42As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. 43Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God. 44The next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. 45But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming.
The initial reaction of the crowd to Paul’s message was very positive. Many of the listeners “begged” (NASB, ESV, NLT, NKJV) them to come back and speak to them again the following Sabbath. The NIV translates this word “invited,” but that minimizes the impact of their response. This is the same word Paul used in Romans 12:1, where the NIV translates it “urge.” This was not a casual invitation with mild interest. No, the people were significantly impacted by the message, and the translation “begged” is not too strong.
The text doesn’t say all the people responded this way, but there was a predominately positive response among both Jews and proselytes, at least initially. (Gentiles who had converted to Judaism or at least respected it and were called “God-fearing”.) At any rate, the duo’s parting instruction was for the crowd to continue in the grace of God. That means to follow the message of grace where it leads: to belief in Jesus Christ. The word “urging” used in verse 43 is a different word from that translated “begging” in verse 42, the latter having more of a sense of persuading. In other words, the people’s conversations with Paul and Barnabas after the meeting were compelling to them.
The following Sabbath day was a different story. Word had gotten out about what had happened at the first meeting in the synagogue, and now “the whole city assembled.” Whether this is to be taken as a typical Lukan hyperbole to indicate all the Jews and God-fearing Gentile proselytes, or whether the whole city wanted to see what was happening, can be debated. To be sure, no one missed that weekend service!
A rift begins to form between the Jews and Gentiles because of jealousy. There is much to the historical backstory, but the overwhelming Gentile response to Paul and Barnabas made the Jews so uncomfortable that they began to directly oppose the two apostles, even to the extent of charging them with blasphemy. Unfortunately, while preference was given to preaching to the Jews, they rejected the message outright.
Lord, I confess any insidious jealousy I may have when others draw a crowd.
0 Comments