Preaching However and Wherever to Get the Gospel Out
5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 6 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.” 7 And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. 8 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.
Acts 18:5–8 ESV Read More
Paul had some success in the synagogue. He lasted a few weeks before being opposed and reviled. Compared to cities that ran him out of town or started riots, the synagogue in Corinth wasn’t rejecting him too bad. The reference to him being innocent but their blood being on their own heads goes back to Ezekiel 33. God told Ezekiel he was a watchman for the people of Israel. If God gave Ezekiel something to say in judgment or warning for the people and he didn’t say it, they would still be judged, but the fault would be on Ezekiel. If they didn’t listen, judgment would fall on them for their sin but Ezekiel “will be saved.”
This shows the level of burden Paul had to preach that Jesus was the Christ. It wasn’t just a hobby message or a story he loved to tell. He felt called and obligated to preach the Gospel of Jesus wherever he could. In 1 Corinthians 9:16 Paul even says
For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
It wasn’t a proud and honorable endeavor. It wasn’t something that he had to get himself to do. He had so fully understood the salvation of God in Christ Jesus that he couldn’t bear to do anything else.
When Paul gave up on the synagogue it almost seems like a joke that he went next door. There were lecture halls in the ancient world that would be like going to the play-house or watching the game at the sports bar. It was a place to gather and be entertained or to see and hear the latest thing. Crispus, the synagogue ruler, could still come listen without any trouble and many other non-Jewish Corinthians could come too.
God was reaching Corinth every day – making the Jewish people more jealous as they saw the crowds grow next door and working in their hearts to give them another chance to consider what Paul had to say. As more Gentiles came to believe in Jesus, they would really grow and spend time in a lot of different teaching on the Christian life from Paul. Growth had it’s triumphs and difficulties as you can see from reading 1 & 2 Corinthians.
Either way, Paul, the watchman of Corinth, was faithful to his mandate in that city. Many people responded and were rescued from sin. Paul, in the mean time, struggled with how to preach and where, but he never quit. His confidence in the salvation of Jesus, available to all, was too great to stop just because a few people wouldn’t listen.
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