1After Paul and his friends had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they went on to Thessalonica. A Jewish meeting place was in that city. 2So as usual, Paul went there to worship, and on three Sabbaths he spoke to the people. He used the Scriptures 3to show them that the Messiah had to suffer, but that he would rise from death. Paul also told them that Jesus is the Messiah he was preaching about. 4Some of them believed what Paul had said, and they became followers with Paul and Silas. Some Gentiles and many important women also believed the message. 5The Jewish leaders were jealous and got some worthless bums who hung around the marketplace to start a riot in the city. They wanted to drag Paul and Silas out to the mob, and so they went straight to Jason's home. 6But when they did not find them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the Lord's followers. They took them to the city authorities and shouted, "Paul and Silas have been upsetting things everywhere. Now they have come here, 7and Jason has welcomed them into his home. All of them break the laws of the Roman Emperor by claiming that someone named Jesus is king."
8The officials and the people were upset when they heard this. 9So they made Jason and the other followers pay bail before letting them go.
"Worthless bums!"
I didn't say it...Luke said it. And, so, it is an apt description of anybody who attempts to disrupt the declaration of the Gospel.
Now we have established a pretty dependable pattern. When we share the Gospel...
1. Some people will become believers.
2. Some people will try to prevent us.
3. Some people will threaten...even harm us.
The ideal is that point number 1 is worth all the 2s and 3s that can be mounted against us. I realize this is sobering and difficult, but the one thing we cannot do is quit. If we do, who is going to make believers? On the contrary, a thoughtful believer would work to be as effective as possible on point 1 to make 2 and 3 even out a bit.
In other words...would we rather be persecuted for leading one person to Christ or 5 people? The cost will be the same. We call this "economy of scale". At 1 to 1 I get 1 beating for every believer. At 5 to 1 I only get one fifth of a beating for each believer. That seems so much easier to bear.
I realize I'm being a bit silly, but the point is really not far from the mark. I remember one night in Vietnam we were under threat of being over-run by a regiment of NVA. 22 of us were preparing for a pitched battle. One friend of mine was laying several hand grenades in front of himself and straightening the pins. When I asked him what he was doing he said "before I die I'm going to take as many of them with me as I can".
Interesting...he'd be dead either way. But, he had a principle that his life had a certain value.
If I'm going to be persecuted...I want to go out in a blaze of glory like Jim Elliot or Nate Saint. I want the value of my life to be measured in the hundreds...not just a few believers. How about you?
Live boldly out there today...
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