The following week almost the entire city turned out to hear them preach the word of the Lord. But when some of the Jews saw the crowds, they were jealous; so they slandered Paul and argued against whatever he said. (Acts 13:44-45)The apostle Paul had a lot of people come to hear him preach. The Jewish leaders didn’t. They were mad, not necessarily because of what Paul was preaching. They were mad out of jealousy. No one was listening to them. So they tried to kill Paul’s audience.
So many church problems come down to this: jealousy. One person is popular and the other isn’t. So the unpopular person looks to see how he or she can tear down the popular person.
The rationale is that there is just so much popularity to go around and if I can’t have any of it, no one can. And if I cannot be popular, no one will be.
Many a church has been destroyed by such a person. Two that I have pastored in my 40 years of ministry have been. Someone wants to be in charge and cannot be so they tear up the church rather than let someone else be in control.
It is a shame, and it is a tragedy to see the body of Jesus torn apart because some – all kinds of descriptive words come to mind – decides that his own popularity is more important than the church of Jesus Christ.
And to what end? Who can run the church? Who gets to decide what kind of music is played? Who decides where the preacher will stand when preaching? Who gets to say where the tables at the back of the sanctuary will be placed?
What must Jesus, with the nail holes in his wrists and the scar in his side, think when he looks down on this petty squabbling that is, worst of all, in his name? How it must hurt him.
It has always been and I suppose always will. It started with the serpent in the garden wanting to be in charge of humanity. In the book of Exodus, there were several who thought they should be in charge of the children of Israel rather than Moses (Numbers 16). And the church then and today continues to split and be hurt because of it.
There is no reason for it, except for the fact that human nature is strong. Human nature says that we want to be in charge. Good, godly people will overcome that desire and allow God to work his will in whoever he desires.
Selfish, ugly people will not. And they will become mad as hornets when you expose what they do. try as they can to couch it all in some kind of doctrinal covering, it is really nothing but petty jealousy.
In the passage above, it says 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 (13:50).
Paul’s response: So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium. And the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit (13:51-52).
Did it hurt the church? Yes, for a moment. But it is still standing, as strong as ever. Their little control temper tantrum did no harm ultimately. Maybe it caused some people not to accept Jesus or caused some others to leave because of the strife, but ultimately it never works.
God is still supreme, Jesus is still his Son, and his messengers are still his messengers. Nothing can change that.
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