A Study of Acts: Another City, Another Mob
Acts 17:5-9 - Can you turn the world right side up?
“But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also; and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things. And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them.”
Acts 17:5-9 NASB1995
Well, here we are in Thessalonica and a very familiar scenario unfolds once again. After preaching for about three weeks, Paul has reached many with his reasoning on the fact that Jesus is the Christ and our redeemer. A large portion of those he has reached are God-fearing Gentiles, those who have previously committed themselves to the Jewish faith. The Jews become jealous of this infiltration of their “sacred spaces” because they claimed the Gentile believers as their own flock, so they find wicked men in the marketplace, form a mob and set the city in an uproar. As we have learned, jealousy or envy is one of the most terrible sins, rotting the bodies, minds and souls of those who succumb to it. Your life will never be made better by envying someone else for their lives, their possessions, their talents or their beliefs.
From Biblehub.com
The marketplace or agora in this ancient city was just like the downtown area of one of our modern cities (picture the parks or the bus stations or even the areas in front of courthouses). There are many wicked men who are just “hanging around” being miscreants who can be persuaded in an instant to join a mob. Apparently, Paul and Silas were staying at the home of a believer named Jason (Jason is only mentioned in Acts 17). When the mob doesn’t find Paul and Silas at Jason’s house, they drag Jason and other brethren to the city authorities, crying that these men are “upsetting the world”. Some Bible translations say that they (Jason, Paul and Silas) are “turning the world upside down”. I like what Enduring Word says about this passage:
The Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar: As happened at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:45, 50), at Iconium (Acts 14:2, 5), and at Lystra (Acts 14:19) on the first missionary journey, here also Paul was opposed by a mob incited by envious people among the Jewish people.
And attacked the house of Jason: Jason was a Christian in Thessalonica whose house seems to have been a center for the church. When the evil men from the marketplace did not find Paul and Silas there, they attacked Jason himself, and some brethren who were with him.
Crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” When accusing these Christians before the rulers of the city, the evil men from the marketplace gave an unintended compliment to the effectiveness of God’s work through Paul and Silas. To complain that the Christians were these who have turned the world upside-down have come here too was to say, “these men have radically impacted our world and nothing seems the same.”
God willing and blessing, people would say such things about the effectiveness of Christians today. One might say that Jesus did not come only to be our teacher, but to turn our world upside-down. Jesus turns the thinking and the power structures of this world around.
Jesus gave a great example of this upside-down thinking when He spoke of a rich man who amassed great wealth, and all he could think about was building bigger barns to store all his wealth. We might make the man a civic leader or recognized him as a prominent man; Jesus turned it all upside down and called the man a fool, because he had done nothing to make his life matter for God’s kingdom (Luke 12:16-21).
Actually, God was working through Paul and Silas to turn the world right side-up again. But when you yourself are upside-down, the other direction appears to be upside-down!
Are you turning the world upside down (or right side up) as a believer? Or are you content to fill a pew, toss a few coins in the offering box and go back to a world every week that is becoming increasingly hostile to you as a Christian? This commentary from Dr. Jack Arnold quoted on Precept Austin is worth thinking about (and Dr. Arnold is also quoting from another source, Dr. John White, an evangelist from Canada):
In a book entitled, The Cost of Commitment, Dr. John White, a psychiatrist and minister in Canada, said, "It would be foolish of us to assume that our present luxurious freedom will continue indefinitely. (Freedom is the delayed end result of the Reformation, with its biblical view of man. As the biblical influence wanes, it is likely that freedom will not continue.)
”There are signs that the conditions necessary for tolerance and freedom are already being eroded. Democracy is a fragile flower of late bloom (it was in its present form completely unknown to the Greeks) liable to be withered by scorching winds of impatient hate. It is therefore important that we all ask ourselves: Am I willing to risk imprisonment and death for Christ? Many professing believers are not willing . . . If you are faithful in little things while freedom lasts, chances are that you will be faithful when the big tests come.
“There is valuable training in faithfulness where you are now. If you are open and honest--true to yourself and true to Christ--your life will provoke hostility in some and will powerfully attract others. To some it will be a "savour of life unto life” and to others “of death unto death.” If you are faithful to Him it may make you unpopular and unprosperous . . . I do not wish to be an alarmist about what it costs to be faithful to Christ yet I feel I must point both to Scripture and to the course of church history.
“I want to awaken the Western Church with the blast of a trumpet, warning her that the normal conditions under which the Church bears witness are not those we now experience, but are conditions inimical to Christian witness. I believe that the darkness may be descending again, and I fear that few of us are prepared for it. We belong to a long tradition of martyrdom, but we have become soft and ill-prepared.”
The more I study Acts, the more I realize that we are living at the edge right now just like Paul and Silas, regardless of temporary reprieves that we might receive from election outcomes or court decisions or documents like the Bill of Rights. We have lived in abnormal conditions in the western world for a long time. There are multitudes who would form a hostile mob in a heartbeat to come after faithful Christians because we dare talk about sin and repentance. Many equate proclaimers of Biblical truth with something called “Christian nationalism”, which is their unfounded fear that Christians want to rule them and take away their fun, following the formula in “The Handmaid’s Tale” (this apocalyptic and fictional tale has distorted so many minds, especially women’s minds). Some denominations, out of fear of the wicked in the marketplace, have ceded their authority to that social justice mob, replacing God and repentance and confession with tolerance and activism. Do we have the courage of our Christian witness to turn the world right side up? If we do have that courage, we must do it through our examples of love, salt and light and never through coercion.
The mob then accuses Jason and the others (and by implication, Paul and Silas) of acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar by saying there is another King in Jesus. This is a very serious accusation. The city authorities in Thessalonica are not eager to allow this type of language that could be interpreted as a revolution against Rome. Enduring Word has some interesting thoughts on this passage:
These are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king; Jesus: This was the serious accusation made by the evil men from the marketplace. The charge was serious enough that it troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things, because this raised the fear that their city might become known for opposition against Caesar and Rome.
Their fears were unfounded. Even though the gospel has definite political implications, it makes Christians better citizens than before, and their prayers for officials of government are more helpful than most people imagine.
Even the unfounded accusation of political revolution had a compliment hidden inside. Even the evil men from the marketplace understood that Christians taught that Jesus was a king, that He had the right to rule over His people. This is a message that seems to be missed on many churchgoers today.
“It may be for this reason that Paul avoided the use of ‘kingdom’ and ‘king’ in his letters to his converts, lest Gentile imperial authorities misconstrue them to connote opposition to the empire and emperor.” (Richard Longenecker)
I’m not sure I totally agree with the last bullet in this commentary. Paul DID refer to the kingdom of God multiple times in his epistles, but it is also true it was scattered throughout those epistles and not repeated many times. As we will see later in Acts, and from what we know from history, the Christians eventually were perceived as a major threat to the Romans.
Sadly, some people in our current age are using the term “Christ is King” as a dogwhistle for their rampant anti-semitism. Here is what Gotquestions.org has to say about this distortion of God’s name:
One tragedy of living in a fallen world is that people sometimes use holy words, terms, and phrases for wicked purposes. The saying Christ is King is an example of this. Although its biblical meaning highlights and glorifies Jesus’ rule over all earthly authorities, some have hijacked the phrase to promote anti-Semitism—a form of racism consisting of hatred, prejudice, and discrimination against Jewish people. Specifically, some people are saying “Christ is King” as a slogan in the context of denying the Holocaust, promoting the theory of a global Jewish conspiracy, and speaking similarly against Jewish people.
The Bible warns people about using God’s names improperly, such as in the third commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Exodus 20:7, ESV). Similarly, people sometimes use Jesus’ names and titles for sinful purposes. The faithless sons of Sceva illustrated this by invoking Jesus’ name when attempting to perform an exorcism. Even the demons recognized their appeal was powerless and were thus unaffected (Acts 19:13–16; cf. 2 Corinthians 11:4). Likewise, wielding the saying Christ is King as an anti-Semitic weapon is to use Jesus’ name in vain, desecrating a sacred title and dishonoring its true meaning.
Like all forms of racism, anti-Semitism is sin, because people of all ethnicities are made in God’s image, and therefore have equal value (Genesis 1:26–28). The belief that some races are inferior to others undermines the truth that God created “every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26; Jeremiah 27:5) and that His plan includes blessing “all the families of the earth” (Genesis 12:3). Additionally, racism resists Jesus’ instructions to “make disciples of all nations” through the gospel (Matthew 28:19–20). It also fails to recognize heaven’s ethnic diversity, as John describes “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9).
Although ignorance pervades all racism, anti-Semitism in particular exposes a lack of understanding about the Bible. The Old Testament reveals God’s love for Jewish people (Deuteronomy 7:6–8; Jeremiah 31:3), and the New Testament reiterates it (Romans 11:1–2). Furthermore, anti-Semitism neglects the role of Jews in God’s plan to save people of all races (Genesis 12:3; Psalm 22:27; Acts 3:25). Racism toward Jews also egregiously overlooks the historical fact that Jesus, His family, and most of His early followers were Jewish. Consequently, using the Bible to justify anti-Semitism dishonors God’s plan of salvation and distorts the straightforward meaning of His Word (cf. 2 Timothy 2:15).…
Despite the misuse by some of Christ is King, Christians should believe and defend what the Bible says about Jesus’ kingship. Importantly, the New Testament opens with the announcement that Jesus is King and closes with the proclamation of the same. At the beginning of Matthew, Jesus is called the King of the Jews, an identity He later confirms (Matthew 2:2; 27:11). Later, at the end of Revelation, the description of Jesus’ return describes Him wearing a victory sash that reads, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” which declares His rule over all worldly rulers (Revelation 19:16). Accordingly, the solution to the misuse of Jesus’ name isn’t to abandon saying it or to soften its meaning—it’s to proclaim the truth of it loudly and boldly.
Christ is King. The proper response to Jesus’ kingship is showing Him unrivaled allegiance and paying Him the homage He deserves. Moreover, the proper response to anti-Semitism is calling it sin, destroying the arguments that undergird it (2 Corinthians 10:4), and defending what the Bible teaches about racial equality. When Jesus returns as the conquering King, the victory He won over sin on the cross will fully manifest, and like all other wickedness, the wrath of God will target anti-Semitism for destruction. Until then, may all who loathe racism as God does pray earnestly, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 16:22).
As a person who has become extremely interested in the history of WWII and its causes and effects, holocaust-denying and the perpetuation of anti-semitism is a perverse and evil sin. I think this is a wonderful argument from Gotquestions.org about fighting against this particular distortion of Christ’s name.
Finishing out the passage, the city authorities required a pledge from Jason and the other believers and then they released them. This is probably like posting bail. My next devotional will examine Acts 17:10-15. Paul and Silas are sent away during the night to the town of Berea, where Paul preaches to the synagogue again.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - Please help me to reach others with reason and the light of Your love. Coming into Your kingdom is a glorious thing and I am grateful that You brought us to You. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Commentary in Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
Precept Austin was accessed on 12/1/2024 to review commentary for Acts 17:5-9.
Gotquestions.org was accessed on 12/1/2024 to answer the question, What does it mean to say that Christ is King?