Today the story takes us to Corinth and describes Paul's time there. While in Corinth Paul spends time in the synagogue on the sabbath preaching Jesus as the messiah. As you can imagine this gets Paul into some hot water with the Jews. Luke tells us that when the Jews "oppose" Paul, he shake the dust off his clothes in protest and declares that from now on he will go to the Gentiles. Some time later, God gives Paul a pep talk reminding him that whenever Paul speaks He with be with him. Luke then points out that Paul stayed in Corinth a year and a half. Are we to think that this pep talk persuades Paul to continue his mission in Corinth, had he been ready to throw in the towel before God shows up in a vision? The story closes today with Gallio, a Roman official,washing his hands of Paul. Gallio refers Paul him back to Jewish officials who were trying to get the Romans involved to punish Paul for persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.
I noticed a number of similarities in today's story with stories from the Gospels.
1. Disciples are instructed by Jesus to shake the dust off their feet when they are not accepted someplace. Paul shakes the dust off his clothes when the Jews fail to accept.
2. Pilate on a number of occasions
tries free himself of dealing with Jesus when the Jews bring Christ before Pilate. Gallio dismisses Paul back to the Jews claiming the charges have to do with Jewish laws and not Roman Law.
Where have you seen similarities between the story in Acts and the story we hear about in the Gospels?
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