Dr. Craig Mobey
This message communicates 7 strategic points to use when people turn against you and insult you.
Scripture: Acts 18:4-15 (KJV)
Act 18:4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
Act 18:5 And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.
Act 18:6 And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.
Act 18:7 And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.
Act 18:8 And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.
Act 18:9 Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:
Act 18:10 For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.
Act 18:11 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Act 18:12 And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat,
Act 18:13 Saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.
Act 18:14 And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you:
Act 18:15 But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters.
Introduction
It seems to me that people were turning against a seemingly fed-up and insulted Paul. And his reaction by effectively telling them to “get on with it, without me” is in a sense, quite natural. Shaking the dust off his clothes was a visible testimony against them.
I am reminded that what Paul encountered was opposition to preaching the Gospel. We can expect to encounter the same: wherever the true Gospel is preached, there will always be opposition.
There is much that we can learn and apply from today’s Scripture reading.
Opposition to the Gospel
Acts 18:4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
This verse gives us a what, how, where, when and to who.
- What: preach the Gospel.
- How: reasoning and persuading.
- Where: in the synagogue.
- When: every sabbath.
- Who: Jews and Greeks.
Paul, as a learned man (lawyer), was reasoning, persuading, and teaching. Paul would have engaged his audience’s arguments against the Gospel, engaged their misinterpretation of Scripture and so forth. In other words, Paul would have proclaimed the Gospel and then systematically, logically, and with explanations, worn down their opposition to the Gospel. Those rising up and opposing Paul were contradicting themselves as well as their own prophecies. This leaves them with two options:
- Convert.
- Continue to rise up and oppose Paul. Because Paul was in the will of God, they were effectually rising up and opposing God.
Crispus and his whole house converted and were baptized. Gallio and some Jewish leaders brought Paul before the court.
I find it interesting after reading verse 13, that Paul’s accusers had not – despite Paul’s initial tribe and his year and a half of teaching – still held on to their beliefs. And in their accusation was both truth and deception:
- The truth: Paul was trying to get people to worship God.
- The deception: “Against our law.” Firstly, it is God’s Law and secondly, Paul was against their interpretation of God’s Law.
“Shooting the Messenger”
The message of the Gospel, of which Paul is a messenger, could not be disproven. And as we sometimes ourselves – as messengers – experience, what remains is to “shoot the messenger.”
John, Blunden, and Liu write,[1] “…participants imagined that they were waiting to board a flight and receive an announcement from the gate agent. For half of participants, the gate agent informed them of good news, that their flight was going to board on time; the other half learned from the gate agent of bad news, that their flight was delayed by two hours. Relative to those who received good news, participants who received bad news expressed dislike for the gate agent (despite the fact that the gate agent had no control over the flight delay).”
Unlike the example of the bad news of a flight delay, Paul’s message of the Gospel is good news. And this good news fell onto the ears of people who were authoring their own destruction as they went downward from contradicting themselves to blaspheming both Christ and Paul.
The accusation against Paul, which could have resulted in his death, was cleverly constructed in that Paul was not a Jew because he went against circumcision and not a Gentile because he preached against the worship of Greek gods and was therefore setting up a worship of his own (Roman law forbade bringing in new Gods and at the same time, allowed the Jews to worship God).
Per God’s promise in verse 10, “For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city,” Gallio dismissed the case and no harm came to Paul.
“Shooting the messenger” does not alter or nullify the message.
Strategy
Here are 7 key points of strategy to use when people turn against you and insult you:
- Be knowledgeable. Paul knew both the Scriptures and Christ. He knew how to correctly interpret the Scriptures and apply the results to the situation at hand.
- Be a person of integrity. Paul, the last apostle, met all the New Testament criteria to be an apostle. His accusers did not query his apostleship, or his Philippians 3:5-6 credentials, but raised an accusation against him, that although cleverly crafted, would not stand.
- Be in the will of God. In another translation (CEV) God told Paul, “Don’t be afraid to keep on preaching. Don’t stop!” (Acts 18:9).
- Faithfully deliver the truth. Paul remained in Corinth for another year and a half where he taught God’s message to the people.
- Be willing to change out your will for God’s will. Paul, in verse 6 (CEV) said, “Whatever happens to you will be your own fault! I am not to blame. From now on I am going to preach to the Gentiles” to “And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them” (verse 11, KJV). In verse 19 we read that Paul did engage the Jews again.
- Trust God. God told Paul in verse 10, “I am with you, and you won’t be harmed” (CEV). Under the protection of God, Paul preached the Gospel openly, publicly, among them all, in and out of season, with great boldness and faithfulness.
- Get on with the business of God. The first sentence of verse 18 (CEV) reads, “After Paul had stayed for a while with the Lord’s followers in Corinth, he told them good-by and sailed on to Syria with Aquila and Priscilla.” His focus was not the accusations, opposition or indeed how people would receive the Gospel, but to faithfully preach the Gospel, until his mission there was completed, leaving the results of the preaching in God’s hands.
Challenge (Conclusion)
We stand just inside the entrance to the unknown world of 2023. We are called to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that when we proclaim the Gospel we will encounter opposition, accusation and so forth. We will also encounter converts.
I am reminded that Paul stayed with the believers for a while. His audience was not only the unconverted, but also the converted as He taught and corrected doctrines (fundamental teachings of the Christian faith). This we can do in small groups, through biblical pastoral counselling, in conversations with each other, from the pulpit and so forth.
With this in mind, I urge each of you to memorize the 7-point strategy above and challenge you to find answers to the following questions:
- What are you going to do? Read Acts 1:8 and Matthew 28:18-20 to help you answer this question.
- How are you going to do it?
- Where are you going to do it?
- When are you going to do it?
- Who is your audience? Who are you going to talk to?
Amen.
[1] John LK, Blunden H and Liu H. 2019. Research Confirms: When Receiving Bad News, We Shoot the Messenger. Harvard Business Review. 2023. Accessed on 3 January 2023 from https://hbr.org/2019/04/research-confirms-when-receiving-bad-news-we-shoot-the-messenger.