Day 97: Troublemakers

Acts 17:4-9 :

Some of them were persuaded, and joined Paul and Silas, of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and not a few of the chief women. But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people. When they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also, whom Jason has received. These all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus!” The multitude and the rulers of the city were troubled when they heard these things. When they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

After Paul spoke, some of the Jews believed and joined the Church. Here, again, we see that the group was mostly Gentiles and women. God was bringing His message to the “outsiders” and it was getting through. Not only the “outsiders” were making it in but those Jews who were faithful as well.

The unbelieving Jews purposefully caused a riot claiming that Paul and Silas were the reason. This is model hypocrisy. The ones who are really causing the problem claim that the problem is caused by those with “armed with dangerous ideas.” We see this quite a bit in the world today. As Christians bring a message of truth to the society, the real troublemakers cause problems by shooting people or blowing up themselves and putting people in jail or charging them money. They actually cause the riots that they blame on the Christians.

There is no way that those who share the truth are the cause of the trouble. The trouble is being caused because the truth makes sense to many people and there are those who don’t want the truth to exit. Everyone has the opportunity to not pay attention to the truth peacefully, but these men fight those who speak the truth using evil methods in order to have them harmed. They are fighting for a worldview that doesn’t make sense and they take it out on innocent people.

These troublemakers may even attempt to force people to not accept Christians into their homes by taking something of value from them as they did to Jason.