I. THE SINS OF THE JEWS
A. THEY KILLED THE LORD JESUS...
1. Which Peter was not hesitant to proclaim - Ac 2:23,36; 3:
14-15; 4:10; 5:30
2. Those who were personally involved accepted responsibility for
this act - Mt 27:25
B. THEY KILLED THEIR OWN PROPHETS...
1. They killed prophets in the days of Elijah - 1Ki 19:10
2. They killed prophets, including Zechariah, despite the reforms
of Jehoida the priest - 2Ch 24:14-21
3. As summarized by Ezra, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, and Stephen - 2 Chr
36:16; Neh 9:26; Jer 2:30; Ac 7:52
C. THEY PERSECUTED THE APOSTLES...
1. In Jerusalem the apostles had been beaten and threatened - Ac
5:40
2. Ultimately there was the death of James, and the imprisonment
of Peter - Ac 12:1-5
3. Paul had been persecuted in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra - Ac
13:50; 14:1-6,19
4. He had been run out of Thessalonica and Berea by the Jews - Ac
17:5-10,13-14
D. THEY DID NOT PLEASE GOD...
1. As rebuked by Moses in the wilderness - Deut 9:7
2. As described by God to His prophet Ezekiel - Ezek 2:3
E. THEY WERE CONTRARY TO ALL MEN...
1. Tacitus describes them as "cherishing hatred against all
others"
2. Juvenal says "They would not even point out the way to any one
except of the same religion; nor, being asked, guide any to a
fountain except the circumcised."
3. Diodorus Sicuhs describes them as "those alone among all the
nations who were unwilling to have any intermingling with any
other nation, and who regarded all others as enemies"
-- As quoted by Barnes in his commentary on 1Th 2:15
F. FORBIDDING THEM TO SPEAK TO THE GENTILES...
1. As happened at Antioch of Pisidia - Ac 13:42-51
2. The idea that Gentiles could now be included among God's
people was abhorrent to many Jews, as indicated by their
reaction in Ac 22:21-22
3. Even some Jewish Christians demanded that Gentiles had to be
circumcised and keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved
- Ac 15:5
[In this manner the Jews as a nation of people had been filling up the
measure of their sins, and the fullness of God's wrath was about to
come upon them (perhaps the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD - cf. Mt
23:29-39).
