God’s Word for You

Acts 18:5-8 Shaking out the dust

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, October 26, 2020

5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul was absorbed in the Word, preaching to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 6 When the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook the dust out of his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 7 Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of a worshiper of God, a man named Titius Justus.

Since there was a synagogue in Corinth, Paul was happy to preach there. But when his hearers objected to the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures and spoke against him, even becoming abusive, he left. The act of shaking the dust out of his clothes was commanded by Jesus, who said, “If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them” (Mark 6:11). The house belonged to a prominent man, Titius Justus. It is said that his family (if it is the same one) were well-to-do potters in Corinth, and that several family members with the name Titius served the city in government or in the military. This Titius, Justus, served in another excellent way.

The word synomoreo (συνομορέω and related words) in “went next door” can mean the country that touches one’s border (2 Chronicles 21:16), the pastureland next to one’s town (Numbers 35:5), the town nearest one’s town (Jeremiah 50:40), or neighbors in general (1 Chronicles 12:40). Here it means the house that was next door, or very close by on the same street.

As Paul left the synagogue, we see that his patience with Jews who rejected the gospel was wearing thin. The expression “your blood be on your own heads” was reserved for the worst kinds of sins in the Law of Moses, such as incest (Leviticus 20:11-12), homosexuality (Leviticus 20:13), having sex with an animal (Leviticus 20:16), or practicing various forms of witchcraft (Leviticus 20:27). But what sin is greater than idolatry? Samuel said: “Rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23). And the Lord himself spoke to Israel in the days of the judges Tola and Jair: “You have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you” (Judges 10:13). When we reject God himself, what do any of the other commandments matter? We already stand condemned. We already feel the reek of hell’s fire billowing up around us and the heat of the fiery furnace blasting away like an open oven door. How often is Luther accused of hating the Jews because he fared the same as Paul when he tried to preach the gospel to the Jews he knew in his hometown? A man’s name, his culture, his heritage, his race, are all meaningless. God has placed each of us where he wants us to be, so that we can hear the gospel when it comes our way. But every minister is frustrated when people turn away from the gospel. Maybe it’s all the more frustrating with Jews and Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses and Unitarians and other non-Christians who know or should know their Bible but reject Christ anyway. The angel proclaimed the fulfillment of all the Scriptures when Christ was born: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). The gospel of the angel was this: The Christ-child was the Lord (therefore truly and fully God) and was born (therefore a baby, truly and fully human as well). His birth was to be a blessing for all people, fulfilling the promise made to Abraham (Genesis 18:18), and he would be the Savior, the one to rescue us from our sins, fulfilling the promise made before Eve (Genesis 3:15). This is the Savior we worship and praise.

8 Crispus, the synagogue ruler, together with his entire household, believed in the Lord. And many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.

Besides the prominent Titius Justus, the gospel won over the synagogue ruler, and so the Jews of Corinth were deprived of that man’s work, as well. The ruler of a synagogue was a man who was responsible for the upkeep of the synagogue building, more of a committee chairman than a custodian, but also responsible for seeing to it that various rabbis were scheduled to preach and to teach the young people. So he was an important administrator and coordinator.

Once again we see an example of adults who come to faith in Christ and are baptized. This is a passage we must call descriptive, showing what happened, rather than prescriptive, commanding what happened. For example, Cain killed his brother Abel (Genesis 4:8). Is that prescriptive or descriptive? Of course, it is only descriptive. Peter, an apostle, was married and took his wife with him as he traveled as a preacher (1 Corinthians 9:5). Does that mean that all missionaries must be married? No, it’s merely a descriptive passage. So it is with the baptism of adults. We simply don’t have references to infants being baptized apart from the rest of their households because we only really see baptisms during Paul’s missionary work (or that of John the Baptist), not during the ordinary workings of the local churches. But Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all nations by baptizing (Matthew 28:19), and he also said that “whoever is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). I for one would rather answer my Lord on Judgment Day as to why I did baptize than why I didn’t. Refusing baptism is too much like hiding away my one mina in a piece of cloth (Luke 19:20). And if baptism doesn’t create faith and give the forgiveness of sins, then where did my faith come from? It is the same today as when I was a child. Today I just know a little more than I did then, but I have the same trust in Jesus.

Keep trusting in Jesus your Savior. And be thankful for your baptism, God’s grace came to you then, and you still have it now.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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