How Did Paul Make the Jews Envious?

Tom:

This is our Understanding the Scripture segment, we are in the book of Acts Chapter 13, and Dave, we pick up with Verse 44, and of course this, as I mentioned easily each week just before I go into this, this is Paul’s missionary journey, and he is speaking to the Jews in the synagogue, this is his first missionary journey recorded in the Bible.Verse 44:“And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.”

Dave:

He’s been preaching in the synagogue, as you intimated, now everybody, the non Jews say, Well, wait a minute, how come we can’t get in on this, too?So, you’ve got to have a bigger place to hold the crowd, and it doesn’t explain all of that, but anyway, almost the whole city comes together because---Tom, I’m reading between the lines now---Paul is actually a fantastic artist, and he could just paint icons and paint Jesus and they prayed through these icons and that made them all feel closer to God.

Tom:

Dave, do I detect a little satire, sarcasm, Something?

Dave:

Yes, dripping from my words!It says, “almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God, okay.That’s what we need, but Tom, as you know---

Tom:

Dave, we are a visual generation, I mean, how many times have I heard that!The American Society, one of their goals is to put the entire Bible on video, won’t that be wonderful!

Dave:

Tom, don’t get us started talking about that---it’s the Word, the Word of God, preach the Word.But anyway, they came together to hear the Word of God, and Tom, this is what we need in our churches.You talk to people, I talk to people all the time, I can’t find a church, they say, where they really preach the Word of God---they’ve got little skits and then they’ve got a video, and then they’ve got this, and they don’t really get into the Bible.This is the Word of God!Jeremiah said, “Thy words were found, I did eat them.”In Psalm 1, the man meditates on the Bible day and night, on the word of the Lord.Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”Okay, so let’s have the Word of God, and this is what Paul is giving them. Let me go back, Tom, and repeat myself again, but we call our ministry, The Berean Call, from Acts:17:11These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
See All....We emphasize the Bereans search the scriptures daily, but that verse also says:The Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received THE WORD with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily to see whether what Paul said was true.Tom, we need to get back to them in our churches today.

Tom:

Dave, you know, there’s a practical side to this, and maybe there are some pastors who listen to the program.You know, there’s a phrase:What brings them in, keeps them in.If you bring them in and think you have to entertain them with all of these items---

Dave:

To get them there.

Tom:

To get them there, well, you have to keep upping the ante.You have to push, as it were the envelope with regard to music and drama and production and all of that stuff to keep them---because you are appealing to their flesh.Well, that’s a bottomless pit.

Dave:

You are in competition with the world.

Tom:

Right.On the other hand, if you bring them in, as God’s Word says, as you just quoted from Acts:17:10And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
See All... and 11, right in there, if you bring them in with the Word and they get excited about that, how wonderful could it be for a pastor.They are excited about the Word, I’m going to preach the Word!And, if it’s the Word being preached it takes the pressure, in a sense, off the pastor because it’s the Holy Spirit who is the teacher then, with His Word.

Dave:

Amen.

Well, what surprises me about this, Verse 45, You would think that the Jews would be really excited---Look, Wow, God’s Word has come, look at the people responding, but here’s what it says:“But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things that were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.”Now Dave, we have to make a distinction here, because Paul’s a Jew, those who accompanied him on his missionary journey they were all Jews.They went to the prophets, the Old Testament prophets, Tanakh, to explain and teach the word.So this isn’t saying all the Jews were upset with it.

Dave:

Well, actually Tom, as we dealt with in the earlier chapters, Chapter 10, for example, the disciples, they thought this was only for Jews. And remember, God had to let a sheet down from heaven to convince Peter.It’s all through the Old Testament.When Jesus said, Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, didn’t that say, all nations?Didn’t that tell them?And it’s all through the Old Testament.Genesis 12, Verse 3, He’s saying to Abraham, Yes, you’re the chosen one, and your descendants from Isaac and Jacob and so forth, the twelve tribes, these are my chosen people, and the Messiah will come from them.But God said, In you and in your seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed.He says the same thing to Isaac in Genesis 26, the same thing to Jacob in Genesis 28.So the disciples should have known this.All the ends of the earth shall hear, the scripture says, Malachi:1:11For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.
See All..., The day is coming when the Gentiles--- My name will be great from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same among the Gentiles, and in my name shall the Gentiles trust.So, all I’m trying to say is, Tom, the disciples should have known, it’s all through the Bible, Jesus told them, but they didn’t as Jews because there were so many scriptures in the Old Testament---we talked about it---You’remy chosen people, the gods of the nations are idols, you know, you have the true God.And so they were so bound to this idea that they couldn’t see, Yes, but this God is the God of all people, and the Messiah is the Savior of all people.So now it’s not surprising then that Jews have this sense of exclusivity.You quoted, or read from Leviticus Chapter 20 Verse 24:I have separated you from all other people.So, they have got one side of the picture, and they are jealous now, Wait a minute, Gentiles can’t get in on this, too!So they began to bad mouth Paul.

Tom:

“They were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.”Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles”

Dave:

Boy, that made them angry, and of course Paul and Barnabas are going to get thrown out of the synagogue, not only here, but in other places.But this is the gospel, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.He came unto His own, John 1, His own received Him not.Okay, as many as received Him, to them He gives the power, the authority, the right to become the sons of God.We're born again through faith in Christ.It’s to the Jew first.Jesus, in fact, said:I’m sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, not to the Gentiles yet.But they crucified Him, and that made it possible for all mankind to be saved, and Paul says, to their rejection, the gospel is opened up to the world.So, it’s a tragedy, and Tom, today---and I have many, many Jewish friends.We had many meetings for Jewish people, we’ve had hundreds of Jewish people come to our home, and we present the gospel to them, the truth, the Word of God, and yet, to this day many Jews, most Jews, reject Jesus as the Messiah.