Experience: S2 - Day 26

The risk of investing in others

Acts 13:44 The following week almost the entire city turned out to hear them preach the word of the Lord. 45 But when some of the Jews saw the crowds, they were jealous; so they slandered Paul and argued against whatever he said.

46 Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles. 47 For the Lord gave us this command when he said,‘I have made you a light to the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.’”

48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers. 49 So the Lord’s message spread throughout that region.

50 Then the Jews stirred up the influential religious women and the leaders of the city, and they incited a mob against Paul and Barnabas and ran them out of town. 51 So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium. 52 And the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

14:1 The same thing happened in Iconium. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. 2 Some of the Jews, however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas. 3 But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders. 4 But the people of the town were divided in their opinion about them. Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.

5 Then a mob of Gentiles and Jews, along with their leaders, decided to attack and stone them. 6 When the apostles learned of it, they fled to the region of Lycaonia—to the towns of Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding area. 7 And there they preached the Good News.

As we talked about last week, as the gospel spread beyond the walls of Jerusalem into the territory of the Gentiles, more conflict and jealousy arose between the Jewish followers of Christ, and the Gentile ones.  Here, we start to see this conflict grow.

In v 45, we’re told that the Jews “slanderd Paul and argued against whatever he said.” Rest assured, following Jesus has consequences. As has often been said, if everyone you preach Jesus to likes you and everything you say, it may not be Jesus you’re preaching.  Or if you find a God who agrees with everything you do, it may not be God you’ve found.

Jesus is going to challenge us, push us into places we’ve never been before, and ask us to do and say things that may be hard at times.  But the reason for all of this is his lvoe for us, his desire for us to grow more and more into the people he see’s when he looks at us, and his hope that we could help others do the same.

As I often say, Jesus never promised us that following him would be easy, he just said that he’d be with us every step of the way.

So we see here that this conflict turned to violence.  It’s amazing what happens and what we’ll do, when we become so convinced that we’re right, and so closed off to what new things the Spirit has to teach us.

In our faith tradition, our founders wanted to avoid this type of experience by teaching a concept called “present truth.” This idea was that you and I will never know all there is to know.  The Spirit will always have more to teach us, more to reveal to us.  So hopefully, we can remain humble and open to what’s next.

But because of how the Jews responded in this situation, Paul and Barnabas determined that their staunch close-mindedness was going to cause more harm than good, so they, “So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection…” (v 51) and went on to another village.  This decision is not made lightly, but it was made for the benefit of God’s people and the growth of God’s kingdom.

As a result of this, we notice another shift in the story of the early church.  Up till now, the message of Jesus and the gospel, empowered by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, had been widely accepted with 1,000’s giving their life to Christ.  However, in this story, we come across the first time that only “some” accepted or sided with these teachings.

It’s important to remember that we are not the savior of anyone, Jesus is.  Our job is to do what he’s asked us to do, today, to the very best of our ability, and then to trust Jesus to work.  Not everyone will listen, not everyone will be impacted, but that doesn’t mean that Jesus gives up on anyone.  I believe he continues to work on people even if they reject us.

So today, as we choose to follow Jesus, may we have the courage to follow wherever he leads and do whatever he leads us to do.  Then, may we trust in him for the outcome, even if it’s not what we’d expect.  And, may we cling to him even when the road gets rough.

Questions:

1. Have you ever had someone push back on you, disagree with you, concerning your beliefs?  How did you handle that experience?
2. What has been one of the toughest experiences you’ve had in your journey with Christ?
3. What are some ways that you and I can stay humble and open to whatever new things the Spirit has to teach us?