God's People in the City Text: Acts 18:5-11
Introduction: The Necessary Scandal
We live in an age that prizes being inoffensive. The highest virtue in our therapeutic culture is to be nice, to be winsome, to be affirming. This sentiment has crept into the church like a fog, creating a brand of Christianity that is terrified of confrontation and allergic to sharp edges. We have become masters of sanding down the gospel until it is smooth enough to be palatable to the world, but in doing so, we have often sanded it down to nothing. We want a gospel that makes friends and influences people, but the gospel of the New Testament is a sword. It is a stumbling block. It is a necessary scandal that forces a crisis upon every soul that hears it.
The Apostle Paul in Corinth is a case study in this kind of faithful, confrontational ministry. He does not enter the city with a marketing plan to discover the felt needs of the Corinthians. He arrives with a singular, explosive declaration: Jesus is the Christ. And the reaction is immediate and polarizing. There is no middle ground, no polite neutrality. The Word of God, when faithfully preached, acts as a divine sorting mechanism. It divides the hearers into two camps: those who resist and blaspheme, and those who believe and are baptized.
This passage is not simply a travelogue of Paul's missionary journeys. It is a paradigm for the church in every generation. It reveals the nature of gospel proclamation, the inevitability of gospel opposition, the necessity of a decisive break with that opposition, and the bedrock of divine encouragement that sustains it all. If we are to be faithful in our own secular Corinth, we must learn these lessons well. We must recover the Pauline conviction that our primary task is not to be liked, but to be clear, and to trust the sovereign God who has His people in every city.
The Text
But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly bearing witness to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. But 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.” Then he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a God-fearer, whose house was next to the synagogue. And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized. And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will lay a hand on you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.” And he stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
(Acts 18:5-11 LSB)
The Unfettered Word (v. 5)
We begin with Paul's shift in focus.
"But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly bearing witness to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ." (Acts 18:5)
Up to this point, Paul had been working with his hands, making tents to support himself. But with the arrival of his companions, likely carrying financial support from the churches in Macedonia, he is freed up for the singular task to which he was called. He was "devoting himself completely to the word." The word here is constrained, pressed in on all sides by a divine necessity. He was gripped by the message.
And what was that message? It was not a series of ethical platitudes or a philosophy for self-improvement. It was a solemn testimony, a legal declaration before witnesses, with cosmic consequences. He was "solemnly bearing witness to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ." This is the central claim of all reality. The long-awaited Messiah, the anointed King promised throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the one to whom all of history was pointing, was none other than Jesus of Nazareth, the one they had crucified. This was not an opinion to be considered, but a verdict to be received. For his Jewish audience, this was the ultimate fork in the road. To accept this was to have their entire world reordered. To reject it was to reject their own God and their own Scriptures.
Rejection and Responsibility (v. 6)
The response was predictable for those with hardened hearts.
"But 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 18:6)
The gospel is never received with a shrug. It provokes. Here, the response is twofold: resistance and blasphemy. They set themselves in battle array against the message, and they reviled the name of the King. This is the natural response of the sinful heart to the claims of Christ's lordship.
Paul's reaction is not to soften the message or form a committee to make it more seeker-sensitive. He performs a prophetic sign-act. Shaking out his garments was a visceral, public demonstration of separation. It was the ancient equivalent of washing one's hands of a matter. It was a visual sermon declaring that the responsibility for their unbelief was now entirely their own.
His words are just as sharp: "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean." This is the language of the watchman in Ezekiel 33. The watchman is responsible for sounding the alarm. If he fails, the blood of the slain is on his hands. But if he sounds the warning and the people refuse to listen, their blood is on their own heads. Paul is declaring that he has fulfilled his covenantal duty. He has delivered the message plainly. Their coming judgment is a result of their own stubborn rebellion, not his failure.
Then comes the strategic pivot: "From now on I will go to the Gentiles." This is not a final rejection of all Jews for all time. It is a tactical decision in Corinth. When the official representatives of the old covenant order reject the King, the kingdom is offered to those who were once considered outsiders. The rejection of the gospel by some results in the expansion of the gospel to others. God's purposes are never thwarted by human unbelief.
Provocative Proximity and Surprising Conversions (v. 7-8)
Paul's move is anything but a retreat.
"Then he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a God-fearer, whose house was next to the synagogue. And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household..." (Acts 18:7-8)
Notice the geography here. Paul doesn't move to the other side of town. He sets up his base of operations right next door to the synagogue. This is a deliberate, confrontational act. He is establishing a rival assembly, a true synagogue, on the very doorstep of the one that had rejected its own Messiah. He is planting the flag of King Jesus in plain sight of the rebels.
His host is Titius Justus, a "God-fearer." This was a class of Gentiles who were drawn to the God of Israel but had not become full proselytes. They were the low-hanging fruit, spiritually hungry and not bound by the traditions that had blinded the synagogue leaders. And then, in a stunning display of God's sovereign power, Crispus, the leader of that very synagogue, believes in the Lord. This is a direct hit. The captain of the opposing team defects, and he brings his entire household with him. God loves to show His power by saving the most unlikely people, often from the very heart of the opposition. While the institution hardened its heart, its leader had his heart opened. God was building His church, and He started by poaching the chief elder.
The effect is immediate. "And many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized." The gospel spills out from this new beachhead and begins to conquer the city. Hearing leads to believing, and believing leads to baptism, the public enlistment in Christ's army.
A Vision for a Fearless Ministry (v. 9-11)
In the midst of this turmoil and success, the Lord Himself intervenes to strengthen His servant.
"And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, 'Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will lay a hand on you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.'" (Acts 18:9-10)
The command "Do not be afraid" strongly implies that Paul was, in fact, tempted by fear. He was in a hostile environment, facing powerful opposition. Courage is not the absence of fear, but obedience in the face of fear. The Lord's antidote to fear is a command and a promise. The command is to "go on speaking and do not be silent." The primary strategy against the forces of darkness is the relentless proclamation of the truth. When you are tempted to shut up, speak up.
The promise is threefold. First, the promise of God's presence: "for I am with you." This is the great promise to God's people throughout the ages, from Jacob to Moses to the disciples in the Great Commission. The sovereign Lord of the universe is personally present with His messenger. Second, the promise of God's protection: "no man will lay a hand on you in order to harm you." This is not a promise of a life free from suffering, but a specific guarantee that his mission in Corinth will not be cut short by his enemies. God places an inviolable hedge of protection around Paul for as long as his work there is needed.
Third, and most foundationally, is the promise of God's elect: "for I have many people in this city." This is one of the most potent statements on divine election in all of Scripture. God tells Paul to keep preaching because the results are already guaranteed. God has a multitude of His chosen sheep scattered throughout this pagan, idolatrous, sexually broken city. Paul's job is not to save people. His job is to preach the gospel, and in so doing, to gather the people whom God has already set apart for Himself. The doctrine of election is not a barrier to evangelism; it is the very fuel of it. It is the absolute assurance that our labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Because of this divine charge, Paul "stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." The vision produced perseverance. He settled in for the long haul, establishing and building up the church in that wicked city, confident in the presence, protection, and purpose of his God.
Conclusion: Fuel for Faithfulness
We are all called to minister in our own Corinth. We are surrounded by resistance and, increasingly, by blasphemy. We are tempted to fear, to compromise, and to be silent. This passage provides the fuel for our faithfulness.
We must be utterly devoted to the Word, proclaiming the exclusive lordship of Jesus Christ without apology. When we face rejection, we must recognize our responsibility is to be faithful, not successful in the world's eyes. We must shake the dust from our feet and turn to those who have ears to hear.
But above all, we must anchor our ministry in the sovereign promises of God. He is with us. He will protect us for the work He has assigned us. And He has His people in our cities, our neighborhoods, and our workplaces. Our task is to go on speaking, to refuse to be silent, and to cast the net of the gospel far and wide. We do this with joyful confidence, knowing that the Lord of the harvest has already determined the outcome, and He will gather His people home.