What Do I Do With Jesus

Rejecting Jews

Acts 13:44–46 (NASB95)

The next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

Paul had preached the gospel the week before and it was well received by the Jews. As a matter of fact the Jews asked Paul to come back the next week to share the gospel again. Acts 13:43

Acts 13:43 NASB95

Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.

However when Paul began to preach the following week in the synagogue the Jews had a different reaction. It wasn’t the message that they had a problem with, it was the inclusion of the Gentiles to the message. There was such hatred by the Jews towards the Gentiles that they became belligerent towards Paul and began to argue with him when he opened the gospel up to them.

Tell story about genie giving a wish but a person they disliked would get twice what they asked for.

This hatred dates back to the time of Jonah . Jonah 4:1-3

Jonah 4:1–3 (NASB95)

But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”

God told Jonah to go preach a message of repentance to the Gentiles at Nineveh. He hated the Gentiles so much that he fled from God so he wouldn’t have to for fear they would repent. He would rather the Gentiles die and go to hell rather than give them an opportunity to repent.

We see the power of hatred in the Jews life. They would rather reject the gospel than see the Gentiles receive it. Why such hatred?

God chose the nation of Israel to be a lighthouse to the world regarding a relationship with Him. Rather than doing what God intended, they used their chosenness to see themselves as superior to others rather than use their chosenness to attract people to the One true God. They loved their privileged life.

People reject Jesus today

People today love the life they live today apart from Jesus. They live comfortable lives and really have no need for Jesus. They see themselves as people that need no salvation because they do not see themselves as sinners. They will confess that they are not perfect but they are certainly not sinners. 1 John 1:8

1 John 1:8 NASB95

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

People prefer their conveniences today and prioritize them over their relationship with Jesus. They may not say they reject Jesus, but they demonstrate it by their lives. Their is a direct correlation regarding the way a person spends their time, treasure, and talent to their relationship with Jesus.

When a person allocates more of their time, treasure, and talent to worldly things such as material possessions, hobbies, vacations, jobs, then they do the things of the kingdom of God they demonstrate where their love is. Matt. 6:21

Matthew 6:21 NASB95

for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

When a person values the things of this world more than their relationship with Jesus they are rejecting Him. The way you can tell that they do is when they get mad at you for confronting it or pointing it out!

Others reject Jesus because they are looking for enough evidence to believe. They will research, read the Bible, and argue religion and philosophy until they win the argument that there is no God. The problem is not a matter of evidence. Their will never be enough evidence for a person to be saved.

The problem is that they do not have the faith to believe in the evidence that already exists. They don’t have faith to belief that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died on a cross for their sins, that he rose from the dead on the third day after crucifixion, and that He is going to return again and rule and judge all people based on their faith.

There are many more reasons why people reject Jesus today, but these are the two prominent ones that I see.

Receiving Gentiles

The second group of people that we see are the receiving Gentiles. Act 13:48-49

Acts 13:48–49 (NASB95)

When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region.

The Gentiles are pagan people that know nothing about the one true God. Many of them had religion and false gods that didn’t have any impact in their life. It was mainly meaningless ritualistic activity. Some Gentiles didn’t even have that. They live licentious lives that catered to their flesh with no guilt or shame for their behavior.

Though they may not have had remorse for their behavior because they didn’t see it as sin but a problem of the conscious, they knew deep within their soul that they lacked peace. They knew somehow that the life they were living was not right.

When they learned about the law and saw that they were violators of the law and that there was no hope for forgiveness in their religion, they were elated to find out that their is forgiveness in Jesus.

They recognize that they are not worthy of salvation, but God loves them and gifts them salvation in His Son Jesus Christ. To even be considered for salvation was cause for rejoicing!

This is what the gospel does. It makes a person aware of their sin. They recognize that they are separated from God because of their sin. They see the love of God by Him giving them His Son as a sacrifice for their sin. Rom.5:8

Romans 5:8 NASB95

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

It is not our merit that causes our favor with God, it is our faith in His mercy and grace that we find favor in God. Mercy and grace are found in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

When they repent of their sin and place their faith in Jesus their is tremendous rejoicing. It manifests itself in worship and further spreading of the gospel.

When the Gentiles were saved, they could not keep it to themselves. They spread the gospel to all their friends families and acquaintances. we see this in Acts 13:49

Acts 13:49 NASB95

And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region.

This is how we should be today! The rejoicing in the gospel is something that we should do every day. Don’t let the fire of salvation subside in your soul. Stoke that fire by sharing the good news with other people!

Rebellious Dignitaries

Acts 13:50 NASB95

But the Jews incited the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city, and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.

The Jews knew that they were losing the battle against Paul so they turned to the powerful people to put a stop to the gospel movement. The Bible says that they went to prominent women and leading men of the city to make things difficult for the new believers.

They were successful because we see that they ran Paul and Barnabas out of the city.

Folks their are powerful entities that are going to make life difficult for Christians. They will incite mobs and courts of public opinion to keep us quiet. They will leverage our cancel culture to impact us personally.

We need to stand strong for Christ. However there does come a time when we must leave. This brings me to the final group.

Rejoicing Disciples

Acts 13:51–52 (NASB95)

But they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Paul and Barnabas left and shook the dust off of their feet and went elsewhere to share the gospel.

I have been asked, “ Is there a point where you stop sharing the gospel with a person? If so, When?” The answer to the question is yes. The answer to when is when they reject Jesus.”

This liberates a person from the burden of trying to minister to someone who rejects Jesus, and affords them opportunity to share with those who are willing to consider or receive Jesus.

There is no greater experience than effective ministry. It brings glory to God and joy to our soul!