January 10, 2011

This Week’s Reading
Acts 14:1-28
Paul’s 1st Missionary Journey

“Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. Some . . . however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas.” Acts 14:1, 2

The Message of God’s Grace Never Goes Unopposed

Pastor’s Reflections

Many Christians simply can’t bear to think of confrontation. They tend to think that there is really no such thing as serious wickedness or real evil. Or if they do, they tend to think of a small number of truly evil people, while everyone else is basically good and just trying to get along in life. In their minds spreading the gospel is mostly about trying to help people do a little bit better in life than they already are, rather than the radical transformation of life like what was happening all over the place in the early chapters of Acts.

Chapters 13 and 14 mark the great turning point in Acts where Paul begins his great triple journey that would take him right across Turkey and Greece and back again (and then do it again) and finally off to Rome. All the journeys are full of confrontation, suffering, conflict and the opposition of evil forces. Most of us would probably prefer that spreading the gospel would be a story of simple and gentle persuasion.

Today’s passage is just the beginning of anything but conflict free gentle persuasion. When a person’s comfortable world is “rocked” with new information that changes everything, well, opposition will always be present sooner or later.
In expecting opposition I think it is crucial to remember that we must become good at two things: speaking the truth and doing so in genuine love for all, those who receive the gospel gladly and those who oppose it sometimes vehemently.