How the Gospel Is Slowed Down But Continues On
44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. 46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,
” ’I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ “
48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. 51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
One week everyone heard the good news and gathered their friends. The next week, the previously popular folks got jealous and shut them down.
This would become the pattern throughout all of Paul’s mission work. That was ok, though, because that became part of the plan. Paul would go to the most receptive, seeking people first. He would build a small group around those people that were already seeking God in some way. Most of they time they were Jewish people in a synagogue. Sometimes they were Jewish people out in the world living their lives but still being Jewish. A few times they were simply people he ran into that were open to hear the Gospel.
But in almost every city, Paul faced resistance and often mass hostility.
In this event, it’s kind of funny to think of a bunch of unruly, not-raised-in-the-church-people sitting in the back and hearing that Jesus came to bring salvation to them. That wasn’t the most common message they heard. Every story of the Old Testament would emphasize God’s chosen people unless the Rabbi was particularly biased towards reaching out to the Gentiles.
Teaching the Torah was a mix of patriotism for Israel and uplifting Yahweh and His Law. If you weren’t that nationality, you didn’t get the preferential treatment from most Rabbis that were teaching you.
So you could see how when patriotism got in the way of preaching the message, those outside of the preferred nationality would rejoice that this Good News applied to them too.
It’s happened before in Acts and it will happen again. The way this chapter ends is with rigorous persecution and great rejoicing in the Holy Spirit. Those go together as much as the people in charge getting jealous and the underdogs in the congregation hearing and responding to the message.
As all of this repeats in our day and age, pray for the wisdom and perseverance that Paul and the team showed here. They went on to more people that would hear and respond to the Gospel in the joy and the boldness of the Holy Spirit.
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