For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written,

    “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

    And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”

²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. ²²For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; ²³but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, ²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

²⁶For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; ²⁷but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, ²⁸and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, ²⁹so that no man may boast before God. ³⁰But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, ³¹so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

1 Cor. 1:18-31

 Paul did not spend much time in Athens. Nor should we waste our time in fruitless discussions and debate with those who are smug and vain in their philosophy of life, who like the Athenians only want to hear something new and think the gospel is foolishness.

So Paul moved on to Corinth. He spent almost two years there and wrote at least two letters back to them.

Paul met a man named Aquila and his wife Priscilla They had come to Corinth from Italy. They were Jews and had left Italy because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.

Aquila was a tentmaker and so was Paul. Jewish fathers taught their sons a trade so that they would always be able to support themselves. Even though Paul was educated as a rabbi and a scholar he knew how to earn a. living. When he cast in his lot with Aquila it was no doubt partly due to their both being of the same craft.

Paul worked at tent making for a time, but the scripture tells us that when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. . ⁶But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” Acts 18:5-6 

This was a very historic decision. From that time onward Paul primarily directed his ministry to Gentiles. Paul had a great love for his countrymen and he had a keen desire to win them to Christ. No doubt this was because he himself was Jewish and had also at the first resisted the gospel, so he could relate to their unbelief and feel compassion for them.

But Paul had finally experienced enough resistance and opposition from his own countrymen. As the adage goes, enough is enough. How can you win others to Christ when a strong spirit of opposition to the gospel and blasphemy against Christ prevails?

Paul was being quite scriptural in turning away from his Jewish countrymen.  God told Ezekiel to warn the wicked man that his wicked way would result in him dying in his iniquity, unless he turned from it. If Ezekiel failed to warn the wicked man God said that he would require his blood at his hand, but that if he warned him his blood would be on his own head, and that Ezekiel would have delivered himself from any guilt by having warned him.

This is what Paul meant when he said,  “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” (Cf. Ezekiel 3:18-21)

Add to this the Lord’s directive to the disciples that when you go to a place and they do not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from that place you should shake off the dust from the soles of your feet for a testimony against them.

So Paul symbolically shook out his garments as though to say, I have seen that you do not listen to the gospel and now I turn away from you. Your blood is on your own heads because I have preached the truth of the gospel to you and you would not receive it.

Apart from the gospel there is no salvation. The rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ is a rejection of God's mercy and forgiveness. So Paul turned to the Gentiles.

We can learn from this that the gospel will not be preached forever. There comes a time when rejection of God’s offer of salvation to a person or nation results in a withdrawal of the gospel. When men do not obey the gospel it is withdrawn from them. It would be true to say that the gospel, being often heard and refused, hardens the heart. The longer a person puts off becoming a Christian the harder it will be to believe in Christ.

There is really no middle ground that a man can stand on and say I am neither for him nor against him. As Jesus said, ³⁰“He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. (Matt. 12:30) 

We are either for Christ or we are counted against him. And so Paul ceased to go to the synagogue to preach the gospel at Corinth. He went to the house of Titius Justus, a believer whose house was right next door to the synagogue, and continued to preach there. Perhaps Paul was hopeful that by remaining close by there could be a change in attitude on the part of the unbelieving Jews. When God's Spirit withdraws it is not all at once. There is a gradual withdrawal.

This historic decision by Paul to turn away from the Jews and go to the Gentiles was a fulfilling of scripture. God had long before declared that the Jewish nation would harden itself against the Word of God. When Isaiah had a vision of the Lord he heard the voice of the Lord,  saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then Isaiah said, “Here am I. Send me!”

⁹  He said, “Go, and tell this people:

    ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive;

    Keep on looking, but do not understand.’

¹⁰ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive,

    Their ears dull,  And their eyes dim,

    Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

    Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”

¹¹ Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered, “Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,  Houses are without people  And the land is utterly desolate,

¹² “The LORD has removed men far away,

    And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

¹³ “Yet there will be a tenth portion in it,

    And it will again be subject to burning,

    Like a terebinth or an oak

    Whose stump remains when it is felled.

    The holy seed is its stump.” 

Isa. 6:8-13

In God’s sovereign purpose the Jewish nation would be hardened against the Word of God. But God’s Word also foretold of the gathering in of the Gentiles.

Think about this, for the rolling centuries before Christ Gentiles were bypassed by God’s grace. Very few Gentiles ever came to faith. Only the seed of Abraham, and not all of them, were people of faith. Only after the coming of Christ do we see Gentiles, first under the preaching of Peter and then of Paul, respond to the preaching of the Gospel.

Paul’s historic decision at Corinth was a turning away from the Jewish nation to the planting churches with an ever-increasing and greater number of Gentiles than Jews. The Jews became a minority, as is the case today. 

Do you remember the parable Christ taught of the wicked winegrowers?  It is recorded in three gospels, Matthew 21, Mark 12, and Luke 20:9-19:

  “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey for a long time. ¹⁰“At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him some of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹“And he proceeded to send another slave; and they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. ¹²“And he proceeded to send a third; and this one also they wounded and cast out. ¹³“The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ ¹⁴“But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.’ ¹⁵“So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶“He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.” When they heard it, they said, “May it never be!” ¹⁷But Jesus looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written:

    ‘The stone which the builders rejected,

    This became the chief corner stone’?

¹⁸“Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”

 ¹⁹The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on Him that very hour, and they feared the people; for they understood that He spoke this parable against them. (Luke 20:9-19)

Shouldn’t we understand his parable the same way the scribes and chief priests understood it? He spoke it against the Jewish officialdom and thus against the nation. It cannot be otherwise. 

          Paul’s decision to turn from the Jews to the Gentiles signaled the beginning of the end of exclusive Jewish custodianship of God’s vineyard. The end would come in 70 AD when the Roman armies would destroy Jerusalem and the temple. All Jews would either be killed or be scattered across the face of the earth. The Gentile Christians would thereafter assume vineyard custodianship.

History certainly bears out this foretold predetermined purpose of God. The gospel has been in the hands of converted Gentiles since the fall of Jerusalem and will continue until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And now it is the Jews instead of the Gentiles who for the most part are deprived of grace.

How precious is the grace of God that sends to you and me the gospel. We spurn it at our peril. Without it we perish. God help America to hear and heed the gospel. Should our president and elected representatives and Supreme Court become obstinate against the gospel and even, God forbid, blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ,  that will signal the beginning of the end of America and possibly the times of the Gentiles as well.

Paul did not give up preaching. He even had Jewish converts after this decision. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, was a trophy of God's grace even though all other Jews in that synagogue remained obstinate and blasphemous against Christ. And Crispus’ entire household joined him in faith. How often we see that when the head of the house turns to the Lord the rest of the family follows suit. Heads of households have a heavy burden and responsibility. 

The work of the ministry can be disheartening. Especially is that true on the mission field, away from family and friends in a strange city among many who oppose the gospel. However, the Lord gave Paul special encouragement ⁹ the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; ¹⁰for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”    

This word from the Lord would tell us that Paul knew fear. And no wonder, his countrymen had already tried to kill him and wherever they went he was hounded and persecuted by them. What a blessing when the Lord speaks a clear and unmistakable word that he is with you. No doubt Paul needed that word. The vision also tells us that the grace of God had not been withdrawn from Corinth.

The gospel is sure of success when the Lord anoints the preaching of the word and protects his servants. He has sovereign control over all the circumstances and people involved in any ministry for Christ. And God has a people that are his everywhere. But in some places there are more than in others, as in Athens there were few, but here in Corinth there were many.

We do not know the secret things of predestination and election. We are not advised who the people are that the Lord has in a community. It is our task to preach to all as though each and everyone is a candidate for the gospel blessings, albeit obstinacy and blasphemy against Christ can silence the gospel for some even as God will draw to himself through the preaching of the word those who are his.

So, in obedience to the vision, Paul settled in for a long stay at Corinth. He knew that there were many people, who would come to the Lord in that city who did not belong to the synagogue, and they did. Paul's faithfulness and obedience is an inspiration to us all. He kept at his job. He always believed the Lord. And so should we.

          Are you in the faith of Jesus Christ today? The gospel is for whosoever will come to Christ. Acknowledge your need of him today. Ask him to be your Savior. Receive his free gift of salvation today. In faith believing sing this hymn with me.

 Hymn #509   “Jesus, Lover of My Soul”

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