Jealousy And Joy

Jesus made an observation about the nature of wine: “Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37-38.) Jesus was making an analogy to the ways of God. There are times when the wind of the Spirit blows, and there is a surge of new life, widespread conversion, and the things of God are on everyone’s lips. When new life is evident, we all rejoice. But new life flourishes best when habits of mind and organizational structures are also made new.

The passage before us in this message is about revival. It’s about a region caught up in the truth of the word of God. It’s also about the antagonism that developed because of the renewal. We can learn something from both those who delighted in the new things that were happening and those who rejected them.

In the last message (Discovery Paper 4760) we considered the lengthy sermon preached by the apostle Paul in Antioch of Pisidia. At the end of this message, recalling the great themes of the Old Testament concerning the ways of God and the promises of the prophets, Paul focused on two great pronouncements that go to the core of human need. The first was “I declare forgiveness of sins to you. I proclaim you not guilty.” The second was “I proclaim freedom from bondage. The habits and structures that have bound you up relentlessly, that have ruined and thwarted and hurt you all your life, are broken in the gospel.”

Now we’re going to look at what happened as this message spread. Paul and Barnabas had been invited to speak in the synagogue, where there were both Jews and God-fearing Gentiles who were interested in the Bible. At the end of the message this is what took place, in verses 42-52:

Verse 44 says most of the city came to hear the next Sabbath, and verse 49 indicates that the whole region heard of the word of the Lord. This is a revival, and there is a lot we can learn from the good response. But I also want us to look at the negative response and learn from that. Then we’ll consider what Paul and Barnabas did and said in the face of the opposition that sprang up. Finally, we’ll ask these same questions in contemporary terms. How does the dynamic of this passage operate in our own setting?

Believing the testimony of Scripture

There is something we might have expected in this text that is missing. No evidence of God’s power in visible display precedes the message--no healing, no mighty wind. In fact, Paul’s presentation was probably made while he was struggling with an illness.

Yet the apostle stood and spoke the words of hope, and full, glorious, beautiful response occurred. We observe that the compelling evidence of the Spirit, rather than being prior to the preaching in miracles or tongues or flames or banishing of illness, was in the preaching itself. It was the word of God that was filled with the Spirit. The unadorned preaching of truth in the power of the Spirit was a new way of ministry, a “new wineskin.”

The city of Antioch assembled to hear the word of the Lord (verse 44), because every human heart has the same need. The Bible does not declare an arcane religion for certain experts or folks with a peculiar turn of mind. The whole city came; everybody was interested, because the things that were being talked about were true and important and life-giving.

We are all very interested in answers to the deep questions: What makes me tick? Why am I often a hypocrite? Why can’t I connect with people? Why is it that every time I get close to someone I ruin the possibility of relationship? Why do things I did twenty and thirty years ago keep coming back to haunt me? These are human questions asked everywhere.

It says in Acts 13:42, “The people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath.” They beseeched Paul and Barnabas. They were starving for the word of God. “Come and tell us again about God’s love and how it can matter to people who have needs like ours!”

The result was joy. Twice, in verses 48 and 52, we find people who responded to this message rejoicing in the Spirit, sharing what they had learned, grateful, delighted. It didn’t end when the missionaries Paul and Barnabas were finally driven from town; the disciples were continually filled with joy and the Holy Spirit; their enthusiasm for what God had done for them was unabated.

Now let’s consider the opposition. We have to face that. What can we observe in the “wineskins” that opposed new life, those who actively resisted the new things God was doing?

The reason behind resistance

Verse 45 says, “But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming.” This is a reference to the official leadership of the synagogue, not all the Jews. Verse 43 notes there were many Jews among those who responded to the message, became part of this believing community, and thrived in it. But the official stand of those in leadership was to dig in their heels in opposition.

To begin with they were contradicting the things Paul said. By itself that would not necessarily be problematic. It’s not required that everybody who hears the story of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises and prophecies, believe it immediately. We know in fact that later in the book of Acts there are folks in the city of Berea who are commended because they don’t buy it, but say, “Show us. We’re going to study the Bible with you. Sit down and prove it to us.” (Acts 17:10-11.)

It wasn’t the contradiction that was the problem, it was the motive behind it. The Jewish leaders were jealous. Their jealousy drove them not only to contradict but to blaspheme. It led them further to incite persecution--angry, hurtful, violent behavior. Their questions weren’t honest questions.

The synagogue had been a teaching center for a long time. It says in 13:15 that the Law and the Prophets were read every Sabbath. These Jewish leaders were the instructors not only to their own people, but also to these interested Gentiles who wanted to hear Bible study. Theirs was the voice of God; they read the Bible and said what it meant. And now their place of status was being undermined. They were jealous.

Consider also the confident, even provocative action taken by Paul and Barnabas.

How to talk to your enemies

When their enemies hardened themselves and blasphemed, Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly in verse 46: “You were given first choice, and you blew it. You repudiated the truth and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life. The curtain has come down on your drama. You are no longer in the place of serving God in this region. You have said no to the ways of God, so you no longer belong.” Paul and Barnabas made the same point later when they shook the dust off their feet as they left, as the servants of God had done before. Paul didn’t say, “Look, I’m sorry if I made you upset. Let’s see if we can work this out.” There was none of that.

Now, that can seem harsh, and it is. It can seem negative or hurtful, but it is not. Remember, Paul will later write in Romans 9:3 of his love for his countrymen, how much they mean to him. He would die in their place if he could. He says further in Romans 11:13-14, “I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.” What Paul realized here was that the line needed to be drawn as severely as it could possibly be drawn. They needed to be put on notice. As God’s spokesman for his generation, the prophet and apostle of Jesus Christ, he was telling them that they had lost everything, hoping that their jealousy might make them think again about what they had done. So even in his hard words he wasn’t looking for a way to cut them off. He was looking for a way to win them back.

Privilege or grace?

What happens to people who are given the responsibility, as the Jews were, to represent God on earth; to receive his word, his blessing, his love, and in turn to pass those things on, to become the vehicle through which God can bless the rest of the world? How does it happen that people with that responsibility end up hording truth to themselves? Churches can lose their place as surely as this generation of the Jews did. Remember, Jesus warned in Revelation 2:5 that lampstands can get taken away. You can find yourself someday hearing him say, “The drama is over for you. Your time is up. You no longer serve the purpose to which you were called.” It can happen to us. It can happen to me. So what can we glean from this story of the Jews and their official rejection here that might warn us and encourage us?

How do you go from being the recipient of a gift to being the promoter of privilege? I believe the process goes something like this: New faith leads to a changed life, and the changes are for the better. You discover that you are loved by God, that your life has meaning, that you are free of sin, that there is wisdom for life. It’s glorious! The famine for the word of God is answered by the feast of the preaching of the word of God. You realize that you can become a different person, and you are not stuck in the same old patterns.

Perhaps you realize that the trouble and chaos you were raised with you can turn around, and do better for your own children. You can learn from godly saints and raise your children with love and direction and attention. You see your children with benefits that you never got, and it’s beautiful.

Or perhaps the Spirit of God works integrity into your life, and people trust you for the first time. Suddenly you realize that people open doors and invite you into places that you never would have been invited before. Your character creates stability.

Or you have gentleness and kindheartedness that you didn’t used to have. There are friends in your life for the first time. You serve others, and you are welcomed as a respected member of the community.

But eventually a subtle change takes place. It is easy to assume that God redeems and sanctifies those who are most deserving. You choose increasingly Christianized environments, at first for good reasons, but later because of a sense of superiority and privilege.

Look at the way the image of light is used in this text. Paul quoted the prophet Isaiah and said, “Do you know why God picked Abraham and his children, the tribes of this nation? To be a light to the Gentiles. We were supposed to be a source of blessing to everybody else, not just ourselves.” Jesus uses light in exactly the same way: “You are a city set on a hill” (Matthew 5:14). That’s how those in the wilderness can find their way to you. “You don’t light a candle and put it under a basket, you put it on a stand” (Matthew 5:15). That is so not only those close in can have the advantage, but those at a distance can see the light.

The whole point is to give away what we’ve been given. The reason we are chosen ultimately is for God to display himself to the benefit of those who don’t yet know it. It was true of the Jews and it’s true of the church and it’s true of you and me. He is good to us because he loves us, obviously, and if we were the only ones, he would still love us. But his strategy is to be good to others as well through us.

If we believe we are privileged, we have lost an understanding of grace. If we think we are getting what we’ve earned, we are severed from Christ. A sense of privilege is antithetical to grace. Grace is always undeserved, free, available, surprising. The more certain we are that God is doing what we deserve in caring for us, the more distant we are from him.

Here is a test to apply to yourself: If you are excited to see others gain what you have been given, if you look for opportunities to serve, then you are most likely still receiving something. The degree to which we will not serve, and we pull back and hoard, is the degree to which we lost this day’s grace, this day’s gift from God. Why ought we to be generous with what we have? Because it doesn’t belong to us. If we are free to give away what God has given us, it means that we believe he will keep giving to us. It means that we assume his nature is to give and we don’t have to protect ourselves and build our own security. If we look for ways to share the gospel with others, it is because we know the gospel is good news for us, too. If we are hospitable with our home, we are telling ourselves and others that it is not ours to begin with, it’s his. And the surer we are of that, the more likely we are to continue to receive from him. We want the best thing for our children, and we work hard to give them that. But if it’s just our children, we’ve lost something. We ought to value other people’s children, too, and children who don’t have any parents who are looking out for them. If God has given us good health and we aren’t caring about people who are suffering, sick, or handicapped, it means that we are presuming on the one who has given us what we have. It’s no longer grace.

Jesus confounded his disciples and his enemies both, because he loved lepers and tax collectors and raggedy children and low-status folks of all kinds. “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He told stories that ended with statements like this: “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7). If we want to continue to participate in the joy of heaven rather than settle for less, then we’ve got to be concerned with not only the sheep in the pen but also the ones who are still lost. There is a direct proportion between what we give away and what we have. When you die, you live. What you lose, you gain. What you give, you keep.

I like hymns that ask questions. I think they are some of the most thoughtful. But it terrifies me that the questions may not stay important to me.

What if I answer that and say, “Well, of course God paid for me, because I deserve it,” and I no longer have my breath taken away by the extraordinary nature of God’s love? It’s no longer a haunting question, but an obvious answer.

May we never lose our astonishment at the undeserved gain that is ours in the sacrifice of Jesus.

I believe that’s what happened to the Jewish leaders in the first century who missed the Messiah, and what happened in the jealousy over lost privilege in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia. It’s worthwhile to examine ourselves, to find out what we are giving away, to find out what delight we have in seeing others promoted, in new voices, new leaders, new expressions of hope, outsiders, new places in which God expresses himself.

Scripture quotations are taken from New American Standard Bible, ã 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

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