Where is the Opportunity?

0:01 At this time, I'd like to invite Rabbi Ari up to give our word for today. Dear Lord, thank you for Rabbi Ari and the mighty man of valor that you have given this community, God, that he searches your word and he cares about the people. Lord, I pray that you would bring your word forth today, um, through his lips, Lord, in your mighty name, yeshu his name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Joseph. By the way,

0:48 this is Joseph's first service to lead. I don't know if you've noticed, he's, he's doing a fantastic job as I've done for 694 days, I want to remind you of the hostages that are remaining, that are being kept in captivity against their will. Uh, two, uh, bodies were recovered this, uh, yesterday in Gaza City during this, um,

1:37 current operation that, that Israel is, uh, undergoing. So now there's only 48 remaining, 20 of which are thought to be alive, by the way. I, I, I, I just, if I can say one, I, I always say if, as if I'm asking your permission. I Don't know if you've noticed in the last 694 days, every time that Hamas and all of the world says there's one place you, Israel should not go. You can't go there. Every time Israel does it, hostages are rescued.

2:23 Have you noticed that? Israel, you can't go into Rafa and hostages. Were, were rescued Israel. You can't go into Gaza City and hostages were rescued Israel. You can't take over the Philadelphia quarter and hostages were rescued every time the world says, don't go there, Israel. And Israel does go there. Hostages are, are, are brought back. Now, in this case, it's the remains, but those remains will bring comfort and closure to someone. I know the children are in here, in here today, so I'm not gonna say too much. Um, but I, I do want to just share this on the rise of antisemitism, uh,

3:09 throughout the world, underneath the masquerade of a, of a global ada and underneath the masquerade, or the mask of a sign that says Free Palestine here in America, in the United States, those who have supported a global ADA and have been attempting to free Palestine have in 2025, attempted to burn down the home of the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania with his family inside murdered a young Jewish couple outside the Jewish Museum of dc, firebombed and murdered an elderly Jewish woman at a march in support of the release of hostages in Colorado.

3:57 Shot 17 Catholic children in the middle of a church service this week, killing two. This is, these are statistics that are only in the United States and only in the last eight months. This is what free Palestine looks like. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be freedom allotted and granted to oppressed people who live under an oppressive government. I'm saying that when you live and support Hamas as a, as a government, these are the consequences. These are what it looks like to everyone else.

4:42 By all means, there are people who are being persecuted in Gaza. They're not being persecuted by Israel. They're being persecuted by Hamas. They're being persecuted by people masquerading as important, not the, not masquerading. They are employees of the UN who hold food hostage, who hold back what the world has given in support. There has been so much food that in, in supplies that has been sent to Gaza. It could feed Gaza for years, but it doesn't because it's, it's, uh hmm.

5:28 It is stolen. It's hijacked, and it's held for ransom to the point of the suffering of their own people. And then they hide behind their own children to launch weapons of mass destruction against others. Well, maybe I don't mean mass destruction like nuclear bombs. You understand? I mean, like rockets. Okay, I I should stop now before I keep going. Let me also just say one more thing, not this is, this is on a much, on a much more uplifting note. I just, I just really want to extend, and a welcome to those of you who have moved to Texas recently. You are experiencing what we call first fall

6:14 or false fall, one of those two. And I don't know, it's, I love it. It's fantastic. And, and for once, it actually, it, it timed itself with the release of the pumpkin spice latte from, from Starbucks. But I mean, I'm looking outside and I'm like, oh my goodness, it's so dark. I just wanna take a nap. It's like, I just wanna be like, Barry, let's turn the lights down. Let's all just take naps real quick. Let's enjoy the nice rain at the, there is nothing like sleeping when it's raining. And if you're, if you, if you're, if you're from Texas, I,

7:02 I probably could group Oklahoma in this. Also, if you're from this area, there's nothing like sleeping with a thunderstorm going on. Like you can feel the thunder and it's just like, oh, you feel so comforted in your bed. It's just so nice. Anyways, don't get used to this. We Texas weather, because this has been the coolest summer. It 18 years. I'm not, I listen, I'm very thankful to the Lord for it. I love it. We only had like, I think five days of a hundred. What is that? Okay. Careful. Careful, right? I should be careful. You're right. It's, I told someone earlier, they're like, they're like,

7:48 do you think it'll be cold for SKO this year? And I said, I said in the last like 15 or 18 years, I have had two Sukkots that were not 90 degrees. And one of 'em, it dropped. And you remember that, sweetie? We, we had the youth for a lock-in. Man, it, it dropped from like 85 to 45 that morning of the soko picnic. It was, anyways, okay, we're here for a reason. And whether is not one of those reasons, except Psalm 19 says, the heavens declare the glory of the Lord. And I'm telling you, it's days like this when I a hundred percent agree.

8:35 So we're continuing our study in Acts. We are starting chapter 18. Yeah, woo is right. We have about 10 chapters left. I charted out actually to the end of the book of Acts and how long it's gonna take us. And I don't wanna tell you, um, because it's just a guesstimate. And, and what I have learned is that it always takes longer and costs more like in construction. So here we go. Chapter 18 of the Book of Acts. Today we are going to do verses one through eight after these things.

9:22 Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jewish man named Aquila, a native Pontius, having recently come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all Jewish people to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and began working for by trade. They were tent makers, and he was debating every Shabbat in the synagogue trying to persuade both Jewish and Greek people. Now, when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul became occupied with the message urgently testifying to the Jewish people that Yeshua is the Messiah. But when they resisted

10:07 and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said, your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. After leaving there, Paul went into the house of a man named EU Justice, a god fearer, whose house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the synagogue leader, put his faith in the Lord along with his whole household. And many of the Corinthians upon hearing were believing and being immersed. So here, we're gonna go through this first section. Joshua, I'm gonna try this. Yeah. Are we good? Okay. I'm gonna try this and see if it works.

10:57 And, uh, if it doesn't, we have a backup. 'cause I didn't want you to be left without, by the way, I forgot to mention this. If you, if some of you adults are, are, if perhaps auditory learning is not your number one way to learn, I printed off some sheets in the back with some fill in the blanks and a crossword search, um, which you were welcome to get the first 30 people to get. 'em can have them after that. You guys gonna have to fight over it. Um, is that working, Joshua? Oh yeah. There we go. Acts 18. Here we go. Let me start with this map.

11:43 So I, I wanna point out, just this kind of helps us understand where we are in terms of, uh, geography. So here we have Macedonia, or what we know as Greece. This is Greece. So here you can see Athens right here, and Paul goes to Corinth, which is right here. Now, interesting. I don't know if I can do this. Lemme try something. Nope, I don't think I can do that. Oh, wait, sure can look at that.

12:28 Ooh, this is kind of cool, y'all, when you get, when you learn technology on the fly, it's really interesting. Okay, so I don't know if you can tell, but Corinth, in all likelihood, Paul probably caught a boat from Athens to Corinth. Uh, if you remember last week, was it last? No, two weeks ago we finished up in Athens. Uh, we talked about Mars Hill, or, or the Areopagus, I think is what it's called. He probably catches a boat to, to Corinth. And he's waiting in Corinth for, for Silas and for Timothy to, to arrive Corinth. I don't know if you can tell. It's kind of hard. Once I, it gets pixelated.

13:14 And once I get this close, Corinth actually borders two different seas. Uh, I mean, bodies of water, uh, c like SEA, not like the letter C. It borders two different bodies of water. So it actually has two different ports. And, and we're gonna talk, I I, I'm giving you some, some details so you can understand a little bit about Corinth. Uh, and, and I'll leave the map up there, just in case you need to know, Corinth is the capital of a, which is, uh, the, the province or the area south of Macedonia. So you see Macedonia is listed up top northern Greece.

14:02 AIA is southern Greece. Basically, Corinth is the capital. And we're later informed in this chapter actually, that Paul spends 18 months here in Corinth. Actually, it's interesting because, uh, up until this point, Luke hasn't told us how long Paul is in Philippi or in Thessalonica, or, uh, he, he says a few Shabbats, or he doesn't give us an exact number. But he says that Paul is here for 18 months in, in, in Corinth. Why is Paul in Corinth for 18 months? It's a question you should ask yourself. I have a couple questions. Could it be because he wasn't thrown out immediately?

14:49 Paul seems to have a track record of upsetting some people and getting thrown outta the city quickly. Could it be because Paul needs to establish a base from which he can send out locals to share the good news? See, it's interesting. Corinth is number one. Corinth is the, uh, it's likely the third largest city in the Roman empire behind Rome and Alexandria. Corinth is also the language transition barrier from the Roman Empire to the Greek empire. So Athens primarily speaks Greek.

15:37 Corinth is a mixture, and when you go further west, they speak Latin. And when you get to Rome, they speak Latin. Corinth is a mixture of both a a and so there's both Latin and Greek going on in, in Corinth. It is a city that is enclosed by a wall. The circumference of the city is six miles. That's how long the wall is. It's twice the size of Athens. It's population ranges, uh, or estimated from different scholars to range from 20,000 to 300,000 people, uh, free persons. And then in addition to that, there's approximately 460,000

16:24 slaves in Corinth. You're talking about, I dunno, let's 750,000 people on the high, on the high, high end of the estimate. That's nearly a million people. Just so you can understand living in Corinth, Corinth, uh, the Corinthians were the first to engage in modern ships and shipping. And so as I mentioned, they have two shipping ports, uh, one into each of the different seas. Corinth was a city that was based on trade. It was not a city that was, that was planted. And then, um, if I can use it this way,

17:10 they robbed the agriculture from the surrounding area to sustain the city. There's no agriculture around around Corinth. Uh, the, the, it the area wasn't fertile for farming. Everything that's in Corinth is based on trade. What comes in and goes out, it's patron God for, by this point, for, for a couple hundred years, uh, was the Greek God Poseidon. By the time of this account in Acts 18, uh, Aphrodite is also widely worshiped in, um, in Corinth. There are other temples in Corinth. I'm, I am not saying that it's exclusive, but I'm saying these are the primary ones. Uh, and there's a third, I think I didn't write it down.

17:56 I think his name was Demetrius or something like that. Um, Corinth at this time had a reputation for its immorality. So for example, a Corinthian lady carried with it an explicit connotation. There are claims of ship captains squandering their wealth in Corinth, and they became legendary. This, the squander of the, of wealth, the temp, the temple of Aphrodite is thought at this time to have had in its service more than 1000 women serving the needs of those who frequented the temple. Corinth, as I mentioned earlier, was a

18:42 cultural bridge from Rome To The Greek empire, even though it's all underneath the Roman government's leadership at this time. Let's come back to the map. Here we are introduced to Aquila and Priscilla, and it said, the text tells us that they come from Rome. Let me, let me just read this. Uh, they come from Rome because Claudius commanded all the Jewish people, uh, to leave Rome. So here's the route that they probably took to get to Corinth. They were kicked out of Rome under, under Claudius. By the way, just as a, in,

19:29 in case you're wondering, because you should always wonder, by the way, when you see a term in, in the, in the Bible that you don't know, especially geography or something like that. You should always go look it up and see where the, like, where it is. So lemme come back here. Pontius, which is where Aquila is a native from, but he had been living in Rome. Pontius is this area. Oh, wait, standby, zooming in this area in Northern Turkey on the, on the, the southern coast of the Black Sea, Pontius and Benia, the two, the two provinces had merged by this time period. So it's interesting because Aquila comes from the area

20:15 that Paul originally wanted to go to earlier in the book of Acts, but Paul didn't go there. He turned a different way. Okay? We, um, have I thoroughly confused you? Oops, I thoroughly confused myself. Here we go. Okay, so here we go. This is, this is the route that they took, uh, Aquila and Priscilla. They were, the text tells us that they were expelled from Rome underneath Claudius and underneath Claudius, under his rule, there were two expulsions from Rome, one in 41 CE

21:02 and one in 49 ce. The text seems to indicate that Aquila and Priscilla were freshly arrived in Corinth from Rome. Uh, that's just, that's how I read it. They had recently come from Italy. So it le it, it, it helps us understand probably it's the latter date wa of the expulsion 49. But what now, I'm gonna jump ahead just a little bit just so that we understand. The, the actual time period we're introduced later on in the text to Galileo, who was the pro consul of a and gile was the pro consul in 51 ce.

21:48 They served a two year term, but he got sick and he only was able to serve one year of his two year term. And in all likelihood, he served from July of 51 to July of 52. Now, there's a, there's some arguments that it was July of 52 to July of 53. But anyways, you understand, we're right here in the 51 to 53 time period. It is amazing how much you can get out of the text, isn't it? Like all of this stuff. Now let's talk about trade. Corinth was a city of trade. How do we know that? Paul says, um, he, he, he found a Jewish man and woman, Aquila and Priscilla, uh, by the way, Priscilla is,

22:35 is often listed first, uh, by, by both Paul and Luke. I think after this, Priscilla is listed first at the end of the chapter. To do that in ancient times meant that the wife, uh, was a, was if you will, a, um, social status higher. Does that make sense? Um, she had a higher social status than her husband. Anyways, I wasn't planning on saying that. Where, where was I? Pa uh, Aquila and Priscilla. Claudia had commanded them. Paul went to see them and he stayed with them because he was of the same trade. Now, if you remember I said Corinth was a trade city. So there's all sorts of tradesmen, artisans in the city.

23:22 He finds these people who are of the same trade as him, and he stays with them. And it becomes the, the common element that produces bonding. Now, it's interesting because you can argue that they're already followers of Yeshua, but, but also you can argue that they weren't, uh, because if they were, they would have more in common than just their trade. You know, Paul might've bonded over, Hey, wow, you guys, you guys were already followers of Yeshua. Let me tell you about my experience. Texas doesn't tell us that the Texas, that he found them because they were of the same trade and they bonded

24:07 or they, they lived together. Paul moved in with them to, to, to, to work in the trade. Also, it's very interesting. This is a, this is a business that's owned by a husband and wife. I, I'm trying to think off the top of my head. I can't think of another one that's textually in the book of Acts, uh, owned by, of a business that's owned by both husband and wife. Uh, no, it's not true. The couple who they were struck down early on, yeah, yeah, an Ananias and Safari, they had something in common also. Anyways, it it, Luke tells us that their, their trade is tent making,

24:52 which would be a very, very appropriate thing for today. You need a tent. But it's interesting because in the early Patristic area era of the church, the early church fathers, they actually didn't translate it as tent making. They understood it to be leather working, which means the, the tents at that time period were made out of leather. So you can understand how they would become known as, as tent making, but the, the early church fathers were actually very specific and said he Paul was a leather worker instead of the a tent maker. It does, it does just raise some very interesting things because,

25:40 because scribes would've been adept at working with leather, because they're making tourist scrolls. All you just think about all of the different elements that now come into play. If Paul is a leather worker versus a tint maker. A again, I'm not, I'm not trying to lead you off astray. To me, this is not your salvation. Shouldn't depend upon Paul being a tent maker. That being said, Paul found something in common and connected with another couple, and then they worked together and it was, lemme see, I lost my place in my notes.

26:28 It was here. They're working together, that they create a common bond, and I suspect we're then able to go deeper in their relationship. Why do I suspect that? Because every single one of us is the same way. The moment anybody listen, I'm just telling you guys, maybe this is a surprise, maybe it's not. When you walk in the door and somebody meets you, they're like, hi, welcome to Brook Hashem. Hope you have a good time. And that's it. Or how's your day? I'm doing fine. I'm also doing fine. How about you? Oh, I'm doing great. Thanks so much. That's all you ever learn about each other, unless you have something in common.

27:14 When you find out somebody, uh, has the same interest as you, like, um, smoking brisket, all of a sudden, if you, if you can, if you can bear with the kosher reference, the world is your oyster, the world is your brisket. Like, you get to, oh, what kind of wood do you use? Oh, what kind of smoker? Like are you like one of the new ones? Do you have, do you have it hooked up to your phone? Like so you can actually sleep at night? Oh, no, you don't. You have to load a piece of wood in every 45 minutes and make sure the temperature regulation. Listen y'all, when you find someone that you have something in common with, all

28:00 of a sudden it's like, it's like you have a new best friend. Paul is, has two new best friends, and he, they're talking about tint making and all the leather working and, and perhaps he's now talking about Yeshua because he is got a something in common. But I'm telling you, the point of commonality is where you have to start. You can't start with, well, it doesn't work on a day like today. You can't start with, you think it's hot in Texas. Guess what hell's gonna be like? You don't start with that. You say, man, brisket,

28:46 I love me some good brisket. You know, you look at the, the meat, you gotta, you, you cut the fat off and I learned something this year. You then boil down the fat into tallow so that you can then put it on your cooked brisket and win the brisket. Co cook off. Is there, is there a gazi in here? Oh, no, he's not in here. Anyways, I learned different, you learn different things from, it's when you begin to have that relationship, then you're like, man, what do you keep your, the temperature in your smokers at 2 25? Man, you think that's hot? You know, I'm, I'm just playing. I'm just playing. Anyways, you have to find some commonality to, to strike up a relationship

29:32 and then people will be willing to track with you in a conversation just about anywhere. So let's, let's move on in the text now. Now, when Silas, so up until this point, by the way, I wanna remind us, Paul is by himself. He came from Athens by himself and, well, let me rephrase. He's at least without Silas and Timothy. So now at this point, Silas and Timothy, they join him from Macedonia, they arrive, and Paul became occupied with the message. This is verse five, urgently testifying to the Jewish people that Yeshua is the Messiah. But when they resisted and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said, your blood be upon your own heads.

30:18 I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. So Silas and Timothy arrive, they're catching up to Paul from Macedonia, probably from Thessalonica, if you remember, that's where Paul left them. And it's once he's joined that now Paul, the text tells us, Luke tells us up until this point, he's working, he's working in his trade craft. Now he becomes urgently focused on the message of Yeshua. I, I, again, I think I go back to Yeshua's urging the, his followers and Luke, I think it's Luke 11, to go out two by two for accountability sake and, and, and so on.

31:06 I, I wonder if that's, it doesn't hold Paul back, but he's not fully released into the message sharing of the message until someone else arrives with him. So they arrive, Paul became occupied with the message, and he's urgently testifying to the Jewish people. The Yeshua is the Messiah. Why is Paul testifying to the Jewish people and not to the Gentiles? Because the Jewish people are the only ones in the world that are expecting a Messiah to deliver them. It's different than today. You cannot read today's, uh, life circumstances back onto the first century.

31:52 There was no expectation of the Messiah from anyone outside of Judaism because it's within Judaism that there was inherently ingrained from the beginning the idea of a redemptive world or a redemptive act to bring people back into fellowship with the Lord and all of that coming through the Messiah. And the Messiah would come and deliver the people. Where are they? They're in Corinth. They're not in Israel. All of Israel is still in exile, by the way. That still is not, is not entirely true, but, uh, uh, probably, what are we at? Probably 48% of Israel is in exile now. They're in exile,

32:38 and he's testifying to them that the Jewish Messiah has come and he's already set up his kingdom and he left it. I, I, I said that on purpose because Yeshua came, lived, died, and Rose again shared with his followers for about 40 days and then ascended into heaven, into the sky. What is the Messiah supposed to do? The Messiah is supposed to rebuild or to, uh,

33:25 to set up the kingdom of Israel. He is to establish the kingdom forever and ever. Yeshua went up into the sky. If you ever wonder, and you read texts like this where it says the Jewish people resisted and reviled him, why they're still in exile. How could the promised deliver of Israel come and not restore the kingdom of Israel as was foretold in the scriptures? How is it even possible? They resisted the messenger, the, excuse me, the message of the deliverer coming and then leaving and not returning his people to the land.

34:13 Why? Because the establishment of the kingdom includes both. I don't want to disappoint you, and I'm not sure how much I'm gonna actually say going down this road, but Jewish people generally don't believe in heaven. They believe in the world to come. It's not like we get to escape earth and judgment and fire and all the bad things that are here and go be with God in heaven. Rather, Jews believe in a world that is redeemed and reformed and we continue to live here and God lives with us in the world to come.

35:02 I'm telling you that because sometimes, not always, sometimes there's this escapist mentality when I just want to die and go to heaven. Now, I'm saying all of this knowing full well that the scripture tells us when we're absent from the body, we're present with the Lord. How do we hold these things in tension? We do. By the way, if you ever wonder if you ever have these two really drastically different things and you're like, I believe this, but I believe this, like, how can I hold onto both of those? Can anybody see the immature? This is, this is where Yeshua lived and died for our sakes,

35:48 and we have to continue to wrestle through it, and we have to, that that's, that's our job, is to hold these two things in tension without knowing the answer you see in America, because we're a Greek based society, we like answers Jewish people, we like questions. I don't know if you ever heard my dad tell the story. This, uh, Yeshiva student, he comes, comes running out. I have the answer. I have the answer, but who has the question? Because it's about the question. It's about the, the art of wrestling with the different possibilities. This is what Jacob does.

36:35 Jacob wrestles with the Lord and the dude never walks right again, but he did win. It's such a fascinating thing when you think about that. The scripture tells us that basically Jacob won wrestling with God. Can you imagine that? Lemme tell you another joke, it just reminded me of it. I I say it's a joke. It's actually a true story. Gold in my ear called up, um, Ike president, Ike, uh, Eisenhower, and President Eisenhower is, he's talking to her. He is like, oh my goodness. It is so difficult ruling

37:21 or being president over a country of 200 million people. Can I don't you can't even imagine that. And she says she's actually, you know what? It's really difficult being prime minister of a country of 2 million prime ministers. Anyways, you just think about it, it that joke will sit with you for a long while. These Jewish people are resisting Paul, in the message. I'm telling you, I think they have legitimate reasons to resist the message of Yeshua. I follow Yeshua with all my heart,

38:08 and I believe that they have legitimate concerns. And I believe those concerns are still valid today. Yeah, it's something that we have to wrestle with. I'll tell you, I saw a video this week moved me beyond what I can even think 50,000 Jewish people praying for the coming Messiah at the wall. And I was just, to get Jewish people to do anything together is, is difficult. And here's 50,000, praying the same prayers at the same time, davening at the same rate. And, and I was just, was watching, it was just an amazing sight. They're praying for a messiah to come.

38:56 We're praying for him to come back. It's okay. It's the same guy. You, we just have to help help them understand. He's already come once, like, it's okay. No problem. I I got a good deal for you. You get two comings for the price of one Anyways. That's like buy one, get half off. Uh, sorry, I'm just like so derailed from my message right now. Anyways, Paul, after this conversation, Paul says he shook out his garments and says, your blood be upon your own heads.

39:43 I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. I don't know, this sounds pretty drastic, even in our vernacular, like why would he choose this wording? But I also wanna point out before I before we get into, why would he choose this wording? This wording, your blood will be on your own heads, has been utilized as an antisemitic mantra for nearly 2000 years. It has been used to justify the lack of attempt to share Yeshua with the Jewish people. It has been utilized to justify why Israel or the Jews should receive all of the curses, and the church should receive all of the blessings.

40:29 It has been used to justify that the Jewish people have eternally rejected Yeshua as the Messiah. By the way, you can also check, uh, Matthew 27 25, where, where they say, let his blood be upon our heads. Uh, the, these are the two common scriptures am telling you. I think there's more to it than that. There's a connection here, this blood being on our own heads from which we can find in the Torah from Leviticus chapter 20. And within Leviticus chapter 20, there's this idea concerning communal knowledge of sin, which would have a communal punishment for the sin that was permitted.

41:15 So for instance, if our community, if we knew somebody in here was doing something sinful, I don't wanna name one. If we knew that, but we continued to permit it, now the punishment for the sinner actually becomes a punishment for the community because the community has permitted the sin. Now, I'm telling you these things because you have homework this week and you should read Corinthians because there is a, there is a, a, a sin that exists within the community that is permitted in in Corinth. I, it's so interesting to see, um, the formation of communities and then to see Paul's writing later

42:03 and to see how those, some of those problems are the same. It's like our children. I, one of my children when they were very little was crawling, and this child would look up, look to where they wanted to go, and then would put their head down and just crawl with all their might. The problem was the, that child never actually double checked to make sure they were going in the same direction. And because of the way they crawled, they would do this and eventually would run into a chair that was elsewhere in the room. It's because we have to just reevaluate. And so it's just so interesting to see how there's things that are always present in our lives.

42:49 Okay, uh, Leviticus 20. There's also an idea within this chapter, which becomes explicit in the last verse of a person being responsible for their own sin. In other words, their blood shall be on them if the warning has been given. If the community says that's a sin, it's not permitted. We've warned you, if you keep doing it, the the, your blood is on your own head, not on ours. These sins in Leviticus 20 range from worshiping other gods to sexual sins, to practicing witchcraft. And it serves as a warning to the community to not turn away from the Lord and to heed the warning that is given.

43:36 Now, what's interesting is there's also some textual connection to Ezekiel 33. And in Ezekiel 33, uh, there's a, there's talks about watchmen of Israel and now the watchmen of Israel. We're there to look out when they see that there's a, there's trouble approaching. There's to blow the shofar to sound a warning when they, when danger is imminent, if I could put it, uh, into our, our, uh, lives today, it's the responsibility. Please don't laugh of the weatherman to sound the tornado alarm when the tornado's coming. I, I laugh because now they sound those things for just about anything.

44:22 Uh, when I was a kid, it was a tornado on the ground. Now it's not that way anymore. But anyways, again, I'm not criticizing weatherman. Today, The watchman of Israel would sound the warning, the danger was imminent. If the people didn't heed the warning, the blood would be on their own heads. In other words, whatever happened to them was now their responsibility. I, I do this all the time. My kids are playing, let's just say one kid's jumping all over the couch, and I'm like, you're gonna fall on your head and hurt, hurt yourself. If this is what my warning also now has.

45:08 If you and fall in your head, you're gonna receive no comfort from me. If you fall right now, you'll still get comfort. But if you keep doing the things I tell you not to do, it's your own price to pay. Now this is what is, it's like in our lives. If the watchmen, however did not sound the alarm, they look out and they see that there's imminent danger and they don't sound the alarm, the alarm, the blood of the people would be on the heads of the watchmen. You see the, the, the people who died, it would be the, the watchman's responsibility. Now, Paul here is sounding the alarm

45:54 as a watchman of Israel. Think about this. Paul, more than any other apostle was raised and trained within, uh, the Jewish elements that were responsible for the people. I'm not discrediting any of the other apostles, and I am not discrediting at all what Yeshua does when he says, you go out and feed my sheep and take care of them. I'm not discrediting any of that. But Paul was raised to be a watchman of the house of Israel. He was trained underneath one of the most well-known rabbis ever.

46:42 Paul was trained, and here he is sounding the alarm that their redemption has come and there's danger on the horizon if they do not follow the Messiah Yeshua. And so when they begin to resist and revile, he says, enough, I've done my, I've done my duty. Which if we stop there, I can even understand how some of the antisemitism mantras exist. While we've already warned the Jewish people, I'm going to listen the text, the text says from Paul says, from now on, I will go to the Gentiles Ooey

47:32 I'm going to the Gentiles. If we stop there, I can understand. But does Paul stop with the Jewish people? No. Two verses later, he's, well, for, okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's keep going. Verse seven, after leaving there, Paul went into the house of a man named SIUs Justice, A god fear. He, he's a gentile. He goes into this Gentile's house. He's leaving the Jewish people behind except their next door. Literally, it says that this dude's house is next door to the synagogue.

48:19 Enough, I'm going to the Gentiles except I'm gonna be right next door to you. Like Paul says some strong things. But if you look at what he does following, he doesn't go to the temple of Poseidon or whatever. He is next door to the synagogue and he says, okay, let's try this. He go, he is very interesting. This God fear lives next door to the synagogue. I wonder actually, if he was a patron of the synagogue, kind of like Cornelius, Cornelius built a, helped provide money for the synagogue.

49:04 Paul is actually applying practical outworking of the, of the message of Yeshua. He's going to those from the nations who are in need of redeemer, whether they know it or not. But the interesting thing is, is the God fearers know they need a redeemer. It's not a big jump for him to go to the God fearers and be like, the redeemers come. Why? Because they have attached themselves or, or come alongside of the synagogue or Israel and said, let me learn your ways. Let me learn. They know all of this now. Or they're, they've learned it and they're like, oh man, we really do need a redeemer. Paul says, these people, they know what they're, they need. Let me, let me address the people who know what they need. And you guys, you think you got it. You figure it out.

49:50 By the way, the, you figure it out. If you ever get that particularly from someone who's a leader or something, if you, if you get the, you figure it out, you're right here in this spot because they've seen something and you haven't noticed it and or responded to whatever it is that they said. And, and the you figure it out is, I'm just gonna go, I'll go to somebody else who will listen. Sorry, that was totally, that was a free, free piece of advice. Uh, let's see. So by leaving the synagogue, did Paul give up hope or even give up trying to reach the Jewish people? No, absolutely not. May it never be, let me quote Paul. May it never be. Why?

50:35 Because now in the next verse, Crispus, the synagogue leader put his faith in the Lord along with his whole household, Crispus in his whole household. The synagogue leader puts his faith in the Lord and follows Paul. Obviously, Paul hasn't done away with outreach to the Jewish people. He's, he's doing things to provoke other people, to jealousy to come and wow, that sounds really scriptural to come and find their Messiah. Crispus, the synagogue leader and his whole household falls is remarkably similar to, uh,

51:20 to, uh, Cornelius. And we had a, was it Lydia? I think in, in Philippi. We, we see this over and over again where one major leader comes and their whole household comes and then not does it stop there? And then many Corinthians upon hearing, we're believing in being immersed. It's interesting, it could indicate Corinthian Jews 'cause he's gone now back to Crispus, the synagogue leader and his household, and many Corinthians. Or it could just be other Corinthians apart from Crispus and the Jewish people. Either way, it's, okay. So what does this mean for you and me today? My question, I have several questions.

52:07 Number one, what do we do to fill our time? You see, Paul arrives in Corinth and he goes to work. I don't know that that's what many of us tend to do. We tend to go to Netflix. We arrive where we're gonna be like, let's go to Netflix. So there's gotta be something good on, let, let's, let's get entertained versus let me go put my hand to the plow and do something and see what the Lord has in store. So what do we do to fill our time? What are your skills? I I'm asking that question. Now.

52:53 I want you to think about what your skills are. So I'll give you a second. What are your skills? What can you do? Is there a way that we can utilize our physical gifts or skills to make connections and develop friendships? If the workplace is your ministry opportunity, because that's where you are most of the time. If the workplace is your ministry opportunity, then I would advocate you're getting paid to do ministry. Ironically, you're getting paid by your employer

53:41 to do ministry in the company is quite a fascinating thing when you begin to think about it. What does Yeshua tell us? In Matthew chapter 28, Matthew 28, he says, now the 11 disciples went to the Galilee, to the mountain. Uh, Yeshua had designated when they saw him, they worshiped, but some wavered and Yeshua came up to them and spoke to them saying, all authority in heaven. I'm, I'll get to the point in a minute. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. This is, everybody should know this one, or most of you should know this one. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the kodesh teaching them to observe all I've commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, even to the end

54:28 of the age, that verse, I could start with go, therefore, and most of you could finish it, but now let me, let me just challenge, let me just challenge you just softly for a moment. Yes, we understand that as let's go out to the street corner and evangelize. I'm not telling you that that's bad. By all means, share the message of Yeshua however you want. But the understanding in the text is that as you are going, or maybe I can say it this way, as you are living make disciples, does that, do you see the subtle difference there?

55:16 So as you are going make disciples, it lends itself to the idea of letting the Lord use us in our everyday work, not just when we want to. Evangelize is I, it's a slight, it's a slight difference. And I'm not telling you don't evangelize. I'm, I'm, please hear me. I'm not saying don't do that. I'm telling you, you should live a life that speaks for itself. So that, that's one, that's that was one question that was a lot of questions there. My, my next question is, are we faithful to present the message of Yeshua even when reviled and rejected? Because Paul does. He doesn't stop.

56:04 I know he says, I'm gonna go to the Gentiles, but he obviously doesn't stop because Christmas comes to faith and we see this over and over and over again. He repeatedly goes to the Jewish people. He doesn't stop. Even though he says, I'm, uh, ooey on you. I'm going to the Gentiles. He never stops. So are we faithful to not stop if our message is rejected by, by some, should we lose heart? Well, let me say this, even in opposition, there is opportunity because here Christmas comes to faith. So let me, let me, let me give you, those are the questions that you have to wrestle with.

56:50 But you now also have homework every week. I don't know if you noticed this, but every week when we get to a new community where there's letters in the, in the Bri ka Shah, I give you the homework of going to read the letters. So here we are. We started the establishment of Corinth. Guess what your homework is. Go read first and second Corinthians. You have about two weeks that we're gonna spend here in Corinth before we depart to Ephesus. And then we'll get Ephesians. So go do your homework, go read first and second Corinthians. It's quite fascinating. You will find some of the same issues that are here present at its foundation when Paul writes them later

57:38 to encourage them. Notice Paul uses the words encourage, you know? Yeah. Anyways, we'll stop with that. So a Venus sha may our father in heaven. Lord, we thank you for this time together. Lord, I thank you for Paul. I thank you for this text that we have, uh, in the Book of Acts. Lord, I just pray that you would continue to, uh, speak to us and guide us as we, uh, continue through the Book of Acts. And we bless you in Yeshua's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Okay? Hold on. You guys gotta gimme some space here.

58:25 Come here. My gosh, you're getting too big. If

59:10 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua, enjoy the.